... marks one month without a cigarette.

This in from Mark Eleveld:



Thought I would share this: "Spoken Word Revolution Redux has won the London Bookfair award for the best book in the "spoken word / audio" category."



Thanks and congrats to: Marc Smith, Anis Mojgani, Sonya Renee, Taylor Mali, Mike McGee, Mayda Del Valle, Roger Bonair-Agard, Guy Le Charles Gonzalez, Regie O’Hare Gibson, Gary Glazner, Patricia Smith, Lisa Buscani, Gayle Danley, Bob Holman, Michael Warr, Luis J. Rodriguez, Allan Wolf, Michael Brown, Bob Holman, Mike Henry, Billy Lombardo, Daniel Ferri, Tyehimba Jess, Jeff McDaniel, Derrick Brown, Matt Cook, Genevieve Van Cleave, Buddy Wakefield, Marty McConnell, Lucy Anderton, Nick Fox, Lynne N. Procope, Sarah McKinstry-Brown, Michael Kadela, Ed Mabry, Chuck Perkins, Cynthia French, Daphne Gottlieb, Matt Mason, Susan B.A. Somers-Willett, Sou MacMillan, Beau Sia, Paula Friedrich, Corbet Dean, Jason Carney, Scott Woods, Victor Infante, Jack McCarthy, Jeremy Richards, James Nave, Karyna McGlynn, James Kass, Yvonne Onakeme Etaghene, Kyle Dargon, Idris Goodwin, Kevin Coval, Willie Perdomo, Patrick Rosales, Major Jackson, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Duriel E. Harris, Tracie Morris, Douglas Kerney and bao phi, Latasha Diggs, Christina Santana, Mike Booker, Invincible, Tara Betts, Kelly Tsai, Xero, Saul Williams

Theoretically, the life changes and reorganizing to meet goals is supposed to happen in January, after the resolutions and all that. I seem to have had a jump on that lately, what with the quitting smoking and dropping other activities that were distracting me from my various projects and my own writing. None of this really started with a big plan to change, but rather, it was a sort of snowballing realization that things had changed, and I had been wasting energy fighting it.



So I'm not bothering with a New Year's Resolution this year, or more to the point, I'm going to follow this restructuring trend to where it leads.



Projects:



*The November 3rd Club is working fine, but there's always room for improvement. Also, I need cover art for the next issue.



*The Eclectic Word is likewise doing well, but I think it's still in its infancy, and I need to take a good listen at old installments to keep it from getting stale. Also need to step away from poets as guests again for a while. (Oh, and there's a rumor going around that Brendan Constantine and I may be doing a dueling book reviews show starting in February. ...)



*How to Succeed As A Failing Writer, my occasional column for GotPoetry, has been the biggest casualty of my hectic year. Frequently, I'd sit down to write a column, and found I had no energy left, and what I ended up writing was dreadful. So I stopped. Hopefully, reorganizing a bit will help with this.



*On my mystery work-related project, barely whispered of in these pages, I'm still in need of someone who goes out to clubs, concerts, etc. two or three times a week and who is willing to blog about it. I can't pay for this, but trust me, it'll be awesome and worthwhile when it's up. Drop me an e-mail backchannel at ocvictor2002@yahoo.com.



*I'm also still looking for an artist to work on the Nihilist Chic comic book. This has been a bit frustrating, as the artists I've talked to all seem to be overwhelmed with work already. I can (and have begun to) submit to comics publishers without art, but from what little I know about the business, having an artist already on board makes all the difference, so that's my preference.



*I have a full-length poetry manuscript, City of Insomnia, which I need to begin sending out to either contests or publishers. Frankly, I hate the contest route, so I think I'm going to try open submissions calls for a while, but frankly, the contests' odds are better.



So that's where I am, what I'm working on and what I need. Somehow, it seems less daunting when you break it down like that.

Tonight's installment of "The Eclectic Word, featuring Regie Gibson and Tony Brown, was delayed for a half-hour while we sorted out technical difficulties. After that, though, it was a fabulous discussion. Tony and Regie are two people who think about their poetry, and that deep consideration pays off. Go listen to them.

Just a reminder, tonight my guests on the The Eclectic Word will be none other than poets Tony Brown and Regie Gibson.



If you miss it live, you can download it later. And you should. Oh yes, you don't want to miss this one.