The Mad Poets Blog

I’ve been told this whole entering comments business can be a little confusing for those who aren’t so familiar with blogs, so hopefully this little primer will help you out if this your first time commenting. As with anything new, it hurts just a little the first time, but after that it can be fun to the point of addictive. We here at the Mad Poets encourage you to practice safe commenting. Do it often, for sure. But always do it with forethought & caution.

Here’s how it works:

Below this post, where it says “Post a Comment,” enter your name as you’d like it to appear (can be your full name, first name, nickname, alias, pet’s name, whatever…), enter a valid email address (we will NOT publish this), enter your website if you’ve got one that you’d like people to visit (if you don’t have your very own site, you can enter your MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or whatever other social networking page you might have), and then enter your comment.

Be sure to give us all the essential information. If it’s a reading, tell us the date, time, venue, type of performance, and anything else we need to know (is there any open mic following your featured reading?).  If you’ve got something published, tell us where we can buy it. Add the url to the website of the publisher or link to the book’s page on Amazon. You pretty much want to hold our hand to the check out. If we can read your poem/story/article online, give us the link & tell us the name of the piece and the publication.  We don’t just want these details. We *crave* them!  (P.S. You can use HTML in the comments, or not. It’s up to you. Don’t sweat it if you don’t know HTML, it’s really no biggie one way or the other.)

If you want to receive emails with all the other comments, click that box. This means you don’t have to keep checking back to the site to see what other comments have been added. On Shameless Monday, its a great way to keep up with what else is going on. It’s also an easy way to immediately know if someone has responded to something you commented, which is always nice to see.  But if you don’t want to get the emails, that’s cool too. Just be sure to check back regularly to see if anyone’s responded to you.

Finally, when you’re done, click “Submit comment.”  If this is your first time, your comment will not appear on the site immediately. It will be emailed to the web czar for approval (this keeps us from getting inundated with spam). Approval usually happens within a few hours. After you’ve had one comment approved, all future comments post to the site immediately since we know you’re a real, live person and not a spam-bot.

Once your comment is approved and posted, your name will appear at the top of the comment. If you’ve entered a website, your name will link to the website.  The comments will show up in a list below the post, in the order they are entered. To see what it looks like, check out last week’s Shameless Monday.

Good luck & happy commenting.

I’m working on getting that calendar (yeah, that big empty one that says there are no events) off the righthand sidebar, but it takes a little finaggling.  So, please please please ignore, if you weren’t already doing so.  It’ll be gone soon enough.

If you’re looking for readings, check out the homepage & click on any of the venues in the lefthand sidebar, under the “Readings & Events” heading.

Hey there kids –

The Mad Poets Review Book Party, originally scheduled for October 27th, has been POSTPONED until December 1st. The time and location will be the same — 11a @ the Delaware County Institute of Science in Media, Pa.

For more information or directions, check out the Institute of Science schedule or email madpoets{at}comcast{dot}net.

After a really *really* long run together, it appears that the Mad Poets Society and the Barnes & Noble in Bryn Mawr will be going our separate ways.  This summer, the Barnes & Noble on Lancaster Ave. will be closing in favor of a larger, albeit as-yet-unlocated space that can accomodate a music section, a cafe expansion, and more parking.  Strange to think that when this store opened 15 years ago, it was the first B&N super store in PA.  Now it’s dwarfed by the even superer stores in the further suburbs… you know, the ones that basically had whole shopping centers built around them.

Kathy, our delightful CRM, who’s been there since the beginning, promises that the Mad Poets are always welcome, whenever and whereever this B&N relocates.  It’s that whole whenever & whereever business that kind of leaves us hanging right now.  Ya see, B&N’s lease ends this summer–so our last event at the Bryn Mawr store will be the June 7th reading with WD Ehrhart & Jack Walters.  Unfortunately, since they don’t know where they’re going or when they’ll be reopening, we don’t yet know what will happen with the remainder of the series.  Eileen & I are working to find a new home, ideally in a space somewhere along Lancaster Ave., not far from the B&N store.  If you have any ideas, do let us know.

I’ve been hosting at B&N for, oh geeszh, something like 4 years now, and I’ve really enjoyed all of the wonderful poets I’ve gotten to meet — including our featured readers, our open mic regulars, and the strays poets who wandered in & out of the series once or twice.  I’ve got great memories of playing with the stuffed animals and other toys in the childrens section, being lead in poem and song by more than one daring poet, and declaring an impromptu anti-Santorum reading when we the misguided Senator happened to be scheduled for a book signing on our regular reading night.  I’m sure that whereever we end up, the good times will continue to roll.

’til then, keep an eye out for any good space that might take in a few stray poets.  We don’t take up much room or eat very much.  And we rarely bite, unless provoked.

Check it out. Over there on the right.

That little calendar is interactive: Click a date and it will show you what the Mad Poets are doing (of course, it won’t show you anything if we don’t have anything scheduled).

Then there’s that nifty list underneathe, which shows our next 5 events! Click on any of those listings for full details.

And if you’re looking for a full chronological list of our upcoming events (for about the next month or so), click the title “Upcoming Events” or sort by “Events” in the category menu further down in the sidebar.

If you’d like to see our schedules for the year, by venue, visit the Readings & Events page on the main site.

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re happy to release the Mad Poets Society’s blog — an internet hangout for Mad Poets and friends.

Better than just a comments page or visitors book, here we can talk about our events — what’s coming up, what we’ve recently been to, and how it was. We can also chat about what we’re reading or who we’re listening. We can rant about the creative process and maybe even gossip about the literary world. You’ll also find news about the local and national poetry communities, info about magazines and contests, as well as tips and advice for writers.

But most of all, just like any gathering of Mad Poets, this space is open & supportive. And we’re glad to have you be a part of it!