Raining on the Porch and Writing

It's been a long week and a full weekend. The beginning of the graduation parties and holiday plans. Mi padre is coming up for July 4th!! Huzzah!  Goals are really starting to find purchase, Round 2 is almost at a close, and the Summer has only just started to summer. Lots in the works, so onto the check-in.....

This Week:
     *Reading: finished Golden Compass (Phillip Pullman), continuing with Wicked (Gregory Maguire), and Murder on the Orient Express (Agatha Christie). I think Poirot is my favourite, but I have been going through my Poirot mysteries first before hitting up the Miss Marple. Wicked is growing on me some. Still feels a bit preachy at times about politics, but I am going to finish it.
started the first chapter of
     *Social Media: managed to visit 4 blogs daily for my #ROW80 list and got to everyone who posted on Wednesday. Also visited my WIPpeteers, 2 a day when about. I still have at least 4 more to visit before Wednesday.
     *Writing: wrote Wednesday, Thursday, and a little on Friday. I wrote a poem and a short story for a fellow blogger's site, a writing challenge prompt. Been brainstorming for the secret project and planning to do a writing blitz later today (prolly before I actually post this) and working on my review of The Golden Compass from my Book to Movie reviews that I usually do in October. I miss last October because of my busy schedule and just now catching up.
     *Editing: finished the first round of edits on Love in Ferns. The short story version is going to be submitted to #writestuff's monthly challenge. I feel I need another pass before I post it wholly. Been thinking of writing an large story of it, thinking I need to do a bit of plotting on it before I attempt more. I can see more of the story on the horizon, just not sure where to go next.
      *Housetending: the usual on Sunday laundry, garbage, and dishes.
      *Submissions: I got two in this early afternoon. Also got another rejection letter. I finally figured out why for the current one. They are not looking for poetry that uses repetitious forms, like pantoums. Funny, because I am really good at pantoums. Also, the flowery language doesn't entice them. I guess I can understand. But and the other hand the poems were good, just not a right fit. Time to try elsewhere.

Side note: colouring is truly therapeutic...

From my friend James' new colouring book of his artwork from his series The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica. See his stuff books and artwork at Coppervale International or at James A. Owen. Done in marker, which was difficult until I found my fine tipped markers, these were quite fun to colour.


This Week (upcoming):
     *Reading: continue with Wicked and start The Subtle Knife (Phillip Pullman). I love His Dark Materials!!
     *Writing: write daily. Works to work on Golden Compass Review and Secret Project.
     *Editing: look at where I am in The Real Road Trip revision, attempt to revise 2 page (starting small).
     *Submissions: 1 new.
     *Social Media: 4 blogs daily for ROW80 and 2 WIPpeteers blogs.
     *Blogging: 1 new post and review a review for 1 of the books I recently finished.

A Round of Words in 80 Days is a blog challenge that knows you have a life. It's a Blog Hop. So stop in for some biscuits and tea.

I bought my day pass for Saturday at Connecticon which means I have to go now. I have directions, only a scant 4 hours and 50 minutes. I get to see my friend and mentor James and see what a larger Con looks like. Thinking of cos playing as someone, not sure if I am that brave, but how often do I do this, right?

There are plans for a Renaissance Faire trip, another trip to Eldridge Park, putt putt marathon, and flea marketing. Oh and the Weird Al concert ion August! It's shaping up to be a full and fun summer.

How are your goals coming, Dear Readers? What are you planning for the summer?

Today has been nice, sunshiny and warm, with just a touch of rain. Birds are singing and neighbourhood chitlins were playing. They have since disappeared. A jogging is passing by now. It's the staple around here. Life is good!

Sunday it is...

Having one of those days, really bad headache and feeling generally icky, but still I persevere

Yesterday was the Hammondsport edition of 24 Hour Theatre. We had a great crowd of about twenty people. They are active and engaging, which is a great feeling to hear people who are responsive. The writers wrote some incredible works and the actors made them come to life. A good time for all.

Of course, while writing this I got another rejection letter for some of my poetry. It's a journal I have submitted to before. They give constructive critiques of my submissions. That is good, but I still feel like I am missing something. I thought I was getting better with my poetry. I know, I should take it hard. Most places don't give input on why they didn't choose my work. I am mostly being hard on myself. I just need to keep trying and keep the advise and input in mind when I submit works.

So, that happened.

