Sunday, August 29, 2010

Microfiction Monday: Where Mean Women in Wine Aisles Go

Welcome to Microfiction Monday, at Stony River: a writing life, where a picture paints 140 characters, or even fewer.[Hate counting letters and spaces? Try Design 215's character counter, which will count for you as you type. Microsoft Word will count for you too, of course, as part of its word count feature under the 'Review' tab.] Here's this week's picture, and my story to go with it.





Satan cackled at his sign deception. Road to Hell = Coolville. Genius. Perfect place for mean woman in wine aisle and her cold black heart.

(To get my "woman and wine aisle" allusion, you'll have to read Susan's previous--and amazing--post. My apologies to the good citizens of Coolville, which I am sure is nowhere near hell.)

Have a great week everyone, and thanks for commenting. I look forward to visiting as many as I can.

Friday, August 27, 2010

More Poetry

As mentioned in an earlier post, my wife has been putting together a poetry compilation. I had the task yesterday of proofreading 100 poems. It was a feast of language.

Here's a poem that speaks to a dangerous writer's journey:

New Every Morning

Every day is a fresh beginning
Listen my soul to the glad refrain
And, spite of old sorrows
And older sinning,
Troubles forecasted
And possible pain,
Take heart with the day and begin again.

Susan Coolidge
(January 29th 1835 - April 9th 1905)

(Susan Coolidge is best known for the classic children's novel What Katy Did.)

Thursday, August 26, 2010

A Contest, A Contest, My Keyboard for a Contest..

Confession time. Dangerous writers have been known to be sucked into the maelstrom of the internets (only after finishing their day's work, of course.) I myself have been seduced by a number of contests during the nearly seven months of this blog's life. I won a copy of Epitaph Road (by David Patneaude) on Elana Roth's blog and a copy of Day One (by Bill Cameron) by guessing which one of the Trixie Belden books was Janet Reid's favorite.

Janet Reid runs the best contests. She tosses out five juicy words and you have to use them all in a story with an 100 word limit. I made the final four in her latest--so now I know what it feels to come close to the brass ring. (The prize was a copy of Vordak the Incomprehensible: How to Grow Up and Rule the World.) It looks like a hoot! I'll just have to grow up and buy a copy.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Microfiction Monday: The Secret of Novel Writing

Welcome to Microfiction Monday, at Stony River: a writing life, where a picture paints 140 characters, or even fewer.[Hate counting letters and spaces? Try Design 215's character counter, which will count for you as you type. Microsoft Word will count for you too, of course, as part of its word count feature under the 'Review' tab.] Here's this week's picture, and my story to go with it.




Bones was adamant. "Sir, if you wish to finish that novel, it's butt on chair. Or you'll end up like me: an unpublished buttless wonder."


You bet I'll be taking old Bones's advice! Have a great week everyone, and thanks for commenting. I look forward to visiting as many as I can.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Poetry of Saying Goodbye

Later this month, our church is saying goodbye to our very talented Minister of Spiritual Programs, Mary F. We're a funky church, a mix of Lutherans and Roman Catholics, and you can learn all about us here. Mary has been our Catholic minister for the past several years, organizing religious education and preaching at some services as well as doing a host of other things. She's moving on to join a program to become a hospital chaplain.

My wife is organizing a collection of poetry for Mary. Today, in the mail, a poem came from one of our older parishioners, Eileen, whose husband Leo died a couple of years ago. Atop the poem, someone has written "Dear Eileen--this poem speaks so of Leo's life. Such a beautiful man, such a life!"

It's a beautiful poem, profound in its dealing with loss and what one learns in this life. When I read something like this, I am humbled at the feat of great writing.

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfilment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what it's
name is, is
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will never know.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.


In Blackwater Woods
by Mary Oliver
What are some of the poems that move you?

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Microfiction Monday: The Knightley News

Welcome to Microfiction Monday, at Stony River: a writing life, where a picture paints 140 characters, or even fewer.[Hate counting letters and spaces? Try Design 215's character counter, which will count for you as you type. Microsoft Word will count for you too, of course, as part of its word count feature under the 'Review' tab.] Here's this week's picture, and my story to go with it.




In homage to Jane Austen:


After he won Emma's affections, Mr. Knightley became light-hearted. Not uncommonly he would go about his business dressed as a real knight.


(Could you have made it any harder, Susan? I'm rusty after a couple of weeks away, but glad to be back and looking forward to seeing what the rest of you come up with.)

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Another great Bookstore

One of the things I enjoy most while traveling is wandering into new (to me)bookstores. Our trip last week to Vancouver, B.C., was no exception. After an incredible Malaysian meal at Banana Leaf in Kitsilano, we wandered next door to Kidsbooks. It was large and bright and well laid out. And, being Canadian, it had a number of surprises. I think Canadians,for example, are more likely to carry books on unusual subjects written by Brits. (At least, I have never seen some of the following titles in a U.S. bookstore.)

Here's the list of books I found interesting:

Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace. (This & the following are by British writers, set in Africa).

Hacking Timbuktu by Stephen Davies

More Brits, whom I have heard of:

Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson

Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud (author of my beloved Bartimaeus Trilogy)

Two Canadians, who sound fun:

Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen

Neil Flambe and the Marco Polo Murders by Kevin Sylvester

Finally, two Americans who were getting some play in the store displays:

Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai

Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation by Matt Myklusch

What is it about these books that made them so compelling to me?

  • Oftentimes, it was the title; Hacking Timbuktu; Shooting Kabul; Word Nerd; Neil Flambe! Me, oh my-oh!!

  • The cover art. If a book's cover was yellow, red or blue and it was facing me on the shelf, my eye was arrested by it. Out of Shadows and Jack Blank are two cases of this.





  • If I was familiar with the author's name. I loved the Bartimaeus trilogy by Stroud, so I was duty bound to pick up this book. As for Winterson, I heard of her in the 80s with such titles as Oranges are Not the Only Fruit and Written on the Body. Tanglewreck also has a great cover. I had to pick it up to see what she was doing as a children's writer.

I guess I'm a contrarian, but I'd much rather find and read some of the above books than the mega-bestsellers who suck up all the air. How do you choose the books you're interested in reading?