The L Magazine provides some timely suggestions for spring and summer reading lists with the article “Read Me: 50 Books You’ll Want to Read This Spring and Summer.”
http://www.thelmagazine.com/2015/04/read-50-books-youll-want-read-spring-summer/
Yet another disjointed idea…
…for a poem or story or rant or whatever the hell it will end up becoming.
Please stop – these ideas are arriving too fast for me to handle, especially keeping my insomnia and attention deficit in mind. Not to mention the overtime I’ve been working. I'm becoming way too disorganized with these scraps of paper, post-it notes, pieces of napkins, whatever I can jot a phrase down on at the time.
The Beauty of Acceptance.
in Acceptances
After many, many rejection notices, I finally hit paydirt in the past few weeks.
My prose poem “No Black People Were Harmed in the Making of this Poem” will appear an upcoming edition of Kansas City Voices, a publication of Whispering Prairie Press. This will be my second time appearing in this journal.
My poem “Trial Separation” will appear in Volume 18 of Steam Ticket, a nationally distributed journal from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
I will also have several poems appearing in an upcoming edition of the Vermillion Literary Project, a student produced journal from the University of South Dakota.
And my poem “On the Occasion of My Untimely Demise” will appear in The Talking Stick, a Minnesota literary journal published by the Jackpine Writers' Bloc. It is produced entirely by Minnesota writers for Minnesota writers since 1995. There will be more news about that poem in a future post.
Huge thanks to the editors of these publications for a chance to contribute. Now it looks like I need to get back to writing before I run out of work to submit! Be good.
Flame: Shame on the USPS
Awhile back I was praising the US Postal Service on this blog for commemorating the late Maya Angelou with a “forever” stamp. Ms. Angelou was a huge influence on my early writing and I truly admired what I know of her personal history.
But the USPS screwed the pooch on this one, in case you haven’t heard. The task was straightforward: combine a picture of Ms. Angelou with one of her more memorable verses. And this is Maya Angelou we are talking about here, a woman who had hundreds of quotables during her lifetime. She was literally a walking quotable. Instead, they coupled her image with text written by Joan Walsh Anglund, a well-known children’s book author.
Takeaway: If you are going to do a tribute for someone, do all you can to make sure that you do it right. That is all.
Secondhand Inspiration: Terrance Hayes
March 29th’s New York Times Magazine included an awesome profile of poet Terrance Hayes. A must read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/magazine/galaxies-inside-his-head-poet-terrance-hayes.html?_r=1
Spark: Writer Insights on Self-Motivation
Sarah Seltzer’s article on Flavorwire called “20 Great Writers on Motivating Yourself To Write, No Matter What” can provide some insight on how other creative types push themselves to create when procrastination and self-doubt looms.
http://flavorwire.com/512781/20-great-writers-on-motivating-yourself-to-write-no-matter-what
Three Pieces in A Quiet Courage & Stepping Outside of My Skin.
in Acceptances
I’m excited to announce that I have three new microfiction pieces featured in A Quiet Courage, an online literary journal that publishes compelling, poignant, memorable, and well-written microfiction and poetry in 100 words or less.
Deadbeat: https://aquietcourage.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/deadbeat/
Role Model: https://aquietcourage.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/role-model/
Appearances: https://aquietcourage.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/appearances/
Thanks to the editors who deemed my work worthy – much appreciated.
What these pieces have in common: focused, emotional description told in first or second person using the voices of characters that are absolutely nothing like me. This is what I love about writing – it gives you a chance to walk in someone else’s shoes (pardon the cliché). And I believe you have to completely sell out to that concept of what a character is all about in order to make a story seem genuine. I think I was all in with these three pieces – and that is something I need to do more often in my writing in order to make it resonate.
Memoir
My story is the autobiography of a busted jukebox, with its soundtrack of contemplation and reluctant silence and an unfulfilled desire to croon ballads it doesn’t have the voice to sing. I sit unused in backrooms where jokers are still wild, philosophers sit atop barstools, and bad advice flows sweeter than any liquor poured in excess.
