I really don’t know how to write this post

The recent mass shooting in Orlando is taking up much of my heart and soul, so I’m putting my usual review down lower in the article and skipping to links I’ve found to be important and/or helpful.

It’s not enough to be mournful or to send prayers, as John Scalzi points out in his heart rending piece on “thoughts and prayers” in the face of continued violence. There’s a point where action has to be taken, and I’m looking for ways to offer what actual physical help I can.

The Huffington Post has a piece on How To Help Orlando Shooting Victims And Their Families.

Vox explains America’s gun problem:

“No other developed country in the world has anywhere near the same rate of gun violence as America. The US has nearly six times the gun homicide rate as Canada, more than seven times as Sweden, and nearly 16 times as Germany…

To understand why that is, there’s another important statistic: The US has by far the highest number of privately owned guns in the world.”

Petition to Ban Assault Weapons.

What I’m Reading

I haven’t had time to do much reading the last couple of weeks and so I haven’t started in to any novels or full length collections. The next on the list is The BFG by Roald Dahl, a reread of a book I loved when I was a kid. Something nostalgic and simple and sweet would be boon right now.

What I’m Writing

Last week was incredibly busy with deadlines looming both at my day job and for the chapbook I’ve been working on all through May and June — so busy that I never got around to writing about my time at Bay Area Book Fest, where I hung out with my Zoetic Press peeps. But Allie Marini wrote about it, so you can read that.

The chapbook is almost done — which is great, since the deadline is just two days away. Over the weekend, I’ve editing the hell out of a lot of poems, culled several that were just not coming together the way I wanted, and finalized many more. There are three poems remaining that are not quite ready, but I really want to include, so I’m desperately trying to work through them in time to submit.

Goals for the Week:

  • Finish and submit the 30/30 poetry collection
  • Breathe