Christine E. Ray's Blog, page 13
February 7, 2024
NPR’s Books We Love: He Who Drowned The World – Lynn White
stretched out atop the Moelwyn
in his favourite position
head on Mawr
feet on Bach
water pouring
from fingers
and toes
flooding the fields below
on its way to the sea.
Then one day I saw him leap
on to the top
of Nyth y Gigfran
right behind my house.
I watched him as he sat there
his face turned away
his water pouring
the back field
already flooded.
I think he would have to swim back.
But I have no way of knowing.
I will have drowned by then.
We will all have drowned.
Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud ‘War Poetry for Today’ competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and a Rhysling Award. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including: Apogee, Firewords, Capsule Stories, Light Journal and So It Goes. Find Lynn at Poetry – Lynn White and Facebook.
NPR’s Books We Love: Infinite Improbability – Lynn White
that enabled the discovery.
And once discovered
it could not be
undiscovered.
Nothing can be.
Now,
in the future,
another lucky accident
is enabling another discovery,
a means of calculating the probability
of everything.
It is something,
if not everything,
that we need to know.
Soon we shall probably,
or improbably,
know why.
Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud ‘War Poetry for Today’ competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and a Rhysling Award. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including: Apogee, Firewords, Capsule Stories, Light Journal and So It Goes. Find Lynn at Poetry – Lynn White and Facebook.
Daily Creativity Prompt: The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece
Every December, I take a deep dive into National Public Radio’s Books We Love list. Books are endlessly fascinating to me and NPR’s recommendations guide my holiday shopping as well as my To Be Read/ Listened To list for the upcoming year. I hope that these prompts inspire you creatively and encourage you to add at least one of these titles to your reading list for the upcoming year.
There is only one rule to this prompt challenge: the daily prompt should serve as the title of your piece OR all the words in the daily prompt should be integrated into your piece somehow.It is my honor and pleasure to publish your prompt responses on Brave & Reckless. I welcome poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and high-res original art inspired by the prompt.
How to Submit
Email your submission to her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.comWriting can be submitted in the body of the email or as a separate Word document or PDFIf you are submitting writing, please include a suggested image to accompany your work. Unsplash and Pixabay are two of my favorite sites for royalty-free images.Your email should include your name EXACTLY as you want it to appear on Brave & Reckless, a short biography (if you haven’t sent me one in the last few months), and any links you want shared.I will start accepting responses to the NPR’s Books We Love Creativity Prompt Challenge immediately, but I will not start publishing them until the day that particular daily prompt is published. For instance, writing and art inspired by the book title A Study in Drowning will be published starting January 4, 2024.
“Yes, this is a love letter to the movies. More to the point, it’s a love letter to the people who make movies. Tom Hanks is at his best when he’s breathing life into characters who, with a few exceptions, toil behind the camera: producers and assistants, drivers and hair stylists. There’s a humanity to this book that has always been Hanks’ greatest gift as an actor. Remember that scene in “The Money Pit” when a baby-faced Hanks is trapped in the carpet of his collapsing life? This book is like that: hilarious and tragic, ridiculous and heartbreakingly sincere all at once.”
— Cory Turner, correspondent, Education
February 6, 2024
NPR’s Books We Love: The Reformatory – Georgiann Carlson
there are no barred windows
no prison guards
or matronly evil doers
we are born inside the Reformatory
our minds are imprisoned
the moment we take our first breath
our gender decides how we will be
manipulated and used
our creativity is destroyed
our intellect crushed
our hopes and dreams
not allowed by the
status quo controllers
the government
the rich
we have not lived
a single day where
we were not being
conditioned and
brainwashed by
our culture
and those who control it
we have been lied to
rewarded and punished
by the guards
who are our neighbors
strangers
our teachers
our so called religious leaders
who all watch the grounds of
The Reformatory
keeping everyone in line
through violence
and cruelty
we are our own worst enemy
we are the judges of
each other
that’s what we have been
trained to be
so the government doesn’t
have to pay anyone
to keep us in line
we have been taught
to do it to ourselves
Photo: Pixabay
Feminist, Vegetarian, Bookaholic , Animal lover, Writer, Artist, Chicago native, and lover of the pigeons who live there. Coo. You can read more of my writing at Rethinking Life
Daily Creativity Prompt: The Reformatory
Every December, I take a deep dive into National Public Radio’s Books We Love list. Books are endlessly fascinating to me and NPR’s recommendations guide my holiday shopping as well as my To Be Read/ Listened To list for the upcoming year. I hope that these prompts inspire you creatively and encourage you to add at least one of these titles to your reading list for the upcoming year.
There is only one rule to this prompt challenge: the daily prompt should serve as the title of your piece OR all the words in the daily prompt should be integrated into your piece somehow.It is my honor and pleasure to publish your prompt responses on Brave & Reckless. I welcome poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and high-res original art inspired by the prompt.
