Meet Minda Powers-Douglas of TheCemeteryClub.com

Minda Powers-Douglas is an author and cemetery expert who founded TheCemeteryClub.com, a website dedicated to the art and history of cemeteries. Her books include Images of America: Chippiannock Cemetery, Translating Tombstones, and Cemetery Walk, and she has given workshops on topics like cemetery symbolism, proper gravestone rubbing techniques (where rubbings are allowed), ghost stories, memoir writing, creative writing, and self-publishing. She also creates unique pieces of cemetery-themed art such as her Pocket Cemeteries, and Cemetery in a Jar necklaces.

1. What first inspired you to start writing about cemeteries, and what keeps you interested in the topic?

I started writing my first cemetery book, Cemetery Walk, in 2003. I had been leading a workshop for girls for a number of years and, frankly, I was burnt out (loss of grant funding, volunteers, etc.). The workshop had been based on a short non-fiction book I wrote.

I'm the type of person who feels lost without a project or two going on. I decided that it was time to fulfill my life-long dream to write and publish a book. The topic that kept coming back to me was my interest in cemeteries. I'd been interested in them since I was a kid. They'd always fascinated me. So I dug in, so to speak, and haven't looked back. I love doing research, and there's so much to learn about them.

2. How do cemeteries connect to our appreciation of history--and of beauty?

Every gravestone contains a story. It's the story of the person buried there (or not buried there, on occasion). Of course, many of us know the stories of the famous people who have passed before us, but what about the millions and billions of others? I love discovering a long-forgotten person's story.

Aside from my site and books, I'm also a producer on a video web series we're working on called Tomb Trippin'. I'm based in Moline, Illinois, and the other producers, Dan Rosenfeld and Julie Pop, are out near L.A. Our goal with the show is to showcase little-known people with great stories that have been forgotten. We're really excited about it. My Facebook group members are also supportive and can't wait to see it. We're already working on things, and we plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign next year.

As for the idea of beauty of cemeteries, I think they are some of the most beautiful places you can visit. A number of people consider them "outdoor museums," and that is so true. In the U.S. alone, you can see gravestones that date back to the 1700s (and earlier if you look hard enough). You can walk right up to them and touch them if you want to (but please be careful!). How many indoor museums allow that without alarms going off? In old and new cemeteries you see a variety of artistic styles. Slate stone carvings in New England are often thinly chiseled yet have stood the test of time and elements. There are gorgeous marble monuments and sturdy granite ones. My favorites are from the Victorian Era and are carved with various symbols.

3. What will visitors find when they stop by your website, TheCemeteryClub.com?

When people visit my site, they'll learn about how important our cemeteries are. There's information on cemetery symbolism and other areas of research, news, an extensive links library, book reviews (for old and new books) and, of course, my shop. I sell my books through my site and have links to the ones I don't personally have in stock. Aside from my books, I sell tote bags, T-shirts and one-of-a-kind, handmade cemetery-related gifts.

4. Would you tell us a little more about some of your books about cemeteries? Which of your titles have been most popular over the years--and what are some of your most recent titles?

Cemetery Walk is a book filled with interviews with people who are connected to cemeteries in some way or whose work is inspired by them. It's also part memoir, as it has a lot of personal stuff in it. I self-published it through a small company because I wanted to do the book on my own terms (it took two years to research and write). Right after it was sent off for the first printing, I talked with an agent who told me she would have taken it! Due to my contract with the small company, I wouldn't be able to do so for a couple years. Such is life. It's okay because the experience taught me a lot.

I've also published my book Images of America: Chippiannock Cemetery through Arcadia Publishing. Chippiannock is a cemetery near me in Rock Island, Illinois. It's absolutely gorgeous and one of my favorite places. We plan to feature it in Tomb Trippin'.

My most popular book is Translating Tombstones, which is a handy guide on gravestone symbolism. I originally put it together for myself, but people in my Facebook group said they wanted copies, too, so I decided I'd publish it. This time I published through Lulu.com. I have a few other books and some issues of the magazine I used to do (Epitaphs Magazine). The magazine was great but overwhelming. Aside from contributions from writers or photographers, I did the whole thing on my own. I even did the design/layout for a while. I stopped producing it in 2008, but people still tell me they miss it.

5. Who is a taphophile, and what is a Pocket Cemetery (and why might it be the perfect gift for such a person)?

A taphophile is someone with a great interest in cemeteries. A cemetery lover. It's a name a lot of us have adopted. It's like we're in a special club! Being a taphophile means you get it--that you understand how amazing cemeteries are and want to share that with others.

What is a Pocket Cemetery? I'm glad you asked! LOL... A Pocket Cemetery is a miniature cemetery that I make by hand. They can be up to 4 or 5 inches long. I hand-paint the boxes and include miniature gravestones. Each one is unique. I can make them to order or with themes. One I've done (that's still available, BTW) was inspired by Van Gogh's Starry Night and other works. Inside there's a painting of his grave and his brother's. I recently sold a Day of the Dead one and one with a little skeleton hand reaching out of the grave. Taphophiles can have a macabre sense of humor while still respecting the dead.

I also make Cemeteries in a Jar. Same basic concept at the Pocket Cemeteries just in a little jar. My newest items include even smaller necklace pendants that have a cemetery in a jar. I have so much fun making them. More people need to buy them so I can keep making new ones! Otherwise I'll fill up my house with them!

You can see a number of these items on my site right now. And if someone mentions your blog, I'll give them 20% off their order of anything I have in stock! They can email me at minda.epitaphsmag@gmail.com for details.

Thanks so much, Mandy!

Thanks, Minda!

