Trending

There's a rebel lying deep in my soul. Anytime anybody tells me the trend is such and such, I go the opposite direction. I hate the idea of trends. I hate imitation; I have a reverence for individuality.
― Clint Eastwood

Just because a series is trending, it doesn't mean you automatically have to tune into it. Not everything broadcasted is healthy for the brain.
― Torron-Lee Dewar

Regardless of the popular literary trend of the times, write the thing which lies close to your heart.
― Bess Streeter Aldrich

I’m a sucker for trends. I don’t have much in the way of agency. I always want to try whatever’s popular.
― Izumi Suzuki

You know, when I came up with the idea of writing to the trends for this blog post, I figured it would be pretty easy. I should have known better when it was so hard to come up with quotes about trends in fiction. Sometimes Google can be your friend, other times Google can withhold its information until you word it just right. Hey! Maybe that’s an idea for another post. LOL

Let me ask you a question? Do you write whatever feels right to you, or do you follow the current trend?

Remember when Fifty Shades of Grey came out? Suddenly we’re seeing a glut of kinky billionaires who may or may not be redeemed at the end of the book. And Outlander’s popularity spurred a plethora of time travel romance stories set in Scotland.

Following the current trends may seem like a good way to break into a specific market, but do you really want to jump on an already crowded bandwagon? Trends will come and go. It’s probable that by the time your finish your novel, the trend will have already changed, especially if you’re trying to publish traditionally.

When you write your story, following a current trend, you’re limiting your creativity and imagination. You can’t let the story take you where it will because you need to stick to the scope of the trend. The stories you create are going to be similar to every other story written on the same subject. They’re no longer unique, no matter how much you dress them up.

Another thing you might keep in mind before following a trend is that if everyone is writing the same kind of novel, then the market will be flooded with similar novels. It’s going to make it that much harder to sell your own story.

Don’t confuse genre with trend. Science fiction is a genre, but climate based fiction with the doomsday clock ticking away is a trend. Romance is a genre, but bad boy motorcycle club based romance is a trend. Within each genre there are many, many choices. Don’t take your cue from the hot new trend of the moment.

Instead of focusing on what everyone else is writing, write the best version of your own story. By all means, keep the current market in mind, but make sure you’re following your own passion, not someone else’s. Who knows, maybe you’ll be setting the next new trend.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Last week’s word was definitely frustration.

Once again the week started out fine. I was starting out my day in my office, actually kind of getting into the groove of things, then it all seemed to fall apart. My buddy Jamie finds that Tuesdays are cursed, but my curse, apparently, is Wednesdays. No matter how well my week starts out lately, something always happens to upset the applecart on Wednesdays.

And no, it’s not because I’ve been babysitting my granddaughter on Wednesdays. Although it would be nice to have something other than myself to blame for it, this trend was happening well before school let out for the summer.

Sometimes it’s just Wednesday that’s the trouble, sometimes Wednesday is the precursor to the rest of the week sliding down hill, as it was last week. And the worst part is, not all the lists or organization or planning in the world can stop it.

All you can do is hit the reset button and hope that this will be the week you can make it through Wednesday. It won’t be the coming week though, because the week ahead has a butt load of stuff going on. But one of these weeks.

NEW WORDS:
1849+885+339+731=3,804
DOWN 363 – words from last week

I’m still getting my posts done earlier, well, Monday and Wednesday’s post anyway, but they just weren’t as long as the ones last week. It’ll be nice when I can finally add in some “extra words” but I’m thinking that won’t be for a while yet. I’ve been updating my journal on a regular basis and keeping up with my emails, but those words don’t really count.

The installments for Winter’s Child continue to be a bit problematic. It’s just that I’m finding it hard to write a winter-based story when we’ve been experiencing record breaking temperatures. Of course the heat is one of the reasons I spent more time in my office last week – it’s too hot to work with my laptop on my lap, even with the buffer of a lap desk.

Goals For Next Week:
Get my blog posts written (with everything else going on, it’s the best I can hope for).

EDITING:
0 hours

Editing? What’s that? Oh . . . That’s that thing that other writers do. :-)

I actually do want to start editing Elemental Spirit, enough so that even though I know it’s in terrible shape, I’m seriously considering printing out a working copy. Maybe I’ll be more inspired if I can actually see it.

Plus, it’s something I can work on when I’m away from the computer, like when the granddaughter is here. And I can have fun marking it up with some of my pretty pens.

Goal For Next Week:
Print out Elemental Spirit; start marking it up.

POETRY:
I’m glad I did my poemwork poem as last week’s form, because this week’s form, the Acronet, was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I always figure any non-rhyming poem is easier, but not when it has a strict syllable count. I found the fewer the syllables, the harder it was to write.

And I’ll let you in on a little secret. I think I spent more time on the Acronet than I have on any other poem I’ve written. But it turned out in the end, and that’s what matters.

There was a poetry gathering on Wednesday, down at the park, our summer meeting place. It was so humid I found it hard to breathe. Every part of me was damp when I got back home, even the pages I was reading from. And it was a little noisy, what with the crowds of people on the nearby beach and several games of volleyball going on. Is it really necessary to have boom boxes blasting while you play volleyball? So, the park is not really my first choice for a group meeting.

The town is looking for a new poet laureate, and the daughter suggested I run for the position. Unfortunately, I don’t qualify because I have yet to publish a volume of poetry. Guess that’s another incentive to start thinking seriously about it.

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

CRAFTING:
No stitch-in last week. I have to admit, I kind of missed it. But I did get that fold-out wooden sewing chest cleaned out, and hopefully the hubby will be able to repair it so I can put stuff in it again. And I got the two sundresses altered, which was one of my goals for the week.

