May 2007 – LaDonnaWitmer

Enjoy the Silence

dream2 Mood: Checked Out
Drinking: Always Tea

Now that it’s over, it feels like a dream.

All those weeks, those months of working so hard. Late nights. Early mornings. Endless lists of things to do. And then just like that, finished.

Not that there’s nothing left to do. There are books to place in stores, poetry readings with my name on the list, websites to reconfigure, there are plenty of things to do. But nothing like the lists I was juggling just two weeks ago.

Because for now, for now I am on vacation. I am checked out. I am not answering the phone. I am refusing to check email regularly. Starting tomorrow, if you order a book, it will take a couple of weeks to get there. Starting tomorrow, if you leave me a voicemail, it might be awhile before I call you back. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be off with my passport in my pocket. Starting tomorrow, Boy and I are going to be blissed out.

It will last just long enough, and then I’ll be back. I’l be back and I’ll tell you all about the reading at Great Overland Books on June 17th and the bookstores in Santa Cruz and the publishing company in Vermont and the Australian DJ who is, right this moment, doing unspeakable things with vox and trax and other mysterious x’s. I’ll tell you all about it.

But for the next little while, I’ll be living the dream…

-Lo, who bought a new plaid umbrella especially for this occasion.

About Last Night

partygirls

Mood: Done!
Drinking: Celebratory Iced Tea

Party? Check!

Thanks to everybody who came out to The Secrets of Falling Book Release Party last night… you made it a roaring success. Thanks for buying books and prints and for helping Kathy and I celebrate in so much style!

If you missed it, we missed you, and you missed out on the party of the year. BUT! You can still get the book online, in person, or in bookstores soon.

I can’t thank everyone who was there, because there were too many of you (which is in and of itself a wonderful thing!). It really meant a lot to both Kathy and I that you came.

I do have to give special mention and big hugs to the following kick-ass people:
Kimberley – the amazing girl who helped us set up all day and made sure the gallery was sparkling
Sarah – for moral support, from dawn to dusk, and for extremely talented twinkle-light wrapping-upping
Bridget – for expert assistance in picture hanging and gallery design and end-of-the night pancakes
Johanna – for making strawberries look even sweeter than they are and wielding a wickedly-awesome serge stitch
Jason – for smooth wine-pouring skilz and protective police action
Michelle – for video camera documentation, unending smiles, and late-night cleanup help
Chris – for Bruce back-up, gallery appreciation, and heavy box lifting
Dave – for scandalously sexy moves on the dance floor
Lani – for being the best and hottest cash box lady there ever was
Melissa – for a smooth and suave print-selling operation
Carly – for coming and smiling and wearing a cute-ass skirt
Patti – for traveling all the way from Chicago and bringing her sharpie
Jocelyn – for the amazingly adorable party favors, and for wearing that hot Madonna outfit
and most of all,
Bruce – for being the best man, always and all the time. for being my back-up. for being so tech-savvy. for running the lights and the sound and the cinepoems and the show.
and
Kathy – because NONE of this would have happened without her.

-Lo, who will be sleeping for a few days now.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

girls_forblog Mood: Tired
Drinking: Tea

The time has come to party.

Tomorrow (Thursday), is the big shebang for The Secrets of Falling… Wine, women, song, possibly an interpretive dance from our friend Melissa. (But only if we spin some “Billy Jean”.)

Seriously, folks, it’s a big deal.

The fabulous miss Kathy Azada and I have been working on our book for over a year, and it feels like we’ve been planning our party for about that long, too, but that would be crazy.

We’re exhausted. We’re exuberant. We’re tired. We’re terribly excited. We’re both little bundles of sleep-deprived joy. (Perhaps that’s why I’m rambling so?)

Onward to the point! To all of my fellow San Franciscans and outlying Bay Areans, we’ll be so happy to see you tomorrow at Space 180 (from 6-9pm). We’ll be so thrilled to unveil our book. And show off all of Kathy’s artwork. And introduce you to all the other people who made this book happen.

For all our further-away internet friends, we promise that the book itself is almost as good as the party.

I’ve wanted to follow up Shedding the Angel Skin with a second book for years now, and Secrets is well worth the wait, even for me.

The theme of the book is the double-edged nature of hope. How impossible it is to live without hope, but how painful it is, how slippery it is, to hang on to hope. Secrets is built around a four-part poem titled “Spei Captiva Sum,” which means “I am a prisoner of hope.” (I have it tattooed on my right wrist as an ever-present reminder.)

Many of the 53 poems in Secrets were written for or about or around two of my very dear friends, who have both been on their own separate journeys to hell and back over the last three years.

I almost lost both of them, at different times. Watching them struggle and fall and climb back up and fall again — watching them, and struggling with them, and hoping against hope that they would get back up again — it inspired many of the words now printed on pages for others to read and maybe even take comfort in.

I think it matters, it makes a difference to know that in the midst of your bleakness, in the depths of your darkness, hope still flickers somewhere. Hope can be yours, once again.

I’ll be reading a few of my favorites from Secrets tomorrow, around 7 p.m. So be sure to stop by — new friends, old friends, internet friends and strangers. …It’s only a day away!

-Lo, who still knows all the words.

A Little Tease

bloodyeric_1
Mood: Countdown
Drinking: Sure Enough

In the midst of the new book and the party and all the hullabaloo, my cinépoem partner Michelle and I have been a little naughty…

Here’s a teaser trailer for “Abattoir”, our newest (and most scandalous) cinépoem, which is in still in the editing stage. It should be finished and hit the internet just in time for July, or thereabouts.

These 42 seconds will have to tide you over until then…

By the way, the scary butcher? That would be my friend Eric from Michigan.

Check him out with that wicked cleaver in the teaser!

Scary, eh?

Just wait ’til you see the whole thing…

-Lo, who doesn’t really smoke, but is sometimes smoking.

Boxes o’ Books

Mood: High
Drinking: Tea
It’s your turn. The boxes (and boxes and boxes) of books have arrived.

If you live in or around San Francisco and can wait until next week, come to The Secrets of Falling Book Release Party at Space 180 on Thursday, May 17 from 6 to 9 p.m. and get your books.

If you’re elsewhere, you can still get yours. Just go to The Books page to place your online order.

The Secrets of Falling will also be available in a few bookstores soon. I’ll let you know where and when.

I can’t begin to adequately express how excited we are. Secrets is a really beautiful book — Kathy Azada’s design is jaw-dropping, and the photography by Patti Monaghen and Bruce Willems really brings each poem to life.

But don’t take my word for it. (I’m clearly biased, anyway.) See for yourself!

-Lo, who thinks that brown boxes are a sight for sore eyes.

Exclamation Point

bookishere
Mood: Ebullient
Drinking: Effervescent

The book, it is here.

Well, yours isn’t yet…the big truck bearing the big skid of 14+ cartons of books won’t arrive until next week. But Kathy & I got our little box of advance samples yesterday.

We have scrutinized every single millimeter of every single page, and we’d like to report that The Secrets of Falling is perfect and beautiful in every single way.

If you’ve placed a pre-order, your book will be mailed out as soon as the big truck makes its delivery next week. If you haven’t placed an order yet, what are you waiting for??

If you live in San Francisco or thereabouts, you’re probably waiting for the book release party to buy your book. A wise decision. Then you can get your book AND purchase a lovely framed photographic print as well.

If you haven’t heard about the party yet, you can get all the party details here. (And yes, you’re invited.)

Now I have to go sniff my advance copy again. Fresh ink, it smells so good.

-Lo, who is the very picture of giddy at the moment.