Bargain Banter (and I'm Not Talking about Shopping)

Melinda Palacio           

All I Want for Christmas Is an End to the Fires!
Melinda and Santa Claus

Bargaining season came early, or late, depending on how you look at it. Usually the first of the year is the season for new year's resolutions and deals struck for self improvement. And, for some, this bargaining continues through lent or until I can forget that I even need self improvement, or until beach weather rolls around and it's time to think about fitting into two pieces of cloth for days spent on a tropical beach.

            When fire struck Santa Barbara and threatened our house in San Roque, I started praying like a football player in the Superbowl, hoping for that Hail Mary thrown with eyes closed to reach just the player to deliver a win for the Saints of New Orleans. The Thomas Fire broke out December 4 and burned Ventura and Santa Barbara counties for nearly a month and is now the worst fire in California's history. After two weeks of nonstop ash raining down on the town, I queued in line with small children to ask Santa for the best Christmas present that would benefit not only myself, but entire communities of children of all ages. I prayed to all saints and vowed to light a candle for Saint Barbara at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, where I awaited news about the fire.

Thank you Jesus! 

            My California neighborhood of San Roque had been under mandatory evacuation since the second week of the fire. I thought about all the possessions, including my old silver Chevy Camaro convertible, I had to be ready to give up to the fire from long distance Louisiana. When my friend, Susan, left her Mission Canyon home to evacuate at her son's house, she thought she was closing the door to her home for the last time.

            Steve, had perspective much quicker than I did, 'they're just things,' he said. True, they're just things.

            I am lucky and grateful for all that I have and every extra minute I breathe on this planet. When your mother dies young (mine at age 44), you feel like you are living on borrowed or extra time. Every minute is a gift and for that and the opportunity to share my art and words with the world, I am grateful. I am also besides myself happy that the fire is finally 90 percent contained and that my house and car survived. Thank you firefighters, thank you Santa Claus, thank you Jesus!

            I don't need a resolution to make 2018 better than last year (a change in the White House wouldn't hurt either, psst, Jesus, Santa Claus, Three Kings, anybody out there listening). I have a new book coming out in the new year and I have been given the gift that keeps on giving, music. Steve gave me a gorgeous guitar for my birthday last month and I've already learned several new songs. I think everyone should give the gift of music, even if you are a professed shower singer, like myself. Here's to being grateful for another minute, another day, another year. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
Go forth and make music!

Remembering 2013 on Day Three of 2014

2014 Is Year Ten of La Bloga. Happy New Year!

Towards the end of 2013, my one goal was don't get sick. I packed so many events in my schedule that I wanted to finish the year by following through every single book signing, radio appearance, author talk, poetry reading, panel and class visit that I promised to do. Yes, the year was stellar and jam packed with events, events, and more events.

Last January alone, I had five events spanning from Ventura to San Francisco and Sonoma, to a talk at UC Merced to a standing room only crowd where there were students (and professors) seated on the carpet. The next month was even busier with Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day being two days apart. February sent me to Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, another well attended event organized by the state's 2011-2013 Poet Laureate, Julie Kane.

The whole year was so full of events, I checked my website to remember all the places I had visited in my unofficial book tour for How Fire Is a Story, Waiting. I didn't always blog about my events for La Bloga. I also tried to feature and promote my fellow writers, rather than blog about myself every month. Last year, How Fire Is a Story, Waiting garnered a couple accolades, including finalist in both the Milt Kessler Award and the Patterson Prize, and Best Poetry Book Winner of the 2013 International Latino Book Awards. I've very grateful to Tia Chucha Press and Luis J. Rodriguez for publishing my first full-length poetry collection. This year Luis will run for California Governor.  

As opposed to the five events, including a great reading with Francisco X. Alarcón, in Berkeley, I only had one reading scheduled for January 2014 at McKeown's Books and Difficult Music on Tchoupitoulas Street in New Orleans. News of the cancelled event weighed on my heart because Maggie McKeown is closing her doors to the independent bookshop at the end of the month. New Orleans begins 2014 with another closed independent book shop. When I visited Maggie yesterday, she seemed hopeful for the future and ready to begin a new chapter in her life. She opened the bookstore in 2005. Last year, the squeeze out began; she lost the lease to half of the bookstore, now she is moving on.

McKeown's Books and Difficult Music

 

Maggie McKeown and Melinda Palacio

Next month, I visit a bookstore that has had many iterations, Librería Martinez de Chapman University. I remember visiting the bookstore in Santa Ana twenty years ago and hearing Michele Serros read from her first book. I'm happy to be an invited author to this bookstore, Saturday, February 1st from 4pm to 6pm, 216 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, CA 92701, 714-973-7900.

I am grateful for all the invitations to speak and talk about my writing. I've had the humbling experience of students telling me how much they appreciate my poems and stories.  However, my New Year's Resolution is to dial back on the speaking engagements and write more. Happy New Year!