I was not, unfortunately, able to alter the new bathing suit I bought so it would fit. I think to do so I’ll have to take it completely apart and I need to figure out if it’s worth the trouble. For sure I’m in the pool more this summer, and it would be nice to have a second suit to wear.

I’ve been making steady progress on the kit I started – I’ll don’t know what I’ll do with it when it’s done, probably offer it up for sale at our Christmas craft sale.

No progress on the zentangle sampler, but I did go to the Royal School of Needlework website and downloaded a bunch of instructions for some interesting stitches to use in it. I was thinking a few of the squares I could divide into four sections, and fill them with different filling stitches.

Goal For Next Week:
Continue on my samplers; figure out what to do about my bathing suit.

WHAT I’M READING:
I finished The Boy in the Rain, by Stephanie Cowell. And I’ve just started Stories With Bite, a collection of vampire stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

On the Kindle, I finished Stanton’s Sins, part of the Demon Squad MC Club series by Monique Moreau, and I’ve just started Puck’s Property, by the same author.

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

THE WEEK AHEAD:

I don’t know what to tell you about the week ahead. The son-in-law’s schedule changed so he’ll be working straight days next week, which means I’ll be babysitting straight days. I see much crafting and much pool time in my future. LOL

But this also means I won’t be wasting my evenings futzing around on the laptop, I’ll need to get my writing done after supper.

This is not going to stop me from printing out a copy of Elemental Spirit so I can start marking it up. Normally, this comes later in the editing process, but I really think this would help me get started on it.

I’d like to get started on the installment for Winter’s Child earlier in the week. The original short story went rather quickly, so I’ve been trying to slow the action down by adding more detail. But on the other hand, I don’t want it to drag things out and make it boring. If I have the time, I think it might be a good idea to create some kind of an outline, just to keep the pacing even.

My reading last week seemed to come in spurts. Feast or famine, don’t you know. This week I’d like to keep it to a steady pace, which is easy enough to do on the Kindle if I only read while I ride the exercise bike. I’m having a bit of a hard time getting into the vampire anthology, but I’ve never been a big fan of Doyle. I’ll stick with it though. I have a bad habit of buying books and then just sticking them on the shelf and I’m trying to overcome this. I have a stack of four books I bought recently, sitting beside my chair in the living room, and this book was one of them.

Once again my attempts at getting back on track were foiled. It’s like a car that you’re having trouble starting. It sputters, almost catches, and after several attempts it either starts . . . or it doesn’t. It’s up to you whether you persist, or you give up.

Despite the busy-ness of the week ahead, I’m going to persist.

Winter's Child - Part 7

Joseph had died in late October, and though snow fell the day of his funeral, it was just a light dusting, a promise of the winter to come. Fitting, somehow, James thought.

He’d put the picture Joey had drawn into his brief case, wanting it out of sight. Joey still didn’t quite understand that Grandpa wasn’t coming back, so he did what any father would do, he promised he’d pass the picture along. Just like when he came home he’d tell him that Grandpa loved it.

Now, in his office in the university, he took the picture out and held it in his hand. It was actually very well done, for a five-year-old’s work. Joseph would have loved it. In fact, he’d have been proud that his legacy was taking root in his grandson.

There was a knock on his door and his friend, Ben, came in without waiting for him to answer. “A few of us are getting together for drinks later,” he said by way of greeting. “Care to join us?”

James shook his head regretfully. “Can’t tonight. Maggie’s making dinner.”

“Foiled by the old ball and chain,” Ben said, clutching his chest dramatically. “What’s that?” he asked, gesturing to the paper James was holding.

“Joey drew it,” James said, turning the paper so his friend could see.

“Ah.” Ben took the page from him. He frowned. “Jack Frost?” he guessed.

“Nope, try again,” James told him. When there was no response, he said, “It’s a picture of one of winter’s children. He drew it for his grandfather.”

“Still having trouble grasping the concept of death, eh?” Ben handed the picture back. “Not bad for a kid though. You’ve got a budding artist on your hands.”

“Maybe,” James said, taking the picture and setting it aside. “Although if you ask him, he’ll tell you he’s going to be a hunter when he grows up. Like his grandpa.”

“Ouch.”

“Even when he’s gone, his legacy lives on,” James said with a sigh.

“Give it time,” Ben advised. “In a couple of months Joey will probably want to be a spaceman or a fireman or something equally exciting.”

“I don’t care if he wants to become a CPA, just so long as he doesn’t follow in dad’s footsteps.”

Ben snorted out a laugh. “Because the kindergarten classes are full of kids dreaming of being accountants.”

“You know what I mean.”

Ben looked at him solemnly. “I do. But I think you’re overly harsh in your judgment of your father.” He looked at his watch. “But I know better than to beat my head against that particular wall. I gotta go. Last one there buys the first round.”

“Another time,” James told him.

Ben sailed out of the room and James picked up the picture again. It was just a picture. It didn’t mean anything. Maybe Ben was right. Without Joseph around to keep reminding Joey of the stories, he’d soon forget all about them.

But had he been judging his father too harshly? He saw down at his desk and opened bottom drawer. Withdrawing the book he kept there, he set it on the desk.

“Do you want anything else before I leave for the evening?”

James jolted in his chair. “No, thank you Louise,” he said.

Louise was the elderly secretary he shared with Professor Richmond.

“Be sure to wear that scarf I gave you,” she said. “The temperature’s dropping. They’re calling for snow this evening. You drive safe now.”

“Thank you, Louise. I will.”

Dropping temperatures and the threat of snow. Joseph would claim it was the kind of weather that would lure winter’s children down from their mountain. He waited until he heard the outer door shut and then turned his attention to the book again.

He stared at it for a long time and then finally opened it up to the first page and began to read.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

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

Acronet Verse Form

This form was invented in 2008 by Patricia A. Farnsworth-Simpson, author of more than 30 books of poetry. And though I can find plenty of information on her books, the author herself remains elusive.

