The Kerf

The Kerf is an invented form, and the only information I could find regarding its history is that it’s attributed to Marie Adams. A Google search for Marie Adams came up with: Marie Adams, psychotherapist and writer; Marie Adams (on Goodreads), author of 77 books (a lot of them appear to be cookbooks); and Marie Adams (on Wikipedia), who was a gospel and R & B singer, noted for her work with Johnny Otis. Sadly, I’m pretty sure none of these ladies invented the Kerf.

This poetical form is written in four tercets, or three line verses, giving it twelve lines in total. It has a syllable count of 6-7-10 per verse, with a rhyme scheme a-b-c, a-b-c, d-e-c, d-e-c. I think a schematic would be helpful.

Schematic

xxxxxa
xxxxxxb
xxxxxxxxxc

xxxxxa
xxxxxxb
xxxxxxxxxc

xxxxxd
xxxxxxe
xxxxxxxxxc

xxxxxd
xxxxxxe
xxxxxxxxxc

You can apparently use any subject matter for your Kerf, but here’s an interesting tidbit of information. The term kerf also refers to the amount of wood removed by a saw blade and turned into sawdust. The amount of kerf depends on the thickness of the blade, and if you don’t account for the kerf, your cut will not be accurate.

I have to say, this poem was definitely harder than the ones I’ve been doing lately. But here’s a tip if you’d like to try it yourself. Choose the end word for the third line carefully, because that rhyme is carried throughout the entire poem and you don’t want to limit your choices.


nights growing cold and short
the winding down of the year
has begun, always before we would like

cool wind makes leaves cavort
around the forest menhir
the ancient sentinel almost ghostlike

in pagan times it would
be a time to celebrate
before the winter makes another strike

but folk lore of childhood
no longer has any weight
we just turn up the heat to counterstrike

Endgames

When you're passionate about something, you want it to be all it can be. But in the endgame of life, I fundamentally believe the key to happiness is letting go of that idea of perfection.
— Debra Messing

I intend, before the endgame looms, to die sitting in a chair in my own garden with a glass of brandy in my hand and Thomas Tallis on the iPod. Oh, and since this is England, I had better add, 'If wet, in the library.' Who could say that this is bad?
— Terry Pratchett

If there's not any endgame, we're in quicksand. We take one more step, and we're still there, and there's no way out.
— Richard Shelby

I published An Elemental Wind, the first volume in the Ardraci Elementals series, twelve years ago. The book I’m editing right now, An Elemental Spirit, is the end game, the final book in the series. And it’s both a happy thing, and a sad thing.

It’s happy because I’ve finally finished this five book series, and the story of the Ardraci Elementals is done. But it’s sad too, because An Elemental Wind was the first book I ever published, and now the story I started in that book is over.

I still remember being challenged to write a serial on my blog. And how I looked through my idea file for the idea I felt had the least potential to sell commercially. And how some weeks I’d struggle to get my serial installment done, and some weeks it would come easy. And when I got to the end, how surprised I was to have written a whole novel.

And then I realized it didn’t have to end there, there were three other elements I could write about. And so I started the next one, without having any clue as to what the endgame would be. I do NOT recommend this as the best way to start a series.

I think I was on the third book before I had the slightest notion of what was going on. I mean, I knew there was a reason the Illezie were looking for “the one,” and I knew they had created the elementals for a reason, but I was kind of vague on the why.

By the fourth book I had a better grasp of what was going on, but I was still unclear on how it was all going to come together. Then I started vacillating because there were two possible outcomes. Then it was taking too long to get started on the fifth book, so I finally took the plunge and used it for one of my NaNoWriMo runs. Which is how I ended up with three beginnings and a lot of garbage I’ll have to deal with.

But it’s a start. And now that I’ve started the first round of edits, I’m finding it’s not as bad as I thought it was. However, it really makes me want to re-write the first one so it fits a little more cohesively into the series. It’s not that it’s a bad book, it’s just that I wrote it without knowing what the endgame was.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. The original idea for the first book had nothing to do with elementals. It was about a woman from earth who, through a series of misadventures, ended up on a space ship. I do not remember how that morphed into the story it became, but when I started I had no clue that I would be creating a whole series about it. Hence, no endgame.

Will I be writing another series? Well, I already have. I wrote the Moonstone Chronicles at the same time I was doing the Ardraci Elementals, but in this case I knew from the beginning how it was going to end.

Going forward, I have several other book series planned. Do I know the endgame to them all? Um, no. But you know what? Not every book series needs one. If there’s an overall story arc that’s connecting the books, then yes, it’s helpful to keep the endgame in mind as you write. But if it’s an ongoing series of standalone books that share setting or character but can be read independently of each other, then there really isn’t an endgame, is there?

The series I would like to work on next involves shapeshifters. But here’s the tricky party. I have plans for four books (so far) in the series. Two of the books are more or less stand alone, but the other two are connected by story – there’s a shadow organization after them, and I only have a vague notion of their motivation.

But lesson learned. I won’t start until I know their endgame.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
The word for last week . . . frustration.

Remember how at the end of my last wordage report I had all these expectations for the week ahead, and I ended by taking bets on how long it would take to fall back into my old habits? One day. It took exactly one day before I started to backslide. *sigh*

In all fairness to myself though, it was a really craptacular week weather-wise. I didn’t mind the wind or the rain so much, but the days that were just dark and dreary and pregnant with expectations of bad weather (that never materialized) were the worst.

I did manage to work in my office a bit, and I always seem to get more work done in there. Go figure, eh?

NEW WORDS:
2,365+734+381+904=4,384
UP: 302 – words

Hmm. Every blog post except Friday’s serial installment was up a few words. The serial installment was exactly the same number of words as the week before. I couldn’t have been more dead on if I’d been trying to do that.

And despite the fact that I didn’t manage to take better advantage of the extra time I had because I wasn’t babysitting, I still think I deserve a pat on the back for what I did get done, given the weather was mostly grey and miserable. And can you say, HUMID? Oh, man. There were a couple of days when it was so humid you could practically swim just by walking outside.

I didn’t get my blog posts finished particularly early, but I did get them all up on time, and I didn’t have to stay up late to do it. So I think I deserve credit for that too. :-D

Goals For Next Week:
Try to get the blog posts done a little earlier; find some other writing to work on.

EDITING:
Last week – 15 pages
Total pages - 17

Finally! I’m making progress.

The beginning is a mess. Or should I say, the three beginnings. There are parts of the first two beginnings that have to do with a secret meeting that really serves no purpose other than to relay some information that I think can be worked into the story later on.

And the second half of the second beginning should be lifted out and reworked as a prologue. I remember doing a lot of research on gas giants for this particular section. It’s not just that I don’t want all that research to go to waste, it’s a good bit of foreshadowing for events that take place later. So it stays, just not quite in the same way as it is now.

And no, I’m not going to make sweeping changes for this first round of edits. Mostly I’m doing little changes that mark up easily, and making notes of what the big changes should be. I still need to work out exactly what the prophecy that has driven this whole series is, and what changes were made to it along the way.

But the good news is, I’ve made a good start on my edits.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep marking up Elemental Spirit.

POETRY:
This week’s form was also an easier one, and I had no idea I did it before. But I went with it anyway because that was ten years ago, and not only was the post itself completely different, so were the examples I wrote.

