Editorial Wars, Gertrude Stein and The Morgantown Public Library

I was talking the other day about using an editor on THEOCRICIDE and they asked me what I looked for in an editor.

I've been lucky so far, in that arena...Jan Innes did the heavy lifting on several of my books, and she was solid. I edited the grand bitch of a book THE COMPLEAT PANTHER CYCLES and of course my former protege Laurie Wielenga edited one also.

Did I miss anyone? God, I hope not.

Having had as many bloody fights with editors over the years as I havem, it is tough to trust. The first time I allowed one of my works to appear in print the features editor of my high school newspaper, the Red and Blue Journal, at Morgantown High School, decided to transpose the first and second lines. I threw a fit and she would either run it stet or not at all...she ran white space...
she was setting up a succession of editors and publishers to have to engage me.

Oh, the lines? It was a poem of mine called "Contents of a History Book: 2025" and the opening lines were:

"The human race exists no more,
wiped out by its chief predator..."

She said it was more journalistically correct to make it

"Wiped out by its chief predator,
the human race exists no more..."

Not a huge difference, but as Leonardo Da Vinci said "If I wanted eyebrows on her, I would have painted eyebrows on her".

Later on that year they did run a poem by me...one of our classmates, and my older brothers' fiance, had died...they asked me to write a tribute poem for a "full page memorial"...

I don't know, and don't trust the answers I have been given on either side, but when that issue came out they put it in the corner of a literary page. Editors and publishers can get vindictive.

I recall a few years back I was sleeping with the editor/publisher of a major ezine. Since before we had even met, her readers were treated to glowing reviews of my works. When we broke up, my name stopped appearing in her pages. Those who were around at the time know who I am speaking of. And its fine (who needs her old ezine anyway...sniff...not me...pout), but it points out that it is impossible for an editor or publisher to think one thing of you as a person and another as a writer and not be tainted. We are human beings.

Swung by the Morgantown Public Library to lay my hands on Gertrude Stein's "Sacred Emily" for the podcast...

Problem is, they don't have any of Gertrude's books of poetry. Any. So, if you want to be a nice person, buy or otherwise acquire a copy of any of Miss Stein's books of poetry and send it to:

Morgantown Public Library
373 Spruce Street
Morgantown, WV 26505

They need it, Morgantown needs it. Now I have to do audio whitespace on my podcast as I am unable to find a copy of that work in the short amount of time left to me...I'll make sure to feature that work on an upcoming show.

PS: Fellow poet Katy Acheson just gave me a great and incisive insight into one of my recent works that not only told me why I might not want to include it in a book, but also what my public persona is, the way she perceives it.

I wonder if she's single? And, if not, does she have a sister? And whether or not, would she like to edit a book for me? Her or her sister?