Submissions: Gulf Coast Poems

photograph by Eliza Marlow

.
A call for poetry submissions:

Poets for Living Waters is a poetry action in response to the Gulf Oil Disaster of April 20, 2010, one of the most profound man-made ecological catastrophes in history.

The first law of ecology states that everything is connected to everything else. An appreciation of this systemic connectivity suggests a wide range of poetry will offer a meaningful response to the current crisis, including work that harkens back to Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing regional effects.

Submit 1-3 poems, a short bio, and credits for any previously published submissions to: poetsforlivingwaters@yahoo.com.

More information is available at Poets for Living Waters.
.

Christi's Distraction

At Writing Under Pressure, Christi wrote about responding to another writer friend's list of questions as a distraction from thinking about her Dermacentor variabilis phobia. You have to click to her site to check out what that is! Anyway, she was tagged with these questions and she answered them from the North Woods. As a distraction.

Since I just wrote about wondering if I was distracting myself (from the Needs a New Name (NaNN) Novel) with research and notetaking, her post caught my eye. Well, her posts always catch my eye - she's a great writer with plenty of insights. I saw the word "distraction" and I was distracted from why I'd logged on to the computer in the first place.

Below are my responses to the questions. Feel free to post to your blog with a link here, or put your answers in the comments section below!

1. Where were you five years ago?

I was working with a group of interpreters to establish a new agency in town after one agency walked all over the community and walked off with money owed for services rendered. After a few months and some stressful meetings and someone pulling a power play built on lies, I left the new agency I helped create. I was starting to do a little art, again, and starting to write creatively, again. I lived in the same house as now with the same partner, but with a boomerang step-child living with us, who is now engaged to a wonderful person and doing quite well on his own.

2. Where would you like to be five years from now?

In five years we will be paying off the house. I want to be writing more regularly and having the rest of my life fitting in around the time left over from that. I want to be giving workshops and attending conferences and going on writing retreats and a residency would be nice. I'm contemplating being done with an MFA by then -- but haven't decided for sure if it's worth the time and expense. I want the Needs a New Name Novel to be published, and a book contract for more. I want to have breathing space and an abundance of income and have plenty of time for sleep and walking and traveling and writing/creating and be comfortable in my skin.

3. What was on your to-do list today?

• 
  Shower.
• Dragon boat practice.
• Brunch with some teammates after practice.
• Take arnica and homeopathic tincture.
• Walk up and down the hill a couple times or so to see how my lungs are doing, with additional walking time.
• Take arnica.
• Shower.
• Pick up a latte or chai on the way to work.
• Type up three student intern observation reports.
  
• Look at REI website to see if they have what I need for the Grand Canyon trip so I can plan what to pick up when I get my shipment tomorrow morning (to avoid those impromptu purchases).
• If I have time, reorder the chapters and sections I've relocated in the NaNN Novel in Google Docs.
• Drink less coffee.
• Eat more vegetables.

4. What five snacks do you enjoy?

• 
  Popcorn.
• Early season Honey Crisp or Jazz or Ambrosia apples.
• Fresh blueberries - especially right off the bush (okay, so they should be rinsed first)!
• Juanita's tortilla chips with a little bit of grated cheese melted on them under the broiler, with double roasted red pepper or mango salsa and mashed black beans.
• Erin Baker's peanut butter granola with Nancy's plain honey yogurt. Or plain Cheerios with soy milk. Vastly different and yet, similar in an odd way.
  

5. What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

• 
  Write more often and work at non-writing less.
• Travel more: !road trip!; take a month-long vacation and at least a week every three months or so; buy a home in Taos that would also be a group writing retreat, and a condo to share on the Oregon coast.
• Send some money anonymously to some people - some maybe not so anonymously.
• Get an MFA.
• Get all needed repairs on the house; get the yard fixed up properly; replace my 181k+ miles, 11-year-old car with a hybrid.

That's my distraction list. What's yours?
.

Novel Editing: questions and observations

As a child I dreamed of writing a novel.

No, that's not totally true. I dreamed of publishing a novel; I wrote my first novel about age ten. It was about a magic rock that a couple of kids found; seventy-two pages written by hand on lined notebook paper. The final pages were written as I sat in my grandmother's classroom as she taught the mixed grades class in the two-room school house; it was my spring break.

After that I wrote mostly short stories and tons and tons of poetry, a couple of scripts, and wrote for school newspapers and yearbooks.

My dream of publishing a novel reverted back to writing a novel as I continued to do more journalistic style writing : newsletters, business memos, public relations releases, an so forth.

Then I decided to give NaNoWriMo a try, believing that the experience would help me - out of necessity - get out of my own way and just write. It worked and I did. I have attempted NaNoWriMo twice and have been a winner - passed the 50,000 word mark in 30 days - twice.

Now I'm deep in the editing and revision process of the first NaNoNovel. And, while writing is not new, editing a whole novel is. I've written about this before: the one day/word/bird at a time thing. I've been making notes. Doing bits of research on place and procedure. I've made note cards (instead of an outline; I did a non-standard outline as I went along writing The Novel), and margin notes. Driven to a city where part of the story takes place and took pictures.

The story has a book central to its theme that I had never read. Today I finished reading that book, with underlining and margin notes in that book and notes about my book. Surprisingly to me, the places where the stories overlap? I hit some of it right on the metaphorical nail and the compatibility is good. There are some changes to be made - but, wow, I'm surprised how little on that account.

Tonight I was wondering:
- when is research and making notes helpful?
-- is there a time when it becomes procrastination of rewriting instead?
--- how do I know which it is?
- how long should a mystery ghost story novel be?
-- how many characters are too many?
--- there are three primary stories which will intersect later on; playing with different approaches to presenting them in the novel (in chunks of their own; interspersed; 1/2/3 pattern or will random and more organic work?)

This week on my novel I've accomplished:
- some reordering of main chapters/sections
- identified which incidents are precidents for which other incidents; identified a couple of key events that must happen before other story pieces
- made maps of the three primary areas where the story takes place; for one I even found a house plan that works perfectly for one couple's primary residence
- identified some important changes that need to happen for it to read well and make sense in a couple of key areas.

I'm afraid I might be on the edge of research and preparation becoming procrastination. Any suggestions on how I can tell -- any warning signs that I may be avoiding the rewrite. One perspective I have is that all work on the novel is putting "energy into the field" (as Pamela would say) of my intention to bring this novel to publication - be it revising, researching, moving sections around.
.

Razor's Edge for 3/28/10

This week the theme of the parts of the world I inhabit, or that is inhabited by my friends who share their experiences with me, has been collision. Collision of things unintended. Of desire and need requiring a common ground but the options do not seem compatible on the surface, perhaps; or require a bit of adjustment in perspective or expectations or acceptance.

It is not all bad, this colliding. But all change - I am constantly reminded - carries with it a bit of stress. Even positive change is creates stress, though I still hold onto the belief that there is no universal experience of "stress" and, since all change creates stress, and being alive means being in a state of constant change, then shouldn't we stop beating ourselves up mentally and trying to avoid all stress all the time? Doesn't this constant sense of failure create more negative stress?

I'm ranting and rambling now. Defensive or projecting, perhaps. Less stress is better, I agree. And if the bulk of that stress comes from positive change, then maybe the negative health effects are less (just my guess, I don't have any research to back up that statement).

Again, I'm rambling.

This week's prompt set is about COLLISION

It has three parts:
[1] Listen to the Andreas Mavrides video first and just write what comes to you as you listen. The goal this week is to just write. Don't edit. Don't wonder what it's about. Let it flow out of the pen or through your fingers on the keyboard.
[2] Read my freewrite as I was listening to The part Transcending part 8/8.
[3] Watch & listen to the Anna Oxygen video. Write a response to either your freewrite from part one above, or to my write from the Transcending video.

[1]


[2] freewrite 5/28/10 by Dot
Walking to the edge of the outline, wondering where it came from and who put it there, she dared to look up. She hadn't intended to do anything but look at the figure on the ground. To see if she could see from the outline who this person was when they inhabited a body, when they could walk and breathe and smell the air just like she was doing now.

A shadow.

Left behind a shadow on the earth of a life that has ended.

How or why or who, she had no idea. This remnant drawn by someone else's hand the only acknowledgment in this place of this other life which was now gone.

That shadow crossed her eyes and she looked up and she saw. Not a beacon of light nor the glow of a soul. What she saw made her stop, pause, reconsider her own senses. The energy this other being left behind reflected back to her herself. The energy magnetic and luminescent with mirror-like qualities that let her see inside herself. Against the backdrop of the other's breath.

She put her right palm against her cheek. Glided her fingertips over her lips, across her chin, down to her throat. Felt the pulse of her heart in the right dip of her neck.

Alive.

The other was not.

