Happy National Poetry Month!

I tend to forget that it’s April Fool’s Day (if not for the fact that everyone on the interwebs talks about it) and I’m also easily fooled, so chances are someone is going to have a laugh at my expense today. If you’re into that sort of thing, Jim Hines has a round up of some of the better Fool’s Day jokes that have already cropped up online.

But that’s okay, because today begins National Poetry Month! and that’s way more important. (^_^)
I will be participating in the National Poetry Writing Month challenge, which is essentially to write a poem a day in the month of April, or 30 poems total. Following the Poetic Asides prompts is an excellent way to stay inspired, if you’re participating.

I’ve been posting the poems to my tumblr the last couple of years, just to not have to cross-post and to have all the poetry in one place. I’m a bit torn as to whether I’m going to continue posting them online. On the one hand, posting them publicly is a way to hold myself accountable and actually make sure I get them done. On the other hand, posting the poems makes them ineligible for submitting to journals and I need to submit more often than I do. I’ve seen some poets put up their poems only temporarily, so maybe that’s one way to strike a compromise. I don’t know. Still thinking about that one.

Last Week In Review

My story, “The Shadow’s Flight,” was rejected by Strange Horizons. I read it over to see if I could clean it up anymore (I could), and immediately submitted to to Clarksworld, which also rejected it last week (wow! amazing response times!). So, I submitted it once again to Flesh and Blood (perhaps third times a charm?).

I managed to get through the first half of Chapter One of Under the Midday Moon. I like it so far, though it’s gone an changed where it’s going on me. So now I have to re-figure out just how I’m going to end Chapter One, which is all well and good, I suppose. At least words are getting on the page.

I ran 1.5 miles on Monday, and my foot was killing me by the end, but it started to clear up again rather quickly. But I didn’t push it on Wednesday and just did some sit ups and planks and squats instead. By Saturday my foot was feeling almost 100%, so I did a run and it went pretty smoothly. Almost no pain, which was bleeping fantastic, and I’m all set to get back to my running schedule this week. Yay!

Still struggling with my finances and trying to figure out how to handle them. I’m taking “contact accountant about retirement plans” off my to-do list for now, because I literally don’t have any extra income to invest. I need to figure out how to earn some extra money first.

Things to do in the coming week:
– Finish off Chapter One of Under the Midday Moon
– Submit something (poetry, fiction, whatever)
– Walk/Run at least three days at least 2 miles each day (0/3)
– Get California taxes done
– Sort paperwork out by year for filing
– Either purchase new a new filing cabinet(s), and/or buy folders/large envelopes, and/or go through the process of sorting and putting everything in its place
– Get data transferred from the old computer to the new one (may require giving up my computer for a few days)

Cross-posted to my livejournal. You are welcome to comment either here or there.

A little bit of flesh and blood

Current Project: Under the Midday Moon
New Words: 1435
Current Total Word Count: ~2,500
Goal: Put together an workable draft of the novel that I would actually let someone read.
Accomplished: The second half of what I think will be Chapter Two

Random Rough Sentence(s): The sun was bright and glaring, reflecting off the fog that sat over Anchorage below. Standing there, breathing heavy after the last leg of the hike, it was easy to believe everything beyond this moment had been erased. Only a few higher mountain peaks poking out of the fog gave any indication there was more than just the two of us in all the world.

Notes: Chapter Two is progressing kind of interesting in the sense that I have Adam falling in love Jasper, but instead of drawing out the suspense of that first meeting, I have them immediately going on their first date. This puts them at the start of their relationship rather quickly (no watching the cute guy be all mysterious across the room). It feels like I set up the love interest and then am resolving it very quickly, which could be killing the tension, and I’m not sure will work in the context of the rest of the novel. I guess I’ll just have to see how it evolves.

In other news, while writing Chapter Two, I discovered where I want to go with Chapter One. Both, it turns out, will involve blood splatter and chunks of flesh, though in rather different contexts.

The Pleasure of Wincing

I’m not entirely sure how By forgoing television, reading, and sleep, I managed to put together an 18 page chapbook submission, including the writing and rewriting of two poems from scratch, in less than two days. The package has been mailed out (and should be postmarked) on the very last day to submit. I have no idea what’s going to happen with the chapbook. It’s off and out of my control at this point.*

The most time consuming aspect of this was the selection of poem (of which I have many). When I read poetry collections, I appreciate when they have a kind of cohesion; they fit together, either thematically or stylistically. But when I look at my own poems, I feel like they don’t fit together well, like they don’t have that cohesion. I can take an individual poem I’ve written and feel rather confident about it, but when I try to pull them together into a collection all my confidence falls apart and it seems like one hot mess. It’s kind of can’t see the forest for the trees kind of thing, I guess. I can’t see the whole for the individual poems. It was like I lost all ability to assess my own work, but I struggled through it.