The Acronet is a cross between an Acrostic poem, and a Nonet. It’s comprised of two nine-line stanzas, making it a poem of eighteen lines. It has a strict syllable count: 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9. You can try to make it rhyme if you want to, but that’s purely up to the poet.

What makes this poem different, and more difficult, is the Acrostic part. The first letter of each line, when written in order, spell out a word or phrase. This can be a bit of a challenge, finding a phrase with exactly 18 words. I’d like to say finding the starting phrase was the most difficult part, but to be honest, the whole thing was . . . challenging.

The Nonet was the easiest of the three poems – I got lucky with it and wrote it pretty much in one take. The Acrostic poem wasn’t too bad either, especially considering I made it rhyme. But at least I didn’t have any limitations when it came to line lengths. With the Acronet, however, I found the shorter the line, the harder it was to keep it making sense. Whew! If you’re looking for a challenge, give it a try!


Chaos Is Raining Down

Can you feel it in the air tonight
heavy, like the coming of rain—
all the words left unspoken.
Often they will collect,
silently hiding
in the corners,
so quiet
restful.
Arcs
in
naked
ink swirling,
neon sounds with
glimpses of something
dervish-like corkscrewing
overhead, twisting back down
while the words of chaos collect,
never spoken, never written down.

What’s In A Name?

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
― William Shakespeare

Do you know why hurricanes have names instead of numbers? To keep the killing personal. No one cares about a bunch of people killed by a number. '200 Dead as Number Three Slams Ashore' is not nearly as interesting a headline as 'Charlie kills 200.' Death is much more satisfying and entertaining if you personalize it. Me, I'm still waitin' for Hurricane Ed. Old Ed wouldn't hurt ya, would he? Sounds kinda friendly. 'Hell no, we ain't evacuatin'. Ed's comin'!
― George Carlin

Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.
― Neil Gaiman,

I feel like I’ve written on this subject before, but I couldn’t find it in my archives so if I did it was long enough ago that I feel safe in repeating myself.

Do you have trouble naming your characters? Sometimes the name for a character seems obvious, but sometimes it can take a lot of work. In the very first novel I wrote for NaNo (where I only made it to 30,000 words), the lead character and her best friend were easy to name. The rest of the characters, however . . . I think the male lead character stayed pretty much the same, as did the bad guy, but the rest of the characters underwent several name changes and there are a couple of them I still don’t think are quite right.

But two years later I wrote a NaNo novel that was based entirely on a name that popped into my head. The name was strong and so was the character it was attached to.

Names play an important part of our identity. They give us a sense of who we are and our place in the world. So it only follows that they’d do the same for our characters. Would the Harry Potter series have been the same if he’d been named David Potter? Or Aloysius Potter?

You could have a lot of fun with replacing the names of famous characters. :-D

Naming a character can put you under a lot of pressure because you’re not just naming your character, it’s your readers’ first introduction to that character and they’ll make up their minds about him/her almost immediately. First impressions are important.

A name can convey background – I looked up Russian names for my serial The Pond, because it started out in Russia. Names can convey trust or misgivings, familiarity or contempt, warmth or coldness. They can be musical in pronunciation, making you feel a certain way.

You character names should be deliberate and memorable, especially your main characters. And don’t name your characters with names all starting with the same letter. You may think you’re being clever, but you’re really not. What you’re doing is confusing the reader. The only time this is acceptable is when a pair of characters deliberately name their children that way as part of their characteristic.

Names for characters can come from just about anywhere. I used to have a couple of 'what to name the baby' books, but now I go to name generators online. THIS ONE has an option for real names that is broken down by country. You can also find names in other books, reading obituaries or birth announcements, or wandering around in a cemetery.

Just remember to choose your names wisely.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Hmm, what word should I pick to describe last week? Disappointing – maybe a bit. I think a better word would be angry.

So . . . about four or five months ago I had a root canal. Or at least the start of one. The special dentist who took care of these things, did whatever they do to get the tooth prepared for the filling part, and instead of giving me a permanent filling, put in a temporary filling. A couple of weeks after that I saw a regular dentist who drilled out the temporary filling and . . . decided she couldn’t fill it because it was too deep and my gum started bleeding. So another temporary filling.

I still don’t understand how they could give me a temporary filling there and not a permanent one, but I guess that’s beside the point. Anyway, she said I needed to see a periodontist to fix my gum first. To make a long story short, I saw him on Tuesday, and I don’t know exactly what he did but I have a stitch in my mouth, I’m on anti-biotics and pain-killers, and I have to rinse my mouth twice a day with a medicated mouthwash.

Anyway, this is my long-winded explanation as to why I was unable to implement my master plan for getting my goals figured out this week. The anti-biotics make me nauseous and the painkillers make me sleepy.

NEW WORDS:
1928+827+488+924= 4,167
UP 624 – words from last week

I’ve been getting my posts done earlier, which makes me happy. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take advantage of all that extra time last week, which makes me sad. But my overall words are up. I guess I had more to say.

Goals For Next Week:
Get my blog posts written figure out my goals.

EDITING:
0 hours

I thought about editing, but that’s it. Maybe if I’d been able to spend some time in my office it would have been a different story. I’m thinking if I can break the task down, like I mentioned last week, it might give me more incentive to actually start editing.

Goal For Next Week:
Get to work on Elemental Spirit or some other piece that’s collecting dust.

POETRY:
I did the second of the two forms I need for reference purposes for this week’s poetry form. I actually got my poetry post done early, which is always a relief. But while my example stayed true to the form, I didn’t like it as much as last week’s poem.

This week’s form is already picked out, but I haven’t done more than the research on it. It’s a tad more complicated than I remembered, so hopefully I’ll be feeling up to getting an early start on it. I hope it lives up to its hype. LOL

Goal For Next Week:
Get the other form ready to share.

