Confession Tuesday

Happy first Tuesday in July. If you're in New England, it's been a wet start to the month.

Share a little of yourself today and we promise to do the same.

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This morning I'm at Starbucks. It's a respite between baseball practice and tae kwondo lessons. Last night I finally cleaned my office. Will take a picture later when I clear the last stack of papers off my desk. For now, I'll have a venti hot chocolate, please.

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While cleaning, I discovered manuscript edits from my first two books, so I read through Underlife edits from 2007 and Misery Islands from 2009. I'm amazed at what both manuscripts looked like in the early stages.

Underlife started out with 59 poems but was whittled down to 49, While Misery started out at 57 poems but will go into print with 50. Underlife went through a radical overhaul to make the first section stronger. In fact, the original title was called "The Kerning" but the publisher didn't like it. They were right. Can't imagine anything other than Underlife.

Originally, Misery Islands was called "Conversion Theory," lame and not compelling. It's too early to tell how well Misery will do. I'm afraid I have picked a title that critics will love ("Misery Islands is certainly living up to its name--misery."). Ugh, I can see it now. Trying hard not to go there. We'll see next year if it will fly or flop. Ugh.

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Anyhoo, the nice part about cleaning my office is that I found a treasure trove of poems that deserves a second look. It's like discovering fossils from an extinct animal buried on your desk. I pulled abandoned poems from both manuscripts, and a few drafts from NaPoWriMo. Some just can't and shouldn't be resuscitated. But some will be revived. Others, I will pillage for usable lines.

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Getting organized is a big step to getting my writing back on track. Can't use a messy desk as an excuse anymore.