The examples were a little darker than I’ve been doing lately, but you can blame the weather on that. That’s just where my head space was last week.

I was not up to going to the poetry gathering last week, but I didn’t have my poemwork done anyway. I’ll go ahead and do it anyway, and I’ll include it with the poemwork for the next gathering.

Goal For Next Week:
Get a new form ready to share, update my big book ‘o poems.

CRAFTING:
Well, without the granddaughter here to spur me on, I got no crafting done last week. The closest I came was printing out a bunch of stitches from the Royal School of Needlework stitch bank to create my own reference book of stitches to refer to when working on my zentangle sampler.

It was going well until my printer decided it no longer cared to print double sided, so it slowed right down to a crawl and then just stopped. It printed single pages (eventually) and test pages, it just didn’t want to do double-sided. I did, eventually, finish printing them out, but then I had to go through them to make sure they all printed correctly. There were a couple of extra pages, and three missing stitches.

THEN it was suggested to me that instead of printing them I should PDF them and upload them to my reMarkable (which I still haven’t used). It would be so much handier, and take up a lot less space. And because you can make notes on it, I can add notes or tips for when I try these stitches. So thank you for that, Jamie , it gives me incentive to finally learn how to use my reMarkable.

I did not organize my jewelry supplies, nor have I figured out what’s next on my zentangle sampler.

Today I am at Lang Pioneer Village for another stitch-in with my stitchery guild. We don’t even warrant a porch with tables this time, they’re sticking us out on the village green. Thank heavens it’s supposed to be cooler, because I’m not sure how shaded it is.

And Tuesday the guild is celebrating World Embroidery Day (which I think is actually the 30th) by having a stitch-in at the park. But thankfully, it’s only for the morning.

Goal For Next Week:
Tie dye with the granddaughter!

WHAT I’M READING:
I finally finished Stories With Bite, the collection of vampire stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I gave it one big push, just to get it over with. The stories were more gothic horror than anything else, and vampires were only mentioned in a couple of them. And two of them featured Sherlock Holmes. I have not yet picked out a new tree book to read.

On the Kindle, I finished Rope Burn and Cowboy Not Included, by Em Petrova, and I’m ready to start Prowling Their Mate, by Tamsin Baker.

Goal For Next Week:
Find a new tree book to start reading – it’s not like I don’t have any to choose from! :-)

THE WEEK AHEAD:

The son-in-law’s schedule changed again, and we weren’t going to see much of the granddaughter at all. So I requested the pleasure of her company for Monday so we could do our tie dye. I haven’t seen the white cotton items I ordered from Aunt Martha yet, but I still have the aprons we can do. And it gives us a good excuse for a play date another time.

I’d still like to go through and prioritize my crafting, keeping in mind that Christmas is coming. I’m so scattered when it comes to crafts! There are a couple of things I have in mind for Christmas presents, and I really should be making them a priority instead of farting around with these stitchery projects (ie, the embroidery kits) that are just going to sit around collecting dust when I’m done. And I really need to get my jewelry making supplies organized because I want to get back into doing that as well.

I’m pleased with the progression of Winter’s Child. I’m getting closer to introducing the creatures, but I think there’s still more to be learned from the family journals James is going through. As Joey pointed out though, it’s not cold enough for them yet.

Well, I wanted to get a minimum of 10 pages marked up on An Elemental Spirit, and I managed 15. Just think what I can accomplish when I put my mind to it? While I am marking it up and making notes, this round is only going to be a quick edit to see where I’m at with it. After I got past the three different beginnings, I’m liking what I’m seeing. The human/elemental parts are going to be easy. The Illezie . . . not so much. But I want to keep up my momentum and try for 20 pages this week

Despite how much I was enjoying the Boot Knocker Ranch series on the Kindle, I managed to make the final two books last the entire week. Now I’m starting the first of a two book new series, and I’m hoping I can keep them to just two a week. And since I’m getting my romance fix on the Kindle, I’m thinking maybe I should look for something a little . . . less romantic for my next tree book. ;-)

I’m still a little disappointed that I didn’t make better use of my free time last week – an hour spent picking up the granddaughter isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things. As I said above, I did request the pleasure of her company for Monday, but then I don’t think I see her again until Thursday. And Friday is kind of up in the air at this point.

In other words, though Tuesday morning is spoken for, I still have Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday, and part of Thursday to work in my office and make some progress.

Mind over matter, folks. Mind over matter.

Winter's Child - Part 11

Armed with a fresh cup of coffee, James settled into his chair. Before opening the journal he’d been reading the night before, and stopped because he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer, he picked up the pad of paper he’d been making notes on.

Frowning, he skimmed over what he had so far. More deaths of people who’d wandered off well-marked trails during the winter, a few more vague descriptions of a small, white, devil-like creature, and three accounts of strange music being heard in the dead of winter, away from the settlement.

“Hi, Daddy,” Joey said from the doorway.

James looked up with a smile. “Hey, buddy. What’s up?”

Edging a little further into the room, Joey announced, “It snowed overnight!”

“Yes, I saw that.”

Another step forward. “Can we go out and build a snowman?” he asked hopefully.

“I’m sorry, bud, but I’ve got some work to finish up. Maybe later.”

“Okay,” Joey said. Shoulders slumped, he turned and dragged his heels as he left the room.

James stared after him. He knew just how he felt. How many times had he stood in the doorway of his father’s study, wanting to spend time with him? But Joseph was always too busy working on his obsession. The last thing he wanted was to become his father.

“Hey, Joey! Hold up a minute.” He set the notepad and journal aside. “Building a snowman sounds like a lot of fun.”

“Really?”

Joey’s bright, hopeful look made James feel a little ashamed. He really had been spending too much time holed up in his office.

“Let’s see just how big a snowman we can build,” he said, joining his son in the doorway.

“All right!” Joey yelled, fist pumping in the air. He practically bounced down the hall, leading the way to the back door.

The next couple of hours went a long way to assuaging James’s conscience. The fresh air was invigorating and Joey’s laughter was infectious. The accumulation of snow wasn’t huge, but it was enough for them to make a modest snowman.

“They won’t be here yet,” Joey said, as they stood back to admire their work.

“Who won’t be, buddy?”

“Winter’s children. It’s not cold enough yet.”

James opened his mouth, then shut it again. If he was honest with himself, he’d have to admit that more than once he’d scanned the surrounding woods, on the alert for anything strange. Joey was one observant little boy.

“C’mon,” he said. “Let’s go inside. I hear a cup of hot cocoa calling me.”

“With little marshmallows?”

“With little marshmallows,” James agreed.

They went inside and Maggie made them their hot chocolate. When they were done, Joey decided he wanted to make a snow fort out of his LEGO. James hesitated, watching him for a moment and thinking about what he’d said outside.

From all accounts what Joey said was true, the creatures needed the cold before they’d make an appearance. He wondered what other information Joseph had shared with him. Maggie nudged him with her hip.

“Go on,” she told him. “He’s going to be asleep before the first wall goes up.”

“I know, I just—”

“Yeah, yeah,” she teased. “Just go and finish reading those journals, and then maybe you can put it all behind you.”

“You’re the best,” he told her, giving her a kiss on the head.

He went back to his study and settled into his chair again. Picking up the pad of paper, he made a note about temperatures. It was something he hadn’t really considered before, but there had never been any sightings of the creatures in anything but the snow.