Introducing Dental Professionals, Dental Care in Chicago

If you're in the Chicago area and looking for a dentist, Dental Professionals can help you find a Chicago dentist as they maintain a busy practice with dentists and scheduling to meet the needs of a variety of patients.

Dental Professionals has a history of over 80 years behind their practice. And they are always reevaluating their work and looking for ways to improve, like adding new technology and participating in advanced training classes.

The dentists with Dental Professionals provide the full range of dental services. For starters, they offer complete general dentistry and preventative care, from cleanings to restorative work. They do advanced treatment for bridges, crowns, periodontal issues, etc. They do dental implants. You can also find a range of cosmetic dental services, as well as teeth whitening. And they do oral surgery, TMJ treatment, and treatment for sleep-related dental issues like sleep apnea.

Part of the idea behind Dental Professionals is to offer the full slate of specialty services so that patients don't need to visit a different clinic when they need specialized work, with state-of-the-art digital dentistry, including "crowns in a day." There are currently six dentists in the practice, and their website gives full biographical information about their years of experience.

Introducing Casa Couture Furniture Designs

Based in Chicago but selling its wares online to shoppers everywhere, Casa Couture Furniture Designs is a store that specializes in furniture pieces which are created from redesigned antiques. The founder and creator of Casa Couture is Julie Gathman who hand-selects antique pieces from markets and other locations around the midwest, and then she redesigns the pieces to create unique items.

If you are looking for one of a kind furniture, check out Casa Couture. I enjoyed the before and after page on the shop's website to get an inside perspective on how Julie creates her pieces. Many of the creations have a light-hearted feel and would definitely enliven a room! I found many brightly colored pieces which maintain the lines of the original piece while infusing it with new life.

To keep up with the latest pieces in the shop and to read more about Julie's creative process, follow Casa Couture on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr.

Meet Thomas L. Vaultonburg, Poet

Thomas L. Vaultonburg founded Zombie Logic Press in 1997. He has published four volumes of poetry, Concave Buddha (1991), Detached Retinas (1997), Flesh Wounds (2011), and Submerged Structure (2012). His poems have appeared in over 200 publications and anthologies, including Exquisite Corpse, Caliban, and The Paris Review. His latest project is a children's book titled The Toughskin Rhinoceros Wrangler Company, co-created with artist Jenny Mathews.

1. What motivated you to start Zombie Logic Press?

When I first started publishing poetry in 1989, there was a vibrant small press scene with hundreds of different zines, and it was a snap to get your poetry published, but the internet virtually ended the small press movement. Also, the best one could really hope for at that time was to publish a string of chapbooks. There was no digital publishing, and full-length books were not the norm. By 1997 it was difficult to find interesting places to publish, and since publishing a chapbook was almost never a money-making proposition, I decided forever after to just go ahead and publish my own work. That way I had total control over the content, design, and distribution of my work. And that's why I formed Zombie Logic Press in 1997. Of course now it's a million times easier to publish a book, but back then it was still somewhat of an effort.

2. What topics most intrigue you as a poet?

I almost never take on the eternal questions like truth, justice, or beauty. I'm a big fan of poets like Richard Brautigan and Charles Bukowski, and I learned from their writing that sometimes the best you can do as a poet is capture one simple moment in life, and then not try to take it all that seriously. Generally I have no conscious editorial process as to what I will or will not write about because almost every poem I have ever written has come to me fully written in a flash, and I have no idea where it came from or why.

3. How has being a lifelong resident of Rockford, Illinois influenced your work?

I posted this question on Facebook to see how my friends who are artists and also lifelong residents of Rockford would approach this question because in general Rockford is made a laughingstock in the national press as evidenced by being rated Money Magazine's Worst City in America and being labeled the 9th most dangerous and 4th fattest city in America. But I live three blocks from the hospital I was born in and having that type of long view on a place allows me as a writer to really see how things either change or don't change over time. I like Rockford. Not just because I want to be contrarian about it, but I legitimately like downtown where I live on the busiest street in town, surrounded by other artists, writers, and filmmakers who do their best to create in a place that doesn't seem suited to that task at all. I'd like to think Rockford, of all places, needs what we do, whereas if I moved to Chicago I'd just be one of hundreds like me. I really had to sleep on this question because there is also a simultaneous impulse to be bitter or negative because Rockford is a place where you can find all the negative you want, but I don't find that adding shade to shade is particularly productive in a place like this.

4. What were the main differences between writing your latest book--a children's book--and writing your previous books of poetry?

The main difference is compression of language. As a poet I always feel pressured to really condense a moment or an emotion into as few characters as possible, which is why I don't find the current social media model of 140 characters distressing. But when I write for children, I don't feel if I go overboard a little bit they'll lose interest because children don't read editorially: all they want is to be entertained. Poetry is said to be the hardest form because even a small mistake can mar a poem, and serious readers and editors of poetry will immediately spot that mistake or misstep and tune out. That's enormously stressful when one is trying to write a poem. Children won't tune you out if you don't adhere to to the rules, so you can go ahead and break the rules. The only rule is just be fun. I like that.

5. How long have you been creating Tiny Drawing Poems, and how do you personally experience the connection between poetry and visual art?

Almost not at all. I'm not a visual person, I have no spatial intelligence, and I can't even draw a stick figure, which is why getting the chance to work with an artist like Jenny Mathews of Tiny Drawings is such a blessing. She draws and I write. I'm not sure where and when I got the idea or why I didn't get it before, but one day I said why not combine the two, and we realized independently in our work we had themes that went well together. And since then it's been a blast because she can literally draw anything, and I have fun challenging her to draw something ridiculous like a grown man in a bird's nest and fifteen minutes later there's the drawing. I'm amazed by that.

Thanks, Thomas!