[Tim Murphy]

Ouch, Cathy. Of course your essay on Psalm 11. That was on a different yellow pad. Like I said, hard to keep track of all this stuff. Les Murray might have accepted 55 and 57 for Quadrant too. Can't find the post card from New South Wales, but your yellow pad says Accept. I suppose I really should start keeping track of all this stuff on a computer. Just had a case, only my second ever, of dual submission and dual acceptance. Well, things could be worse.

[Catherine Chandler]

Not to worry, Tim. You're amazing!

[Tim Murphy]

Hey! At least I get my blurbs out on time. Ask Wendy. Seriously, the four inaugural books from Able Muse Press are terrific. Kudos to Alex for having the cojones to rush in where angels fear to tread.

[FOsen]

"Sorry if any of this is redundant with earlier postings. Hard to keep track of all this."

Tim, that's a great problem to have - congratulations!

Frank

[Tim Murphy]

Thanks, everyone. Friday was art day. Charlie Beck, young at 88, brought me the three woodcuts we're using for the outside and inside covers of Mortal Stakes/Faint Thunder. They are stunning, recent work. This brings the number of Becks used in my work to eleven, and all will be exhibited at the three book launches in ND and Minn. Here's a site with a lot of material on Charlie: http://www.mnartists.org/tourItemDet...pageInd ex=20 Here is the Cathedral Forest, the outer cover: http://www.mnartists.org/tourItemDet...te mId=171864 And inside the book, here's the cover of Mortal Stakes: http://www.mnartists.org/tourItemDet...te mId=171866



That morning I received the ten drawings commissioned for Hunter's Log from the great Eldridge Hardie. Here is Pheasant Hunters, the cover painting for the book:http://www.eldridgehardie.com/eldrid...allery=hunting Nope, the link just takes you to a huge page of upland thumbnails. Well, it's in there!

When I was seventeen, and determined to become a poet, I could never have dreamed that I would someday collaborate with artists of this stature. Though these are not my first rodeos, lucky Tim still gets excited when I start reading proof and seeing the art integrated into the books.

Here's a great story El sent me Friday night: "I have to tell you a story. In my junior year in high school we studied American poetry for a semester. We were to make a booklet of some of these illustrated with pictures clipped from magazines. Instead, I made drawings. When our teacher handed back the assignment, she singled mine out, saying how moved she was by it. She wanted to keep it, and I consented. It was the most affirming thing that had ever happened to me in school and , I'm sure, had a lot to do with shaping my future. I guess I've come full circle.

Thanks for the opportunity, El"

[Seree Zohar]

Just noticed this here...
Of course we've all been touch by private email but I'd like to publicly thank everyone involved for the massively appreciated efforts on behalf of the Psalms translation - essayists, print and online publishers, and clergy, and of course the indefatigable Tim who's been a dynamo these past months. Oh how thankful and grateful I am for internet, and skype, so taken for granted now. How'd we all ever have met and shared our skills and knowledge without them! And folks, there's nothing quite like chatting with Tim when he's just back from teaching! Sounds like a gold panner who's struck it lucky! Thanks Timmo, and for the pome too.

[Tim Murphy]

Seree, the gold panner struck it lucky. After a week-long dearth of acceptances, I put seven short poems together in a sequence called The School Teacher. Now obviously I am no expert in this subject. Not like hunting, farming, climbing, and sailing. But they're all pretty light hearted, and Alex Pepple just adjusted the order of the sequence for their appearance in Able Muse. Woohoo!

[Gail White]

What wonderful success you're having, Tim, and very well deserved!

I hope the Alabama Lit Review is shortly going to publish 2 poems of mine that they've had for ages, including my bakeoff sonnet and one I wrote for you during your illness a while back.

[Tim Murphy]

Thanks, Gail. Bill Thompson assures me it should be out pretty shortly. He's got three or four of mine in there too, as well as Julie's essays on the early psalms. And thanks again for the poem for me, a great lift to my spirits when I was pretty blue.

[Cyn Neely]

just stopping by momentarily and needed to add my congrats to the list. That it wonderful, Tim. Glad you enjoyed the teaching as well. Well, off again, no time for much for me right now, but I will be back eventually