More on National Poetry Month…
Piggybacking on my previous post with resources and prompts… C.A. LaRue is doing writers a huge favor by tracking the prompts being shared all over the Internet for National Poetry Month.
Secondhand Inspiration: April = National Poetry Month
April is almost here. Which means it's time for National Poetry Month. Below are several sites/resources for those always-helpful prompts to write poetry. Since I’ve been creatively constipated lately, I'm looking forward to using these offerings to help kick-start my poetry practice in April.
2015 Poetic Asides PAD (Poem-A-Day) Challenge
http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/2015-april-pad-challenge-guidelines
Poetry Super Highway Prompt-A-Day for National Poetry Month
http://poetrysuperhighway.com/psh/a-poetry-writing-prompt-a-day/
NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month)
Spark: Sound Advice for Author Websites
This brilliant and concise article by Jane Friedman provides authors, whether they have a book published or not, with wonderful guidelines for putting together an author website.
Some of the advice she has written here I already have put into practice, but I see many other suggestions that I need to consider for the future. As Ms. Friedman states, “Your website is never finished.”
Check out the link below if you are considering building a website from scratch or improving the web presence you currently have.
http://janefriedman.com/2015/03/26/author-website-components/
All work, no play.
Seriously. Overtime and then some. But it's a temporary situation (hopefully) and it is funding my future endeavors, in writing and other things.
I would love to talk more about writing and such but….it's time to go back there (again). Be good.
Guidelines are guidelines-not suggestions.
The well-written piece by C. Hope Clark linked below talks about the pitfalls of writers not following submission guidelines or familiarizing themselves with a publication before sending their work in. When you think about it, doing these two things can reduce wasted energy by both writers and editors.
http://www.fundsforwriters.com/follow-the-guidelines-is-not-a-cliche/
Spark: Kurt Vonnegut Writing Tips
In his book Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, Vonnegut listed eight rules for writing a short story:
- Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
- Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
- Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
- Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
- Start as close to the end as possible.
- Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
- Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
- Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
Advice for New Authors who are Giving a Reading
“What makes a successful reading: what one author learned while preparing for his debut” – here’s some insightful advice for struggling authors from Josh Cook, who has the perspective of being both a bookstore employee and a debut author.
The (Bleak) Future of University Quarterlies.
This is something of interest for writers of all genres who are looking for venues for publication. Check out this informative essay on the future of university based quarterly lit mags on the Inside Higher Ed site. Warning - this is not the most uplifting take on this subject.
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2015/02/16/essay-future-university-based-literary-quarterlies
What I’ve Been Doing…
Over the last several weeks, after a short self-pitying slump about inspiration/ambition and all the other things writers find to complain about, I've hit a nice groove. As usual, I’m swinging between poetry and fiction, editing-wise and writing-wise.
These days I’m editing The Alter Ego Project chapbook (again) for submission to some contests, and also tinkering with a couple of stories. Once those are done I’ll turn to working on what I’ve tentatively dubbed The Field Guide project, a prose poem/narrative-in-verse of sorts. To say more than that now would jinx it.
Flame: Writing & Working Out
For me writing is a lot like exercise. If it hurts, that means it's working, and in the end it always produces positive results.
This analogy is bolstered by the fact that when I’m successfully sticking to my workout regimen, I concurrently do a better job of consistently writing as well. It’s as if the discipline and dedication required for fitness unconsciously bleeds into the creative realm of my life. Or maybe staying in good physical shape also helps my mind become fit, and provides me with focus when I sit down to write.
Does anyone else think there’s a correlation between personal fitness and creative endeavors?
Deserved.
“The U.S. Postal Service will honor Maya Angelou — the beloved author, poet, actress and champion of equality — with a Forever Stamp.”
Secondhand Inspiration: Kevin Young’s Essay on Langston Hughes
Occasioned by February being Black History Month, but worth reading at any time: Kevin Young on Langston Hughes’s The Weary Blues.
Langston Hughes became one of my favorite poets when I first got serious about writing. After reading Kevin Young’s splendid essay about the context in which The Weary Blues was published (as well as background on the jazz aesthetic and blues form), I want to revisit some of Hughes work, both for muse and pleasure. Add that to my reading list.