Yes, his father called them Winter’s Children, but where did they go when it wasn’t winter? He wondered if Joey knew. He took the notepad with him out to the living room, and had to smile. It was just as Maggie had said. Joey was curled up on the floor beside a pile of LEGO, a single wall just starting to take shape.

His questions could wait for another day. Maybe his questions would be answered in the remaining journals, Joseph had to have got the information from somewhere. He made a move towards Joey, but Maggie stopped him.

“Just leave him,” she said in a loud whisper. “He’ll probably only sleep for about half an hour and then he’ll finish his fort without missing a beat.”

“All right,” James said. “You know where I’ll be if you need me for anything.”

“Supper’s at six,” Maggie reminded him. “And I’m not keeping it warm for you this time.”

“Yes, ma’am.” James went back to the journals eagerly, with something new to keep an eye out for.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Missed an installment? Catch up here:
Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,  Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10,

Shadorma Verse Form

I knew this form sounded familiar – apparently I shared this back in 2010. *sigh* However, seeing as I’ve already finished my post, and my example is totally different, I’m going ahead with it anyway.

Credit for the invention of the Shadorma is given to James Neill Northe, although I’ve also seen it cited as a Spanish form, so you can take your pick of its origins. But even those who cite it as Spanish admit to a lack of hard evidence for this. At any rate, this is a rather simple, syllable based form.

This form is a hexastich, or verse of six lines and you can have as many, or as few, verses to your poem as you wish. There is no rhyme, but the syllable count is 3-5-3-3-7-5 for a total of 26 syllables. The subject can be anything you wish.

Schematic:

xxx
xxxxx
xxx
xxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxx


Like I said, pretty easy, right? If you think about it, it’s just nine more syllables than a haiku. My examples are a little on the darker side, but that’s just the way they came out.


Darkness

There is a
darkness gathering
seeping in
through the cracks
in reality and I
am sorely afraid.

The darkness
is not just in the
lack of light
but in the
soul as well, and I do not
think the candle’s flame

however
brightly it flickers
can hold back
this darkness
when the shadows of the soul
seethe and curl inside

I do not
know its source nor how
to battle
such a foe
I can only wait it out
and pray for a light.


Anxiety

It strikes me
sans any warning
taking me
unawares
stealing my breath and making
my pulse leap forward

it lingers
in spite of my best
efforts to
hold it back
I breathe, in and
out, slowly
until it is done

with any
luck, no one suspects
that I have
just had an
anxiety attack and
fought it back again.

In the Dark

Electricity is the power that causes all natural phenomena not known to be caused by something else.
— Ambrose Bierce

With great power comes great electricity bills.
— unknown

So many power outages lately
No one wants to shed light on the matter
—upjoke

It’s Friday night and I’m sitting here writing this in the dark. It’s evening time and our power went out about 45 minutes ago. But one of the reasons I went with Lenovo the last time I bought a new laptop is the awesome battery life. Because I have no access to the internet (which sucks up energy), I have just over 7 hours of battery life. This is the perfect opportunity to get some writing done, don’t you think?

The thing is, I had already planned on working on my Sunday post tonight, because tomorrow (Saturday) we have a barbeque to go to that’s going to cut a big chunk out of my day, and I really wanted to get at least the first half of the post done instead of leaving it for the last minute like I usually do. So here I am, rambling away in the dark.

If I had any games on this computer, I’d probably play them instead of trying to get something constructive done (like this blog post), but this is supposed to be my working computer and the only games I have access to are through the internet. Which, of course, is down because of the power outage.

Okay, that’s a lie. I do have one game saved on my laptop. It’s called Nethack, and it’s old as dirt. It’s a single player game and the object is to work your way from room to room, fighting monsters and collecting loot, looking for the stairs that will take you down to the next level in search of the Amulet of Yendor which is somewhere around the 20th level. The graphics are really basic, but it’s still kind of fun.

The daughter’s been texting me as I type this. She doesn’t live too far away so her power is out too. She was complaining, whining, pointing out that they hadn’t had dinner yet – she’d been planning to do frozen pizza. So I told her to get it delivered, to which she replied that the data on her phone was glitchy and she was having trouble getting to the website to order.

My suggestion that she use her phone as a, you know, phone and call for delivery was met with derision. Apparently, that’s not what a phone is for these days. Anyway, she got through and got her pizza ordered. Looks like the outage is only at our end of town.

Wow, it’s really dark out there now. It was pretty overcast today, so the solar lights didn’t get to build up much of a charge. I’ve had to turn the brightness of my laptop way down – it’s the only light I’ve got right now and I can’t see anything beyond the screen. I should really go light some candles so it’s not pitch dark in here.

One of the cats is cuddled to my legs; I have no idea where the other cat is. She’s mostly dark in a dark room. If she’s smart, she’ll take advantage of the cover of darkness and she’ll be sleeping on the dining room table, where she’s not allowed to be. See? There are advantages to a power outage . . . if you’re a cat.

At least this isn’t the dead of winter, where it would be starting to get a mite chilly by now. And thanks to the storm front rolling through last night and the high winds we have now (which probably helped with the power outage) we’re not suffering from the heat. We haven’t needed the air conditioning on all day, and the wind coming in the deck door is nice and cool.

AND when I replaced my Kindle a year or two ago, I was smart enough to get a Paperwhite. Its lit up screen makes for easy reading, even in the dark.

Now, if the power would come on long enough for me to make a cup of tea, things would be perfect.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
The word for last week would have to be surprising.

It was surprising in that although it was another week of babysitting, I got my blog posts done super early. Even this one. Mostly. The installment for Winter’s Child wasn’t early, but I didn’t stay up as late finishing it as I did the week before.

The week actually went by fairly quickly and though I did spend a fair amount of time reading, I found that I spent way less time on games. This bodes well for the week ahead, don’t you think? And I spent a little time in my office, so hopefully that’ll carry through to next week too.

No company to distract me last week, but I did have a couple of social obligations – one was the stitchery luncheon, and the other was lunch out with a poetry friend. I was gone for most of the time the granddaughter was here the day of the stitchery thing, but apparently she and Grappy really enjoyed their one on one time.

It’s so hard to believe there’s only a couple of weeks left in August!

NEW WORDS:
2214+720+244+904=4,082
DOWN 108 – words from last week

I’ve been pretty consistent with my words the last couple of weeks. It seems like I’m staying within about a hundred words, either up or down. I think consistency is a good thing though, don’t you?

Yes, it really did help that I turned off the upstairs air conditioner when I went to bed last week. It wasn’t really cool enough (until Friday night) to sleep with the window open, but at least keeping it shut it took longer for the bedroom to warm up.

I forgot one night, and left it on, but that’s a mistake I won’t be making again. The quality of sleep I got that night was terrible. I was tired and had low energy (and motivation) for the rest of the day. Lesson learned.

I finally realized the secret to getting this Sunday post done a little earlier, so I’m not staying up super late Saturday night or scrambling to get it done Sunday morning, is to come up with a topic for the first part earlier in the week. Normally I do the wordage report first, and hope something comes to me. Some times it works, most times it doesn’t.

Maybe if I started working on some of those exercises I keep saying I’m going to work on, I’d have something legitimate to talk about.

Goals For Next Week:
Work on some exercises, get blog posts done early.

EDITING:
Two pages!

