Not really AWOL

I was looking over my blogs and noticed that I haven't posted in here for awhile. Not that I didn't know that, but I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted here.

No, I haven't stopped writing. As a matter of fact, I'm doing more writing. And some things I'm pretty excited about. Big things are happening on the theatrical interpreting front for me. But I'll hold off on more details about that. You should watch me over at The Writing Vein for that news. Or, better yet, you can also follow those events on my newest website, Performing Arts Interpreting Alliance.

In case you have been to my main site for awhile, I have two weekly features there. One is the Razor's Edge, which I've had going for a while. This is a prompt, or set of prompts, which I put out on Fridays for a little kick-start to your weekend or other creative endeavors on the weekend. The newest regular writing is Radical Writing Advice, which comes out early in the week. I tried to get that one set up on Mondays, but sometimes it doesn't get up until Tuesday or even Wednesday.

So I haven't gone dormant, I just haven't been utilizing this blog as much.

But maybe I'll spend some time in November setting up daily NaNo prompts. Maybe.

Check out the above two sites for other goings on.

from The Writing Vein: Submissions

This is the new page that is up over on The Writing Vein. A submissions calendar! It's a Google calendar and it will update as I make changes. There are a few resources for even more submissions information at the bottom of the page on my main website.


I've been keeping a calendar of submission deadlines for myself and a few writing friends. As I was adding a few upcoming deadlines I decided to make it more widely available. Below is what the page looks like - feel free to come back and check it at any time. I will be making updates to the calendar as I find submission opportunities. Feel free to send some my way! The page also has a couple of submission websites (Duotrope, Poets & Writers, CWROPPS (a Yahoo resource group for writers); I know there are more - and I can add more links.

The views should change month by month; and the information will be updated as I make changes and additions.

Here is what you will see on the submissions page when you click on the link above!

      SUBMISSIONS CALENDAR      

Feel free to look through this calendar of upcoming submissions. These are from resources across the web, through email, from friends, and so forth. I am not endorsing specific publications, submission opportunities, or contests (unless I specifically say so!) - these are some that caught my attention, that friends have submitted to or passed along to me, and so on. I will also put some other links below the calendar so you can look at other resources. There are many publications out there and many good resources to see what's happening. I keep my own calendar of upcoming sources I'm interested in submitting to, so I thought I'd share it.

If you have a Google/Gmail account and would like to have this information show up on your calendar, you can subscribe to it by searching for Writing Vein Salon calendar in Google calendars, or you can click on the specific submission announcement and then click on "add to my calendar."



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Dot's NaPoWriMo - bring it on home

Okay - so I backed off of Script Frenzy to work on the memoir. Yes - I found a limit. Script Frenzy plus NaPoWriMo plus the Wayward Writers in Ariel Gore's Literary Kitchen plus the memoir and teaching and working my freelance and part-time jobs full-time. Whoa. Hit the wall. Bye bye Script Frenzy. Then NaPoWriMo started lagging so I started writing the haikus in batches, thinking I could do it that way. And here is is April 30th, the last day, and although I thought I was only less than a week behind, I logged onto this website to discover

tada

I am 10 days behind.

So: do I give this up too or write hurriedly away to get another 10 done? Oh - and I still have to finish this week's Wayward assignment and do feedback on this week's quick write (which I just did yesterday or the day before).

Yes: forging ahead. I will not give up both Script Frenzy and National Poetry Month (though I did buy CK William's "Wait" and Adrienne Rich's "No Poetry Tonight Will Serve" - so I have given tribute). But, I will write 10 haikus before midnight.

Yes. I can do that. Here goes....

#21
shadows from the clouds
cats hunker down, watching birds
still singing up high

#22
writers gathering
nervous, excited, open
two hours slip away

#23
improvisation
contact improvisation
body touching souls

#24
actors sing and sway
lights open, brighten, and fade
applause, smiles linger

#25
path of innocence
white buds on the new tree bloom
moss smothers the grass

#26
neighborhood parade
I missed it, we were writing
street closed signs remain

#27
ice returns to water
hard earth becomes moist, pliable
cherry tree blooms pink

#28
you said you love me
you said you would never leave
you said goodbye. tears.

