Croatian?!? Yeats! and sailing stones? WTF?

Prague in winter with snow falling.

Erm. Yes, what a most interesting heading for a blog entry. I really do have no excuse. On a completely unrelated side note, please take notice of how I am using only one space after a period. I know it to be the right thing to do.

A hero?

Okay. Croatian. How 'bout that. Recently, I did a little google digging (how boring is that?) and can you imagine what I found! Yes! It is a rhetorical question, right you are! I found Croatian! Not just anything Croatian, mind you. What I found was my poem Early Insomnia, first published in the unequaled Apparatus Magazine translated into Croatian, right here. Now, I am not a stickler or anything, but I do figure that translating something that I wrote without my consent is not entirely okay in a legal sort of way. Not that I wouldn't have given my consent. It would have been just really nice to be asked! You know?

Seriously, what is it with me and skulls? (World Peace, just sayin')

Then, google also revealed Yours Truly and the much admired, beloved Yeats in one sentence. Where, you may ask. Why, right here. Eric mentions that my poem About Roses 'slight[ly] echoes of Yeats'. What greater praise could there be? Not that a poet necessarily needs praise. At least, poets pretend they do not need praise when indeed they do but nobody seems to care. I will shut up about that topic right now, because it could fill another blog entry, so I might deal with it later. Might I say, mind you.

Life is so pretty in all its moments of being where you are supposed to be...

And I said Sailing Stones. Those are just weird. I haven't actually done all that much research yet, but it would seem that your average stone in Death Valley just moves, like, well, no idea like what because I never heard anything like it. Just moves! I should write a poem about that, or a story.

And somewhere, there are angels.

What have those pictures to do with this blog entry anyway???

Publications and to Prague and Back

And here's me again (a Happy 2011!)! Yeah, guess that plan for blogging more in December didn't work out...shame on me.

However, there are news and when I say news I mean published poems (and a short story)! *Yay*!

So, on Dec 27, my Cinderella poem went online on Polu Texni, a mag that deserves more attention than it is getting at the moment. I'm hoping that will change soon.

A little earlier (and unnoticed by me, I'm so ignorant sometimes), the wonderful Danse Macabre took another one of my short shorts for their Du Jours. And just a few days ago, I was very happy to find that my short story 'Hans & Gretel' is part of their current issue, Nussknacker. It is a little late, this one, but like wine and...moldy cheese, some things get better with age (okay, not the best comparison in the world, sorry).

I am especially happy to have a poem in BULL SPEC #4 (and another forthcoming in #5!). The current one is 'The Guardian at the Fountain of Eternal Youth', and sadly, my last name is missing the 'l' in this link:( but hey, typos happen.

Eternal Haunted Summer has two of my poem in their Winter Solstice Issue, here and here.

I think that's it so far. I have several more pieces accepted and lined up for publication though, which makes me very happy indeed and, yeah, even a little proud.

The Astronomical Clock of Prague's old City Hall; a famous landmark. Legend has it that the town fathers blinded the artist who built it so he would never again make something as beautiful and inspired.

Now I'd like to post what I really have been meaning to post, a few pics of my two-and-a-half day visit to Prague, also known as the Golden City.

I have been to Prague once in early fall and this time, it was winter, so very cold of course,  but with the snow and the ice and the slate gray sky also somewhat beautiful, beautiful and also ominous. Personally, I love gray and bleak atmosphere, and what could there be better than ominous, so I really did enjoy my stay. I liked the torture museum too.

My visit to the museum of torture. Just my kind of place, and I mean that in a totally world-peace-not-creepy-at-all kinda way.

What I found interesting was that since my last visit a few years back Prague has become so much more western. Also, there were a lot of tourists around, many from Japan and China too. Interesting. I will not be commenting on that, though. I love China. I love Japan (although I've never been there).

Skulls. There just had to be skulls. That's me in the front, BTW, sleep deprived.

If I get the chance, I'll definitely be back. I mean Kafka spent a lot of time in Prague right? There were alchemists too, so what better place for me to be? Well, I could think of some places maybe, but Prague is still nice, and you mostly get by with English.

So far, I haven't really written much about my stay though in terms of poetry or fiction, but I do have the one or other idea. For now, more skulls: