Creativity Comes in Many Forms

 After 2 1/2 years of never missing a Friday Night Comics, I was hit with a lot of coordinating and assignments for the marvelous Mavens of Mythmaking assignments and a few other things which came up. I mean, the Mythmaking assignments were not a surprise - I knew when I was signing up for the year-long certificate program that there would be intense times. 

So - life happened. I had to skip one Friday Night Comics, then again a couple of weeks later. Then it was several in a row and then. Where had they gone? 

Right where I left them: on Friday nights, same time, same sponsor. Oh, look, the haiku comics instructor was up last week. And, even better, I didn't have anything scheduled, no theatrical crises or dire needs, so I signed up.

It was awesome. David Lasky is an excellent graphic novelist and comics instructor and more. And his writing prompt which led into a comic without pictures was inspiring. Sure - there are a few things I'd need to clean up and make a little better (stronger) if I were to redo this "Float Tank" - which was inspired by the prompt of 'write about your first or an early experience in total darkness." Float tanks weren't my first, but they were my strongest memory last Friday.

I like this one!

And, look, it led me back to here. 

I'm still wondering what I want this to be. What I want it to look like. How I will use this website-blog etcetera. 

For now, another post. Three months after the last one when I thought I would try once a month, at least. 

I'm working on a plan.

I'm in final stages of edits for a manuscript ("final" = I hope!).

I may have some more things to write about soon, but that depends on a couple of factors. Right now, I want to keep this light and not get into those other things. *smile*

Current Projects

My book, "Illusions of Time: Haiku Comics" was published in August. It is available to purchase it on the BOOKS by Dot tab (or click the link *wink). Also, if you don't already have a copy of my previous chapbook, "Pickle Blanket Chronicles - A Flash Mixtape," you can purchase that. Purchase both books together for a discounted price!

I am also working on final* edits for the hybrid memoir. No publication date, but I will post it here when available. [*"final" means, final for this round. After this edit, I will be sending it to an outside editor to put their eyes and experience on and see what I get back.]

The printed manuscript has its very own soft-yet-sturdy pebbled sangria-colored leather carry-bag, which is also plenty big to carry pens, sticky notes, a notepad and other editing needs. I need the printed manuscript because I am currently doing what Ariel Gore calls "sonic edits" - which means that I read the entire book aloud, making notes as I go. I find reading my writing aloud to myself tedious and want to skip it. Simultaneously, I remember that every time I've read a piece of my writing aloud - whether in preparation for a reading/spoken word event, or in preparing a story for submission - it has been immensely helpful. There are tips and tricks to optimize the experience - and .every.time. that I read my work aloud, it gets better. I know this. So I grit and grin as I take it one page at a time, remembering that the book will be better because of it.

I am continuing to work on developing my comic making skills. I still attend the Friday Night Comics from SAW (Sequential Artists Workshop) when I can, and I am currently in another online Haiku Comics workshop with David Lasky from Seattle, hosted by Pull/Pull in Seattle. David's teaching style is perfect, in my opinion. He is an experienced artist and author, he gives us history and examples of haiku and comics, there are drawing demonstrations. He give us time to create, as well. This late summer comic haiku class, he added information and exposure about using watercolor in comics. He is competent and calm and I appreciate his classes, his art, his teaching very much. (He will be doing another Haiku Comics in the fall.)

I will be doing "The Wayward Writer One-Year Maven of Mythmaking Certificate Program" with Ariel Gore in 2023. This is a new offering in The Literary Kitchen and it looked like exactly what I have been yearning for, for several months. So I signed up. A full year program! Registration is now full, though there is currently a wait list. A month or so ago, I also signed up for "Gore’s Grotto: A New Way to Structure Memoir & Fiction," a one-day workshop via Zoom near the end of October. This end of October workshop is perfect timing, because ...

... I will being doing NaNoWriMo again - my 15th consecutive year! But, for the first time since 2019, I will be taking my annual NaNo writing retreat at the coast. The cozy cabin I love in Oceanside was available for the dates I wanted. It is a nice, quinessential Oregon coast cabin, with a full kitchen, two bedrooms, a living room, a can't-be-beat view and front row seats for miles of weather and ocean activity. And it is mine (and my writer/friend/covid-pod-mate's) for six days of writing in November.

I'm missing our boy today. He was an excellent cat and we loved him. 

Cats get old and get cat diseases and then it's time to let them be at peace, 

even though the decision is not easy.