Where You’ll Find Me

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I have several upcoming gigs to tell you about.

The first is TONIGHT at Zippy’s — where I’ll be reading with a few other contributors to the Northwest poets anthology Footbridge Above the Falls: Poems by Forty-Eight Northwest Poets, edited by David D. Horowitz. Click on the Rose Alley Press website to see their other offerings in the coming months.

Everett Poetry Night
Thursday, November 7, 2019, 6:30 p.m.
Poetry: Robinson Bolkum, Kevin Craft, Christopher J. Jarmick, Jed Myers, Bethany Reid, David D. Horowitz, and open mic
Cafe Zippy, 1502 Rucker Avenue, Everett, WA
Telephone: 425-303-0474
E-mail: CafeZippyInfo@gmail.com; David, rosealleypress@juno.com
URL: www.cafezippy.com/; www.rosealleypress.com

then —

Foothills Writers Series | Carmen Germain, Bethany Reid, Karen Whalley

Event Date: Friday, November 22, 2019 – 7:00pm
Event Location: Raymond Carver Room | Port Angeles Public Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
Again, just click on the link to see full information.
…and then —

So,Dear Writer…: An It’s About Time Writers’ Reading Series Anthology — Elliott Bay Books, Seattle

Sunday, November 24, 3 p.m.

I’ll be one of several readers, including Peggy Sturdivant, and the anthology publisher.

I’ll be reading my “famous” craft essay, “One Bad Poem,” and of course I would love to see you there.

An Unexpected Review

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photograph by Loren Webster

Just taking a moment to share this unexpected review of Body My House. When you visit Loren Webster’s blog, In a Dark Time…, be sure to scroll back through the posts — his nature photography is stunning.

https://www.lorenwebster.net/In_a_Dark_Time/2019/10/22/bethany-reids-body-my-house/

What’s Your Mountain?

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Over the last couple of years, walking has become a central part of who I am, as much, it seems, as writing. Writing every day has led me to take on bigger and bigger writing projects. And walking every day makes me want to take on bigger walking projects. So of course I had to see this movie, about a Scottish octogenarian who decides to hike up a mountain. Be sure to click on the behind the scenes video, too!

More from the fabulous Lauren Sapala

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After attending the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference this past week — riding high on a wave of energy from great classes, rubbing elbows with all sorts of eager writers, and being invited to submit my mystery novel to one agency and two small publishers — I’ve come home to get to work on the final (one hopes) revision … only to (inevitably) crash.

Part of this, I know, is not about my book at all. It’s about being elbow-to-elbow for four days with a gazillion other people and faking being extroverted and friendly. I can do it. (I like to think I’m actually rather good at being with people.) But it wears me out and makes me want to spend about a month hibernating with a book — not my own, but maybe a stack of Kate Atkinson or Henning Mankell mysteries.

I really don’t have time for that, not when I promised to submit my mystery sometime in the next three weeks!

Just in time to pick me up, dry me off, and get me moving again in the right direction on my own writing, this morning I found an email in my in-box from the fabulous Lauren Sapala, announcing her new book, The INFJ Revolution: Reclaim Your Power, Live Your Purpose, Heal the World. 

Lauren is the author of one of my favorite writing books, The INFJ Writer, a book I read for the third (or fourth?) time only this summer. Her new book promises to help me “grapple with anxiety, shame, self-doubt, low self-esteem and feeling like an alien … in a world that clashes with [my] deepest values and most deeply held ideals.” Why do I wake at 4 a.m., feeling like a fraud, feeling I was crazy to ever imagine I could write a novel, feeling that I really should just go back to my corner and scribble in my journal and not ever expect anyone to read what I write? Why do I keep beating my head against this particular wall of wanting-to-be-a-novelist?

I don’t know why, but sometimes it helps to be with someone who understands. So, Lauren to the rescue.

(In the interest of full-disclosure, I took the Myers-Briggs while in college, but don’t remember the results; according to 16 Personalities, I’m an INFP-T).

I immediately ordered my copy of The INFJ Revolution. Her books are available only on Kindle or as Kindle paperbacks — I recommend getting the paper version, so you can mark them up and reread until they’re tattered. And then,  I hope you write!