Half-assing-it with many projects

September 29, 2015 by Stella Beratlis

How in the Sam Hill do people do all this shit? Oh, you know--squeeze in 40 hours of work, write, read/participate in poetry events, conduct job search, enthusiastically engage in family activities and obligations, nurture friendships and other relationships, socialize mindlessly, go to punk rock concerts, have a semblance of a love life, remember to pick up your CSA box every Thursday, and register disgust over Republicans, all in the space of 15 waking hours per day? It cannot be done. OR CAN IT.

I think the solution is doing everything sort of half-assedly.

Above: please enjoy a detail from this cover-in-progress which I'm designing for the Northern California Women's Music Festival poetry anthology, a thing I'm doing while simultaneously learning how to use Illustrator. Halp.

Readings, remorse, & re-upping

July 19, 2015 by Stella Beratlis

Alkali Sink has been living in the world for at least three months now, and I've read in Oakland, Berkeley, Corte Madera, Sacramento, Carson City, Truckee, Merced, Modesto, and some fine cities tucked up and down Highway 99. Highlights include my name in lights in Carson City and a reading in Berkeley attended by a beloved erstwhile boyfriend (yo, Paul!)...

Book launch anxiety. It's a thing.

March 07, 2015 by Stella Beratlis

What the hell. Alkali Sink ships next week from the printer, McNaughton & Gunn. After it arrives, I will supply our press, reviewers, and distributor with cases of books. From there, the world. I've made precisely nine pre-sales on Amazon, with many inquiries from friends regarding how they might acquire the book. I have a beautiful, generous blurb from my friend Lee Herrick, and marvy blurbs from Camille Dungy and Julia Levine...