Microdosing Monday
Happy Monday my friends. I’m so glad we all made it here to start another week.
This edition is not a Microdose, but might be a pixel to a picture of what it’s like for a hustling, working artist. Please understand that this is a post filled with immense gratitude. I’ve worked hard my whole life to be who I am, and I’ve dreamt even harder for it.
I’m starting my Monday a tad weary and with a mountain of work. I’m back in off a week on the road. I’ve got stories to write of my poetry and book readings from Evansville and Cincinnati the last few days. Stories to write about the best book haul find of my life, new indie bookstores visited, and little free libraries found like smiles of acceptance in unexpected places. I’ve got weekly online columns to catch up with and write, a few dozen friends and loved ones to get back to, and so many good things going on as a writer that I can’t keep up anymore. I’ve done interviews, accepted future readings, have a multitude of booksellers and poetry hosts to follow up with about books and readings, and I tell you, this is the best possible work to have ahead of me, and I have no money to hire a personal assistant, so I’ll do my best to keep all my updates centered here on Mondays.
Here’s what happened last week…
Read poetry at the Poetry Speaks at the Bokeh Lounge in Evansville, IN on Tuesday
Read poetry at Word of Mouth poetry series in Cincinnati on Sunday
Completed an invited submission to be the featured poet in a pretty bad ass magazine. That feature is upcoming and will announce more when its release date is closer.
Met with two indie bookstores about getting my books on their shelves. Discussed possible author events and readings, but more follow up required.
Wrote a weekly column titled ‘A Ballad for Hoosier Bill’ for the online magazine, A Thin Slice of Anxiety.
Wrote and finished a few poems. Worked a little on some short story ideas. Found two more good ideas for stories and wrote them down.
Here’s the plan for this week:
No readings scheduled this week.
Plan to finalize details and start promoting big four day reading tour with three other poets that’s coming in April. There’s two or three invitations for other one off readings that’ll I’ll follow up on this week. And I’m just starting planting seeds for a big west coast reading tour later this year.
Hope to catch up on a backlog of writing. None of the projects have any deadlines except my self imposed ones, but I get stressed when I have more stories to write than I have time. And I always have more stories to write than I have time. Right now it feels like I’m losing ground. Hoping to change that this week.
I’m in varying stages of working with five indie bookstores to get my books in their store. You can order my last book from any indie bookstore’s website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc, but I’ve been trying to get on physical bookshelves. There’s like four million independent books on Amazon alone. Imagine the shelf space competition for independent writers with no big book deal contracts. I do pretty good in person, face to face, just talking to bookstore owners and staff, but they all require applications, and lean towards local indie writers, which is more than fair, so there’s often hurdles to show my books merit coveted shelf space over the other 1,000 writers asking for it, too. But I’ll try to get to following up with all five this week. One or two of them seem certain now, but a week or two away from in the store.
Need to work on my website. Did you know I have a website? No? That’s because I’ve had it for six months and not finished it.
Hope to work on the poetry manuscript I’m putting together for my first collection.
I have to do some gigging with Lyft this week, and I’ll probably find a fork lift, warehouse gig somewhere down the road for a bit. I’ve got bills and obligations like all good Americans, and I’ve got kids that need me, and road trips and reading tours I want to make happen. But hours spent doing Lyft are hours spent not being a writer, my real full-time job.
I’ve got a big post office run today. Got a bunch of books going out across the country. That’s always pretty cool.
Got a huge announcement coming this Saturday. The biggest announcement of my writer life perhaps. Stay tuned. Can’t wait to share this news with you all.
Upcoming scheduled readings include
Friday March 15th at Dope As Fuck Show at the Landing in Portsmouth, OH with poets Zach Hannah, Ezhno Martín, Damian Rucci, Alexander Ragsdale, Lara Weinburg, Nikki Blankenship, C.D. Bailey, and J.I.B. Plus musical guest Skintt, Soft Pain, A House Fire, The Further Along.
Thursday April 18th in Kansas City with Nettie Zan, J.I.B. Nikki Blankenship and Brooke Nicole Plummer. More details coming
Saturday April 27th in Owensboro, KY at Bards & Buskers, an all day event featuring 20+ poets and three bands, headlined by International Beat Poet Laureate, Lifetime Emeritus, Ron Whitehead.
Reminder that you can buy my books from Wandering Bean Coffee Co. a local coffee shop in Toledo
and at Gathering Volumes Bookstore in Perrysburg, OH
online from your favorite bookseller
or especially from Magical Jeep, the best online independent bookstore for underground writers Dan Denton | The Literary Underground
Ps. My website is www.thedandenton.com
You can follow along and see if I figure out what I’m doing with it, if anything at all.
Photo of Poetry Speaks host Jonathan S. Baker and I
Me reading at Word of Mouth in Cincinnati. Taken by poet Nick Barrows