In redeeming even a small part of the Earth, we redeem ourselves.
Jesus tossed among /
the trash in the creek; redeemed /
by a boy: Earth Day.
Monthly Archives: April 2012
Jesus redeemed
Filed under Earth Day, First Creek, haiku, Photo by author, poem, poetry
The blathering idiot and poetry
The blathering idiot knew April was poetry month and he thought he could impress his on again, off again girl friend Zoey with a poem or two. But the month was running out and he had not yet thought of anything poetic to write, though he had taken the time to study some about poetry making.
Additionally, after the restaurant fiasco where he had waited and waited and waited for an employee to come and wash his hands because the sign in the rest room clearly said: Employees must wash hands, and this caused him to leave Zoey’s young daughter Xenia sitting by herself for over 30 minutes, which she then reported to her mother, well, his relationship with Zoey had cooled once again.
So, this was his chance, though a part of him was beginning to wonder why he should care.
He started with something at least a little familiar:
Roses are red and violets are blue
Your eyes are weird and you are, too.
The blathering idiot was proud to have gotten three rhymes in two lines, but the more he looked at the couplet, the more he realized Zoey would not appreciate his poetic efforts at assonance. At least that what he thought it was called. She would probably say he was just being one.
He then tried something that incorporated the month:
The month of poetry is about to end
The rains of April have been real thin.
A new month stands about to begin.
May nouns, verbs & rain come again.
Once upon a poem dreary....
There once was a man from Nantucket
Who went on a dinner date and got stuck with it.
Not the bill, I say,
though that, too, came his way,
but the knife in his heart and the luck of it.
He read it and reread it and re-reread it, and then finally decided to put it in an envelope and mail it to her. He wasn’t from Nantucket – wherever that was – but she knew that. And while it didn’t directly mention love, love was there. And while Zoey wasn’t mentioned directly, she was in there, too.
He could only hope it wouldn’t give her too many ideas.
Filed under blathering idiot, cartoon by author, poetry
Crested Butte Writers Conference, June 22-24, 2012
[Editor’s note: Every now and then, I get e-mails about writers’ conferences, most of which I have never gone to. I have not been to the one below, but thought I would pass along the information. Before you go, check it out. I’m not saying this conference or any other is trying to take advantage of you, just that not every conference will be right for you, and it is best to find that out before you sign up. Certainly, if you attend this or have attended any others and you would recommend it, send the information my way.]
Crested Butte Writers Conference — June 22-24, 2012
Source: http://crestedbuttewriters.org/conf.php
Intimate:
A small conference designed to be friendly and cozy with the caliber of a large conference
Casual, small-group workshops encourage personal connection
A Pie in the Sky book signing where fans share dessert and conversation with favorite authors
Sandy Contest finalists share their experiences on a panel at the awards luncheon
Genre-Specific Informal Get-Together
Readings at Elevation Hotel lobby – We gather one evening to kick off our shoes, sip a drink, while sitting back and enjoying short readings from our Sandy Finalists and local poets and talented writers.
Interactive:
Pitch & Pages – unique efficient method of granting agent/ editor appointments
Advanced Read and Critique Masters Add-on Class – Thursday afternoon critique opportunity with attending agents and editors as well as other class participants
– New!
Plenty of free time to network and explore the area while making new writing friends
Opportunity during the Saturday Readers in the Rockies Day to interact with readers
Enthusiastic and accessible agents, editors, and guest authors
Inspiring:
Nestled in the beautiful West Elk Mountains of Colorado
Affordable
Gourmet Meals. Check out our menu choices before registering.
Comfortable as well as affordable accommodations
Group discounts – Groups of five or more friends/members of a writing group or complete strangers sign up together for the Conference, receive a $50 per person discount
Filed under 2012, writing conference
Writing tip: a writer can’t just be a writer
Should You Focus on Your Writing or Your Platform?
by Jane Friedman
April 27, 2012
Source: http://writerunboxed.com/2012/04/27/should-you-focus-on-your-writing-or-your-platform/#more-14057
Craft!
Platform!
Craft!!
Platform!!
It’s a debate that might span eternity: how much time should you devote to writing versus platform building?
I don’t know if there was ever a real beginning to this debate, but if so, it was when editors and agents started telling nonfiction authors that their book was only viable if a platform was in place. Which made sense for technological and cultural reasons. Take the ease of word processing and affordable personal computers, add Baby Boomers with free time to pursue their dreams, and presto! Suddenly there were more people than ever trying to write a book and get it published, with limited skills and experience, and often no credentials.
So what does a well-meaning agent or editor say to one of these people? The easiest thing to say is: You need a platform.
Fast forward a decade or two, and we now live inside an unending media conversation wheel, where anyone can find a niche readership, do solid work on building a platform, and even put writing on the backburner—and still reasonably claim to be a writer.
I think there’s a backlash against some of these people, which I understand. It’s applying the entrepreneurial, get-rich-quick Tim Ferriss mindset to the world of literature, where we tend to believe that blood, sweat, and tears (and rejection) are demanded before you gain recognition.
Plus: Real writers write. (Right?) They don’t tweet, they don’t blog, they don’t connect with readers, at least not joyfully.
I exaggerate, but you know the people I’m talking about.
The horrible catch is—at least for beginning writers without fame and fortune, who are starting their careers in a transitioning industry—focusing on your writing work to the exclusion of all else can hamper you later down the road. If you shut yourself away and don’t learn to navigate the online world (the personalities, the flow of conversations, the tools), you’re terribly disadvantaged when it comes time to get a publisher, market your work, and find readers.
