About the Editor
Sari Krosinsky lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her partner and two cats.
She received a B.A. in religious studies and a M.A. in creative writing from the University of New Mexico. Her poems have appeared in Pebble Lake Review, The American Poetry Journal, Arsenic Lobster and The Same.
Fickle Muses Blog
February 15, 2007
Getting published takes a great deal of perseverance, talent, and plain old good luck. You've heard it before – submitting requires a thick skin.
For my part, I have two remedies for the rejection blues – a Wall of Rejection next to my computer, papered with notes of all colors, shapes, and sizes, and a healthy dose of sarcasm, which the well-intentioned insipidity of the standardized rejection letter provides excellent fodder for. Here's a sample of the latter (you can guess which parts came from actual rejection slips):
Dear_____,
We regret that we are unable to publish your work at this time. We were just on the point of accepting it when an entire battle fleet of Martians burst into our office, pointed their ray guns at our heads, and said: "If you value your lives, the lives of your families, and the survival of the human species, REJECT THAT SUBMISSION!"
Your interest in independent publishing is important to our journal. Subscribe now at a discounted rate offered as a thank-you to our submitters, and help us meet our goal of hiring a private army to rid the publishing industry of the threat of Martian censorship once and for all!
Sincerely,
The Editors
– Sari
February 11, 2007
Myths are full of battles between gods – the Olympians against the Titans, the younger Norse gods against the Giants. It is clear in such myths of generational battles that on both sides, the gods are gods.
In other myths, the Christians demonize Euro-pagan gods; the gods (deva) of Hinduism are the demons (daeva) of Zoroastrianism and the Zoroastrian gods (ahura) are Hindu demons (asura). Put simply: Demons are somebody else’s gods.
Of course, in those parts of the modern world dominated by monotheism, we no longer call other people’s gods demons – no, we call them figments. The logic that one god is plausible, but many are primitive foolishness is rather beyond my powers of reasoning. That I made a covenant with my god which precludes the worship of other gods doesn’t mean I have to insult other people or their gods by claiming they don’t exist.
– Sari
February 4, 2007
Here's a good book of poems to check out:
"Friday and the Year that Followed" by Juan Morales
It's not strictly mythical, but does have some mythic elements. My favorites are the poems tracing Juan's family stories – like his mother's family's experience of living through the 1949 earthquake in Ecuador and his father's war stories.
Get more info and order from Bedbug Press.
Read an interview with Juan Morales in Mirage Magazine.
– Sari