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Happy February! Love is in the air!

It’s crunch time at my day job, which leaves me little headspace for anything else.

A beautiful, windy storm blew in with violently shaking trees and spats of pouring rain. I love sitting in my house listening to a storm — though I am very grateful it didn’t knock out the power in my area.

What I’m Reading

Just started in Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg. I loved the movie and the book is proving to be quite good as well.

I’ve finished  Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon, which is fantastic and has me thinking lots of thoughts that I’ll pool together later this week.

What I’m Writing

I’ve made it halfway through the second chapter/poem of the novel in verse. The chapter was proving more elusive than I expected, but it’s falling into shape now. A sample from the chapter:

the Queen stitched
with numb but steady fingers
the image of her mother’s gardens,
trees jeweled with tangerines and persimmon,
walls cloaked with jasmine and wisteria,
her mother poised like a fae
about to pluck a crimson rose
from its branch, embroidering the mantle
she would gift to her child

Several other poems drafts have also begun to take shape, one of which I’m planning to read at an open mic this week.

Submitted: Four poems were sent off to Poetry Magazine. Woo!

Goal(s) for this week: Finish chapter two. Put another submission packed together.

What’s Inspiring Me Right Now

Community. I love seeing my fellow poets and artists and musicians rock the mic or post some amazing work online. I love seeing their efforts recognized. It’s inspiring and joyful. It’s also wonderful when these fabulous artists share feedback on my work, guiding me in the right direction. The people at Cito.FAME.us are wonderful, as are my lovely friends in my Writing Gang who I met with on Skype last week. I love speaking about words. I love living words.

Where I’ll Be

I will definitely be attending the Cito.FAME.Us Valentine’s Day Party, which will also have a limited amount of open mic readings.

Linky Goodness

Therese Walsh’s post, “Monotasking: The Forgotten Skill You (and I) Need to Re-Claim, ASAP,” fits in nicely with this year’s (for me) theme of minimalism and focus:

“I’d heard that multitasking is a fallacy — that when we think we’re doing two things at once, we’re usually only doing one and not as well as we might believe.”

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Forward motion is forward motion

I spent Saturday night in San Francisco with my friend An Xiao Mina, who happens to write a tech blog about meme culture and many other interesting things. We spent the afternoon eating sushi, getting lost in the city, and watching a fiction reading in a little cafe.

Sunday was primarily consumed with my minimalism efforts, as I trolled through stacks of old magazines deciding what was worthy to stay. It was a long, boring process, but it feels good to have most of that out of my house.

What I’m reading

I’m still working on Ancient, Ancient, by Kiini Ibura Salaam, and  Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon.

Both I have been slowly enjoying and both I’ll be finishing this week.

What I’m Writing

I’ve worked on poetry in some form or another everyday this week, but did not finish anything.

I’m okay with that. Forward motion is forward motion.

Goal(s) for this week: Type up one to two novel poems. Finish and send out a submission of four poems to Poetry Magazine.

What’s Inspiring Me Right Now

The crisp cold days, full of blue skies and a plethora of imaginatively shaped clouds.

Opportunity of the Week

The Emerald Tablet is looking for original work that in some way reflects an influence of your choice as part of an ongoing reading series (so you would need to be able to perform at an upcoming event. The submission requires that poets and writers include an original fragment of fiction or poem that shows how their own works were influenced. I rather like how poems can be in conversation with one another, so this appeals to me.

Linky Goodness

Dissolving barriers between the real world, the digital world, and the creative world, a look at the 365 Project as a Creative Process, by Marisa Goudy.

“Certainly, a year of photos taught me to see my life from countless new angles. Early in 2014, my newborn and I were trapped inside by the polar vortex, tested by a four-year-old who was stuck in the Frozen vortex. With one creative outlet to depend upon every day – my 365 project – I kept the walls from closing in on me. Later in the year, as I rediscovered my public self, I was able to look at my world with new wonder and discernment, knowing I had to capture at least one moment of each day.”

I tend to be terribly inconsistent with daily goals, but I love the idea of them.

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Need to turn off the procrastination station

I planned to see Selma over the weekend in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but a lot happened this weekend and it didn’t work out. I will see it this week, however.

Among the many things that happened, I took a couple of hours to sit down with a friend’s daughter, who just graduated from college and is considering what she wants to do with writing or editing. It was interesting to look at her situation and see how it related to my situation before I finally landed my day job. Trying to get a job fresh out of college and feeling like you’re caught in a experience needed catch-22 was so familiar to me.

