The Same Volcano

In the  month of July  I  read at three different places - Tommy Mierzwinki's Two Jacks Denim, Kara Vernor's, and Dani's,  Get Lit in Petaluma, and Jamey Genna's Summer Sparks in San Francisco. I've had 10 stories published since March. One was a contest winner. Another featured as 'poem of the week' in Third Wednesday's blog which amused me. Quite an honor for fiction to be running with the poems! I've been on a submission mission for 5 months, though I prefer send to submit. Been writing for 35 years, teaching for 27, never consistently sent my work out before. Seemed sorta beside the point at the time. So why now?

Why not?! And the readings? They feel vital and invigorating and put me in The Now. It's being orally published. It's an exchange. Hearing the work of others, sharing your work, feeling the crowd's response (or lack of one!). It's exciting, it's got juice. And it's something we can do in what at times seems a powerless time— take  things in our own hands, make our own way, discovery, share, listen, and embrace. A two way flow. There was a writer at the SF reading, Tongo, who performed his work with no script. I had no idea what he said, but it knocked me out. I told him after reading my stuff and  getting some laughs, then listening to his intense and moving words,  felt as if I'd arrived in a mini van but left on a BSA, maybe Triumph. He said, 'we all come from the same volcano.'