Wordless Wednesday

Gloom Cupboard #111 is up!

Gloom Cupboard #111 is up! Thanks again to all the fantastic poets who shared their work!

(I know, I have been totally absent from the blogosphere, but NaNoWriMo is eating up all of my free time! Things should return to normal in December. That's just two weeks!)

NaNoWriMo Week 1: A Summary

So . . . my plan of blogging my NaNoWriMo activities each day? Yeah . . . no.
My plan of writing poetry each day that fit with the theme of my novel? Yeah . . . no.
My plan for keeping up with other creative projects? Yeah . . . no.

NaNoWriMo has totally consumed me this year. But I am progressing successfully! I hit 40,000 words this afternoon - I will probably win no later than Sunday. Which means I'm going to shoot a little higher and try to hit 100,000 words by the end of the month.

And I know I said I would post excerpts, but when you're writing at this speed, so much of it is rubbish. And if I go back searching for a good excerpt, I'm going to get stressed out and think I'm terrible and run the risk of giving up. So maybe later.

Apologies for my absences. I'll be back to my regular schedule after December! (And I do plan to check in throughout the rest of the month.)

#110

Gloom Cupboard #110 is up! Thanks to all of our wonderful contributors.

In addition, while I am saddened by the departure of founder/editor Richard Wink, I am thrilled that Lena Vanelslander has taken over and will keep Gloom Cupboard going.

Confession Tuesday

I confess that I'd rather be doing anything than writing today. Yesterday some very emotional stuff happened related to some important people in my life (yes, I am being vague), and it has really zapped my creativity. I want to play Wii Bowling. I want to sit outside and read. I want to get on my scooter and ride aimlessly around town. I don't want to revise that story I finally finished, edit poems, market my novella, or submit writing. Nothing that could be construed as productivity or work. I'm frustrated that what happened has thrown me for such a loop and has given me a case of ennui. I'm frustrated that I'm letting it bother me so much. At the same time, maybe I should just give in and be lazy. NaNoWriMo starts in less than a week. Maybe a little downtime before that adventure would be a good idea.

I'm worried that I'm less prepared for NaNo this year than I was last year. I worry that this lack of preparation will keep me from winning.

I am thrilled that I got up the nerve to self-publish my novella. I'm excited because I have a few people interested in reviewing it. I'm proud of myself for trying to market it.

I am hopeful that the week will get better.

Big news!

My first novella, A Scandal of Choice, is now available at my Lulu.com store. You can purchase it either in print or electronic format. As a bonus, if you order it before 11:59 p.m. on October 31st, you can type in the promo code "FALLREAD" at checkout and get 10% off!

A Scandal of Choice is a political novel that focuses on issues of reproductive choice. A major presidential sex scandal results in a requirement that the President of the United States must take a vow of celibacy for the duration of her or his term(s). In 2030, President Lydia Worth finds herself unintentionally pregnant, and as a result, her choices move beyond personal.

I have chosen to publish this work under my real name, largely because this piece is more in line with the nonfiction I am trying to publish (political, feminist, and focused on reproductive rights). The identity I use here is the one I prefer to use for poetry and erotica. I actually gave this decision a lot of thought, but ultimately decided that this work fits more in line with the writing persona I am cultivating with my real name rather than the one I am cultivating with my pseudonym.

Poem-A-Day in November

Robert Lee Brewer is finishing a chapbook of poems readers submitted during NaPoWriMo in April. And on top of that, he's issuing a new challenge for November. This time, readers will write throughout November, and by January will be able to submit these works as a chapbook, to be judged by Brewer and his wife. While I'll be busy with NaNoWriMo, I've been inspired to take on a side challenge. While I don't think I'll be doing the prompts, I'd like to do a poem a day in conjunction with my novel. My plan is to write a poem somehow related to the novel itself - that is, a poem somehow inspired by the gospels. They'll all revolve around the theme of the novel somehow. Because writing a novel in 30 days isn't difficult enough - now I need to create a poem a day related somehow!

I'll also be blogging my endeavors this year. Maybe not ever day, but regularly, either a poem from the day or a piece of prose. I can't wait for November to start!

Wordless Wednesday

"Go weird."

The post title refers to something one of my friends in my writer's group said to me on Friday night, and it's something I've been pondering quite a bit over the weekend. I got a few comments in that session about things people would like to see me try (such as writing more in third/omniscient person rather than in first person), and the encouraging me to "go weird" with a particular piece was one of those suggestions. I've been wondering about the extent to which my work might be, in a way, too safe. Which is almost weird to think about, because lately I've been writing about things that are incredibly personal, and so I feel pretty vulnerable putting them out there. But just because I feel nervous about them doesn't mean that they're perhaps too conventional, not risky enough. I may be taking risks with my emotions, but I'm not necessarily with my writing.

So I'm going to try experimenting a little more, whatever that might entail (and knowing that what might be an experiment for me might not really be an experiment for someone else). It's not always easy to know what to do, what risks to take, but that's part of the adventure. I wrote a piece of erotica this morning that's definitely outside my typical style, and I think it's pretty effective for a first draft. Now we just have to see how I work new ideas and forms and weirdness into my poetry.

Gloom Cupboard #109 is up!

Finish off your weekend with some great new poetry.

More to blog about later, but right now it is a beautiful autumn afternoon and I have a stack of library books demanding my attention.