Carma Spence's Blog, page 223

Missing you …

[image error]Somehow I knew that guy I met New Year's day would inspire poetry. I just didn't think it would take this long to manifest. But I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder … or is that distressed? I sometimes forget.

At first I thought it would be his unique artistic photographs that would inspire the words to flow. I kept a few on my hard drive for inspiration. I look at them and feel the words just beyond the veil, like a caterpillar locked insides its chrysalis, not quite ready to be a...

What is love?

[image error]I just got my Catherine Ponder newsletter, Keys to Prosperity, in the mail today and it opened with this quote:

"God measures souls by their capacity for entertaining His best angel, love."

Interesting, especially since this morning's angel card for me was Chantall, whose meaning is "New romance is imminent – either with a newcomer, or through reignited passion in your existing relationship. Be open to giving and receiving love."

Also interesting since now that I'm officially a free woman … my d...

What Is Creativity?

[image error] You can read this post or follow along as I read it.

cre·a·tiv·i·ty/ˌkrēāˈtivitē/

Noun: The use of the imagination or original ideas, esp. in the production of an artistic work.

For some reason I felt called to write about creativity today. I guess because I've been feeling both very creative and creatively frustrated the last three weeks. It is as if the object of my creation lies just beyond a veil … I can sense its presence and yet, I cannot seem to lift that veil and reveal its beauty to...

The Power in Vulnerability

[image error]Last month, SyFy aired a two-part miniseries called Neverland. In one scene the Indians and pirates are fighting. Many Indians are dying for they only have spears and arrows, while the pirates have guns. Then, the tribe's holy man, played by Raoul Trujillo, opens his arms and stands in front of his people. In that moment, he was superbly vulnerable — an easy target for Rhys Ifans' James Hook — and yet he was also at his most powerful. Hook stood down and the pirates got away.

This year, I'm...

Reading Resolutions

[image error]I've been keeping a running bibliography of books I read since 1993. I keep it in a little spiral note book and jot down the date I start and finish reading each book. This habit has proved helpful when I find myself re-reading a book that I didn't remember reading … but everything feels like deja vu. I can just go look it up … did I read this book before?

Although I'm still keeping this written record, I'm now also logging it into my Good Reads account.

Why?

Well, I like to have the written...

Inspiring sounds

[image error]I live in an ideal location for haunting inspiration.

Whenever there is a siren in the neighborhood, it is followed by the howling of dogs. I can even discern individual voices among the baying. There are the rottweilers that live down the street. They add a deep, consistent tone to the overall melody. There is the terrier whose location I haven't quite figured out yet. It's high-pitched voice adds harmony to the mix.

And this howling sounds like something that you'd hear in a werewolf movie.

Mo...

Mosquito Ringtones

[image error]A few years back, there was this mosquito ringtone going around that supposedly adults can't hear. In fact, most people over the age of about 21 can't hear it. Well, not only could I hear it but it was painful.

I could hear it from across a room. My co-workers, who were younger than me but couldn't hear it, thought it was a hoot to play it over and over and watch me react. How nice. [image error]

Just on a lark, I thought I'd see if I could still hear it. The test showed that I couldn't hear the 18kHz...

Writing honest book reviews

[image error]This weekend, one of the staff over at the New York Journal of Books shared this interesting article about book reviewing with all us reviewers. Apparently, an author was awarded a hefty sum for damages caused by a scathing book review.

The article is a very interesting read and if you have any interest at all in writing, or even reading, book reviews, I recommend you read it.

The piece got me to thinking. Since I write book reviews for both the New York Journal of Books and The Genre...

An itch to collaborate

[image error]At this point, I've had several guests on The Genre Traveler Podcast who have collaborated on projects with another writer. These included a mother-son team, a horror writer, and a duo writing under a single pen name.

I once collaborated on a very short story during a summer school class and remember that it was really fun. And another time I played a collaborative story game with an email pen pal. But the pen pal dropped off the planet in the middle of the story, so it never got finished.

Now,...

My first couplet

[image error]Well, actually, I've probably written couplets before … just not on purpose.

In my Long Beach Writing Examiner column today, I wrote about couplets. And just for fun, in the section about couplets in Long Beach, I wrote it in the form of a couplet.

When searching for couplets in Long Beach I lurch

Toward the public library bookshelves to perch.

If Long Beach poets write couplets, I don't know

So to the local book store I must go

That was fun!