Brynn, that's all seriously fine news. Other than the German language skills being at the reasy, that is, but those tend to shape up quickly with use. My French turns into algae in the US, because I'm not being forced to speak it in shops and whatnot.

Will you link the journal when the pieces come out? So cool.

Deb: Yeah the German has been getting easier, mostly I am just disappointed with my Intermediate German class, because it was sort of a joke. I feel it didn't prepare me any more than my Elementary German. It's a damn good thing I should such a fine prof for the EG class otherwise I would be lost. Okay I'm stopping the natter NOW: Anyway, I will certainly link the Journal here (I do believe it will be published online!). The Juice (which came out before I was attending the U of W) is online, as for the second (in which I have a short story) it hasn't made it up yet as far as I know. Juice III will be launched late September 2003.

Brynn, that's great news!

Will you post a poem here?

t I'll-show-you-mine I just finished my end-of-the-semester portfolio:

FOGGY POEM

I am tired of the incandescence of your smile. The air
near me is heavy, humid, wallpaper curling around

the edges and stones in the garden gleaming
wet. Six days of rain and I can feel my

humor wearing through with touch; my patience gumming
from the persistent fogging of your breath.

The sun is down for the count. I am riveted by your voice, the heat
of your hands, the new grass growing on the lawn.

Soft shoots of green. You brush my hair:
your clever fingers seeking out my knots.

Time-elapsed picture: I can't
break out. My knife's a smile, my body's spent.

The rain returns. The blade is sharp.
I click my fingers. Step away.

(That's an intentional two-line stanza break between "your breath" and "the sun is down".)

t skippet-y hop

I'm going to read on the radio again! It's a Mother's Day-themed show that will air next Sunday night (which is Mother's Day).

I wrote a very sweet piece reminiscing about my Mom when I was a kid. However, they need me to add to it, because they're short on writers. So. We tape Monday afternoon, which means I have the weekend to flesh out my piece.

I'll post it here when I have something, so I can have some trusted eyes see it before I read it.

Yowsa, Steph!

Liz, this:

The air near me is heavy, humid, wallpaper curling around the edges and stones in the garden gleaming wet.

is exquisite. It becomes doubly so on the level of immediate emotional engagement; I'm looking out my window at the garden, where a night of fog and scattered rain has left small pools, and Puff Mama, an orange and white longhair, is picking her way over wet bricks on the path down below with a look of disgust on her face.

That piece talks to me.

Wonderful news, Steph!

And while poetry isn't my realm of expertise, I think you have some lovely evocative imagery there, Liz.

My favorite part is the first line, but the whole image is beautiful, Liz.

Brynn, that's great news! Will you post a poem here?

Of course. That is as soon as I can dig up an edited copy. I know most of ''Unwritten'' by heart but a friend and I just ammended some line breaks before it goes to the final stages and print prep begins, so I'll have to dig into my school account to pull up the edits. Pretty sure I can do that using Telnet, but I will wait until my SO calls me here tonight so I don't mess-up my stepbrother's comp in the process.

Thank you, deb, and Susan and erika.

(That poem kicked my ass up and down the street for six months. I'm still working on the next-to-last stanza, which does feel mostly as though it's just treading water.)

Wow, six months. I don't work at poems much, if I don't like it the way it first presents, I'm likely to abandon it.Maybe it's a leftover self image issue. Or possibly a good argument for not having kids in the next few years.