Reading Journal

I am loving, loving, loving the prose in the BCR. Except for maybe the fiction contest winner. But the last fiction and non-fiction pieces I read were both amazing!

"Accordian Lessons"
When I told one of my roommates that I really liked this story, she asked, "What's it about?" I realized that when most people ask that, they don't really want to know what it's about in a philosophical sense; they want to know what happens in the story. That answer is: not much. A youngish woman, living on her own, takes accordian lessons and makes an awkward visit to her mom and baby half-sister. Big whoop.

But the way the story probes into human nature is astounding! How this woman learns to shrink her bubble and get intimate with people she barely knows is almost inspirational. (FYI: by "intimate" I don't mean "sexual," although the end scene might be risque for the extremely conservative reader.)

"Changing Seasons"
The author of this should totally hook up with the fictional protagonist in "Accordian Lessons." They're like peas and carrots.

Again, this is a piece that explores the depths of human emotions and other such intangibles. If I could say this is "about" anything, I'd say that it's one man's perspective on growing older. A perspective that I thought, at first, was unusual, until I thought about all the people I know who I think would find themselves nodding and agreeing through the whole piece. Just like I did. Reminds me of the line from my favorite black and white movie: It's a Wonderful Life. "You were born older."

Writing Journal

Frustrated.

That's what I am right now. I'm feeling so motivated and more inspired to work on some prose. So why am I not? Partially because I want to really work on LHM, but that isn't available to me at the moment. Why is it not available to me? Because Adam has my computer, that's why. Why does he have my computer? Because he's a computer "doctor" and Lucy's in a coma. Has been for months. And he hasn't volunteered any information on how she's doing. And it's too late in the evening to ask him. He likes to go to bed early. Stupid smart kid.

Over a month ago, I came up with the ending for LHM and wrote it out on paper. I want it to be in place. I want to flesh it out, which I can't do very successfully with old school methods. The speed of my fingers on a keyboard is much closer to the speed of my thoughts than the speed of a pen or pencil in my fingers. If news is bad tomorrow (like he's tried and failed more than miserably), I may give up and type it out as a fake-out entry in this blog. That way I can label it, title it, save it and just not publish it. (It wouldn't be ready for external critiquing.)

The reason I haven't done that already is because I'm afraid of the hassle I wouldn't feel like going through when it comes to combining them......I'm making excuses again, aren't I?

Another reason I really want to write? I've got a new CD I want to try out in the writing realm. I've got high hopes for it. That's what I'll probably do tomorrow: clean the kitchen (that's my chore for the period, even though that hasn't been made explicitly clear) and write. Oh, and hit the bank so I know how much I can spend on tickets for Vancouver 2010.

Writing Journal

You know those poems you read in school and the teacher asks, "What do you think the author was thinking when this poem was penned?" Well, when students and other sources would come up with multiple possibilities for interpretation, I had a hard time believing they could all be applicable. How can someone write a poem that's about more than one thing? Sure, I believe more than one interpretation can be applied to something written, but how can they know that while they're writing it?

I still don't know how it's possible, but writing this poem helped me figure out that it is.

Official inspiration for the following, untitled hiaku, (which I define as my surroundings during the conception and development of the poem or other piece of writing) was a series of quotations I discovered while reading a little something not on my lit list. Feel free to assume whatever you like to regarding what this poem is "about;" I developed no less than three alternative interpretations myself, so chances are you could be right about something.

As always with my untitled work, feel free to suggest something.

Wrong falls upon my

Sinful head, then into your

Ever-loving hands.

Reading Journal

I finished "Circle of Friends." Amazing, as always. Didn't take very long, mostly because I spent the bulk of Thursday in bed with it. I had forgotten a lot about what happened, since it had been so long since I last read it. (About 5 years, at least.) But as I read, I started to remember more.

One of my managers at work saw me reading it and mentioned she liked that one, too. I saw her on Friday and told her I had finished it. She said she'd always wish Binchy had written a sequel to it, because she wants to know what happens with Benny and Jack.

Spoiler Alert

We both agreed that we were glad that Benny and Jack aren't together at the end of the book. But we disagreed about whether or not they would eventually get together later on. She thought they would, but I said I thought Benny was too smart for that. I think she realized what it would take to keep him around, and she wasn't willing to do that. It's not the kind of person she was, and she was too smart of a gal to go changing for the likes of him.

Spoiler's Over
I got my copy of this year's Briar Cliff Review last Friday. Ironically, I got it about the time I was visiting Briar Cliff, hoping to catch the Head Editor. Managed to catch the Poetry Editor, and I may mail some submissions out this August. Fiddle with "The Gleamer and the Thief" so it's either one page or two. It would drive me nuts to have it any other way. I'd also want to look through some of my poetry and find 2 more that I could submit along with it.

Someday, I'd like to write something on Calvary Cemetery and submit it to the Review. Something like that would be a prize for their Siouxland section. The only problem is I'm not sure what direction I want to take. The story of how I found it is rather interesting, but it's not really enough for a feature. Trust me, I've tried. I'd almost have to include all of the experiences I've had there to fill up two of their pages. (They use a pretty small font and single spacing.) Doing that would certainly provide me with enough challenges in terms of coming up with transitioning between those experiences, though. So many decisions to make with that project! Is it any wonder my sandwich book has been tabled?

I haven't read very many things in the Review yet. Just the Fiction and Poetry Contest Winners. Wasn't all that impressed with the Fiction one; it just didn't seem long enough. There wasn't enough there. The action happened much faster than I was prepared for, but the idea of it was nice. The poem was good, though. I really enjoyed the ending. Wish I had it right next to me to quote it, though.