Part of the compilation process involved searching through old binders to find poems not in digital format. It was a wonder to see stuff I’d written in 1999 and earlier. I was so much younger then.

In his poem “Scotch Tape Body,” Ron Padget has a really great way of looking at old work and the kind of joyful/painful nostalgia that occurs. He describes looking at old poems he’d written and taped into notebook, and wonders briefly if it would have been better if he had never written the poems at all, but realizes that without those poems, he would be denied, “the pleasure of wincing / then forgiving myself / of catching glimpses of who I was / of who I thought I was.”

All the poems I wrote then got me to where I am now, and the poems I write today will get me to what I write tomorrow. It’s an evolution. So, I guess I shouldn’t kick myself or let myself doubt my current project either; I shouldn’t avoid writing out of fear of failing (which happens sometimes). If I did, I’d be denying myself the pleasure of future wincing when I look back on today.

How do you feel when looking on past projects, art, writing? Got any projects you’ve recently completed that you’re both nervous and excited about?

*I find that to be a powerful thing, to learn what you have control over and what you do not. If you do everything you can in regards to the things you do have control over, you can let go and offer up the things you don’t have control over (like whether an editor will like and accept your poetry submission).

[Cross-posted to my livejournal. You are welcome to comment either here or there.]

The Things That Need Doing

1. Because I thrive (go mad-hatter crazy on) deadlines, I have put off compiling this poetry chapbook until the day before the competition ends. At least it’s only 16-18 pages. *sigh*

2. Oh, and I’ve also signed up for the 10 by 10 Short Script Challenge, which has begun this week. I now have ten nine days to complete a short indie horror script that challenges the genre’s portrayal of women.

3. And lets not forget that I have to provide a rewrite of Chapter One and/or Chapter Two of Under the Midday Moon, my YA werewolf novel to my writing group by next Wednesday.

4. Did I also mention that my entire Saturday will be taken up by attending the AMC Best Picture Showcase, leaving me next to no time to do any of this stuff? No. Well, I am.

5. Somewhere in there, I’m also supposed to exercise.

6. *dies*

[Cross-posted to my livejournal. You are welcome to comment either here or there.]

Being a belated Monday Update…

Saturday was spent in babysitting my niece and a significant chunk of that time was spent with her sleeping on my chest, while I watched The Goonies. Honestly, she’s the most delightful time-suck in the world. Going to hang out with her is a joyful black hole of baby love. No regrets.

Plus, I did a fairly good job at being productive before that, having managed to pull together a readable version of Chapter One of Under the Midday Moon in time for the Writing Gang meeting (it took me working on it through my lunch break and submitting it the day of the meeting — thank baby Jesus for deadlines, without which I would get nothing done). I’ve been having a hard time knowing where to begin with this story, but eventually figured that it was better to start somewhere rather than not putting words down at all. The resulting Chapter One was still not the right place to start, but the Gang offered some great feedback that now has me thinking of new scenes and perhaps a better place to begin. I couldn’t be where I am without having put those words down, so yay!

In terms of the physical, I managed to do two out my required three days. I absolutely could have fit that third day in there, but didn’t. Turning on the TV without specific purpose (eg., having a specific show to watch) is a problem for me. It’s easy to let a lot of valuable time vanish that way.

No work was done on the poetry or the financial side of things. *le sigh*

Things to do in the coming week:
– Write Chapter Two of Novel
– Walk/Run at least three days this week & at least 2 miles each day (1/3 down)
– Make a list of poems I want to include in the collection
– Make edits to two of the poems I know I want to include
– Contact Apple store or computer guys and get data transferred from the old computer to the new one (may require giving up my computer for a few days, hard to do when I’m in the midst of wanting to write)
– Contact my sisters accountant to find out about setting up an IRA
– Do yoga (three sun salutations minimum) each morning before work (1/5 done)

*
Anyway, how have you been and how are you doing?

[Cross-posted to my livejournal. You are welcome to comment either here or there.]