CRAFTING:
I was hoping to get the wooden sewing case I got from my father-in-law cleaned out so I could get it repaired, but . . . just one of the many things I didn’t get done last week.

There was a stitch-in at the library last week, and I worked on my sampler from the kit. I’m still thinking about where I’m going with the zentangle sampler. But Wednesday I had the opportunity to sit out on the deck for a while and I picked out the stitching I’d done on the sweet peas on the zentangle sampler.

Thursday my pioneer costume arrived. Not only does it fit perfectly, it looks great. The only problem with it is the zipper in the back. I’m not sure if they’ll let me get away with it or not. There’s still plenty of time to change it to an invisible zipper, or I could put buttons on it if I absolutely had to.

Goal For Next Week:
Continue on my samplers; do the alterations on a couple of dresses I bought several weeks ago.

WHAT I’M READING:
I am still reading The Boy in the Rain, by Stephanie Cowell. It’s kind of a sad tale, about a young artist and his older lover, written in a time when you could be sent to prison for being gay.

On the Kindle, finished A Hacker, Vampire, and Chimera Walk Into a Bar, by R.K. Munin and I’m halfway through a book that’s part of a duo that tricked me into thinking it was a paranormal because the title had something to do with dragons. Yes, I failed to write the title down when I started it, so you’ll have to wait until I’m finished before I can tell you what it is.

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

THE WEEK AHEAD:

Well, it wasn’t the weather that got to me last week, it was the unexpected dental surgery I underwent. Along with the medications and nausea, I’m supposed to stick to a soft food diet until my stitches dissolve – which they haven’t yet. They recommend foods like mashed potatoes, rice, and pasta, all of which I try to avoid because of my diabetes. I have avoided testing my blood lately ‘cause I don’t really want to know how bad it is. But that’s another reason I’ve been so tired.

I’m actually looking forward to finally getting into some editing, and I’ve started a vague goal setting plan of action for it. The whole story hinges on the prophecies, so I’m going to start with them. Nice to finally have a jumping off point, but I’m not kidding myself about how much work it’s going to be.

If I have any extra writing time, I’d like to try and get ahead in Winter’s Child. It’s been going smoother than I thought it would – I think it was always meant to be a longer story, not a shorter one. But I think overall it’s still not going to be as long as I’d hoped it would be.

There’s a meeting of the poetry group this week. I have my poemwork done but that’s all I’ll be sharing. I get tired of sharing forms, but that’s all I seem to be writing lately.

Gave no thought to the poetry book last week, in fact it slipped my mind altogether. I keep a hard copy of my poems in this massive black binder, but I’ve fallen behind in printing them out and before I can consider a book, I’ll have to update it. I do not relish the thought, but maybe I can get a start on that this week.

Reading hasn’t exactly been a priority with me lately, but weather permitting it would be nice to sit outside once in awhile with a good book. Well, in the mornings anyway. By afternoon it’s getting too hot to sit outside unless there’s a nice breeze.

Last week did not help me move towards getting back on track, but at least I didn’t slide backwards. It’s not much comfort, but I’ll take it.

Winter's Child - Part 6

The question, had his father’s death been his fault, continued to haunt James in the days following the funeral. Margaret tried, at first, to offer him comfort, but he would not be comforted. Even Joey’s enthusiasm about starting school failed to raise his spirits.

There was a part of James that blamed Margaret. She’d been the one so adamant about moving Joseph to the nursing home. Like the old man at the funeral said, Joseph had been born on the mountain. He’d always hated having to make the trip to town for any reason and would put it off as long as possible. His room in the nursing home had overlooked a garden, and while it was pretty enough, it was not the view of his mountain.

Of course there was another part of him that knew he was being unreasonable. The bulk of care for Joseph had fallen on Margaret’s shoulders. It hadn’t been fair – she’d already given up a lot to stay home with Joey, and then the stress of having to deal with Joseph on top of that . . .

No, he couldn’t blame Margaret, it was all on him. Maybe there was a part of him that had wanted his father out of the house too. Lord knew his presence had caused a lot of friction. It wasn’t just the care he needed, it was his influence over Joey. And he had very strong opinions on just about everything.

Pulling his attention back to the lecture he was working on, he checked his watch and cursed under his breath. Time to go pick Joey up from school. As agreed, once Joey started school, Margaret went back to working in the office instead of from home. Of course having Joseph stay with them had pushed that back a few weeks. They were fortunate she had a job where she could work from home.

And they were also fortunate to have several friends with teenagers they could call on for babysitting when the need arose. Like today, for instance. Margaret had a late afternoon meeting, and James had a lecture. He had just enough time to pick up Joey and the babysitter and drop them off at home before he had to be back.

“Hey, buddy,” he said, as Joey came running to him from the school yard. “How was school today?”

“Good! I can write my name!”

“That’s great,” James told him, hustling him towards the car. “You’ll have to show me later.”

“I can show you now,” Joey told him. He paused and started to remove his back pack.

“Sorry bud, it’ll have to be later. We have to hurry to pick up Christine.”

“Chrissy, yay!” Joey said, racing towards the car. Chrissy was his favorite babysitter.

He strapped Joey into his car seat and then fought the after school traffic across town to the high school where Christine was waiting for them.

“Hi, Mr. Preston. Hi, Joey,” Christine said as she slid into the car.

“Chrissy! I can write my name!”

“That’s cool, Joey. You’ll have to show me when we get home.”

James dropped them off, with the promise that someone would be home by eight. Then it was back to the university and into the lecture hall with ten minutes to spare. James pushed the guilt feelings over his father to the back of his mind and focused on his job.