Excellent arguments reside on each side of this debate, which often boil down to: “Writing is all that matters,” and “audience is all that matters.”
But the truth is a little different for each of us, and that’s why it’s next to impossible to give general advice on platform. It necessarily varies based on the author and the work in question.
But it does rip me apart to hear very new writers feel anxious that they can’t figure out their platform, especially when they have not a single book or credit to their name.
Well, it’s not a mystery why platform is so confusing when you don’t know who you are yet as a writer!
This has been a very long preface to what I’d like to offer: a set of general guidelines to help any writer understand how to balance writing with platform building.
Balance is the key word here.
Focusing on your writing probably means spending 10%-25% of your available writing time on platform activities. I never recommend abandoning platform activities entirely, because you want to be open to new possibilities. Being active online—while still focused on your writing—could mean finding a new mentor or the perfect critique partner, connecting with an important influencer, or pursuing a new writing retreat or fellowship opportunity.
Without further ado, the list.
When to focus more on your writing:
If you are within the first five years of seriously attempting to write with the goal of publication
For novelists: If you have not yet completed and revised one or two full-length manuscripts
If you can tell that what you’re writing is falling short of where you want and need to be
If you see a direct correlation between the amount of writing you put out and the amount of money that comes into your bank account (the JA Konrath model)
If you are working on deadline.
When to focus more on your platform:
If you start to realize you’re on the verge of publication
If you have a firm book release date of any kind
If you want to sell a nonfiction book concept (non-narrative)
If you intend to profit from online/digital writing that you are creating, distributing, and selling on your own
If you need to prove to a publisher or agent that your work has an audience.
Brief Bio.: Jane Friedman is a professor of media and writing at the University of Cincinnati, and the former publisher of Writer’s Digest. Visit her at JaneFriedman.com, for regular insights into the future of publishing.
Filed under writer, writing, writing tip
A pot full
There once was a woman from Knoxville. /
Who couldn’t quite get her pot full /
Of coffee, she’d say, /
“There’s not enough today. /
And that makes my way just awful.”
For Kristina, who inspired this full pot of silliness; and for my daughter, who posed with a coffee pot to give me an idea of how to do this.
Filed under cartoon by author, limerick, poem, poetry
Redo: Glimpses
[Editor’s note: The original “Glimpses” was syllable too long. So, here is the haiku again. This time trimmed by a syllable.]
At the water’s edge,
Echoes whisper my longing.
My heart holds your face.
Drawing conclusions: Grumpy doesn’t cover it
Sometimes parents are SO oblivious!
Filed under cartoon by author, Drawing conclusions, humor, parents
Till(er) death do us part
[Editor’s note: I nominate these two guys, posthumously, for Darwin Awards. Or maybe they could share one.]
Source: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/apr/23/men-fatally-shoot-each-other-over-repair-issue/
Men fatally shoot each other over repair issue
Associated Press
Monday, April 23, 2012
MARTIN, Tenn. (AP) — Two West Tennessee man have died in an argument over a garden tiller at a repair shop.
WCMT radio in Martin reported the death over the weekend of 68-year-old Oren Willis.
Weakley County Sheriff’s deputies said Roy McAlpin and Willis, who was one his customers, shot each other Friday.
McAlpin was pronounced dead at his shop near Palmersville. Willis was taken to Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, where he died on Saturday.
Investigators said the men argued after Willis didn’t return to pick up his repaired tiller and McAlpin sold it to someone else.
Filed under absurdity, tiller, true story
The Devil’s Dictionary: Poetry
Every now and then, it is good to revisit a classic, or even a curiosity from the past. The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce was originally published in newspaper installments from 1881 until 1906. You might be surprised how current many of the entries are.
For example, since April is poetry month, here is a definition for the words poetry and blank verse. The Old definition is Bierce’s. The New definition or comment are mine (and in this case a few other folks, too. Sometimes, you need help).
From time to time, just as it was originally published, we will come back to The Devil’s Dictionary, for a look at it then and how it applies today. Click on Devil’s Dictionary in the tags below to bring up the other entries.
OLD DEFINITIONS:
Poetry, n. A form of expression peculiar to the Land beyond the Magazines.
Blank verse, n. Unrhymed iambic pentameters — the most difficult kind of English verse to writer acceptably; a kind, therefore, much affected by those who cannot acceptably write any kind.
NEW DEFINITIONS:
Poetry, n. In this age of digital publishing, to say that poetry is peculiar to the Land beyond the Magazines is more prescient than sarcastic. Maybe I will call upon some other folks give a modern perspective, if not definition of poetry:
Poetry and consumption are the most flattering of diseases. –William Shenstone
(If I have to choose, I’ll take poetry, though I would probably be better at consumption.)
Poetry is nobody’s business except the poet’s, and everybody else can f*&k off. –Philip Larkin
(If true, no wonder poets feel misunderstood, unappreciated, and beyond the Land of Magazines.)
I know that poetry is indispensable, but to what I could not say. –Jean Cocteau
(Probably more indispensable than this blog.)
I think that one possible definition of our modern culture is that it is one in which nine-tenths of our intellectuals can’t read any poetry. –Randall Jarrell
(And what is the percentage of the non-intellectuals?)
Free verse, n. Free verse is like free love; it is a contradiction in terms. –G.K. Chesterton
(Yeah, but paid love is illegal in most states.)
Filed under Ambrose Bierce, definitions, Devil's Dictionary, poetry
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