#29
kombucha gurgles
alchemical reaction
turns sweetness to sour

#30
this is the last day
of NaPoWriMo this year
thirty days of poems


by Dot.

Dot's NaPoWriMo #17-#19

#17
Temps in the fifties
Mostly sunny no rain
Bare arms legs torsos

#18
Spring in the city
Joggers walkers bikes galore
Parking lots emptied

#19
Temptation of time
Solitude trees creeks and moss
Illumination
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by dot.
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Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Dot's NaPoWriMo #11-16

UNSPOKEN
tension unmentioned
creeks feed rivers feed oceans
banks overflowing

FISHES
she waves from the shore
electronic tears flowing
karma calls him home

RIVER OTTER
two eyes in green grass
gray clouds wander aimlessly
paddles dip and glide

CYCLES
dusky air dampens
cherry blossoms scattering
squashed worms on sidewalk

DAWN
anniversary
reptiles she, regrow their skins
breath follows breath now

METOLIUS
water washes stones
morning brings down pink snowflakes
passion and tear drops

Haikus
by
Dot.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Dot's NaPoWriMo: April 7,8,9,10

Okay - so I got a little behind. And I'm behind on Script Frenzy, too.

Below are my haikus for the dates I missed. And I'm up to 23 pages on the script; only about 10 behind now. Whew - was 15 behind!

Okay - back to the poetry!

april 7

fried egg daffodil blossoms

risomes expanding outward through damp dirt

old roots hearty

april 8

vitamin D sprinkles walkers

chloroform floods the trees’ leaves

birds splash in yesterday’s puddles

april 9

mister lester’s morning peep show

from the headboard, black furry head through curtains

watches robins, squirrels, crows

april 10

headwaters pushing

crashing to the pool below

cameras clicking

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Dot's NaPoWriMo: April 6

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april 6

spring sky releases snow

email note from 32 years absent friend

life = unpredictable

by dot.
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Dot's NaPoWriMo: April 5

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april 5

pains unspoken fester

unwillingness to communicate viral

silence saddens, frustrates

by dot.
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Deb's Day 4, napowrimo

spring haiku

 

soft pink breaths of air

green gloves cling fast to strong stems

while rain, wind bellow

 

Dot's NaPoWriMo: April 4

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april 4: lester

a pounce of love leap

sleek black body lands, demanding attention

kneading, sandpaper tongue

 
by dot.
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Deb's Day 3 NAPOWRIMO, for April 3rd

Memory pulled backward

down the corridor

blackened walls screaming

doors gaping silent

full of words and empty

empty voice

 

 

 

Dot's NaPoWriMo: April 3

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april 3

no voice no opinion

alternating sun rain sun gray blue

whimsy or folly mine

 
 
by dot.
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Day 2 Poem

 

Spring Fever

By Deb

 

The cat has gone crazy again

spring saturates

her ancient blood

unknown feline hallucinogen

males calling her out

her madness surreal

and nothing to do

with having been spayed

 

Meow, let me out

meow, let me in

meow, dinner is on the balcony

you do like rabbit don't you?

meow, pet me now

meow, do not touch 

claw gashes the hand that feeds

meow and meow and meow

 

Soft grey fur

circles my unsteady legs

threading her plea

crazed begging

all purr and frantic instinct

the unseen need

unmet by me

only a human

who long ago

lost the frenzy of spring

 

 

 

 

 

Dot's NaPoWriMo: April 2

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Haiku #2

shoes/jacket blue sky/sun
black clouds follow down the street, obliterating the sun
drenched in rain, pelted by hail

by dot.
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Deb: April 1st, an opening Haiku

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almost midnight now

poet brain not yet aware

time for poetry
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by deb scott
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Dot's NaPoWriMo: April 1st

I decided to add a minstrel Poet in my Script Frenzy stage play. Double duty this month as I write a 100 page script in 30 days and write a poem a day, too. Crazy? Maybe.

