My weekend whispered away, it seems. The days melting into each other with the TV chattering in the background — a large part of that chatter involving a full day marathon of all the Star Wars movies at my sister’s house.
And yet, somehow my laundry is done and my bed is made and my life doesn’t seem to have dissolved into chaos, so I guess I’ve been productive, too.
What I’m Reading
I have a great love for cowgirl stories (even though I don’t read them often), so Under the Painted Sky by Stacey Lee is perfect for me. I’m loving this so far, with two strong girls (one of Chinese decent accused of murder and one a runaway slave) running out into the empty wild west, dressed as boys.
Still working on Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. It’s slow reading, but fun. Sometimes I guffaw outloud at the antics of these characters.
What I’m Writing
Putting together a collection is a strange process, something I don’t have much experience with and, in the past, it has not felt natural to group my poetry together. Since this present collection is made up primarily of letter-poems, they all at least fit around a single concept. Over the past week, I’ve read through all of the poems, made selections of those to include and performed edits (substantial in some cases) to each, as well as spreading them out across my living room floor to decide on an order.
I’m feeling good about where I’m at with chapbook — better than any previous time I’ve tried to put a collection together. At the moment, I’m trying to just let things sit for a bit in order to be sure of a few final edits to a couple of the poems, then I think I’ll be ready to send it out. (Eeeeee!)
Goal(s) for this week: Submit chapbook. Gather together poem drafts I’ve written from internet and the universe and organize them in my computer.
What’s Inspiring Me Right Now
Reading poetry this month, because beautiful words get me thinking about words and then wanting to write them, too.
Last week was a bit rough. I got sick with a sore throat and a fever, which floored me for most of the week. I had to take time off work and from functioning in general in order to recover, so I wasn’t very productive.
I started to feel better by the time the weekend rolled around, however, so at least I was able to hang out with the family, play with my niece and nephew, and decorate easter eggs with them. It was a good, fun, relaxing weekend, which was exactly what I needed to help get me back to normal.
What I’m Reading
I’ve started reading Moon Over Manifest, by Clare Vanderpool, which is about a young girl who has been left in the care of a family friend during the 1930s depression.
Still working on Blue by George Elliott Clarke and Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
What I’m Writing
I meant to make some edits to my chapbook submission, reworking and cleaning up a few poems, but that didn’t happen. I needed rest more than I needed words last week.
Goal(s) for this week: Finish and submit chapbook. Or, at least finish editing the poems for said chapbook.
What’s Inspiring Me Right Now
Good health. It’s amazing how important it is to just be able to function well.
Meant to post this on Monday, but I got sick this week, which knocked me flat for several days. Since I’m starting to feel better, I’m posting it now.
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Last Thursday night I attended the fantastic Cito.FAME.Us Women’s History Month open mic, which featured the amazing folk duo Q&A and yours truly. I’ve been a fan of Q&A ever since I first heard them and so it was a great honor to have been paired with them for my first feature performance. I made a video of one of their new songs and hopefully I’ll be able to upload and share it soon.
Q&A includes Quynh and Alice
I also attended the Her Story to Call Her Own open mic, which was a wonderful grounding experience, full of many beautiful women singing or speaking many beautiful words.
What I’m Reading
I just finished Midwinterblood, by Marcus Sedgwick, which was beautiful and not at all what I expected.
Blue by George Elliott Clarke, which is a powerful collection of poetry.
Still enjoying my slow read of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
What I’m Writing
I made it halfway through a chapbook submission, which I’m starting to feel fairly solid about. I’ve got some more work to do on it, some cleaning up of some of the poems and than I should be able to send it out.
Goal(s) for this week: Finish and submit chapbook.
What’s Inspiring Me Right Now
Amazing women and artists who live in this South Bay community and who open up their voices to share.
My sister and I rocked the She is Beautiful 10K, both of us running the entire course for the first time.
I ran the She is Beautiful 5K last year, which was an amazing and moving experience. I just loved being surrounded by so many different women, of all shapes and sizes and abilities and ages — and all beautiful.
This year I decided to up my game and challenged myself by signing up for the 10K. Life has been hectic this month, so I haven’t been properly training over these last few weeks as I originally intended. I didn’t think I’d be able to run the entire event, but was joyful to just be there.
Mile One: The morning was misty, but not overly cold. My sister and I danced through the starting line and started into a stable, steady pace as we weaved through the crowds of walkers.