How to Submit
Email your submission to her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.comWriting can be submitted in the body of the email or as a separate Word document or PDFIf you are submitting writing, please include a suggested image to accompany your work. Unsplash and Pixabay are two of my favorite sites for royalty-free images.Your email should include your name EXACTLY as you want it to appear on Brave & Reckless, a short biography (if you haven’t sent me one in the last few months), and any links you want shared.I will start accepting responses to the NPR’s Books We Love Creativity Prompt Challenge immediately, but I will not start publishing them until the day that particular daily prompt is published. For instance, writing and art inspired by the book title A Study in Drowning will be published starting January 4, 2024.
“It’s hard to dream up something more terrifying than real history, and Tananarive Due doesn’t try. Instead, she uses elements of the spiritual and supernatural to enhance a setting already dripping with horror – a reform school (based on a real place) where young boys are sent to repent for their youthful misdeeds. The book takes place in 1950s Florida, and the protagonist is Robbie, a young Black boy navigating racism and ghosts alike. But though the world he inhabits is often cruel and terrifying, Robbie’s story is also propelled by community, persistence, creativity and love.”
— Leah Donnella, senior editor, Code Switch
February 5, 2024
Daily Creativity Prompt: This Bird Has Flown
Every December, I take a deep dive into National Public Radio’s Books We Love list. Books are endlessly fascinating to me and NPR’s recommendations guide my holiday shopping as well as my To Be Read/ Listened To list for the upcoming year. I hope that these prompts inspire you creatively and encourage you to add at least one of these titles to your reading list for the upcoming year.
There is only one rule to this prompt challenge: the daily prompt should serve as the title of your piece OR all the words in the daily prompt should be integrated into your piece somehow.It is my honor and pleasure to publish your prompt responses on Brave & Reckless. I welcome poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and high-res original art inspired by the prompt.
How to Submit
Email your submission to her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.comWriting can be submitted in the body of the email or as a separate Word document or PDFIf you are submitting writing, please include a suggested image to accompany your work. Unsplash and Pixabay are two of my favorite sites for royalty-free images.Your email should include your name EXACTLY as you want it to appear on Brave & Reckless, a short biography (if you haven’t sent me one in the last few months), and any links you want shared.I will start accepting responses to the NPR’s Books We Love Creativity Prompt Challenge immediately, but I will not start publishing them until the day that particular daily prompt is published. For instance, writing and art inspired by the book title A Study in Drowning will be published starting January 4, 2024.
“This debut novel from the Bangles singer and guitarist follows Jane Start, a one-hit-wonder musician whose life is in shambles: Her boyfriend has left her for a younger woman, and at 33, she has moved back in with her parents. But her luck changes when she meets a handsome Oxford literature professor on a plane to London, and she gets an opportunity to revitalize her flagging career. Susanna Hoffs is a tremendously funny author; she writes with an amused gentleness that syncs perfectly with Jane’s frenetic, somewhat anxious personality. This novel is a winning rom-com and a charming valentine to music.”
— Michael Schaub, book critic
February 4, 2024
Relaunch of Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen
Kindra M. Austin, Nicole Lyons, and Christine E. Ray are known in the indie writing world for their love of cutting-edge literature, telling hard truths, and their support of emerging voices. These veterans of multiple writing collectives and small independent presses dreamed of an online writing community designed to encourage creatives to embrace their dark sides, experiment, push boundaries, actively engage with other writers, give and receive support, and be creatively inspired.
Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen (HLM) launched in May of 2019 to provide just such a space. For a year and a half, HLM published some of the best edgy and dark writing on WordPress, including several sharp and incisive collaborative pieces recently featured in Darker Objects (Indie Blu(e) Publishing, 2023). But life and lockdown happened, and HLM ended up on indefinite hold as Kindra, Nicole, and Christine focused on other priorities.
Christine has slowly become more active again on WordPress since the Fall of 2023, hosting multiple creativity prompt challenges, revisiting some of her back catalog, and starting to write new poetry and prose. The more time she spent on WordPress, the more she began to miss the synergy, support, and inspiration she received from her participation in such WordPress writing collectives as Sudden Denouement, Whisper and the Roar, Blood Into Ink, and Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen. As she was not successful in finding where ‘the cool, fierce, edgy writers are hanging out these days,’ she decided that perhaps she could help create that space on Facebook and WordPress by revitalizing Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen with a little help from her friends.
On Facebook, a closed, moderated Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen group has just launched. A community based on inclusion, shared values, and respect, the Facebook group is intended as a safe space where edgy, authentic writers can embrace their dark sides, share their writing, engage with other creatives, and give & receive feedback on works in progress. Here on WordPress, Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen is returning as an active literary collective that also welcomes occasional submitters. Interested writers can choose to be involved in just the Facebook group, just the WordPress collective, or both.
The Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen Literary Collective is currently recruiting both core members, as well as, featured writing from more occasional submitters who prefer to participate when the muse hits.
Core MembershipCore members of Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen are expected to submit two (2) pieces of original writing and/or art each calendar month for publication. They are also expected to visit the community regularly to respond promptly to comments on their own published work and show support for new posts.