Haiku #1

sun shining no rain
season’s first shirtless men with hackysack
daphne welcomes April

by dot

It's NaPoWriMo time!

Yes, it's April.

Friend and fellow writer (what's the female form of "fellow" writer?) will be poster her NaPoWriMo (national poetry writing month) poems here for the month. I can't wait to see them! Deb and I shared the poetry space in April 2010 (and the prompts I set up are still available under the archives for April 2010; our poems are also still available in the "comments" under each prompt).

This year I've opted to do Script Frenzy. I'm threatening to include a poet so I can do double duty - both Script Frenzy and NaPoWriMo ... but I'm not there yet. I have about 6 hours to go to make that decision. Okay, 5 hours and 30 minutes if I'm going to write a poem.

Anyway - keep your eyes out here for Deb's poetry!

Yay, Deb.

Internet Writing Workshop's Practice for 9/5/10

The Other Side of the Story


Prepared by: Florence Cardinal
Reposted on: Sun, 5 Sept 2010

Exercise: In 400 words or less, rewrite a scene from a story familiar to most of us from the point of view of someone other than the main character. Tell us the name of the story you have chosen and who your viewpoint character is, and then show us what is different about the way that character sees the action and personalities involved.
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Every character in a story, from the main character right down to the dog, has a reason for being included, a reason for his or her actions, a point of view. Yes, some characters are just part of the machinery of the plot--the butler announcing the arrival of the Duke. But once that butler gets back to his pantry and starts gossiping with the housekeeper, he becomes part of the story, and we get a different perspective on what's going on in the house. The way all of the characters interact, the way each one views the action, deepens and enlivens the story. In the best stories, the characters, good and bad, act for clear reasons, their interactions providing the conflict and narrative tension that makes for a good read.

Some examples:

-How might Rhett Butler or Melanie Wilkes see Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind?

-See Stephen King's Cujo, where we watch the thoughts of a dog as he goes mad.

-What would the wolf have to say about Little Red Riding Hood?

-Some writers have already rewritten a known work from another point of view. Tom Stoppard, in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, showed us Hamlet through the eyes of two minor characters.

...brought to you by The Internet Writing Workshop

The Internet Writing Workshop: this week's exercise

I didn't get the Internet Writing Workshop's exercise up last week. But here is today's!

I will not be posting the next two weeks' exercises from the website, either, as I will be on vacation. And in a place where I am totally disconnected from all things internet and telephone related (I'll be rafting the Colorado River in the bottom of the Grand Canyon).


Idiom Insight

Prepared by: Charles Hightower
Reposted on: Sunday, June 20, 2010
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Exercise: In 400 words or less, create a story that might explain the origin of an idiom.

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An idiom is a phrase that does not make literal sense. Idioms may be among the most difficult concepts in English for foreigners to understand...For example, the phrase "kick the bucket" is interpreted as the act of dying. Taken literally, though, neither the kick nor the bucket has any apparent relationship to the meaning of the phrase.

Select an idiom. Then make up a story that could explain the idiom's origin, or show how it came to be. Use your imagination--the tale need not be true. Show, don't tell. Be sure to identify the idiom at start or finish.

If you need ideas, you might refer to http://www.eslcafe.com/idioms/id-list.html

or http://www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idioms_proverbs.html

 
I like this: a story about how an idiom came to be. Hmmmm.

Internet Writing Workshop 5/30/10

Animal World

Prepared by: Alice Folkart
Posted on: Sunday, May 30, 2010
at The Internet Writing Workshop

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In 400 words or less write a scene from an animal's point of view, have the animal want something from either a human or another animal.
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Is a dog waiting and waiting for his walk? Is a cat plotting to catch and eat the canary? Is a deer being hunted? That does the fish, swimming back and forth in his little aquarium, think of what he sees? The hamster--where does he think is he going in his running wheel? Perhaps the thoughts of a pet in a carrier on the way to the vet or going on a trip . Is this the voice of an old animal, tired, ready to die? What about the pampered 'accessory' dog who goes everywhere in his mistress's purse? Tame or wild, your choice.