March 2023 Updates: Mothman, Cryptids, and More
I switched newsletter platforms from Mailchimp to Substack. Everything is basically the same, but the move did come with a mild rebrand to “Ditchwater,” which was the title for my last blog back in 2017 or so.
Mothman & What the King’s Son Knows of Royalty
Last year, author Matt Bell tweeted some advice about releasing a book into the world, and among his suggestions is the encouragement to “Be as far into your next book as possible by pub day.
I have attempted to take this advice to heart and I am scrambling and clawing my way through my second book, tentatively called Bloodlines. If I were to keep every poem I have written for it (unlikely), I’m about a sixth of the way through the collection. Three of these poems have been picked up for recent publication. “Self-Portrait as Mothman” recently appeared in Stone Circle Review, and “What the King’s Son Knows of Royalty” appeared in The Madrigal (which will soon also be available in print HERE).
Cryptids
Cryptids, and notably West Virginian cryptids, feature strongly in this current project. Throughout my childhood, I longed for there to be a secret world hidden just around the corner. I read The Chronicles of Narnia, The Indian in the Cupboard, The Borrowers, and similar books. At some point, we borrowed FairyTale: A True Story about the Cottingley fairies and I remember wanting it to be true so badly that I could feel that desire in my stomach and the twisting dread of knowing it was all a fraud.
I have a similar longing today about cryptids. I am so arrested by their ambiguity and while I have this sense of euphoria to think that they might exist somewhere out there, evading humanity’s every attempt to verify their existence, living only in the haziest of lukewarm anecdotes, I know in my bones that they’re only the smoke of our fear and imagination. But what if? And I think that’s the root of my interest in cryptids. They offer such a promise of possibility. That in a world of habitat loss, species endangerment, and extinction, maybe something mythical still manages to survive in secret.
These days, as I find myself more and more dredged in the routine of my thirties, I’m surprised and inspired by that possibility.
Other Notes:
Jarfly Issue 4 released at the end of the 2022. You can read the issue HERE! The magazine is also open for submissions, so if you’re looking for a comfortable home for some writing or some art, check out our Submission Guidelines.
Reading List:
Dad Jokes from Late in the Patriarchy by Amorak Huey
Our Lady of Never Asking Why by Courtney Kampa
PR for Poets: A Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing by Jeannine Hall Gailey