Later, when the lecture was over and the students gone, the guilt returned. He’d moved on from feeling guilty over putting his father in the nursing home, to feeling guilty over the fact he and his father had lost the closeness they once had. He should have tried harder, made more of an effort. But he hadn’t even shed a tear for the old man.

“You don’t need to worry about giving me a ride home,” Christine told him when he finally arrived home. “My boyfriend, Brandon, can pick me up. We have a study date anyway.”

“Boyfriend, eh?” James teased. “What does your father think of that?”

Christine rolled her eyes. “He’s done everything but run a back ground check. But mom knows his mom so it’s all good.”

“Listen, I know it’s short notice, but are you free Saturday night? I promised Margaret I’d take her to dinner, and maybe a movie.”

“Date night, eh?” Christine asked with a grin. “I’d love to look after Joey – he’s dead easy to look after. And Brandon’s working anyway.”

“Great!” James heard a car and glanced out the window as an ancient Toyota Corolla pulled up to the house. It was a mottled blue and rust colour, and seemed to be held together with chewing gum and prayers. “I think your boyfriend’s here.”

“Bye, Joey,” Christine called. She pulled on her jacket. “See you Saturday night, Mr. Preston.”

James shook his head and went into the living room. Joey had paper and crayons scattered around him and he was busy working away at a picture on the coffee table.

“C’mon, Joey. Time for bed.”

“Just one more minute?” Joey pleaded. “I’m almost done.”

James moved closer. “What are you drawing?”

“It’s one of winter’s children. Do you think Grandpa will like it?”

Acrostic Poetry

You might remember doing an Acrostic poem in grade school, or maybe not until high school. It’s a fun little form that anyone can do.

The name comes from the Greek words akros, meaning “at the end,” and stichos, meaning “line.” Basically, you take a word or short phrase, and craft your poem using the letters in your word/phrase consecutively for the first letter of each line. When you’re finished, your word will appear vertically on the left hand side of your poem.

Here’s the one I wrote when I was in Grade 8:

Frost upon the window pane
Eerie winds along the streets
Blue-grey skies across the lane
Rosey red ‘most frozen cheeks
Underneath the snowy skies
And as thermometers go down
Returning once again, surprise!
Yes, you’re right, it’s Jack Frost’s frown.

Acrostic verse was once written on leaves used in prophecies, arranged so the initial letters formed a word. They can be found in Greek and Latin, and it was popular in Medieval literature, usually to highlight the name of the poet, or their patron. Sometimes they were used in a prayer to a particular saint.

You are limited only by the length of the word or phrase you are highlighting. There is no syllable count to worry about. You can write on any subject you wish. There is no rhyme scheme, unless you’re crazy enough to want one. If you want to make your Acrostic poem even more challenging, you can try writing a Telestich – where both the first and the last letters of each line spell a word or phrase. Do not expect to see one of these double Acrostics here. ;-)

Acrostic verse can be a fun introduction to poetry. Even well-known poets have been known to write an Acrostic poem or two: Edgar Allan Poe, Lewis Carroll, and John Keats, to name but a few.

I found it interesting that despite my claim you’d have to be crazy to write one that rhymed, my first example rhymes, because all of my poetry rhymed back then. And I guess that’s still my default, because I just naturally started to rhyme my example. Go figure, eh? And I’m cheating a bit with my example. The poetry group I belong to has monthly “poemwork” and this month our assignment was to write an Acrostic poem using the word FIREWORKS. So here it is.


Fireworks

Fireworks behind my eyes –
Isn’t interesting I see them still?
Reality fades from darkened skies,
Ensuing silence is so very shrill
Without the booming lows and highs.
Obligations we’ve yet to fulfill
Remain lost in their disguise –
Kaleidoscope dreams distill,
Spilling down like a cosmic prize.

Action Plans and Deadlines

A strategy is an action plan of what you want to achieve and how. It defines where you want to see yourself in the long-term and how you are going to use your resources, skills and competencies to achieve that.
― Pooja Agnihotri

Your action plan is your roadmap. It helps you get the wheels in motion, and it steers you toward long-term success: consistent, intentional practice. This is your path to creating and sustaining healthy habits that fuel you to keep going.
― Melissa Steginus

Dreams without deadlines are dead in the water. Deadlines are really lifelines to achieving our goals.
― Mark Batterson

A few weeks ago I talked about setting goals to “stay in the light” and I think it’s about time I came up with my plan of action for this. An action plan outlines precisely how you’re going to accomplish your goals. And as I’m figuring out my plan of action, I’m realizing that first I’ll need to better define my goals.

Simply put, a goal is a dream with a deadline. Not only is it a vision of the future, it’s a vision that is time-sensitive. And this is one of the things I fall short on. I have all kinds of lists of things I want to accomplish, but none of them have deadlines.

Without a deadline, your work is never over. The power of deadlines leads your work to completion.
― Thomas Vato

I find this is true. I tell myself that I want to edit An Elemental Spirit and get it out there, but because I haven’t set a deadline for it, nothing’s getting done. Look how long it took me to finish Magical Mayhem. There was no deadline, so there was no rush to do it.

Frankly, I’ve always worked better under a deadline, and you’d think I’d know this by now. Have to get my poetry post finished for Wednesday? No problem. Having that deadline helps me make it a priority. The granddaughter’s ball dress needs to be done by Wednesday so she can try it on? All it takes is working at it in stages and it gets done on time.

You know what folks? I think I’m having a epiphany here.

An action plan is useful for anyone who needs a step-by-step planning process. When you create one, you’re detailing exactly what actions you need to take to reach your goal.

Action plan for granddaughter’s dress: 1. Buy fabric. 2. Figure out pattern. 3. Cut material. 4. Sew bodice first. 5. Sew in invisible zipper. 6. Sew skirt. 7. Have granddaughter try on bodice to check fit. 8. Make adjustments. 9. Sew skirt to bodice. Done.

