A Rainy December Day...

Redundant? It's not a typo. It really is December and it is, in fact, raining. The river is the highest that I have seen it. The flip camera got a workout as I walked around the perimeter of the property. The entire floodplain is submerged and the water is flowing like it does in the riverbed itself. I shudder to think what-all debris will be dropped as it recedes. It's actually frightening to walk near the flood level. It's deep. It's dark. It's cold. Plus it's moving at an amazing speed. Huge trunks of fallen trees are moving by effortlessly. Ice chunks seem to glance up at me menacingly as they move on by. The whole thing is awe-inspiring, but really really scary.

Anyway...writing...
I was accepted by the Institute of Children's Literature for their children's and young adult's program of learning. I am totally pumped. (Did I just "date" myself?). I will have my own personal tutor, who is a published author herself as well as having been trained by the Institute. I will be starting in January. It is affordable and certainly feels like the prospects for me are full of promise. It has been a long time since I have felt this heartened.

I am entering some of my poetry into four different contests. One deadline is this week. I hate myself for having left it until the last minute. That is a no-no, but "it's too late to turn back now." There are two that are due at the end of the month and the final one is in February. Hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Every time that I do this, I think to myself, "Hey, you probably won't win." Now, is that self-sabotaging or what! I know all about "the power of positive thinking" and "manifesting," but it's difficult to stop those wheels after this many years. I have to get stuff out there that I think is pretty good. Even if I am rejected, it means that I am trying. It means honing the craft for an ever changing market while trying to be true to ones self. It's a compromise, at best.

So, that's that about that.

Until next post...

April PAD Challenge

I have neglected my blog. It became more of a diary/journal than a writing journal. I am now going to use it to write. Robert Brewer of Writers Digest fame runs a poetry "marathon" two times a year; November and April. He had dubbed it the PAD Challenge, for a Poem A Day. He gives us a theme and a poem ("Here's my attempt") each day of the month. This will be my third year doing the April challenge. This is also his first "deal" with those of us who participate to write out poems on our blogs rather than his website, where they become possible "published" work and no longer viable to use as publishable...tricky stuff.

This is my entry to explain what I will be doing for awhile. After this entry, I will write a poem a day here on my blogsite.

October, November, December...Oh My!

Zip! Zoom! Bang! Crash! Sob! Sigh! I guess a bit of onomatopoeia pretty much covers my writing life in the past few months. I have gotten some done. Actually, I did a lot of poetry. Poet Robert Brewer runs a poetry marathon twice a year (November and April) and I make every effort to participate. This past month's effort was mostly done on paper. I did post about ten poems on the website, which is a failure in terms of my wishes to do it up. However, I did write to all but two or three of the prompts and have some handwritten still and some typed and saved in word. I did pull several out to put into book form and sent it to him, hopefully following his specs to the tee. So that is an accomplishment for me, when I think of what this past two or three months has had in store for me/us.

My six-year old granddaughter, Nadia, has been making efforts to adjust to a new set of everything. Her dad is in Iraq and Nadia and her mom moved in with my husband and me. Along with them came a plethora of dogs and a cat. My daughter, Cindy, is enrolled in UMA, trying to finish up a degree. There was also a litter of five AKC Registered Maltese pups born to her female and they have all been placed. What an ordeal! In the meantime, she was on her way home on Black Friday, in the rain, having delivered a pup to a client, when a car zoomed across the middle of the road going 55+ MPH and hit her almost head on. Both cars were totalled. Cindy was taken to the hospital and thank God, is now home and ok-ish. Her body took one hell of a beating, but all-in-all, she is alive and well and that's really all that matters. The driver of the other car was taken home by her husband who was driving behind her in another vehicle. That's a long story in itself. However, trying to deal with insurance, rental, and getting another car has consumed all of us.

Now it is nearly Christmas. I am so NOT ready and it's next week. I don't want to talk about it!

In the meantime, I am going to try and get back in the fiction and non-fiction writing groove after the holiday passes us by. I am pretty happy with my poetry efforts. I want to enter a non-fiction contest and I am needing to clear off the dust from two manuscripts...one a chapter book for reluctant readers, which I want to make into a series and the other my so very dusty YA SCI-FI MS.