Okay, maybe two pages isn’t exactly exclamation mark worthy, but it’s better than I’ve been doing the last few months. Having the manuscript printed out and keeping it in the living room instead of in a pile of stuff on my typewriter really did seem to help. I managed to mark up those two pages pretty good while the granddaughter was focused on the exploits of Captain Underpants.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep marking up Elemental Spirit.

POETRY:
Another pretty easy form for the week. But trust me when I say it wasn’t a deliberate choice. I have a list, in no particular order, of forms with brief descriptions, and that one was the first one to catch my eye.

I almost went to the monthly poetry reading, but I wasn’t sure I could handle that many people. I’d already had one people-y event under my belt for the week, with two more coming up. I can only take so many of these things before they adversely affect me, and I’ve been doing pretty well lately so I didn’t want to take the chance.

In any case, I should have more time for writing this week, so maybe I can finally start updating that big book ‘o poems I have and start cherry picking them for the anthology I keep talking about. I’ve got to start somewhere, right?

Goal For Next Week:
Get a new form ready to share, update my big book ‘o poems.

CRAFTING:
I was all set to try the papier mâché on Monday, but it was kind of a slow day and the granddaughter wasn’t so keen.

Tuesday I had a potluck garden party with the stitchery group. I have to say, we’re a fun bunch of ladies. Of course there was a lot more socializing than actual stitching, but the rain that was forecast held off until much later. We had some guests from another couple of guilds and there were a pair of ladies who have a mobile stitchery supply trailer and did some brisk business during the afternoon.

I finished the floral kit I was working on, and started the next one (it’s a series of four). When I started the first one, I figured I’d offer the whole series up for sale at the Christmas craft sale. However, I learned at the luncheon that the group isn’t participating in the sale this year. So now what will I do with them?

Thursday I had everything ready for granddaughter and I to give the papier mâché a try. We squeezed as much water as we could out of the paper (that had been soaking in water for several days by now) and added the glue, and had fun squishing it around. However, the consistency wasn’t good and it was very clumpy. In other words, it was a bust.

But Gramie had a contingency plan. I’d bought some air clay, which was more like soft modeling foam, and we had a lot of fun making stuff out of it. She even convinced Grappy to give it a try. :-)

Goal For Next Week:
Organize my jewelry supplies, figure out what’s next with the zentangle sampler.

WHAT I’M READING:
I’m still reading Stories With Bite, a collection of vampire stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s really slow going, because honestly I have to be in the mood for something like this and I haven’t been.

I finished Pushin’ Buttons, the first in the Boot Knocker Ranch series by Em Petrova, and followed up with Body Language, Reining Men, and Ropin’ Hearts, also by Em Petrova. Now I’m about halfway through the fifth in the Boot Knocker Ranch series, Rope Burn.

Goal For Next Week:
Work a little harder at reading Stories With Bite so I can move on to something else.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

This week I no longer have babysitting as an excuse for not writing more. The granddaughter has day camp, so I only have to worry about picking her up when it’s done. And considering I’ve been doing better than I expected while looking after her, I have high expectations of what I can achieve this week.

I do want to organize myself a little better for crafts for us to do together our last week of the summer. Since we had so much fun with the foamy clay, I might try finding some regular modeling clay for us to play with. I already have another tie dye kit – this one using regular dye – and I’ve ordered some items online for us to dye. Hopefully they arrive by then.

And I really do want to prioritize my crafting, keeping in mind that Christmas is coming. I’m kind of scattered when it comes to crafts, which is why none of them get done. I’ve learned it’st not enough to be organized, I need to pick a craft or two and stick with it.

Winter’s Child isn’t exactly turning into a whole different story than it started out to be, but the focus has changed. It’s surprising me, to be honest, but in a good way. But I’m coming to a part of the story where I have a decision to make, which will have an impact on the rest of the story.

My idea of keeping my mark-up copy of An Elemental Spirit in the living room was obviously a good one, even if I only marked up two pages of it. I think for the first run-through I’ll continue showing my progress in pages, and with the second run-through I’ll switch to hours. In any case, I want to see a minimum 10 pages marked up this week.

It’s pretty obvious that I’m enjoying the Boot Knocker Ranch series on the Kindle. But I’ve halfway through the fifth book and there are only six in the series. Pretty easy to guess that I’ll be looking for a new e-book early in the week. So maybe it might be a good idea if I keep the e-reading strictly to the exercise bike so I can make some progress on reading Tales With Bite.

I feel like I made better use of my time last week, so let’s see if I can do even better this week. With the granddaughter in day camp for the week, I’m once again faced with a lot of time on my hands. Let’s see how many days it takes before I’m back to my old habits.

Bets anyone?

Winter’s Child – Part 10

James had mixed feelings when he opened the third journal of the collection. The one written by Josiah had not mentioned the devil-like creature again. However, the second one, that of Josiah’s son, Jedediah Preston, made no mention of creatures, but did make note of nine deaths, spaced out over five years.

Deaths were bound to happen, especially in the early years of a settlement, but these all took place in the winter. And in every case, it appeared the victim wandered off a well-marked trail and was eventually found frozen to death.

Snow began to fall outside as he began to read, an irony not lost on him. Joshua Preston, author of the third journal, was not as careful or as neat a writer as his father and grandfather. His writing was spidery, and a little harder to understand. But his accounts were far more detailed, and made for more interesting reading.

Again, it was mostly news about who was courting whom, which crops were doing the best, and whether the deer were more plentiful in the east or west of the settlement. But then he came across a passage that stood out from the others.

I seen her again. Winter’s just barely started, but I seen her deep in the forest where the crick turns, James read. She’s so tiny I thought she was just a young’un, and I called out, thinking she might be lost. But she turned, and I could tell she weren’t no child from around these here parts.

James took a sip from ever present cup of coffee, stone cold as always. That Joshua wrote that he’d seen her again, indicated he’d seen her once before. Had he missed something? Rather than re-read the beginning of the journal, he continued on.

She waved at me to follow, and I took a couple of steps off the trail before I cleared my head. I remember the walloping David and me got when we thought we heard music out in the woods. We’s was about to follow it when Pappy came up and caught us. That’s why I never said nothing about seeing her two winters ago. O’ course I weren’t sure I seen anything back then. This time I held onto my cross and started singing hymns to block out the sound of her singing.

Pausing again, James couldn’t help the shiver of excitement. This was the first mention of the singing that was supposedly used to lure their victims away. Why hadn’t his father shown him this passage?

He tried to recall what he knew about Joshua. There was something about him . . . Damn! He remembered. Joshua Preston was the one who went crazy. He flipped through the rest of the journal and sure enough, it stopped abruptly two thirds of the way through.

As he recalled from family stories, stories unrelated to winter’s children, late one winter Joshua went beserk. He was out hunting and starting shooting at shadows. One of those shadows turned out to be his brother Ethan, who died of his wounds several days later.

James threw down the journal with a snort. Of course. The first real evidence of these so-called winter’s children and the source was a crazy man. He’d almost fallen for it too.

He stood up and stretched, then walked over to the window. It was still snowing. That would make Joey happy, he thought. The kid loved going out to play in the snow. Just like his grandpa.

With a sigh he went back to his chair. Trust Joseph to take the word of a crazy person at face value. Reluctantly he picked up the fourth journal and started reading the account of Jonathan Preston. Soon he was lost in the past once more.

