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Happy World Poetry Day

In Absentia

Sometimes saying yes to drugs is the right answer.  So, where the hell have I been (you would be entitled to ask)?  1) In July 2018 the monsoon that tears through Arizona every year, literally ripped the roof off my condo in Phoenix. The roof was pealed back like the lid of a sardine can. The event  itself sounded like a freight train, then there were a few days of leaking and battling my irresponsible HOA, then there was the 8am Sunday morning collapse of a huge chunk of my bedroom ceiling - good times. That day my dad drove the three hours from where my parents live, helped me load up my dogs and crucial belongings, and I was out of there! It took until the end of October for repairs on the condo to finish, then I sold it to my lovely neighbors (whose roof had also been destroyed) in November - deciding I never again wanted to own anything where the maintenance was at the mercy of an HOA I paid every month but which failed to actually maintain the property responsibly....

Regroup: The Word for 2020

My word for this year should probably be obvious: Regroup. I have clearly dropped the ball of late. This site alone is proof of it. I thought I had a brilliant solution for keeping the posting here active by including any writing/reading/movie/story related assignment-produced content. Then I couldn't even keep up with that! But despite the lateness of this post, I intend to make 2020 the year I get busy on here again.

The Power of Babel - Reading Response 1

I'm now through the first three chapters of this fantastic book, and thought I would go ahead and share parts of my recent discussion post from the related class I'm taking (The Life and Death of Languages): I grew up in Southern California – the home of the no-accent accent. My maternal grandmother, who did most of my childcare, had a Massachusetts accent. I remember being sent for speech analysis in school one day, and while I was let loose once they determined I had simply picked up my grandma’s accent, it made me highly self-conscious of the way I spoke. I went on a mission afterward, to try to speak 'perfectly.' The focus, initially, was on the accent, but eventually my quest encompassed all aspects of grammar and vocabulary. I didn’t want anyone to ever again think there might be something 'wrong' with me for the way I spoke. Somewhere along the line, that desire to master all the 'rules' turned me into something of a grammar cop. I think I...

Review: You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life

You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero My rating: 4 of 5 stars Listened to the audiobook version. While some of the advice was stuff that could be found in any other self help book, some of it was wholly original and exciting. And the author fully owned that not every word she was communicating could be called earth shattering. But the best reason to read this book as opposed to others is the style of the author. Jen Sincero writes like your best friend telling you the truth. She writes without pulling any punches, in a straightforward vernacular, but with a perceived underlying concern for your well-being and self improvement. It's basically impossible not to listen. View all my reviews

Review: Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was assigned this book in my latest creative writing course. And, overall, it's a good read and a mostly helpful book. I admit some of it is redundant for anyone who has ever taken a previous course, or written anything of their own. But even when the subject being discussed was boring, the book often found a fresher take on it. We jumped around in the book, and didn't read the entire think in our 7.5 week course. I so liked what I read during the class that I went ahead and read the rest. Having done that, though, I can see why we skipped those parts. They didn't add much really. However, the parts we covered in class made up for that, I think, so I'm still giving this 4 stars. View all my reviews

Consolidation

I'm something of a compartmentalizer. I had a personal blog and a writing blog. I had a website to advertise my freelance writing and other marketable skills, and a separate site to talk about my fiction writing saga. I have a personal twitter and a writing twitter. I didn't want to "bother" people from one area of my life with stuff from another. Didn't want to bore personal friends with talk of writing, or posted poetry. Didn't want to offend fellow word-lovers with my politics, or bore them with monotonous check-ins to the same handful of places (I'd be depressingly easy to stalk if anyone were so inclined, lol). But I'm done with that. Maybe it's the New Year, or my new word. Maybe it's just my age showing - I am in my fuck-it-forties, after all. Maybe it was an article I read which said that having a website under a cutesy online pseudonym (like my qwertyKayt) is best if your 'brand' is talking about writing, while having a...