This week I have done not one, but two submissions to print journals. So now I just wait and see.

For a little while, I will be focusing on whipping some more poems into shape.  And to work on not doing marathon computer sessions. I become so focused on things at times that I forget to eat, to drink water, to get up and move around. That’s one of the reasons that I need to work on balance.

English: veggies (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This week I am going to try more healthy behaviours!  No chocolate, more veggies, and eating breakfast. Because I jump onto the computer as soon as I pour my first coffee, I get immersed in emails, internet, all those distractions. I think the first thing then is to do something different while enjoying that first cuppa.

(Wikipedia)

Right now it’s very hot here in eastern Ontario, but still bearable in the mornings, so I think breakfast on the deck is just the thing!

So, this week how did I do on my challenges?  As I noted last week, I have almost finished my next chapbook: edited the poems, formatted and put everything into the template I have. Designed my cover and played with fonts. Now I am waiting to decide whether or not I will keep the poems that are out on submission or change the title and remove those two. I can wait a bit longer, see if I hear back.

But in the meantime, gave myself some eyestrain, so

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have to watch how many hours at the keyboard and glaring screen.  I did, however, make an appointment to have my annual eye exam. (YUCK!)  I hate those because I am always afraid of “failing the test.” Yes, I know. I can’t fail it. But I can make mistakes about what I can see and how well. I suppose I imagine myself doomed to walk around in glasses that

Pinhole glasses, a kind of eyeglasses. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

skew my vision. Sometimes I just have to laugh about how silly my phobias and fears are.

In the meantime, I have submitted four poems to the Rattle Poetry Prize contest, and selected another four for my next magazine submission. I thought I knew where they were going but they don’t match the theme coming up for Room, so I will get them off to a different place, and work on others for Room.

I think I’ve figured out why getting submissions out is so difficult for me. I was thinking about it yesterday. It is sort of like going someplace I’ve never been before. I research and mapquest and used to even drive there if I could the day before just so I would know where I was going.  So here, submitting, is like that. My poems are going to go someplace they haven’t been before. My old fear about “doing things right”.  Silly, when I look at it that way, isn’t it? Well, let’s see what insight does for me. (Yeah, I just looped back to the fears and phobias, didn’t I?)

Tangles (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cheers,  till next time!

Carol