“James!” Margaret’s sharp voice interrupted him, making him startle. “Didn’t you hear me calling you?”

“Sorry, I guess I lost track—”

“—of the time,” Maggie finished for him with a sigh. “Well, you need to put it away and pick up where you left off tomorrow. Dinner’s ready and I’m not spending another night alone in front of the television.”

“I really am sorry, Mags,” he said, getting up and setting the journal aside. He went over and gave her a hug. “I promise, I’m all yours tonight. We can even stream one of those chick flicks you like so much.”

“You’d better watch out,” Maggie warned. “You’re in danger of becoming as single-minded as your father.”

“The only thing I’m single-minded with is getting to the bottom of my father’s fascination with this legend.”

“Just make sure it doesn’t become an obsession.”

James couldn’t suppress the shiver that went up his spine as he followed his wife to the dinning room. He wasn’t all that sure it hadn’t already started to.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Missed an installment? Catch up here:
Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,  Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9

Oriental Octet

The Oriental Octet was created by James R. Gray. Once again, my research failed to come up with much information about the form itself, and a search of the name of its creator gave me the choice of a Professor of Philosophy, or a Scottish educator, poet, and linguist who died in 1830. So you can take your pick. :-)

This poem is written as an octastich, or eight lines, which explains the Octet part of the name. And like most oriental poetry, it has lines of either five or seven syllable in the specific pattern of 5-7-5-7-7-5-7-5.

Schematic:

xxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxx

The Oriental Octet is unrhymed (thank goodness!), and should be written about nature. I have to admit that I really like the oriental forms, with their five/seven syllable counts. Even the invented ones.


Summer symphony -
the burbling of the fountain
accompanied by
whispers of the trees above
creating a sweet music,
causing the ferns to
dance while the earthbound lilies
only nod in time.


The squirrel races
up one tree and down again
always in a rush
leaping to a tree branch to
chitter angrily at the
cat that is sitting
between him and the feeder
newly filled with seed.

Pushing Through

The only thing a person can ever really do is keep moving forward. Take that big leap forward without hesitation, without once looking back. Simply forget the past and forge toward the future.
— Alyson Noel

Never give up. There are always tough times, regardless of what you do in anything in life. Be able to push through those times and maintain your ultimate goal.
— Nathan Chen

Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energy moving forward together towards an answer.
— Denis Waitley

Pushing through. Yup, sometimes that’s all you can do to make it through the day, or the week.

Last weekend my mood and ambition both tanked at the same time. It was a very unproductive weekend, and left me feeling discouraged. Monday I was feeling no more inspired, but I pushed through and carried on.

But one thing I didn’t do is beat myself up about it. Let’s face it, some days your motivation only stretches as far as the couch. And sometimes it’s okay to kick back once in a while. But the danger is when that spot of relaxing becomes way too comfortable. The idea of getting up and doing something productive has as much appeal as a root canal.

The thing is, no matter how much you’re enjoying binging that series on Netflix while relaxing in a near-slumberous state on the sofa, eventually you need to get up, dust yourself off, and get moving, preferably forward.

It’s not always as easy as it sounds, moving forward that is. But do you really want to stay in that unproductive rut forever? Of course you don’t. The longer you’re in there, the harder it is to get out of.

So Monday I pretty much forced myself to start moving out of that rut, and the more I did, the easier it became. By Tuesday all that was left of the rut was regret for the things I didn’t get done.

Stumbling blocks can come in many forms. It could be mental (like mine), a physical obstacle, a professional setback, a personal road block, or simply burnout. While it’s essential to replenish your physical and emotional energy, you can’t overdo it or you’ll end up back in that non-productive rut.

So what helps to push through, out of that rut?

Find your purpose again. What is it you were trying to accomplish in the first place? And while you’re at it, take stock of what you’ve accomplished already. Refuse to give up, both on the task at hand and yourself. Believe in yourself. It also helps if you’re able to keep a positive mindset.

With me it was the knowledge that if I didn’t do it, no one else would. No one else is going to write my blog posts or emails, or start planning meals. Sure, I could sit around doing nothing and feeling crappy, but what was that going to accomplish? Plus, did I really want to keep feeling like this? Coasting through life instead of getting things done. Of course not.

Successful people have learned how to keep going, even when things aren’t going well. They know that if you give up when things get hard, you’ll never find the success you’re after, whether it’s in business, writing, or anything else in life. They push through.

I’m not there yet, but I’m working on it.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Last week’s word is . . . perseverance.

Along with babysitting, I had my sister and her daughter and granddaughter come for a day. I learned long ago that the best way to handle company is to have all the food done ahead of time, otherwise you end up spending all your time in the kitchen. So figuring out what to feed people and then making as much of it ahead of time as I could was time-consuming.

Which means, once again I got very little writing done, with the exception of my blog posts. But the fact I’m organized enough to get that done in spite of all my time commitments lately gives me hope that I’ll be able to slide into the writing groove once summer is over and school’s back in session.

Could I get more writing done while babysitting? Probably. The granddaughter is pretty good at entertaining herself. But she’s not going to be eight-years-old forever, and once she’s back in school I won’t be seeing as much of her, so I don’t want to waste too much of our time together.

It’s all a matter of priorities.

NEW WORDS:
2229+793+235+933=4190
UP 305 – words from last week

Getting my blog posts done last week was a bit more of a struggle than the week before. Some of the problem was my mood, some of it was a sleep issue. It hasn’t been overly hot, like it was in July, but it was hot enough to heat up the upstairs enough to make it uncomfortable for sleeping. The air conditioning unit we have is out in the hallway, and while it does a good job of keeping things cool, it’s pretty noisy, which does not make for a good night’s sleep.

I don’t see a solution to this problem until the weather cools off, so it’s just going to have to be something I deal with. I’m not exactly sure how, mind you. But I’m usually able to muddle through.

I fell behind a bit in my getting things done early, so that’s on me too. I need to take my own advice on pushing through, although some days this is easier to achieve than others. But it is what it is, and as long as I keep moving forward it’s all good.

I did consider (briefly) taking another blogging vacation, but I get kind of antsy when I do that. I still want to do my posts. I suppose I could write them anyway, just to have some in reserve for a really bad week, but that seems kind of silly – if I’m going to write them anyway, I might as well just post them, right?

Goals For Next Week:
Get my blog posts written a little earlier.

EDITING:
0 hours

Still no good news on the editing, although that stack of printed pages has been calling to me. The problem is, it’s easier to just pick up my stitchery when the granddaughter is entertaining herself than those pages. Of course I keep my stitchery bag out in the living room, and my pages in my office, so it’s easier to access.

A smart person would bring the pages out to the living room, wouldn’t they? I guess it’s something to think about. It’s not like it’s a good copy or anything, so if a page or two gets mangled it’s no big deal.

And at this point, any progress is good progress, right?

Goal For Next Week:
Start marking up Elemental Spirit.

POETRY:
Last week’s form was a pretty simple one. So simple, I doubled up on my example again. The resulting poem was okay, but it sure wouldn’t win any prizes.

I’ve been thinking more and more about the poetry anthology I want to do. Once babysitting is off the table I’m going to pull out my big book o’ poems and go through it, maybe even update it with the poems I’ve done in the last couple of years.

