Monday, May 4, 2009

Oh My...It's May!

My "Word!" March whipped by me and then April evaporated. Now it's May. I love May. The buds on the trees and bushes are ready to burst open. It will very quickly go from the promise of spring to full blown spring...bugs and all! Yes, giant mosquitoes have landed on my arms already and I have my first blackfly bite. That part of spring most certainly "sucks," but I live in the state of Maine and those pesky insects come along as part of the experience.

I have to pat myself on the back as having completed Robert Lee Brewer's PAD (Poem A Day) Challenge for the month of April. I wrote thirty poems and submitted them. Robert gave us (approx 1500 poets participated!) a prompt each day which gave us a focus and a common start and finish line. I reacted to many of the prompts with "whatever will I do with this one?!" and with others, my mind and pen flew. I am very happy with some of my poems. Robert and his wife, Tammy will be choosing a small number of their favs to send along to some other poets to help him decide which ones will go in an ebook. I'm not holding my breath. It's all very subjective. This is my third PAD Challenge and each time I have done all thirty. It's great for my muses and it gives me a feeling of having accomplished some serious writing. I am happy with that and that's a good thing. Some of the poems that others wrote are truly amazing and it makes me realize how many of us love to write.

Now I am in Day 4 of another challenge. Children's writer, Paula Yoo offered a challenge that she calls "NaPiBoWriWee," which stands for National Picture Book Writing Week. SOOO, I am now buried in pages of picture book beginnings. I have one nearly done and will need to do some furious writing to get caught up. Now, understand this...a good, quality children's book is VERY DIFFICULT to complete. Trust me on that one. I will make every effort to cross that finish line with seven very ROUGH DRAFTS! My ideas are jotted down and I just need to allow the mind and imagination to shift from poetry to prose. Yes, I can do poetry for kids' books, but it is my understanding that many editors/publishers are shying away from that form at the present time. I try to keep my fingers on the pulse of what's shakin' out there, and get conflicting feedback at times, but the rhyming thing seems to keep bubbling up to the surface. It will pass and I will be ready! In the meantime, I need to stop writing here and start writing there!

No comments: