Burnout: This poet is taking a holiday, plus a big announcement

I wanted to take a few minutes to let everyone know what's been going on lately and what will be going on soon.

I feel like my poetry has taken a bit of a down-turn since finishing Bone Fragments. I'm not very satisfied with the quality of the work I've been putting out in recent weeks, and I feel like I'm rehashing and repeating images and phrases that I've already used in earlier poems. That's not terribly surprising to me. I've been at this long enough to know that big projects are followed by creative slumps, and I poured a lot of energy into Bone Fragments. I'm stuck in a pretty heavy spell of burnout right now.

A few close friends have helped me see that it's time to take a break. One of them helped me realize that I've become an insufferable workaholic and I don't really take any time off to go out and enjoy life. Another mentioned that one of my recent pieces was Another Gabriel Gadfly Poem Talking About Typical Gabriel Gadfly Things and that I've "built up a large enough body of work to develop your own clichés." (For the record, I agree with that assessment.)

So here's the plan for the next 2-4 weeks:

• I'm going to pull back from writing new poetry, by which I mean I won't force myself to write on a regular basis like I generally do. This means there won't be much brand spanking new poetry posted on the site, although if inspiration hits me, I'm not going to ignore it, so I'm sure there'll be something new now and again.
• I'll post a few of the poems published in Bone Fragments that haven't already shown up here on the site, probably about one a week. That'll give you something to read and maybe help me make a few extra sales.
• I'll still be answering emails (I've got a Reader Emails post in the works that should go up sometime tomorrow) and I'll be around on Twitter, FB, and Tumblr. But overall I'm going to make an effort to get away from the computer more and spend some time Going Out And Doing Things.
• I'm going to turn some energy towards a few other creative outlets. Maybe I'll work on my photography for a bit, or take another stab at prose. I'm also thinking of picking a handful of the oldest poems on the site, dusting them off, and giving them some solid revisions (although I've been informed that this is, in fact, cheating).

Now for an announcement, and one that's actually a big contributor to why I'm taking this break:

I'm excited to say that 1889 Labs has agreed to publish my second book, a collection of love poems, tentatively being released in January 2012. I've got a December 1st deadline for the manuscript. I feel like I set a pretty high bar with Bone Fragments, so for this second book to meet my standards, I need to recharge.

Finally, don't forget that there's still about two weeks left to add your entry to this month's Reader Art contest. A $10 Amazon card goes to the person who uploads my favorite piece of Reader Art for the month of August, so if you've created an illustration or taken a photograph or otherwise done something artistic based on one of my poems, be sure to enter and let me show off your work.