I don’t know if it’ll make a difference to compiling an anthology or not, but probably 98% of my poems do not have the date they were written on them. Yikes! I’ve gotten better since I started posting them online – I save them in folders according to year. I can consult my blog to see what the date was I posted these ones, it should be close enough to when I wrote them.

I guess this is something else I could be plugging away at in my spare time. You know, when school starts up and I have spare time again. :-)

Goal For Next Week:
Get a new form ready to share.

CRAFTING:
It was a kind of meh week last week and we didn’t really do much in the way of crafts. I did offer to get another ice tie dye kit to use on some aprons I have, but was met with a luke warm response. LOL

Crafts can be fun, but you can also get tired of it after a while, so last week we kind of took a break. But we still have papier mâché we haven’t tried. I don’t get a newspaper, but I saw online a recipe for making kind of a paper clay using shredded paper, water, and glue. It sounds pretty messy, but I think it will be fun. No worse than doing it one strip at a time.

And maybe we can give jewelry making another try too – who doesn’t like jewelry?

Her interest in stitchery petered out pretty quickly. I’m thinking I should have given her a felt square to practice on first. Her stitches are a little inconsistent in size, and while I assure her it doesn’t have to be perfect, some of them are really all over there. I sewed a line of red, just as a guide line, partway around the edge of the blanket. I’m hoping by the time she gets to the end of it she’ll have a better idea of how big the stitches should be. If not, I’ll just extend the guideline around the rest of the blanket. Three out of five days this week are supposed to be rainy, which is always a good day for stitchery.

One of those days we’re supposed to get rain is the day of the summer luncheon with my stitchery group. Doesn’t it just figure, when it’s being held in a garden?

Goal For Next Week:
Continue on my samplers; organize jewelry supplies better.

WHAT I’M READING:
It was a slow week for reading. I’m still reading Stories With Bite, a collection of vampire stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but more or less just one story at a time. It’s going to take a while I think.

On the Kindle, I finished Dragon Betrayed, by Ophelia Bell, the origin story for her Immortal Dragon series. Next up is Pushin’ Buttons, the first in the Boot Knocker Ranch series by Em Petrova.

Goal For Next Week:
Spend a wee bit more time reading.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

Once again my top priority is babysitting, which seems like a silly term to me, because the granddaughter is eight, so she’s hardly a baby. But once again, the weather is coolish and we’re supposed to get rain three out of five days, so it’s unlikely we’ll have much pool time. Well, not unless we want to court hypothermia.

I have a couple more crafts lined up – papier mâché and jewelry making, and I’ll see if I can revive her interest in stitchery again. I forgot about my idea of doing painted rocks last week. Weather permitting, maybe we can give it a try this week.

I’m kind of surprised at how much I’m enjoying working on Winter’s Child. The original version was squeezed into a 4,000 word short story, and I’m realizing it was always meant to be longer. I’ve been developing James’s character more, and I’m really liking him. At the same time, I feel kind of sorry for him, having to live with the influence of the stories all these years, and the unresolved conflict with his father. And since I know how the story ends, I’ll be feeling even more sympathy for him yet.

I think my idea of storing my mark up copy of An Elemental Spirit out here is a good one. With me it’s “out of sight, out of mind” so having it sit on the typewriter in a pile of stuff isn’t exactly in sight. Having it out in the living room it gets a better chance of being noticed.

I didn’t make as much time for reading last week as I’ve been doing. I find the Arthur Conan Doyle book slow going, but I’m persistent. When I finished the dragon book on my Kindle, I finally had to recharge it. So now I’m all queued up to binge read.

I didn’t make the greatest use of my time last week, but I’m holding steady on what track I’ve got. The end of summer is in sight, so I have until then to make excuses.

Right now instead of a train looking for the right track, I’m more like a boat trying to stay on an even keel.

Toot toot!

Winter's Child - Part 9

“James? Are you coming to bed?”

James gave a start and looked up from the journal he’d been reading, eyes blinking rapidly as they readjusted after being focused on the spidery writing. “Maggie? What time is it?”

“You’ve been at this for hours. It’s after midnight.”

“I—” He glanced down at the journal and then back up again. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I guess I lost track of the time.”

“That must be some fascinating reading,” Maggie said with an indulgent smile, leaning against the door frame of his study.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it fascinating,” James said, running a hand through his hair. “Or maybe it is. It’s certainly challenging. The ink is so faded in some places that it’s almost invisible. But at least the writing is fairly legible.”

“Learn anything interesting?”

“Well,” he said, putting a slip of paper into the journal to mark his place before setting it aside. “I learned that Josiah Preston wasn’t a great farmer, but he did make a fair living hunting and trapping.”

He stood up and stretched. “There was one interesting tidbit though.”

“What was that?” Maggie asked as he joined her at the door.

“It was the reason they settled this particular area.” He reached back and flipped the switch for the light, turning it off behind them.

“And?” she prompted.

He put an arm around her waist and guided her towards their bedroom. “The group he was with negotiated with the natives of the area for this land. They found out later this area was considered cursed or taboo or something. I’m not quite sure, the writing was pretty faded in that section. But from what I could gather, it was a win-win situation.”

Maggie frowned. “It doesn’t sound like it was a win for the settlers. The natives were usually respectful of the land. If they were willing to part with it so easily, something about this area must have spooked them.”

“It might be worth doing a little research on this area in general,” James mused.

“Look what I started,” Maggie said in exasperation. “More research!”

He grinned at her. “You’ve created a monster.”

“Just as long as you don’t become obsessed, like your father.”

Smile fading, James assured her, “Don’t worry. There’s no danger of that happening.”

James slept fitfully that night. His dreams were filled with shadowy figures dressed in Native American garb facing off against creatures built of snow.

In the morning, he was grateful that it was the weekend, and that Joey and Maggie had a play date planned with one of Maggie’s friends in town. He took his coffee into the study and eschewing the desk chair, made himself comfortable in the wing chair by the room’s fire place.

Late morning had him straightening up in his chair. He read the passage he found out loud.

“It is to my shame I have discounted the rumor that we are not alone in this place. It was easy enough to pass off the tales as the light on the snow, shadows being cast by the sun, snow devils cast up by the wind. But I have witnessed for myself a strange being, white as the snow. Truly a devil in shape and form. It was only a glimpse, but enough to convince me that the rumors might not be just rumor.”

James sat back in his chair. “And how can we be sure you weren’t hepped up on moonshine, Josiah,” he murmured. Something else he’d learned about his ancestor was that he was both a drinker and a brawler.

He decided he needed to take a break. Leaving the journal face down on his chair, he took his mug half full of cold coffee with him into the kitchen. Dumping the coffee into the sink, he refilled the mug with fresh coffee and then stepped outside onto the back deck.

Leaning his arms on the deck rail, he sipped the hot coffee and stared off into the woods. There had been a light snowfall the night before, just enough to cover the swath of grass between the house and the trees.

Idly he wondered what it would have been like to be one of the first white men to have set foot on this land; clearing the trees by hand, building a home. Josiah had written about the race to get the cabins built before winter, the abundance of game that had drawn them here in the first place. The second year they attracted more settlers and a real community had begun to form.

The things Josiah wrote about had seemed no different than records from other early settlers - the hardships, the rewards, carving out a life in the wilderness - the struggle for survival. What set him apart was the mention of the elusive creatures, the ones Joseph dubbed winter’s children.

