So I mentioned a professional issue a few posts ago, and here it is:

The owner of the primary resume writing company I subcontract for wants to promote me to a Resume Manager position. Of course, on a basic level, it's very flattering that she wants me to move up. However, I'm not sure I should on a practical-for-me level. The money she sees me making in the position represents about a 33% annual raise from what I'm making right now, which is pretty impressive. However, I'd also have to work probably 25% more hours per week, I'd have to be available to and working for that company from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every weekday (they're on Eastern Time), plus likely more, as opposed to my current schedule that's very flexible as long as I meet my deadlines for orders, and the position is brand new, so both the work and payment structures would essentially be seat-of-the-pants and subject to change.

I already make more than enough for me to live on, so the money isn't a necessity, but that size of raise is still a big deal that could help me out in a lot of ways, including letting me save up more toward grad school next year. Also, if anyone knows the value of promotion, increased responsibility, and managing others on a resume, it's me. On the other hand, the relatively short hours I work now (and not needing to wake up at 7 a.m.) are a blessing in a lot of ways: for my writing, for what constitutes my social life, and for my general sanity. And she's not been entirely clear on whether she's amenable to me stepping back from the manager job into a flexible writer position once I go back to grad school, which is what I'd have to do. Finally, the Resume Manager job would require a ton more client relations, which is one area that my writing orders with this company blessedly avoids (the owner and now the managers are a buffer between the writers and the clients).

So I haven't made up my mind yet, but I told her I would within a week. I can't simply waffle and irritate her--whatever I decide, I have to tell her clearly and reasonably. I think the ideal situation would be for me to go to grad school right now and have an established Resume Manager position when I come out, but of course I can't be hoping for things like that. So at this point, I'm just hearing from as many people as I can. What do you think?

List of presses with reading periods for poetry manuscripts, plus notes:

Note that you MUST check the press websites, as these things often change from year to year, and I'll only change it if I notice or someone tells me.

Open: BlazeVOX Books
Open: Melville House
Open: New Directions
Open: Persea Books
Open: Red Morning Press
Open: City Lights Books (proposal/sample)
Open: Counterpath Press (query/sample)
Open: Eastern Washington University Press (query/sample)
Open: Apogee Press (query)
Open: Coffee House Press (sample, not "new authors")
Open: High Plains Press (sample, "Poetry of the American West")
Open: Mayapple Press ($10 fee)
Open: Etruscan Press ($20 fee)
January & June: Milkweed Editions
January-June: BkMk Press (sample)
January-July: Ghost Road Press (query/sample) (not currently reading)
January-November: Graywolf Press (query/sample)
January-March: CavanKerry Press
January-? (not first books): BOA Editions
Feb. 1-June 1: Carolina Wren Press
March 1-May 1: Ahsahta Press
April: Octopus Books
April-August: Cooper Dillon Books
April-September: Waywiser Press
May-June: Black Ocean
June: Four Way Books
June: Ausable Press
June & October: Steel Toe Books (you have to buy one of their previous books)
July: Tupelo Press ($35 fee[!!!])
September: Sarabande Books (sample)
September-October: University of Pittsburgh Press (not first books)
October: Carnegie Mellon University Press ($10 fee)
October: Tarpaulin Sky Press ($10 for past contributors, $20 for others)
October-November: C&R Press ($10 fee, $15 to received published book)
November-December: WordTech Communications

Anyone got others, please add 'em.

...this time in a letter to the New York Times regarding Joel Brouwer's review of Charles Wright's new book. Unfortunately, since there's no profanity or threat of physical violence, he's trying to defend someone else, and the personal attacks are relatively minimal versus the substantive attack on the review, this only rates a D on the Franz Wright Jackassery Scale. I would like to add, though, that one of his central premises (that Charles Wright or any other popular poet of long standing has somehow earned the right to have his work be "disliked with some degree of thoughtful reverence") is beyond silly. I'd also like to give Joel Brouwer his due for avoiding the royal critical "we," and state from both reading and personal experience that he's far from a beginner or nonentity.

The Kansas City Royals were my boyhood baseball team because I was learning about baseball when George Brett was chasing .400 in 1980, and my dad and I listened on the radio. Then came the Colorado Rockies, who were the local team and were fun and exciting at the same time as the Royals were going through a massive decline in the early-to-mid 90s. Now, thanks to two decades of pervasive mismanagement throughout major league baseball and a decade of the same from the Rockies, I have no team and little interest in baseball. Each year in the playoffs, I root for only one thing: the Yankees to lose. Therefore, this year's baseball playoffs are once again a success. Thank you, Detroit Tigers.

Delighted today to receive my copies of the textbook I have a poem in thanks to Emily. My poem's sandwiched in between one by Eduardo and one by Hart Crane, because that's the kind of company I keep, baby. It even has discussion questions (see the title of this post). I can't tell you how fun I find this whole thing. Thanks again, Emily!

I'm rereading The Hobbit (and will probably reread The Lord of the Rings). I hadn't done so in a long time, but I've noticed recently a desire to recapture certain positive aspects of my childhood, and those books are one of them. Another thing I've done recently is thought about buying old GI Joe toys because, damn, I used to have a lot of fun with those. I haven't done so because (A) the old toys are pretty expensive now, even out of the box, which is how I'd want them, and (B) what the hell am I going to do with a bunch of GI Joe toys anyway?

Other things about my childhood I'd like to recapture but probably can't effectively do at this point:

• Playing touch football with friends.
• Certain computer and video games. Quite a few, actually.
• Staying up all night inventing idiotic games like "nail the person in the sleeping bag with slingshotted stuff."
  
• Being a big fish in a small pond.