LATEST NEWS

Welcome to my revamped site, thanks to Marcy Italiano (www.theweblizard.com). My original site was created by Natalia Lincoln who has moved on to create some magnificent writing, check out her novel: The Mirror and music Odalisque in Ashes.

My latest collection, BEING FULL OF LIGHT, INSUBSTANTIAL (publisher Space & Time Books), received a HWA Bram Stoker award, this is my second Stoker, amazing! This collection of 100 poems, most of them original, has wonderful photography and art by Brian J. Addison. It’s available from Horror Mall, Space & Time, Amazon.com and other places (see My Favorite Links).

Other exciting things that have happened since my last site update:

-got married in New Orleans (pre-Katrina) in a Voodoo Temple during Mardi Gras, why you ask—why not! It’s not a change of religion for Gerard (Houarner) or I, it was just the coolest thing we could do to celebrate our love.

-my second tattoo has been designed by an amazing artist Newton Ewell (who I met at WHC08 in Salt Lake City). Variations of his wonderful design will be seen on my site, cards, etc.

-Essence magazine reprinted a poem (After the Fire) from my latest collection in the April 2008 issue.

-Doorways magazine Issue #5 has a new poem of mine and will also publish another new poem in Issue #6.

My first two collections: Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes, and Animated Objects, are still available.

Listen to me...

I enjoy doing live performances so if you can’t catch me at a reading you can hear/see me read online at the following places:

Watch video of my reading three poems from my latest collection at Fearzone.

Listen to an interview (includes my reading several poems) at iRockTalkRadio with host Jerry Royce.

LESSONS & BLESSINGS

My life is lessons and blessings. How else to explain the path of life that has taken me from the tough streets of Philly to a quirky house in New York? Nestled in the midst of strange and wondrous items I joyfully write even stranger poems and stories and share my life with a wondrous writer and fellow traveler, Gerard Houarner.

Each event in my life holds different mixes of lessons and blessings, rarely 50/50. Often the situations that hurt are more lesson than blessing, but both are in the mix. Seeing each painful experience in this way heals the sting, makes me pay attention to the lesson and grow, to bring more light into my life.

My life
unfolding in unexpected dimensions:
take a skinny, awkward introvert,
mix in books of fables, science-fiction, fantasy, horror
Season with surprising blessings, people:

One taught me to laugh,
another to question everything
This one to know that there are no secrets
That one to see everything is hidden,

I learned to cry with my whole body,
That I am beautiful,
I am eternal,

Even broken,
I can heal,
rise from the ashes of a predestined life
find my authentic path
And know:

Unfolding life is imperfect.

Love the only truth.

Lessons and blessings
the only sanity…