Mile Two: We smiled at our fellow runners. I felt strong, moving with this massive wave of women through the streets of Santa Cruz. My sister moves out ahead and I urge her on to run at her own faster pace.
Mile Three: The crowds thin out as the 5K runners and walkers head back to the finish line, leaving the rest of us to continue the journey. I wipe sweat and mist from my forehead and smile.
Mile Four: The tiredness started to set in and my pace slowed. But I pumped my arms and cheered as I past the mile four marker. I made it that far; might as well keep going.
Mile Five: As I rounded a corner and started into the only downhill section of the run, my legs got wibbly wobbly and my knees started to ache sharply. It’s important to respect signals from your body, so I slowed down to a walk. As soon as the ground flattened out again, I pushed back into a run and chugged up a long uphill stretch before the final mile.
Mile Six: Slow, so slow. Exhaustion sat my chest, urging me to stop. My legs felt numb. My hips ached. I churned my body forward at a tortoise-paced jog, watching the grey rolling ocean and the horizon beyond. I put one foot after another. One foot. Another.
Finish Line: I wore a mad smiled and shifted into a higher gear, finishing the race with every ounce of run I had left, with my sister cheering and joy in every fiber of my aching body. My sister and I were so proud of each other, both having run a 10K in its entirety for the first time.
What I’m Reading
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, which is intriguing and thrilling. A group of colonists living on another planet (I think) were infected with a disease that killed all the women and has made it so everyone can hear everyone’s thoughts in a constant stream of Noise. I’m finding it to be a page turner.
I’ve also started a slow read of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. The story is quite funny at some points with a surprising amount of toilet humor. Since a lot of the humor is based on the book’s satire of courtly romances featuring errant knights and damsels and other such things, it helps that I’ve done some reading of the classic Arthurian tales, which provides good context.
What I’m Writing
Half of my week was taken up with traveling to Orlando for a work conference, so I didn’t get around to actually putting words on the page.
However, I spent several hours this weekend beginning the process of organizing my writing life. The system I developed should work — mostly. Paper drafts of all my poetry is problematic, since it would be ridiculous to have an individual file for each poem, so I’m still trying to work that out (and likely it will be best to keep poetry primarily on my laptop rather than in print). Works great for fiction, scripts, and nonfiction, though. I’m planning to post about the system sometime this week.
Goal(s) for this week: Finish organization. Edit and prep poetry for reading on Thursday. Prep poetry chapbook for submission.
What’s Inspiring Me Right Now
Accomplishing my goal of running six miles on Sunday was amazing and has me feeling that I can accomplish all sorts of things at the moment. I’m hoping that feeling will linger.
Where I’ll Be
March 26: I’ll be a featured performer at Cito.FAME.us at Iguanas in San Jose. The open mic begins at 9 pm and I’ll be opening, so come early, if you want to see me perform.
Linky Goodness
21 Ways to Break Out of a Slump provides a list of simple measures to switch things up, like heading out to the farmers market or do a cell phone detox. I particularly liked its link to a 30 Day Spring Cleaning Challenge, which would be a challenge indeed, but represents an awesome approach to something I’ve been meaning to do.
The 2014 Best of the Net Anthology has been released for those looking for some good fiction, poetry, and nonfiction reading.
After some additional challenges with installation, the printer saga is at an end not fixed after all. *sigh*
I’m also still tired after FOGconm, in a good way.
What I’m Reading
Ancillary Justice by Ann Lecky, which is due back at the library today. I’m only a few chapters in, though, so fines be damned. The storyline and worldbuilding are fascinating and I love the use of “she” as the primary pronoun for everyone.
What I’m Writing
Nada last week, because of prepping for FOGcon and other life things to do, like honoring the day of birth of the most, wonderful, beautiful, and wise lady who brought me into this world. I love her, I do.
Goal(s) for this week: Write a chapter of the novel in poems. Submit something.
What’s Inspiring Me Right Now
I’m not feeling very inspired at the moment, but I will be once I get my room smooshed back into a state of order, allowing me to breathe again.
Where I’ll Be
March 26: I’ll be a featured performer at Cito.FAME.us. I’ll share the link, when I have more info.
I’m planning to also attend this Thursday’s Cito.FAME.us open mic, which is also the two and a half year anniversary of the event.