By breaking it down into these steps, I reached my goal. But do all goals need an action plan to accomplish them? I think it depends on the goal. Something like, “Write new poem by Wednesday” can’t be broken down into steps. I just need to sit down and write. But something like, “Edit Elemental Spirit” could, theoretically at least, be broken down into steps: create Ilezie prophecy; figure out journal entries from archival records; re-write beginning; edit the body of the book.

Maybe the steps aren’t as impressive as the action plan for sewing the dress, but they’re steps that need to be taken, and in that order. I’ve just been flitting from one step to another and back again, getting nothing done. I need to sit down with a calendar and figure out my deadlines. For instance, if I want the book finished to be released in the new year, then I have a six month deadline over all, which can be broken up into two month step-by-step deadlines.

While an action plan seems more conducive to big goals than little ones, I still need to start setting deadlines for my smaller goals. And I need to make a weekly writing “to do” list when I write this post because half of the stuff I say I’ll do on here doesn’t get done because I simply forget I was going to do it. Out of sight, out of mind. But a list, especially a list taped to my lap desk, would help me considerably.

So goals, deadlines, and plans of action. Guess we know what I’ll be working on this week.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
I don’t really have a word that describes last week. Roller coaster maybe? It was certainly up and down.

Even though I didn’t get much accomplished writing-wise other than blog posts, it was a fairly busy week. I caught up on a few things and made not one, but two batches of jam – haskap berries that I bought, and raspberries that I picked myself.

I squeezed my poetry post in between a road trip with my stitchery group and an outing with the hubby to go see the new Indiana Jones movie – excellent movie, by the way. And a most satisfying wrap-up to the series.

I spent an entire afternoon deciding which pioneer woman costume to buy from Amazon for another stitchery event at Lang Pioneer Village at the end of August. So many to choose from! My top two favorites were both made from 100% polyester. I wouldn’t have lasted half a day in either of them, what with synthetic, non-breathable fabric and my aversion to heat. But my third choice was a more reasonable 100% cotton and comes with a matching bonnet.

So . . . lots of stuff to keep me busy, but very little of it had to do with writing. Although I did spend an entire day in my office. I guess that’s progress.

NEW WORDS:
1600+879+229+835=3,543
DOWN 176 – words from last week

Still down a bit, but not as much as last week. The only time I felt rushed was for my poetry post because I had to squeeze it into a relatively short space of time.

I’ve been keeping up with my morning pages, but other than getting me into the habit of starting my day with 15 minutes of writing, I’m not sure they’re helping any. I’ve never actually read the book the idea came from, but I think I’m going to. Flipping through it, I see that there are other exercises as well. Couldn’t hurt, could it?

Goals For Next Week:
Get my blog posts written and maybe a few other words as well.

EDITING:
0 hours

So . . . I don’t know what it is with me and the whole editing thing, but I’m not taking it off my list because I will get to it eventually.

Goal For Next Week:
Get to work on Elemental Spirit or some other piece that’s collecting dust.

POETRY:
I did actually have my form picked out early last week, but it was a combination of two other forms I hadn’t done yet, so I wanted to do them first to use as a reference. So I started one of the other two forms, but I was taking too long with the example poem so I switched to the simpler of the two forms. Not only was I able to get it done with time to spare, I really liked my example poem.

Goal For Next Week:
Get the other form ready to share.

CRAFTING:
Getting the baker’s rack set up does not seem to be a priority with me because I never even gave it a thought last week.

My stitchery group met up at a home based needlework supply store last Tuesday where we spent the day sitting around a long table stitching and gossiping. I started working on one of the stitchery kits and ended up quite pleased with my work. I also managed to do a bit more of it during the week.

I left my sewing machine out after finishing the granddaughter’s dress, and I actually have the urge to do a little sewing for myself. Namely, a couple of skirts for the fall. I thought briefly about making my costume for the trip to Lang Pioneer Village, but I don’t think it would have been any cheaper than buying one. For sure it would be less frustrating.

Goal For Next Week:
Continue on my sampler and the kit I started. Maybe check out my patterns and material stash for possibilities.

WHAT I’M READING:
I finally updated my Goodreads and I’m 8 books ahead on my pledge to read a book a week this year. It would have been 10 books ahead, but two of the books I read I read previously – I knew they sounded familiar. ;-)

In tree books I read Legacy, by Nora Roberts, and I’ve made a good start on The Boy in the Rain, by Stephanie Cowell.

On the Kindle, I finished Black List, by Lynn Raye Harris, and I’m halfway through A Hacker, Vampire, and Chimera Walk Into a Bar, by R.K. Munin.

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

THE WEEK AHEAD:

I refuse to let myself be ruled by the weather any longer. So no matter what the weather is like in the week ahead, I’m determined to get some writing done. The day I spent in my office last week? It was pouring rain all day. So I’ve proved I can ignore the negative influence of the weather.

As well, I’d really like to at least get a start on some editing. I’ve been dragging my heels over it way too long, but it’s kind of out of sight, out of mind. I don’t have it right in front of me, so my mind just moves on to other things. Maybe I should try printing out at least a section of Elemental Spirit so I can’t ignore it.

This week’s poetry form is actually done, except for the example poem. And oh, gee, the example poem will also double as my poemwork for an upcoming poetry group meeting. Funny how things like that just work out.

But something else I’d like to start thinking about again, as far as poetry goes, is a poetry book. When I was at one of the poetry workshops at Writersfest, I made some notes about themes for a poetry book or two, and I need to look them up and maybe start going through my poems. And I just realized I forgot all about sending my invented form off for consideration. Guess that goes on the list for this week as well.

I tried to limit my Kindle reading to riding the stationary bike, and it mostly worked, but I got impatient to finish the book I’d been plugging away at all week. Then yesterday I wasn’t feeling well, so I started a new book on my Kindle and I was halfway through before I realized it. This week I’d like to slow it down a bit and focus on the tree book I started.