If you are interested in being a Core member of Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen, please send an email to heretics.lovers.madmen@gmail.com with three (3) pieces of your writing (poem, prose, essay, script, short fiction, spoken word) and/or art you consider fierce and edgy. Your pieces may be previously published as long as you retain the rights to your work. Please include your name, your pen name (if applicable), a brief biography (300 words or under), and any social media and blog links you wish shared with readers. You are strongly encouraged to provide a suggested image to accompany each piece; however, we reserve the right to make substitutions if there are technical or creative concerns about the image.
Featured SubmissionsIf you are unable to commit to the requirements of a Core member, but would like your work considered for publication on Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen, please email your writing and/or art to heretics.lovers.madmen@gmail.com. You may submit up to 3 pieces at one time (previously published work is acceptable as long as you retain the rights) for consideration. Please include your name, your pen name (if applicable), a brief biography (300 words or under), and any social media and blog links you wish shared with readers. You are strongly encouraged to provide a suggested image to accompany each piece; however, we reserve the right to make substitutions if there are technical or creative concerns about the image. If your writing is accepted for publication, you are expected to visit Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen within five (5) days of publication and respond to any reader feedback.
Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen is a community based on inclusion, shared love of authentic creative expression, and respect. Bullying of any kind has no place there. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, antisemitism, Islamaphobia, classism, and xenophobia also have no place there and will not be tolerated.
Daily Creativity Prompt: He Who Drowned the World
Every December, I take a deep dive into National Public Radio’s Books We Love list. Books are endlessly fascinating to me and NPR’s recommendations guide my holiday shopping as well as my To Be Read/ Listened To list for the upcoming year. I hope that these prompts inspire you creatively and encourage you to add at least one of these titles to your reading list for the upcoming year.
There is only one rule to this prompt challenge: the daily prompt should serve as the title of your piece OR all the words in the daily prompt should be integrated into your piece somehow.It is my honor and pleasure to publish your prompt responses on Brave & Reckless. I welcome poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and high-res original art inspired by the prompt.
How to Submit
Email your submission to her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.comWriting can be submitted in the body of the email or as a separate Word document or PDFIf you are submitting writing, please include a suggested image to accompany your work. Unsplash and Pixabay are two of my favorite sites for royalty-free images.Your email should include your name EXACTLY as you want it to appear on Brave & Reckless, a short biography (if you haven’t sent me one in the last few months), and any links you want shared.I will start accepting responses to the NPR’s Books We Love Creativity Prompt Challenge immediately, but I will not start publishing them until the day that particular daily prompt is published. For instance, writing and art inspired by the book title A Study in Drowning will be published starting January 4, 2024.
“The sequel to 2021’s magnificent historical fantasy She Who Became the Sun continues its reimagining of Zhu Yuanzhang’s rise to power and the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu, the Radiant King, teams up with her former enemy General Ouyang as their goals of toppling the emperor temporarily align. Also scheming for power are the new Prince of Henan, Wang Baoxiang, and the ambitious Madam Zhang. Gender, power, queerness, sex and empire are explored in complex and sometimes shocking ways. This duology will leave you breathless.”
— Alex Brown, book critic and librarian
February 3, 2024
Daily Creativity Prompt: The Probability of Everything
Every December, I take a deep dive into National Public Radio’s Books We Love list. Books are endlessly fascinating to me and NPR’s recommendations guide my holiday shopping as well as my To Be Read/ Listened To list for the upcoming year. I hope that these prompts inspire you creatively and encourage you to add at least one of these titles to your reading list for the upcoming year.
There is only one rule to this prompt challenge: the daily prompt should serve as the title of your piece OR all the words in the daily prompt should be integrated into your piece somehow.It is my honor and pleasure to publish your prompt responses on Brave & Reckless. I welcome poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and high-res original art inspired by the prompt.
How to Submit
Email your submission to her.red.pen.wordsmithing@gmail.comWriting can be submitted in the body of the email or as a separate Word document or PDFIf you are submitting writing, please include a suggested image to accompany your work. Unsplash and Pixabay are two of my favorite sites for royalty-free images.Your email should include your name EXACTLY as you want it to appear on Brave & Reckless, a short biography (if you haven’t sent me one in the last few months), and any links you want shared.I will start accepting responses to the NPR’s Books We Love Creativity Prompt Challenge immediately, but I will not start publishing them until the day that particular daily prompt is published. For instance, writing and art inspired by the book title A Study in Drowning will be published starting January 4, 2024.
“This powerhouse of a novel will leave you breathless. Kemi Carter has a happy life collecting scientific facts, but when an asteroid threatens to destroy Earth, the world as she knows it is turned upside down. With only four days until impact, Kemi scrambles to create a time capsule of cherished family memories that will survive, even if they don’t. My heart hurt as I raced through the last chapters of this unique book that shines a light on family, friends, grief and love. (For ages 8 to 12)”
— Lisa Yee, author of Maizy Chen’s Last Chance
