Monday, February 15, 2010

Book Giveaway!


Happy Monday, everybody! Hope you’re coming out of the weekend chipper & ready for a new week. We’re pretty excited around these parts, because our shipment of my poetry book, The Days of Wine & Roses, arrived by FedEx Friday evening. A few kind friends have already bought copies, which I so much appreciate—many thanks to you! & I hope more of you will as well; there's a link to the lulu page over on the left. But because we’re excited, we want to do a little something to spread the excitement around a bit! More on that in a moment….

The specs: 92 pages, paperback “perfect” binding (your standard paperback set-up), with cover design by yours truly using three of my father’s photos—ones that have appeared on this blog. It contains 48 poems (the sonnet sequence “A Few More Fold-Out Postcard Sonnets” is listed as one entity in the contents, but it’s a series of 19 poems). There’s a bit of old Hollywood, & bit of hard-boiled stuff, a fair amount of surreality, some form, some free verse, some prose poems, long poems, short poems—a bit of something for everyone! These are the poems I wrote while living in San Francisco from 1989 to 1998, plus one from the early 00s in Idaho—so the recent poems that have appeared on this blog won’t be there. But don’t fear: a manuscript containing those is quickly assuming book length & I’ll almost certainly publish it next year.

I’m happy with the book—it’s kind of a big deal for me, because after setting my feet on the track to become a poet in the ivied walls of the academy, I managed to take a pretty sharp detour in the mid 80s—I haven’t regretted that detour as such, but I also know that poetry has often walk hand-in-hand with some pretty significant self-destructive tendencies, & getting this published seems to be a way of seeing myself in a new place with poetry—this is part of the reason why I chose to restrict the book to just San Francisco poems, because what I’ve written from 2008 to the present does seem quite different. By the way, for any completists out there: I have assembled a manuscript of Charlottesville, Virginia poems & I’ll publish that at some point too.

So here’s the deal: you could win a copy of The Days of Wine & Roses signed & inscribed by yours truly & shipped to your place of residence, because we're giving one away. Instructions follow:

1. Simply leave a comment specifying you'd like to enter the giveaway contest on—please note carefully—Eberle’s Platypuss-in-Boots blog post for either today, Monday February 15th (with special guest star Lamb Chop!) or on the upcoming Theme Thursday post for Thursday the 18th
—this week's theme is "Bell," so we'll all look forward to what the Platypuss gang does with that!

2. You folks know I love your comments on Robert Frost's Banjo, but comments on the Banjo won't count toward the contest. Comments for the contest have to be on Platypuss-in-Boots. Only comments mentioning the book giveaway will be entered.

3. Only one comment per post counts toward the contest. So if you leave two comments on Monday but none on Thursday (for instance), you're only entered once. But if you leave a comments on both Monday & Thursday, you're entered twice! You've doubled your chances of winning! See how that works? Two entries maximum per person
—but you'd already figured that out.

4. We’ll keep the contest open until midnight Mountain Standard Time on Thursday February 18th, & then in the pre-dawn gloaming on Friday February 19th Eberle will draw a name from one of my very own hats, which will contain all the entrants' names on slips of paper cut as uniformly as possible with my very own orange-handled scissors. Not as high-tech as random number generators, but there you have it! I'll announce the winner on Robert Frost's Banjo by about midday on Friday.

Good luck one & all, & hope to see you at Platypuss-in-Boots over the next few days!

16 comments:

  1. Dunno if I'll have the time to go exploring too much this week, but I'll surely check this out!

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  2. Congratulations on the book. I will visit Plattypuss but I won't be entering the competition - I already have a copy of the book on order from Lulu!!

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  3. Hi Subby & Alan

    Subby: Do check it out if you have the time!

    Alan: Thanks on both counts!

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  4. Oh, Oh, I know how you feel getting published. congratulations on the amazing adventure of putting your very self out there. Rather than win one, I would like to purchase a book, but only if you sign my copy. Would you do that for me?

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  5. Hi Chris: Of course! That's so great of you!

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  6. Hearty congratulations John. I will be checking it out at Lulu in the next day or two. Here's to many more productive years!

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  7. My copy arrived from Lulu last week--and it's just gorgeous. the kind of poetry that makes you look around at the world with renewed intensity. All lovers of poetry and RFB should get this book!

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  8. Hi Audrey: & thanks so much for those kind words!

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  9. This is exciting stuff, John. I haven't purchased a copy, so pick me...oh, please pick me!!! They look fabulous, btw.

    (hey, my word verification is "blushn"...and you should be, with pride!)

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  10. Hi Willow: Thanks for entering the contest (& yes, you did it right by mentioning the book!) Right now I'd have to say the odds are in your favor!

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  11. I didn't buy the book to be nice or because we are blog friends, but because I love this era of your poetry. Love who you have become as poet, but the passion and raw power of these SF works are fabulous.

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  12. Thanks Reya! I do believe the folks who've purchased it really wanted to have the book, & that makes it all the more gratifying. & I do think I wrote good poetry back then if I do say so myself!

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  13. Congratulations on your book!

    And thank you for introducing me to the Plattypuss in Boots blog, where I went to toss my name in the hat.

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  14. Hi HKatz: Thanks for entering the contest! Platypuss-in-Boots is my wife's blog (Eberle)! Glad you enjoyed it & good luck.

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  15. Well I already missed one day of entering the contest, so throw something at me on Thursday, so I don't forget! ;)

    Would loved to win a signed copy.

    Good luck with your sales, AND with your contest!

    I know this is all very exciting, and rewarding for you: to see your poetry in print. :)

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  16. Hi GingerL Don't know if you'll see this, but the comment on Platypuss in Boots Monday post can be made any time between Monday & midnight on Thursday--so it would be completely legit for you or anyone else to enter on both the Monday & Thursday post today or tomorrow!

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