Over and out...

Rainy May Day...

Guess what? Nobody reads my blog! I have it attached to the end of my primary email acct, yet nobody bothers to come here to check it out. Owie! I feel INVISIBLE!

Speaking of invisible, I am now at the seventh day of the NaPiBoWriWee and did not succeed, in terms of cranking out seven rough drafts of picture books. HOWEVER, AND this is a biggy for me...I DID come to the finish line with ONE that I really like. I do have six others that I am going to go back to. I have also learned something about myself. I cannot start and stop and then come back and continue where I left off. If I start and finish in one sitting, then I can do a really rough first copy. If I leave off (and I always do, with the exception of much of my poetry) and then come back, I have to read the beginning to get back in the groove of where I was headed when I stopped. I AM NOT able to just whip through and continue. I find my areas that can be tightened up and/or changed altogether and get mired in the re-write before I get to that place to continue. Thus, time passes and my forward momentum is lost. Heavy Sigh, here. So, in terms of the challenge I failed. In terms of getting a picture book almost done, I succeeded. I would not have done even one without the challenge. So, thank you, Paula Woo. You have inspired me! www.paulawoo.com

Day 7 is not over yet. I am going to go and finish that PB. Its title is "How Do You Hide A Dragon?" I am having so much fun with it! Now, where is my notebook..............

yet another post...

I really should dedicate a post to Barak Obama and will at some point, but he is basically "covered," don't you think? I don't think that I could add any new insights. I will say that I am really relieved that he is at the helm now. The entire planet is blanketed with optimism and that is a good thing!

Since I last wrote, I have gotten caught up in several new ventures...adventures! The one downer, and I will get that right out of the way here, is that I got a form letter from an ed pub company with no name (dear author) and no signature...it was basically "we got your 'stuff' and don't need it now and if you wrote a resume it's on file..." it blew me out of the water bc it was in response to my packet...my baby...my blood, sweat and tears! I have been visiting my writer friends at guppy pond and although they were empathic, they all said that this is basically what you get from many of them. Now, I can take rejection (where IS that noose, anyway?) but I can't take lack of respect. I put a professional effort into my work and consider myself a writer...make that Writer. Now, these companies, even if they are overburdened with all sorts of things, can take a few extra minutes and include a name! AND, "if you included a resume..." Holy Cow! Yes! Among other things! Nicely, carefully crafted things. I am proud of my work things! So, anyway, that was the only one that I have heard from.

Now, on to more uplifting thoughts. I sent in a book of poems to Robert Brewer recently. It was the end result of his November PAD (poem a day) Challenge. I felt good about getting something finished. My focus was the elderly and I entitled the book "The Forgotten Ones." So, one down and a ba-zillion left. I have been working on a YA Sci-Fi MS but have gotten stuck. I LOVE my idea and my MC is a sweetie and is in deep "stuff" right now and I have left her there far too long! Poor thing! But I have hit a wall. I will be calling on all available muses soon to get me out of the ditch. I have a PB MS that is in limbo. I finished it a year ago and it's kind of waiting to get born. It's looking for the right mom at the moment. I also have several ideas floating around that I need to put on paper.

I have been complaining about too many websites and not enough time, right? Well, I have found four or five MORE and they just keep coming out of the woodwork! Each of them, dealt with correctly, take a lot of time. Add them all together and the day is basically shot! Now, I need to do something about it, but don't know what, yet. I really do need to put more time into my writing. Never mind the vacuum cleaner! Let the Swiffer wet mop dry up!! Allow the laundry to take over the downstairs!!! Let the litter pans fill to the brim!!!! The dishes can be thrown away and I'll get new ones...never mind washing them!!!!! And exercise? HA!!!!!! If I write as much as I need to, my fingers will be skinny and rest of me...well...never mind. If I didn't need to sleep, I might get caught up...eventually.

So, January is near its end and the days are getting longer...well, you know what I mean...more daylight. That's always a good thing. I love the light!