january updates: yuan's lit endeavors

1. in november 2015, my poems were accepted by only six journals - first time fewer than 12 since 2009, but last month, i got 21 acceptances after reassuming normal poetry subs. somewhat statistically haunted, i have developed a habit to submit my poetry to different online or in-print journals.

2. some other habits about my poetry submissions: every month, i would make 300 or so 'blanket' or mass submission; i submit only to those journals that do not charge any reading/handling fees - i hate the idea to pay for someone to look at my work; also, i submit only to those accepting subs online or via email; as a rule, i usually avoid sending more work to a journal once it accepts or publishes my work;

3. as editor of Poetry Pacific, i notice that once i publish a poet, he/she would keep sending work for every issue for my e.journal, but partly to publish more poets,  i usually try to avoid publishing a particular poet on a continuous basis (in every issue of PP). this was meant to be a secret 'house rule,' but  i will add it to PP's guidelines after receiving a serious complaint a few weeks ago;

4. yesterday morning, my partner in china informed me that he had received the first payment from the author/representative for the third large project we joint take: my Poetry Pacific Press is to publish the first chinese-french edition of ms Zhang Xinyue's Create Abundance. though still hardbound and printed in shenzhen, this book is much shorter (about 230 pages), and has only 20,000 copies (half to be delivered to paris, half to vancouver). like before, i do almost everything: editing, proofreading, initial typesetting, having it printed in china and exported/delivered to international destinations.

simply because my french knowledge is not enough, i am experiencing a great headache with the french translator of the book, who is by no means cooperative: although i have been waiting for two weeks, she just keeps ignoring my frequent requests to provide me with her true name, her brief bio-note, and the french versions of the book title, subtitle, dedication, table of contents and other words on the 'cover' pages. it's only a 30-min or no more than one-hour job, but she must be so unprofessional and uncooperative, while both i and the printer have finished whatever we can do except her response.

this bilingual (french-chinese) edition will be released in march or april 2016.

5. with many a health problem, esp with a bad disc herniation with persistent sciatic pain, i have lost my mobility, and thus will have to return to china towards the end of april for treatment, either in beijing or in shenzhen. i will go with my younger son, who has had a bad disc problem for more than 7 years already. this is perhaps a family curse, which has made us suffer both physiologically and financially. we have been spending such huge amounts of time and money on the problem. canadian doctors are among the lousiest ones i have ever known; they are simply helpless.