I may not be close to being back on track, but I think I’m at least moving in the right direction.

Winter's Child - Part 5

The weeks went by and summer slipped into early fall. Despite living with family, Jospeh was not getting better. He still refused to do his exercises, and he was starting to forget things. Everything but his stories about winter’s children, that is. Life in the Preston household was becoming increasingly strained.

He needed constant watching and it was beginning to fray on Margaret’s nerves.

“James, I don’t know how much more I can take of this,” she told him one night. “Joey was down for his nap today and I was working in my office. When I went to check on Joseph, he was gone.”

“Gone? What do you mean gone?” James asked in alarm.

“I mean he got up and left. Fortunately, he hadn’t gone very far, I could see him from the front porch, but I had a devil of a time convincing him to come back inside. He said he heard one of winter’s children in the woods and was going to find them.”

James ran a hand through his hair. “Jesus. I’ll have a talk with him Maggie, I promise.”

“Him wandering off isn’t even the worst part,” she continued. “He left the front door wide open. What if Joey had woken up early and gone looking for him? Or worse, what if he’d taken Joey with him in the first place.”

James gathered her in her arms and held her tight. “We’ll figure something out,” he told her. “It won’t be much longer before a spot opens up for him. And I can take some time off.”

Fortunately, a spot opened up in the Paradise Stream nursing facility a week later.

“I’ll visit as often as I can,” James assured his father. “And I can make arrangements with the facility so you can come visit for Sunday dinners.”

“Don’t do me no favors,” Joseph said bitterly. He knew the real reason he was being locked away like some criminal. It was to stop him from looking for winter’s children.

The room he was given was large and sunny, and overlooked a well maintained garden. It was filled with Joseph’s own furnishings to make him feel more at home.

“Just think of all the friends you’ll make here,” James said jovially.

“I already got friends.”

“Well, you can never have too many.”

Joseph just snorted.

“Charlie Rose is just down the hall, and Pete Sawyer told me he was on the waiting list too.”

“Charlie don’t have more than one oar in the waters these days,” Joseph pointed out. “And Pete cheats at poker.”

“I give up,” James said in resignation. “I’m going to go and let you get settled in. I’ll be back to visit in a couple of days.”

Three weeks later, Joseph was gone. He contracted the virulent strain of the flu that swept through the nursing home and never recovered.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. From the earth we were made, to the earth we return. Amen.” The preacher closed his book and the handful of mourners gathered at the grave site began to disperse.

James stood alone at the head of the casket. He and Margaret had agreed Joey was too young to attend the funeral and she stayed behind to look after him.

As the others passed by the large arrangement of roses, many of them pulled a rose free to lay on the casket before shaking hands with the next of kin. Final goodbyes were said to James Joseph Preston.

“Best to remember the good times, forget the bad,” advised one elderly man, as he passed by James.

“Old Joseph would’ve liked that preacher,” said another.

Several more passed with murmurs of sympathy.

“It ain’t right,” stated an old man with a long white beard. He shook his wooden cane at James. “You shouldn’t ought to have taken Joseph from his mountain. That’s what kil’t him. Sure as winter’s coming.”

James took an involuntary step backward as the man was hustled away by two of his cronies. He waited until everyone else, including the preacher, left the gravesite before stepping forward to leave his own long stemmed rose on the casket. A light snow began to fall as he turned away.

He was scowling as he drove away from the cemetery, wondering how many others felt the way the man with the cane felt. Was he right, had he killed his father? For certain Joseph wasn’t the same man after he was put in the nursing home, but there hadn’t been any other choice at the time. Peering up at the dismal grey sky he sped up. The snow was only going to get worse from here.

Nonet Verse Form

The origin of the Nonet appears to be shrouded in mystery. It seems to be a fairly new form, but no one seems to know who created it. The name Nonet is shared with the term for a group of nine musicians, so it’s suspected that its origins have something to do with music.

It is a poem of nine lines and each line has a strict, descending syllable count. The first line contains nine syllables, the second line contains eight, the third line contains seven, and so on to the last line, that contains one syllable.

It can be written about anything you wish, and it doesn’t rhyme.

The schematic is as follows:

xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxxx
xxxxx
xxxx
xxx
xx
x

I gotta admit. This was kind of a fun form to work with. And it allowed me to vent about something that’s really been frustrating me lately. ;-)


Phone

“You must upgrade your phone,” they told me
by which they meant “buy a new one”
so I did as I was told
and have had nothing but
trouble ever since
I hate this phone
and want my
old one
back

Missed Opportunity

We’ve all got a black book of missed opportunities.
— Jim Broadbent

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
— Thomas Edison

It may be that you've just missed a great opportunity that should have been your turning point towards the direction of greatness. What next? Go into your closet and learn your lessons; opportunity missed may not be regained, but new opportunity can be recreated with the will that have to work harder!
― Israelmore Ayivor

Well, my blogging break is officially over and I have to say it was a bit of a bust. I had expected to use my time to get my writing back on track, but alas, it was not to be. In fact, I was pretty darn busy with other stuff, so much so that I was sorely tempted to take another week. But seriously, I don’t think it would have helped. Maybe later in the summer I’ll take another week.

So what did I do if I wasn’t writing? I went strawberry picking one morning, and had to keep taking breaks because the humidity made me so dizzy I almost passed out. The strawberries were amazing this year, and I picked more than I should have. Rather than freeze them all, I made jam. Specifically, strawberry rhubarb jam and strawberry pineapple jam.

I spent several days working on the granddaughter’s dress for the Father/Daughter Disco Ball. Yeah. It was a bit of a disaster, and I’ll be devoting my Monday blog post to the gruesome details, with pictures. Let’s just say it was pretty disappointing.