This week:
      *Theatre: I directed and starred in one show, also hoad a small cameo in anther show for 24 Hour Theatre.
      *Writing: caught up on NaNo Novel, Road Trip Friday, almost 5000 words in one day. I didn't write yesterday because of 24 Hour Threatre, but I have clocked 1721 words today. Will catch up tomorrow morning. Feeling novel swinging into the homestretch. NaNoWriMo: draconicwitch (if you want to add me)
      *Reading: The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood) I can't put it down, will probably have it done by Thanksgiving. The Art of Asking (Amanda Palmer), I am enjoying this immensely, with her truths and humour.
       *Submitting: two poems submitted to a local calendar contest for the Friends of the Chemung Watershed. Deadline  is December 1st. I won't know about this until much later, but I am pleased with the poems and myself for trying.

This week To Do:
       *Writing: Continue to catch up and stay caught up with NaNo.
       *H'port Xmas show begins to organize this week, so writing will be on and off for this project based on what idea (there are three working concepts to choose from) is chosen.
       *Submitting: want to keep this at three per week.
       *Reading: finish The Year of the Flood and start MaddAddam (Margaret Atwood).

A Round of Words is a Blog Hop. Come and visit with other writers/bloggers.

Have a great week, Dear Readers! :-)

OctPoWriMo Day 12: Obsessing Over Goals?

It's SUNDAY!!! Time for some updates and poetry....

 For a day of rest I have been busy, mostly catching up on housework, laundry, dishes, trash, cat litter, all the fun things that make life worth living. Um, okay, might be the coffee talking. But seriously after I posting my big The Last Unicorn review I kind of slowed down. I didn't stop, but somethings were placed on the back burner while I got myself put together. It had been A LONG WEEK. My boss from the day job was on vacation and everything just went bonkers and I needed a bit of detox with friends this weekend.

Today I am back on the wagon, horse, bicycle and coasting along with renewed vigor. I do not have a lot to report today, as I am working on ALL TEH THINGS I didn't really accomplish between Friday and Saturday. I will give you an idea of where I am though.

Positives this week:
    *OctPoWriMo: the poems are wide and varied this month. It's good though. I have stretched myself by trying Acrostic Poetry. It's not something I really thought about. Wasn't sure what to think about the form, honestly it looked strange. But on Friday I needed something to write and else was coming, so I tried it. I ended up writing a nice piece about Mental Health (see Friday's post). Morgan Dragonwillow is pretty good at Acrostic Poetry by the way.
    *Writing: mostly A Round of Words check-in and OctPoWriMo, also writing in my journal.
    *Reading: had returned to American Gods by Neil Gaiman and am progressing through the novel and working on Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.

This week's focus:
    *Submitting: I am making this a priority this week. I know some of the journal I had submitted to a few month back are coming to their next deadline. I want make those deadlines. Having some new writing, both poetry and stories, this ultimately excited.
    *Editing: The Audition. Gonna take it one piece and one goal at a time. This week, The Audition gets revised, BIG TIME!!

Feeling much better after my weekend, Dear Readers. It is definitely important to unplug and enjoy eating at a restaurant called Jellybeans the Restaurant. If you are in Erwin, NY (next to Painted Post, NY) you should stop in. Great food, fantastic portions, and wide variety and you get jellybeans instead of mints (unless you don't like jellybeans). Restaurant is still fantastic!

Now its POETRY TIME!

Writing Prompt: Desire, Lust, Wanting, Love, Enraptured, Obsession

Chosen Form: Pantoum

Wanting to Lust

Give to me the passion that is your own,
it's a burning in my core that keeps me warm.
I want to know what it feels like,
with your arms wrapped around.

It's a burning in my core that keeps me warm,

from MorgueFile

when I see you walk past with your girlfriend
with your arms wrapped around
and the fire is kindled into a blaze.

When I see you walk past with your girlfriend
I know my jealous shows, but it's my desire too.
And the fire is kindled into a blaze
as strong as your grip around her waist.

I know my jealous shows, but it's my desire too
to take you in my arms with
as strong as your grip around her waist.
My lust is only for your, my Love.

To take you in my arms with
those enrapturing blue eyes of yours.
My lust is only for you, my Love
to give me the passion  that is your own.

Not my usual fluffy warm sentiment, but something in the prompt spoke to my of strong desire and over obsession. I wanted to see where the obsession went. Sometimes I need to try writing the darker feelings, the more disturbing scenes just to balance out my writing. I hope you like it. I think it came out okay. It was the first time in while where I went back to revise a line or two. I usually just write the poem, the pantoum. Today's was a little different. It felt different. I wanted to make sure all of the stanzas connected correctly to tell the story right.

Go and visit the other at OctPoWriMo's list and A Round of Word Blog Hop.