For the first time in his adult life, James found himself starting to wonder if maybe winter’s children had a basis in truth after all.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Missed an installment? Catch up here:
Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,  Part 6, Part 7, Part 8,

Lyrette Verse Form

The Lyrette is a fairly simple form, created by Dr. Israel Newman. It’s a heptastich, which means it has seven lines. It does not rhyme, but there’s a strict syllable count: 2-3-4-5-4-3-2 respectively. Each line should end with a strong word.

And that’s pretty much all I could find out about it, or its creator. The searches for the form just kept coming up with the same information, and a search for the creator led to more poetry by him, and a rather lengthy article he wrote called "The Physiology of Consciousness and Its Relation to Poetry."

Schematic:

xx
xxx
xxxx
xxxxx
xxxx
xxx
xx

The subject matter is purely at the discretion of the poet. There was no mention as to whether this should be kept to a single verse or can be multiple verses – I saw examples of both in my searches, and one which seemed to be a double Lyrette. Guess which example I decided to try? :-)


I wish
upon a
falling star, up
high in the night sky,
watching as it
continues
until
gone.
But
wishes
are foolish
in this day and
age, because we all
know they do not
stand a chance
in this
world.

Time and Limits

You get to decide where your time goes. You can either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires. You decide.
– Tony Morgan

You must vie with time’s swiftness in the speed of using it, and, as from a torrent that rushes by and will not always flow, you must drink quickly.
— Seneca

Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!
— Tony Robbins

So . . . a few weeks ago I talked about the importance of setting deadlines, or goals, and coming up with an action plan to reach those goals. I also mentioned that I work better with a deadline, and what is a deadline if not a time limit?

The reason I mention this is because last week I found my writing time extremely limited and you know what? Not only did I not fall behind like I fully expected to, I was able to get my blog posts done on time, if not ahead of time.

Thursday especially was a good writing day. Knowing I had a limited amount of time to work on my serial installment, I was able to get it done (mostly) within the allotted time. Unfortunately, yesterday I had no such constraints on my time and I got nothing done (which is why this post is so late). And this is my problem. I am more productive with a time limit, but I suck at self-imposed time limits.

Take NaNo for instance. Every year I write 50,000 words (or more) in 30 days. Easy peasy. But it’s something I can only do in November. I’ve tried doing it at other times of the year, but I just can’t seem to work to a deadline I set myself. So what can I do about this?

Seriously, I’m asking you. I have no clue.

This is going to sound a little crazy, but part of my problem isn’t that I have too much to do in a given day, it’s that I don’t have enough. The less you have to do, the easier it is to put it off. Another part of the problem is that I’m a champion procrastinator. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? And when you combine the two . . . yeah, I think you see where I’m going with this.

Hmmm. Maybe I should be looking at ways to overcome my procrastination instead.

My old friend Google has been no help on this. I’ve searched variations on the theme of setting self-imposed time limits, and mostly what it came up with was how to over-come self-imposed time limits. Not what I wanted at all. And a search for setting a deadline just gave me various ways of breaking down a task into smaller components to get it done. Also not helpful.

I did find one helpful tool. It’s a website called Writing Timer. It is supposed to help you set and complete goals, and even gives you feedback and helps you create estimates on how long you should be taking.

Couldn’t hurt to try, right?

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
The word for last week is busy.

My son-in-law’s work schedule changed, which meant my babysitting schedule changed. My granddaughter is a pretty easy-going kid, but she’s only eight, and she’s pretty active (except when she’s being a couch potato).

We have an above-ground pool, and she swims like a fish, but the weather turned on us last week. There were a lot of raining/gloomy days and without the sun the pool was a little too cool for swimming.

Fortunately the granddaughter is good at entertaining herself (she gets her imagination from her Gramie) and she loves crafts. Sometimes, if she was doing her own thing or watching TV, I was able to get some stitchery done, but not any writing. You need to focus when you’re writing, and it’s just not possible when someone is talking a mile a minute, and expects responses. Did I mention the granddaughter was a chatterbox? :-D

So lots of crafts last week, but I still managed to keep my head above water when it came to writing, which surprised the heck out of me, let me tell you.

NEW WORDS:
1976+787+273+849=3,885
UP 81 – words from last week

I guess I had better focus last week, because not only did I manage to get my posts done, they were all finished early. Even my installment for the serial. And when I say early for the serial installment, I mean I wasn’t up late finishing it like I normally am. Last week I got the bulk of it done before lunch and only had to do some touching up later in the day.

But the extra time with the granddaughter meant no extra time to write other things, not that other things have been clamoring in my head to get written. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, when it comes to my writing, and I’m closing in on a time when some decisions have to be made.

I’m a writer, not just a blogger, but the last couple of years pretty much all I’ve been doing is blogging. Okay, yeah. I do poetry, too, but you know what I mean. So I’m going to have to do a little more thinking about this, and then make some changes.

When all is said and done, I’m pretty pleased with my words from last week, especially when you take into consideration my laptop had to spend some time at the computer doctor. The daughter gave me a list of websites (from the teacher) that were supposed to help the kids keep up with their French over the summer. One of them had a virus that required a professional to get rid of.

Goals For Next Week:
Get my blog posts written, maybe consult one of my writing books for exercises to do.

EDITING:
0 hours

I did get so far as to printing out what I have of Elemental Spirit, and I even remembered to number the pages first. I don’t normally put pages numbers on my manuscripts (although I probably should) and you have no idea what a pain in the butt it is if one of the pages end up out of place.

But that’s as far as I got. Now it’s sitting in the pile on top of my typewriter. :-)

I know I said I could probably work on it with the granddaughter around, but I worked on stitchery instead. Maybe this week.

Goal For Next Week:
Start marking up Elemental Spirit.

POETRY:
Last week’s form, the Waltmarie, was kind of fun. And because it was fun, and only ten lines, I did two examples. I was talking earlier about how I’m supposed to be a writer but all I’ve been writing is blog posts, but though I’ve been writing poetry too, it’s part of the same deal.

While I’ve been writing lots of poetry, but I don’t feel like a poet because all I’ve been writing are examples of various forms. They don’t really feel like my poems. I guess my once a month poemwork counts as extra, but still . . .

I can’t remember when I last wrote a poem spontaneously. I’ve written snatches of poems, one or two lines, but not an entire poem. Except as an example of a form. There’s got to be more to life than forms!

And I gave no thought to the poetry anthology last week. Guess that’ll be a project for when school is back in session.

Goal For Next Week:
Get a new form ready to share.

CRAFTING:
The granddaughter is a chip off the old Gramie block, so there was LOTS of crafting last week. I’ll be doing a post about it for the other blog.

Monday we spent the morning making jewelry, including a pair of earrings and necklace for the daughter. In the afternoon we switched to tie-dye. It wasn’t as messy as I thought it would be, but it was done with ice, which was just plain weird.

Tuesday there was a stitch-in at the library. The granddaughter was more than welcome to come with me, but she declined, choosing to stay home and torment her Grappy instead. :-)

Wednesday the granddaughter finally expressed an interest in learning to stitch (I think more because the reward would be a sewing box of her own). She picked out one of the two super easy kits I’d bought her, but her attention wandered so much while I was trying to explain it to her, I realized that wasn’t going to work.

