Libby Weber's Blog, page 4

Wordy Pursuits

I’m back, fresh(ish) from my annual writer’s retreat in Michigan! I’ve had to miss the past two due to performance conflicts, so this one was especially needful. The house wasn’t the most comfortable we’ve had, but it was bright and airy, only a few steps from this glorious stretch of beach.

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Despite walking to the beach for many lovely sunsets and moonrises amidst the fireflies, I escaped with only about ten mosquito bites, and I’m pleased to report that I’m still immune to poison ivy. W00t!...

Singing one’s heart out

Greetings, Folks!

It has been a while since my last update, and while I don’t have much new fiction news (I’m working on a couple of short stories with an eye towards a to-be-announced anthology and hope to have the book o’ sonnets out this summer), I do have some nifty things to share from all of the singing I’ve been doing lately, and there has been a quite a bit of that.

I’ve had the pleasure of singing with the chamber choir SACRA/PROFANA since December, which has involved some of the mos...

Two new stories in IMMANENCE, plus bonus sonnet

It’s been a fabulously busy start to 2016, but I am delighted to share that two of my short stories have been published in IMMANENCE, an anthology about gods, godesses, and demons!

Now available on Amazon(Kindle, paperback), Kobo, Nook, and iTunes!

I’m pleased as punch to have two stories included in this wonderful collection of works to amuse, delight, and terrify. My offerings are “Riders of the White Horse,” a historical tale of suspenseabout demons who prey on the weak and ill and the si...

Adventures in Quantum Fiction

It’s been a busy final quarter of 2015, during which I have finished writing no less than three stories and had the great pleasure of singingin the chorus of Bizet’s Carmenby the Pacific Lyric Opera. I’ll also be singing Berlioz’sTe Deum with the San Diego Symphony and caroling like a champ, because Christmas music is so much more than endless covers of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and “Santa Baby.”

This being the season of giving, I would like to point you in the direction of Quantum Shorts, whe...

Lost Time

It’s both strange and wonderful, after a year of writing daily sonnets, not be be writing daily sonnets. One would think that my post-sonnet-project schedule would feel less daunting, and yet anybody who knows me well knows that I’m happiest when I’m busy doing things that I love. So I’ve been no less busy this year, I’m just busy doing different things! Such as…

I’ve had two short stories accepted for publication this year! More details to come on that front when I have them. In addition...

A Bribe For My Kind Editor, or Pony Up

Your shaggy, winsome countenance belies
A strength borne out of harsh austerity
Unparalleled, comparative to size,
A product of your insularity.

Your humble, compact form inspires delight,
Small children are entrusted to your back–
Beloved pets, devoted guides, despite
Strong will, which manifests in training’s lack.

And yet I cannot look into your faces
Without recalling how your forebears bore
The the pit and lash in suffocating places,
And how your brethren perished by the score.

Past sorr...

January 6 (2015!): This Gull is on Fire

A common gull that flew toward the dawn

Was suddenly with pinkish orange aflame,

As lead by alchemy had undergone

Its transformation, baseness overcame.

I knew it was a trick of light, and yet

Its unexpected beauty gave me pause,

I fixed it in my mind, not to forget

The transient perfection that it was-

For who among us would not wish to be

But for an instant, thus illuminated,

That all who were so lucky as to see

Should with the memory be ever sated?

As sunlight may banal surfaces gild,

Am I when I with...

December 31: Last, Not Least

This is the last time I will write my life

Into a daily sonnet, those things great,

Exciting, middling, sad, and sometimes strife,

Through stubbornness one cannot understate.

Tonight, I’ll sing to thousands and the sky

To fete a civic gem’s centenary

Then dinner, where we’ll bid the year goodbye

And sonnet cycle done successfully.

Tomorrow, will it feel strange not to write,

Thus letting loose the stories in my head?

Or will those nagging feelings in the night

Inspire me to read a book instead?

To paraph...

December 30: Penultimate

Wan winter sun, the second to the last

Of this, the year I chose to sonnet daily,

Your rise announced all starts of poems past

And now, upon the end you shine so palely

Upon this concept that I’m now outlining,

Which has already set my scansion spinning

I know what words may yet survive aligning,

With confidence I lacked at the beginning.

And yet I feel that I have hardly started,

Since every day’s addition is discrete,

With each idea previously uncharted-

It’s hard to see this as a single feat,

Unless i...

December 29: Pelican

I soar above the waves with little clearance,

As if an unseen cloak fashioned of breeze

From choppy waters wanting interference

Protects me over other devotees.

I rise in joyful arc into the sky,

Then turn my shoulder to the sea below

To dive upon what fodder I espy

And fill my bill, and through its grace I grow.

The ancients thought that I would pierce my breast

To feed my young, a sign of sacrifice,

But for the fish that I would fain ingest,

I’m not a favored heraldic device.

Thus, any symbol others ma...