Chocolate Muffins & Chapbooks

Like people, poems deserve a second chance.

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Photo of chocolate muffins by Shakti Rajpurohit on Unsplash

Let’s say you’re working on a big project, like writing a memoir, and you spend hours and hours editing the latest version of your manuscript only to lose it, including the most recent thirty beautifully revised pages—10% of the book—poof! gone! What next?

How do you get back on a horse that has jumped the fence and galloped away? If you know that magic trick, please share. Meanwhile, there’s another kind of magic. It’s called a Jumbo Chocolate Muffin.

Awake way too early the next day, I switched on the computer and the coffee maker and looked at my phone, hoping for a message from the universe, perhaps?

“Good morning! Good morning! Good morning!” said the first text from thirty minutes ago. It was from my neighbor, a new friend. We were not in the habit of greeting each other by text—in fact, this was a first.

“Might you have a cup of coffee to share with me?” said the next text. “And could I get it To Go? I’m studying.” Ah. I recognized the universal language of acute caffeine deficiency.

“2 min. Cream?” I texted back.

“Please! I’ll be there.”

Her spontaneous request delighted me—at 65, I felt like I was back in the girls’ dorm when the really-nice, aloof chick down the hall knocks on your door and asks if she could please borrow your backgammon set. It doesn’t matter what she wants; you’re just happy she knows you exist.

I reached for my favorite blue ceramic mug* and poured in the just-brewed coffee (how did she know?!) with a splash of half-and-half. We traded hugs at the front door. The day brightened.

A few minutes later, another text: “I left a surprise for you on your wall.”

On my wall? I went out the front door and looked at the vertical walls of the house. Didn’t see anything. Ah. The low patio wall to the south that divides our property from hers—that wall. Sitting on top was a wrapped chocolate muffin. Not just any muffin, but a Jumbo Chocolate Muffin, the kind with chocolate chips inside. The perfect breakfast for a whiny writer who needs to stop feeling sorry for herself and get to work!

P.S. If my riderless horse miraculously returns from the land of unrecoverable, I’ll name it Chocolate Muffin and ride off into Bestseller Terriotry. Meanwhile, I have a book to write.

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Okay, so that section, above, was written last week, or maybe the week before. I moped around like a twelve-year-old who is grounded for eye-rolling. Instead of re-revising the memoir, I read two books (James: A Novel by Percival Everett, and Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro); revisited my retirement plan; made a big tossed salad; did a load or two of laundry; and watched several Euro and COPA football matches, and downloaded a trial app for Scrivener to replace ….

And two wonderful things happened.

First, I focused on POETRY and actually finished the little book I’ve been working on for several months. My last book, Rabbit Sun Lotus Moon, came out in 2017, so I’ve been itching to get some new poems out into the world after several found homes in literary magazines. I also wanted to upcycle some earlier work for a new time, a new audience. During the week I couldn’t bear to open a memoir file, my publisher and I reviewed our proof copies, cross-checked the edits, admired the cover design, and completed Upcycled: Poetry Repurposed for publication via Kindle Direct Publishing (whose parent company you already know as that river in the rainforest).

Second, Chocolate Muffin, my metaphoric riderless horse, returned! I’ll spare you the ugly tale of Microsoft Word, OneDrive, My Documents folders, and, yes, operator error. Most of the revised memoir file was intact, so I’m back in the saddle.

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ANNOUNCEMENT!

Now available, UPCYCLED: Poetry Repurposed, a chapbook* by Andi Penner.

Thank you to pamela williams of Mercury HeartLink Press who designed the cover around “La Poeta,” a painting by the phenomenal Jade Leyva.

*A chapbook is small, inexpensive collection of poetry or literature intended for wide distribution. Order yours today. Enjoy it with a chocolate muffin and a cup of coffee, tomorrow. Thank you!

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