And school’s out for the summer, which means we get the pleasure of the granddaughter’s company a couple of days a week. Because of her parents’ schedules, we only get her Wednesdays and Thursdays. She’s eight now, and pretty easy to deal with – playtime/crafts before lunch, swimming after lunch. Of course she’s part mermaid and if she had it her way she’d be in the pool as soon as she gets here and wouldn’t get out again until it was time to leave. LOL

I had lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while, but not as long as it usually runs because I also had the privilege of playing chauffeur, using the father-in-law’s caddie to take the son-in-law and granddaughter to the ball. She wanted to buy some strawberries so we went to a fruit stand (not the one I picked them at) but they were sold out. But they did have something called haskap berries, which we couldn't resist buying. I've never even heard of them before, but I'm still going to figure out how to make jam out of them.

The weather last week was hot and steamy, and sucked the energy right out of me. We were even running the air conditioning upstairs (it’s a separate unit) 24/7. The kittens didn’t like the fact I had the windows all shut, and in retaliation they jumped on the hose that vents the hot air outside on the upstairs unit and so it was blowing hot air instead of cold into the bedrooms, a fact I discovered just as I was going to bed one night.

Okay, of course they aren’t that devious. I’m sure it was an accident. Pretty sure, anyway. LOL

I also did a bunch of little things I’ve been putting off, but no writing. *sigh* Which was whole point of the blogging vacation.

So not only did I not get back on track, I wasn’t even at the right station.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
The word to describe last week would have to be – disappointing.

Well, seeing as I pretty much covered last week in the post above, I don’t have a lot to report here, do I?

I think the most disappointing part of last week was how much the weather got to me. Between the smoky haze from the fires still burning up north, the overall record breaking heat, and the humid, overcast skies that never made good on their threat of rain, my energy and motivation were pretty much tanked.

I did manage to keep up with my morning pages, although one day it was more like a mid-morning page, and another morning it was only half a page. The jury is still out on whether or not they’re doing any good. Most days I feel like it’s just a whinier, more extended part of my journal.

Seeing as I wrote no words last week, I’ll use the ones from the week before for my report.

NEW WORDS:
1895+543+385+896=3,719
DOWN 719 – words from last week

I think the numbers pretty much say it all. It looks like I was already on a downward slide as far as producing words went. With everything else I had going on last week, the chances are pretty good I would have missed a blog post or two. Or at least upped my stress over writing them.

Goals For Next Week:
Get my blog posts written and posted on time.

EDITING:
0 hours

Obviously, if I wasn’t writing last week I wasn’t editing, but I did think about it a bit. I’m thinking I should make a list of all the stuff that needs work, but then again, it would be a very long list and it would be both intimidating and depressing.

Goal For Next Week:
Get to work on Elemental Spirit or some other piece that’s collecting dust.

POETRY:
We finally had our poetry group’s business meeting, but one of the members (who arrived late) kept injecting personal anecdotes and pontificating on things that weren’t at issue, so the meeting ran rather long. I finally got fed up and left after two hours.

While I didn’t work on any poetry posts, I did do some research on three new forms, so I suppose that’s better than nothing.

Goal For Next Week:
Pick one of the new poetry forms to share.

CRAFTING:
Still don’t have my baker’s rack set up, but maybe this week.

The stitchery group is officially on hiatus for the summer, but we still meet unofficially at the library every other week. I’m struggling a bit with my sampler, a lot of it has to do with the thickness of the canvass I’m working on.

To make myself feel better about it, I ordered a couple of sampler kits from Amazon so I can try out the fancy stitches on a more appropriate fabric. And while I was at it, I also ordered a trio of butterflies to stitch that have one plain wing and one fancy stitch wing.

I spent considerable time planning and then working on the granddaughter’s dress for the Disco Ball, which as far as I’m concerned was a stupid theme for a fancy dance. Check out my regular blog on Monday for the details.

Goal For Next Week:
Continue on my sampler, check out the kits I got.

WHAT I’M READING:
My Kindle got a good workout while I was on vacation. I finished Justice for Corrie in the Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes series by Susan Stoker. Then I read Wild Side by Mari Carr, HOT Pursuit, HOT Angel, and HOT SEAL, by Lynn Raye Harris. I kinda think there was another Susan Stoker book in there too, but I didn’t write it down and I haven’t put any of them on my Goodreads page yet.

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

THE WEEK AHEAD:

To be honest, I don’t want to make too many plans for the week ahead because I think a lot of it will depend on the weather. Yesterday was less humid and more sunny, and we’re not supposed to get rain until about Wednesday, but you just never know. But I do know that if we get the overcast skies again I can’t count on my energy levels.

I’m determined to get some kind of writing done, other than blog posts this week. At one time I had a thought for a series of stories loosely based on the muses, and I had an idea for one that I barely started. So maybe I’ll see if I can interest myself in working on it.

I also want to get working on Elemental Spirit. This is starting to drag out as long as Magical Mayhem, which is ridiculous. I don’t know what my problem is.

Of everything, poetry seems to come easiest to me. It would be nice to get a couple of easier forms done up to have on hand so I can spend a little more time on a more difficult form. And I want to send my own invented form to a specific poetry site (which will remain nameless for now) that would get my form great exposure, if it’s accepted.

My stitchery group is going on a road trip this Tuesday. We’re meeting at a crafting store in another town to spend the day doing needlework. And probably pick up a bunch of supplies we don’t need. LOL

I used to only read on my Kindle when I was riding the stationary bike, but I’ve been reading on it A LOT lately. This week I’d like to try expanding my reading to include tree books again.

I feel like I’m further from the track than ever, but maybe this week I can at least find my way to the station.

Vacation Time

After careful consideration, I've decided to take a break so I can focus on other things this week. See you next Sunday!