So I let her pick a piece of arctic fleece from my stash, and showed her how to do a blanket stitch around the edge. She was enthusiastic at first, but her stitches were really uneven. She took it home with her (and promptly ran out of thread) and when she brought it back the next day her enthusiasm had waned. *sigh* I’m going to try basting a guide line around the edge and see if that helps.

Thursday we went on a road trip to the big craft store in Peterborough. There are rumors we’re supposed to be getting one here, but . . . One of the things I checked out were things to be tie dyed (should we care to try it again) but they didn’t have a lot of stuff to be dyed, and the kits were super expensive.

I did manage to get a fair bit of the embroidery kit I’ve been working on done. I might even be able to finish it this week. It’s the first time I worked with a kit, and I have to admit, it was kind of fun. I’ll probably end up offering it up for sale in the Christmas craft show – I don’t know what else to do with it. LOL

Did nothing on the zentangle sampler, nor did I work on the bathing suit.

Goal For Next Week:
Continue on my samplers; organize jewelry supplies better.

WHAT I’M READING:
I’m still reading Stories With Bite, a collection of vampire stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These are more gothic horror than vampire tales, but it’s still interesting reading.

On the Kindle, I finished Puck’s Property, and Whistle’s War, part of the Demon Squad MC Club series by Monique Moreau, and I’ve just started Dragon Betrayed, by Ophelia Bell.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep up the good reading habits.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

Still babysitting next week. I don’t know whether to hope that the weather warms up for swimming or not. The granddaugher is happy to do many things by herself but playing in the pool isn’t one of them. Still, it would keep her from getting too bored.

I’m not a big fan of pool time. Maybe I drowned in my last life. I don’t even care for baths. I like to be near the water, on the water (in a boat), and listening to the water. I just don’t like being in the water.

But I have more crafts lined up for us, and she’s pretty good at coming up with ideas herself. Maybe we can take a walk down to the lake to look for rocks to paint.

I think Winter’s Child the serial is longer now than the original short story was. I’m actually enjoying writing it – I’ve been finding out more things about the main character, James, which makes it more interesting. And I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of influence his father’s journals have on him.

With An Elemental Spirit printed out now, there’s no reason I can’t be working away at it during the day (before and after babysitting) and in the evenings. I read a bit of the ending, and it surprised me, how good I found it. LOL Time to get this puppy finished!

Again, my reading kind of came in spurts, on the Kindle at least. I’d start a book and it would take me a while to start getting into it, but once I did I’d hate to put it down. The Arthur Conan Doyle book, however . . . I’ll stick with it, but it’s written in a classic, gothic style and to be honest it’s not really my thing. And so far, there’s only been one mention of a vampire, so that’s a little disappointing.

I’m not even trying to get back on track while I have the extra babysitting. But I am kinda pleased that I’ve been making better use of my time.

Maybe there’s hope for me yet.

Winter's Child - Part 8

James carefully closed the book and set it on the desk. Sitting back in his chair, he stared at it, his thoughts in turmoil. Had it been written by anyone else . . . but it hadn’t. It had been written by his father. While he couldn’t say it had stolen his childhood, it had stolen all the years of his youth after his mother died.

He often wondered if his mother hadn’t died how different things might have been. Or maybe if she hadn’t died the way she did, if she’d died of cancer, or in a car accident, would it have made a difference to his father’s obsession? Unfortunately, the book did not hold the answers to those questions.

It was a well-written book, he had to give the old man credit for that. The facts were laid out logically, almost scientifically. There was no hint of the obsession the subject matter would become.

James had been around eight or ten years old when his father started writing the book. He wasn’t sure of his exact age, but he knew it was before his mother died. She was the one who encouraged Joseph to start writing the stories down.

At first that’s all the book was, a record of the stories that had been passed down from generation to generation. The same stories Joseph had told James, and then Joey. But then something inside Joseph seemed to snap after his wife died. He’d spend hours holed up in his study with the family journals, pouring through them, making notes.

Already feeling adrift from his mother’s death, twelve-year-old James had been confused and resentful at his father’s withdrawal. Friends, family, even the school counsellor had tried to tell James it was nothing he’d done, it was just Joseph’s way of processing his grief, but James knew that something wasn’t right with his father.

In the spring, the first one after his mother’s death, things seemed to get better. Joseph no longer went on his long tramps through the woods leaving James behind, admonishing him not to leave the house. He didn’t believe in winter’s children so he had no place in the hunt for them.

When summer rolled around James started feeling hopeful that whatever madness had gripped his father had gone. They went fishing out on the lake and hiking along the trails, pretty much everything they used to do. The icy ball of resentment inside of James began to thaw. But then came the fall. The days shortened, the leaves turned, and Joseph once more began to withdraw within himself.

Once, James tried to reason with his father.

“If those creatures are really out there, how come no one else has ever seen them?”

“They don’t know where to look. Those creatures are canny, they know to stay hidden. But I know the signs to look for.”

James, having developed a recent interest in archeology, tried a different tact. “If winter’s children do exist, why hasn’t anyone found any scientific evidence of them?”

“What are you talking about, boy?”

“There’s never been any bones found, like with the dinosaurs—”

“They’s a lot less big than an old dinosaur.”

“There’s been plenty of bones of smaller creatures found too,” James had shot back. “And there’s never been a trace of any city or village or anything. They have to live somewhere.”

Joseph had fixed him with his gimlet stare. “They live too far up the mountain for anyone to find ‘em. And should any of them perish below the snow line, they take their bones back up the mountain.”

James had given up after that. There was no reasoning with crazy.

When Joseph hadn’t been out actively hunting for the creatures, he’d been holed up in his study, pouring over the family journals. James wasn’t allowed in there, but he’d snuck in once when his father was out hunting the creatures. He thought maybe if he could read the journals for himself he could find something to convince his father to give up his wild goose chase.

Unfortunately, the journals were kept in a glass case. A locked glass case. James did a furtive search of the desk, but if his father kept the key to the case in the desk, then it was well hidden. And he didn’t feel brave enough to risk getting caught if he searched the rest of the room.

But now his father was gone, and the journals were in a box currently sitting in a corner of his home office. There was nothing to stop him from looking through them now.

Missed an installment? Catch up here:
Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,  Part 6, Part 7, 

Waltmarie Verse Form

Today’s form, the Waltmarie, was invented by Candace Kubinec and is named after poets Walter J. Wojtanik and Marie Elena Good.

This simple poem is ten lines in total. The odd numbered lines can be as long as you wish, but the even numbered lines are only two syllables, and actually form their own mini-poem when read separately.

That’s it. There are no other rules governing this form. You can make it rhyme if you want, but it’s not necessary and I’ve only seen a couple of examples that that do so. And you can make it about whatever you wish, there are no restrictions or limits on the subject of your poem.

I had so much fun with this one that I did two of them. Here’s a tip for writing your own Waltmarie – it helps if you start with the two syllable lines and then fill in the rest of the poem.


I close my eyes and try to sleep but
my dreams
elude me, and my inner thoughts
scatter
I don’t know what is wrong
and I
think that maybe if only I could
run to
dreamland, I might be able to
catch them.


The soft summer breeze is like
music
to my ears; an invisible orchestra
plays and
if you look carefully you can almost see
faeries
in the garden, amongst the flowers, as they
dance and
twirl in an ecstatic, joyous
revel.