Wendy Brown-Baez's Blog: Wendy's Muse - Posts Tagged "true-north"
It seems only days ago I was posting a complaint on fb about my neighbors installing their Christmas lights right after Halloween. "Can't we celebrate one holiday at a time?" I scolded. And now suddenly here it is the New Year with the celebrations of Solstice and Christmas behind us.
2012 is a hot topic as we wonder which of prophecies will come true. End of the World or just more technological and environmental changes? Crisis or transformation? Revolutions that are violent and bloody as Middle East protestors are gunned down or revolutions in mind-body-spirit that bring us to authenticity and truth?
The publishing industry is undergoing a revolution. More and more authors are taking the short cut of self-publishing rather than the long wait to have a manuscript accepted, then another wait for its debut, with the necessity to have a marketing plan, a platform, and a willingness to invest one's time and money into promotion in either case. I once had a manuscript accepted only to have the publishing company go out of business before the release date, thus needing to start all over to find another (and haven't yet). I just read one success story from a woman who made her manuscript into an ebook and sold 4 million copies within months. I also know that sometimes even with the best marketing strategy--the book launch which takes place at the best local bookstores and which includes other well-known local talent, the radio interviews, the review, the platform of readers and friends created over time, the previous readings--may still not come up to our expectations and the box of books seems not to dwindle down at all. The cost of magazine ads may not even fit into out budgets; even to enter the Minnesota Book Awards cost the equvilent of $150.
I believe 2012 will be a good year for me. The past year was both challenging and exciting. Healing from the right hip replacment, publication of my chapbook transparencies of light, attending the Austin International Poetry Festival, watching my dad's dementia worsen, the death of my son's fiancee from burns suffered in a gas explosion, the birth of my fourth grandson, a whirlwind of writing workshops and 14 appearances, one under a spotlight on stage and others as part of a group effort, are some of the highlights. It has been productive and horrifying, heartbreaking and uplifting all mixed together.
I look forward to the reading sponsored by Saint Paul Alamanc with the high school students from the after school writing workshop next Monday because I am so proud of them for showing up and completing the work despite their own challenges of young children at home, working and supporting themselves, or low reading comprehension, and yet taking the risk, diving into material that was not always easy literarilly and emotionally.
My favorite story from this past year comes from the writing workshop at The Aliveness Project, a non-profit that serves people with HIV or AIDS. One of the participants told me that he has joined a men's support group 6 months previously but had not yet contributed to the discussion or even introduced himself to the group. "I read the writing we did in the workshop to introduce myself," he told me. His story brought tears to my eyes. I know that must have been hard, and yet, what a wonderful way to break the ice! It is proof that writing together, self-reflective writing with a focus on healing, can have dramatic results.
I hope 2012 will be a time of inspiration as well as transformation: inspiration to use your talents, to show your support for others who may be struggling to get their work out into the work, cooperation and joyful exchange of ideas as well as hands on helpfulness and loving kindness. I am excited to enter this new year with some of my challenges behind me and with the strength to face those coming. But most of all with awareness that my dream of being a poet, a writer, a teacher is my true north and thus cannot but point me where I need to go.
2012 is a hot topic as we wonder which of prophecies will come true. End of the World or just more technological and environmental changes? Crisis or transformation? Revolutions that are violent and bloody as Middle East protestors are gunned down or revolutions in mind-body-spirit that bring us to authenticity and truth?
The publishing industry is undergoing a revolution. More and more authors are taking the short cut of self-publishing rather than the long wait to have a manuscript accepted, then another wait for its debut, with the necessity to have a marketing plan, a platform, and a willingness to invest one's time and money into promotion in either case. I once had a manuscript accepted only to have the publishing company go out of business before the release date, thus needing to start all over to find another (and haven't yet). I just read one success story from a woman who made her manuscript into an ebook and sold 4 million copies within months. I also know that sometimes even with the best marketing strategy--the book launch which takes place at the best local bookstores and which includes other well-known local talent, the radio interviews, the review, the platform of readers and friends created over time, the previous readings--may still not come up to our expectations and the box of books seems not to dwindle down at all. The cost of magazine ads may not even fit into out budgets; even to enter the Minnesota Book Awards cost the equvilent of $150.
I believe 2012 will be a good year for me. The past year was both challenging and exciting. Healing from the right hip replacment, publication of my chapbook transparencies of light, attending the Austin International Poetry Festival, watching my dad's dementia worsen, the death of my son's fiancee from burns suffered in a gas explosion, the birth of my fourth grandson, a whirlwind of writing workshops and 14 appearances, one under a spotlight on stage and others as part of a group effort, are some of the highlights. It has been productive and horrifying, heartbreaking and uplifting all mixed together.
I look forward to the reading sponsored by Saint Paul Alamanc with the high school students from the after school writing workshop next Monday because I am so proud of them for showing up and completing the work despite their own challenges of young children at home, working and supporting themselves, or low reading comprehension, and yet taking the risk, diving into material that was not always easy literarilly and emotionally.
My favorite story from this past year comes from the writing workshop at The Aliveness Project, a non-profit that serves people with HIV or AIDS. One of the participants told me that he has joined a men's support group 6 months previously but had not yet contributed to the discussion or even introduced himself to the group. "I read the writing we did in the workshop to introduce myself," he told me. His story brought tears to my eyes. I know that must have been hard, and yet, what a wonderful way to break the ice! It is proof that writing together, self-reflective writing with a focus on healing, can have dramatic results.
I hope 2012 will be a time of inspiration as well as transformation: inspiration to use your talents, to show your support for others who may be struggling to get their work out into the work, cooperation and joyful exchange of ideas as well as hands on helpfulness and loving kindness. I am excited to enter this new year with some of my challenges behind me and with the strength to face those coming. But most of all with awareness that my dream of being a poet, a writer, a teacher is my true north and thus cannot but point me where I need to go.
Wendy's Muse
what comes into my head is not always
what I expected
what I expected
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