“I want many of the same things from a good novel that I want from a good poem, on a prose level.[…] there’s a scene in Ink and Steel wherein I used every English word derived from the Latin raptus* that I could manage. (Yes, it’s that scene. You know the one.) Rapture, rape, raptor, rapt, rapine–

*raptus, meaning, “seized and taken, kidnapped by force, snatched hold of and then taken hostage, carried off or away.â€

Why did I do it? Because these associations work not in the forebrain, necessarily, but in the back of your head, the place where you process connotation and emotion and feel things, where your gut emotions live. Because it makes a difference, whether or not the reader notices it. Perhaps especially if the reader does not notice it. Because this is part of the craft and attention to detail that makes good writing.” – Bear
In interview Sandra Beasley says
Do you have any sort of routine to both your writing and submission efforts?
“I try to be as systematic as possible in terms of sending out, by conceptualizing “submission packets” of 4-5 poems each: poems that offset each other well, that advance a certain theme or stylistic gesture. I’ll match a packet with whatever I think the editors at that particular magazine will like best. It makes me nervous if I don’t have things out at at least three journals at any given time. “