AROW80 Check-in: Pour some Sugar on ME?!?!?!?

I have consumed a lot of sugar this weekend. A LOT!

I attended a 4 year olds superhero birthday part (with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman) on Saturday that involved sweet superhero cookies and a strawberry cake and super sweet frosting. Very good, but very sugary! And today I played at Eldridge Park by riding the carousel, the dragon boats, and playing putt-putt. I even won a brass ring (a thing that was big in the early days of carousels)! It wasn't that hard with my looooong Xena arms. :-)

One RING, to RULE them all?!?

It was a weekend of recovery and enjoying life.

To start off, I have had a great week of goals and productivity. It took long to get there, but I managed to get back on the horse and take off at a gallop towards the writing goals. Sometimes when I have too many setbacks I just want to curl into a ball or stare at a wall. I had to shake off the dust and keep going. After a few rough starts, I have my old vim and verve back. It also helped that I had some distraction to focus on, allowing the negative feelings to pass and the very adult things to deal with to be figured out. Not all are fixed, but at least I have a better idea how to tackle them (including getting estimates on house related items and getting a new old car for David hunk-o-junk van. Sometimes I hate being an adult, I want to be a kid again and watch cartoons on Saturday mornings and only have to worry about the math test on Monday. Anyway...

BAB Y DUCKS!!!

Improv is going great. I have a great team and some new blood joining us. It's exciting! The last couple of rehearsal have been very physical and quite entertaining. I look forward to rehearsals, and it's feel good to be able to say that. Tarzan is coming along. The cast is great, seeing improvements and people adding their own flairs to their characters. Trying to keep pace with the Producer duties. Not always the most fun, but it gots to be done.










Now onto the GOOD STUFF:
*I am now halfway through "Mockingjay". I spend an hour reading today, included 3 chapters (to make up for now reading yesterday. Will probably finish before next weekend. I am planning to watch the first two movies and do a full blog on them, either separately or together, depends on how the viewing goes. Trying to decide what series I want to start after the "Hunger Games". I may have to revisit Garth Nix's "Abhorsen" series or Margaret Atwood's "MaddAddam Trilogy".

*I submitted a story to Toasted Cheese's "A Midsummer Tale" contest. This goes along with my continuing quest to submit to online journals and e-zines. I haven't submitted a lot in the last two days, but after going through the NaPoWriMo sites, I hit about 15. Note:  I need to make a database of online journal for reference and visiting purposes. I have submitted to one/or more journal since 6/8/14, so I feel that pretty good. More to come as I hear the outcome of these submissions, and will submit to more over time. I have have two that have already declined to publish, but I knew that was going to happen. C'est la vie!

*Visited 4 blogs this week. Should have been more, but with my mood and stuff going on, I have so little time to devote to that. I am hoping for at least 10 this week or at least 2 per day (making the total 14).

*Edited a flash fiction piece. I extended it from 700 words to 1100 words, tweaked some ideas. It's not a dialogue heavy story, but I gave a bit more dialogue and more intention to the characters. It flows better. Send the same story out to a couple of Beta Readers. Looking for a few other Betas. That definitely what i need to get the editing ball rolling, some Beta Readers.

*Spend time outside in the sunshine!

*Keeping up with the housework still, so days the dishes get left, but nothing that terrible. The floors are clean and the dishes are done, even finishing the laundry (and this with my dryer vent clogged [either completely or just enough] until Wednesday). 

Tail of our boat

Dragon Boats

The OTHER SIDE of the COIN:
* I did not blog on Saturday. I could have, but I ended up editing the "Yacht Story" (yes that is my title of it). So, it's not a total loss. But I am still frustrated that I didn't get to the blogging. Well, there's always this week.

*I did some of writing, but nothing new story or poem. That needs to change. Need to write this week. NEED!

*I also realized that I haven't touched/worked on my poetry books in weeks. I am thinking that is a great goal for Round 3.

While it wasn't the best of weeks, I still think I have done a really good job working on my goal of getting published. It's not an easy task. I realize that I am going to get a lot of rejection letter before I get to the publishable level. It mean I have to keep trying. Keep writing. Keep editing. And keeping submitting!

Have a great week Dear Readers! I am planning so new things for this blog this summer. So, stop back and see me anytime or visit the Blog Hop of fellow writers/bloggers. I have a lot of fun things that I want to do and see that will be included in future blogs; going to the HUGH open flea marker in Avon, NY, visiting friends in Rochester and Buffalo, random adventures to new places with David, so stay tuned for exciting stuffs. What are your plans for the summer, now that Summer has arrived, Dear Readers?