Poetry News

I was recently interviewed by Margaret Fieland about Chiaroscuro and writing. She asked some great questions about the process behind compiling and publishing Chiaroscuro, as well as how I balance fantasy and poetry. Go leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of my book.

The Poetic Muselings are having a summer poetry challenge. We challenged each other to see who could write (and post) the most new poems between July 15 and Sept 1. Come join in the fun.

Today I wrote my first poem for the challenge. (I am behind!) Since my son was sitting nearby, I asked him for a topic. He chose dinosaurs, as that’s our theme for this week. We’ve picked out themes for each week of summer, to help with activity ideas. So, in honor of dinosaur week and my son, I wrote the following poem. This poem/song also got us up and moving to do the Stego Stomp. So I’d call it a success: a new poem, collaboration with my son, and exercise! Stomp along.

Stego Stomp

Come into the stomping ground
Best party to be found

DJ Rex will never fail
Every dino shake your tail

Through the valley we will romp
Time for the Stego Stomp

Clap your plates to the beat
Move all four of your feet

Stomp left, then stomp right
Jump up with all your might

Nose to the ground, tail in the air,
Wave that thing like you don't care

Spin around, then grab a snack
(Making sure to watch your back)

Blast out a mighty roar
You are a dinosaur!

As a bonus for you, I took a picture of part of my rough draft notes and doodles. When I mentioned DJ Rex, my son pointed out that due to his short arms a t-rex would spin with his nose.

Upcoming Writers Conference

One week from today is the Muse Online Writers Conference, an annual online and FREE conference. It goes from Oct 7 to 13. This will be my sixth year attending. Check it out! You can read more about it and my experiences in my post on the Poetic Muselings blog yesterday about the Muse Conference.

Hope to see some of you there! I’ll be attending as my usual persona, feywriter.

Stepping Stones to Being More Than an Extra

English: Stepping stones. Stepping stones in Deepdale Beck (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Been making more of an effort to put myself and my work out there. Reviving my blog is one part of that. I have a poetry book I've begun submitting to publishers. And today I signed up for Writers Village University.

I need to step out of my shell. Writing doesn't have to be so lonely. There's a big community of writers out there. I merely need to put down my walls and step outside my comfort zone.

If you've been wondering some of the things I've been up to in my absence, I have been blogging over at Poetic-Muselings.net on a more regular basis.

Action Scenes

In my writing, action scenes--especially one-on-one fight scenes with no use of magic--are not my strong point. So when Authoress posted about a critique round for action excerpts, I jumped on the opportunity. Barely got in. Mine is #22 of 25. So head on over to Miss Snark’s First Victim and check out the action scenes, let me know how I did.

Community

I’m thankful for my neighbors. I may not know the ones living right next door, but there are a few women in the area that I’ve become close to. They keep an eye out for me in bad weather to offer me a ride home from the school. I also teach their little four year olds in Sunday school, which gives us another connection.

Social Networking

It seems that at one point or another I try most social networking avenues. I’ve tried MySpace. I’m currently on Facebook and Twitter. I have profiles on LibraryThing and Goodreads (though don’t use either much anymore). I now have blogs on Blogger, WordPress, and LiveJournal.

My new venture? Google+. If you have any experience with this one, or want to connect, speak up. It’s certainly not the most intuitive process. Don’t even know what questions to ask!

SAGA welcomes YA

SAGA is now officially open to writers of YA fantasy. We’d love to have more people join us.

SAGA

Know that new writers group I wanted to start? Now that it’s been up and running for a few weeks, I’m opening it up to new people.

SAGA stands for Society for Arcane Gibberish Authors. We are a fledgling critique group for fantasy writers, started in October of 2011. This is currently a group for adult fantasy only. If you write YA fantasy and are interested in a critique group, you can still apply. If there is enough interest I will create a sub-group. There are already a couple of us with YA projects that could use the company.

We have room for three more people. Membership is capped at ten. I’ve been part of some very successful online critique groups. May be crazy for starting my own, but I wanted something small. And something less structured. We do have a forum, but no deadlines. Our own lives and writing come first. Just fellow writers grouping together for support and feedback.

If you're interested in joining, send me an email or post below. Would love to get a few new faces.

November Happenings

I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year, but I am participating in some challenges.

November Poem-A-Day:

Every November, in the same spirit as NaNoWriMo, Robert Lee Brewer (editor for Writer's Digest) hosts a Every November, in the same spirit as NaNoWriMo, Robert Lee Brewer (editor for Writer's Digest) hosts a Poem-A-Day Challenge. Each day he’ll post a prompt on his Poetic Asides blog, and the task is to write a poem based on that prompt.

NaBloPoMo:

National Blog Posting Month helps set the habit of blogging by posting every day for one month. If you’re interested, you can sign up through November 5th. There are even prizes! I figure if I write posts in advance, then my weekends are still free—just hit publish and I’m good to go.

PubSub3rdFri

This is more a year round commitment than a challenge. PubSub3rdFri means submitting something every month, on the third Friday, and was started by Joan Y. Edwards. I definitely need to get back into regular submitting, for both poetry and fiction, and this should give me the encouragement and support I need.

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In addition to these challenges, my poetry group is staring a group blog in anticipation of the publication of our anthology. More on that later.

Busy can be good. Hopefully this birthday month will be a good one. What are your plans this month? Good luck to everyone who is doing NaNoWriMo or any of the other creative challenges.

Need a Fantasy Critique Group? Look no further!

I'm considering starting up a new critique group for fantasy / paranormal writers. Looking for dedicated members that would be able to critique monthly. I've had three people express interest so far. Would be great if I could get two or three more. Open to going up to ten if there's enough interest, but no higher.

Age category: adult fiction. If you write Young Adult fantasy and are looking for a group, I do have some YA fairy tales that are itching to become books so maybe I could do a subgroup or sister group.

Still working on details. If you’re interested let me know. If I can get one more person I’ll go ahead with this.

Dreaming in Ink

I’m a member of the critique group Dreaming in Ink Writers Workshop.

 

Critiques are required to make sure everyone gives as well as receives. I’m enjoying the community, and the monthly challenges that push me to achieve. In reviewing other member’s writing, I have been enlightened to issues in my own. And I’ve received some great, well-balanced, helpful reviews.

 

As of the last count, there are 13 openings! The group has a limited size, to give a sense of community. You must be at least 18 to join. Basic guidelines can be found here: http://community.livejournal.com/diiww/632.html. Feel free to apply if you like what you see.