Perseverance and a willingness to explore unexpected avenues of writing and editing employment can open up amazing opportunities. I never expected to be working at a technical trade magazine, but it’s been a fantastic experience so far.

What I’m reading

I’ve just started reading Ancient, Ancient, a collection of beautifully written, sensual tales by Kiini Ibura Salaam.

I’m still working through Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon. It’s full of fact, which my overloaded brain will only accept in small increments at the moment. It’s fascinating though and disheartening to know that human being allows such horrible things to continue to be done to fellow human beings after the Civil War.

What I’m Writing

Progress was slow this week, which is to say, I can’t quite remember what I accomplished — which is to say, probably not much at all. Not where I want to be.

I partially blame Letterboxd for the bulk of my procrastination. It’s a social website for tracking movies watched, posting and reading reviews, and (my favorite part) creating lists of favorite movies and other such goodness. It’s bright and shiny distraction, so I’ve been having a bit of difficulty trying to shake it. (My LB profile is here, for anyone who wishes to procrastinate with me.)

Part of the distraction has been that thinking about movies has me thinking about writing movies. Ideas, oh so many ideas.

However, as I mentioned at the beginning of the year, spiraling off into a new BIG project would be just another distraction. It’s important for me to refocus this week on the BIG project I’ve already started.

Goal(s) for this week: Type up one to two novel poems. Send out a submission of four poems to Poetry Magazine.

What’s Inspiring Me Right Now

Cleaning out and decluttering my room. I’m going (sort of) systematically, section by section through all of my things to see what I can release. I’ve already filled three paper bags full of clothes and shoes I know I’ll never wear and I’m working toward an ultimate sense of open space.

The open space makes me fell more mentally clear and relaxed, which helps me have better head space for writing.

Opportunity of the Week

Submissions are open for Dreams from the Witch House, an anthology of Lovecraftian fiction written by women. Payment for accepted stories will be 5 cents per word up to 5k words, then 3 cents per word over 5k up to 10K words. Deadline is January 31.

Linky Goodness

Upworthy currator, Rajiv Narayan, posted “This Doesn’t Sound Like The MLK I Learned About In School,” which looks at and quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1967 “The Other America” speech.

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Words Inspiring Words

What I’m reading

Finished Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente, which was wonderful and I am hoping to have a review for tomorrow.

I’ve started Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon. This will prove to be a slow read, but is so relevant right now.

What I’m Writing

Novel in poems progresses. I’ve typed out the first poem and have it “finished”. It came out entirely different than I first imagined it would, as my writing sometimes does. Usually this surprise is for the best, and I feel like this is the case here.

Many more notes and starts of poems were handwritten out.

Goal(s) for this week: Type up two more novel poems. If this is accomplished send out a submission of existing work.

What’s Inspiring Me Right Now

The act of writing itself, words inspiring words. It feels good.

Opportunity of the Week

WEIRD SISTER is a new literary, feminist, and pop culture blog that my friend Marisa Crawford is editing along with Becca Klaver. The site is looking for “feminist literary and cultural commentary that’s critical, creative, incisive, and playful, sometimes all at once.”

Linky Goodness

In “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This,” Mandy Len Catron describes an experiment in which psychologist Arthur Aron succeeded in making two strangers fall in love in his laboratory. She then describes going on a date and going through the same list of questions used by Aron, with fascinating results.

How have you been this week?

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November Recap, or how did I manage that?

It’s hard to believe that November is already over, even though it vanished in a flash of activity, including a week long trip to the U.K. for work with a couple of days to tour London, a full day of helping my sister move into a new apartment, several events leading up to a lovely wedding for a good friend, and two Thanksgiving dinners combined with a variety of other family on-goings.

In addition to this, I participated in two November challenges — National Blog Posting Month and Nanowrimo.

The goal for National Blog Posting Month was to write a blog post a day during November. I managed to pull off a total of 21 posts over the course of the month. My personal favorites:

  • Autumn, which incorporates poetry and creative nonfiction
  • Bluebeard, a flash fiction piece that may or may not lead to more stories or a longer work

I fell short of Nanowrimo’s goal of 50,0000 words, as well, managing around 14,500 words, which is still a hefty chunk for a novel in poems. I’ll post an excerpt and thoughts on my process later.

While I did not reach my set goals for either challenge, the point was to get me writing and, in that, I feel successful. Words have been put on the page and progress made.

The next step is to maintain that progress. So, while my December is likely to be as busy with events as November, I’m planning to write at least three blog posts a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday posting) and use what time I can in order to finish draft zero of the novel in poems. That will provide me with plenty of work, I’m sure.

Did you participate in any November challenges? How did they go for you?