Alive and seeing her essence floating in the detritus of another being's life.

[3]

....

correction

My friend's decision - which I mentioned in yesterday's post - does not redefine who she is. That was a typo. She is still a mama writer. The "in the best interest of my family" decision redefines how she will be earning income and affect when she writes.

But she is who she is: a skilled writer with a lot of important and entertaining things to say.

When Worlds Collide

This has been a recurring theme in my life recently: my own experiences and those of friends.

I'm not sure what it's all about and know I'll have to wait for that answer.

A writer friend has made an important decision about her life. It redefines who she is and how much time she will have for writing. She has two children at home and this job provides them with some essentials and has good perks. So she is a mama writer who will be doing (that job) for a while.

I'm in the midst of a similar situation about my continuing work. One thing I do is partly up to me whether I continue doing it. Another thing I do is something I could keep doing easily as my safety net base work - though I need other things to keep my mind fresh and body moving; and that one has some potential major changes coming, including going away.

And I'm in a collision time of having to do student observations, the final two weeks of dragon boat practice before the big races, preparing for my big vacation rafting from one end of the Grand Canyon river to the other, preparing my Paddling Poet series and the Creative Wandering series, and making final preparations and reservations for the 132 mile relay. And my regular work.

Writing. It's time to get back to it. I've been doing little bits but I need the big chunks. Just one more day of observations, write up the reports, and I'll have a little more time to write.

Collisions of responsibility and desire. Of work and writing, the teeter totter.

Short Story Contest

.
Just a week left on this one. I stumbled upon it in someone else's blog. A no fee, open topic, open genre (except no erotica) literary fiction contest.

Lady Glamis (Michelle Davidson Argyle) is having a short story contest; below is an overview of the guidelines. Click for the full details , including the prizes.

(1) Contest is open until June 1st.
(2) Open to all genres and subjects except erotica.
(3) Stories up to 7,500 words.
(4) One entry per person.
(5) Email entries to annie.louden [at] gmail [dot] com with SHORT STORY CONTEST and the name of your entry in the subject header. Paste your story into the body of the email, with your name, contact email, word count, and title.
(6) Winners announced on Wednesday June 3oth.
(7) Stories are judged for: quality of prose, creativity, and the ability to engage the reader within 7,500.

.

Star Crossed series book two is out

.
I'm not sure if Bonnie Hearn Hill is going to be able to stop by on her blog tour this time around. But book two of the Star Crossed series is out! Taurus Eyes is now available for purchase. Below are a couple of her earlier stops this month and a synopsis of the new book below.

Mother of Confusion

International Thriller Writers

Enjoy - it's been getting some great reviews! (and buy the book...)

TAURUS EYES
Look to the Stars.

Logan McRae is spending her summer at the camp of her dreams, thanks to her discovery of that amazing book, Fearless Astrology. Away from home and her friends, she now finds herself faced with a new set of challenges, a new enemy, and maybe even a new guy.

From the moment Jeremy Novack grabs her hand on the ghost-tour bus, Logan feels an immediate connection. She's sure Jeremy feels it too. But in order to secure a coveted writing spot in a national teen anthology, Logan must impress her instructor Henry Jaffa, the renowned journalist who is editing the book. She feels confident that she will shine with her brilliant astrological piece about Sun signs, but then Jaffa switches everyone's topics!

Now Logan has to compete with Jeremy, who seems obsessed by their shared topic about the ghost of an obscure dead singer. Logan has only the stars to guide her as she tries to win the respect of her idol, write a stellar essay, and capture the heart of her newfound crush.
.

Razor's Edge for 5/21/10

.
I've been reading about characters recently. How to write them. How important they are to writing - well, at least to fiction writing. Exercises. Styles.

Then tonight, while looking for something totally unrelated, there was the 'related video' below (which was not at all related to what I was looking for).

So I am, again, going with the creative flow of the - or my - universe at this moment in time.

This week's Razor's Edge focuses on *character*

The video is Joyce Carol Oates' "On Writing Characters." This is an excerpt from a longer talk and there is a link at the end of the video to where you can watch the entire speech.

Watch the video about characters in writing, and then select one of the paintings below that - all by Serena Barton, from her "Saints, Artists, and Other Curious Folk" collection - to create a story around character. If you choose one of the paintings with several characters, you can either choose one person's perspective or write a story about all of them.

paintings by Serena Barton:

• Teatro dei Assassini
• Waiting for the "All-Clear"
• Flora and her Brothers