Baking Mystery MiPOesias

My husband's mother gave us a rather large set of circa 1965 McCall's cookbooks, which have been an endless source of entertainment for us both (i.e. an entire pineapple made from cheese and dotted with olives.). While flipping through the cookie cookbook last night trying to get some ideas for our upcoming annual Christmas party, Jeff came across this illustration:

A scary-eyed plastic doll wielding a rolling pin and cookies cutters. Umm. . .yeah. This is what I'm going to be next Halloween, mark my words.

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Mystery Thanksgiving Illness: sore throat which quickly developed into a swollen throat and near-inability to form words and swallow. It wasn't an allergic reaction to food: everything I've been eating (Thanksgiving included), I've eaten before. I spent two hours in the ER on Sunday and, without any tests conducted (except for that brilliant test known as "eyeballing it with a pinlight") was sent home without a diagnosis and another round of high-powered antibiotics. I am feeling better today, but am on the lookout for a good ENT specialist in the area.

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Thank you to Amy King & MiPOesias who've accepted four of my poems for publication. Check out their lovely new print edition.

Pushcart Prize Nominations

Pebble Lake Review would like to congratulate our new Pushcart Prize nominees:

Paul Guest of Rossville, GA
for his poem, "Seduction With Entropy" (PLR, Spring 2007)

Lacy M. Johnson of Mission, KS
for her essay, "The Art of Self-Inscription" (PLR, Summer 2007)

Alex Lemon of Minneapolis, MN
for his poem, "Wildfires" (PLR, Summer 2007)

Andrea Lewis of Vashon, WA
for her story, "Eulogy" (PLR, Summer 2007)

Betsy Wheeler of Lewisburg, PA
for her poem, "Non-Sonnet for Sleeping Birds" (PLR, Spring 2007)

Laura Madeline Wiseman of Lincoln, NE
for her story, "How to Be a Woman" (PLR, Spring 2007)

32

I received my contributor copies of the new issue of 32 Poems in the mail yesterday! It's beautiful & includes poetry from Sandra Beasley, Paul Guest, Bob Hicok, H.L. Hix, Harriet Levin, Lia Purpura, and others. Buy a copy!

Congrats/Crazy

This is most belated, but congrats to the wonderful Paul Guest, who is the recipient of a Whiting Award for 2007. Buy his latest collection, Notes for My Body Double!

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Last night was Andrew Kozma's book release party/reading at Empire Cafe. His debut collection, City of Regret, was awarded the 2007 Zone 3 Press First Book Award for Poetry. Buy it here.

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Pebble Lake Review will soon be available for purchase at Brazos Bookstore, for all of you in and around the Houston area. The current issue has been shipped (delayed due to illness/family crisis/busy staff) and additional copies are selling out, so order yours now!

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The current state of the mental health system in America appalls me. Maybe it's taboo to talk about this, maybe it's airing "dirty laundry," but I am incensed that in a country with such vast resources and such "top rate" medical care, that families with mentally ill/mentally incapacitated persons cannot get help for their loved ones or have them put into a safe, clean, guarded facility because "it's against their civil rights" and, according to a law enforcement official in the book Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness by Washington Post writer Pete Earley, "it's not against the law to be crazy." The whole thing is sad, tragic, and disgusting.

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I am now off my soapbox.

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Have you played Cento Bingo, yet?