A Photo Update!
Life has been life-ing, baby! Here are some photos to catch us up…
The Honourable Mention!Thanks so much to the Women on Writing community, and judge for the Winter Flash Fiction contest! I made it to the top twenty (over 200 submissions!) and garnered an Honourable Mention! I’m sooo grateful and excited!
2. The Gently Mad Magazine Event
It was a grand afternoon at Biblioasis celebrating the release of the second issue of the Gently Mad Literary Magazine. I was among a roomful of eager poets and artists sharing their published pieces from the magazine. It was a lovely, inspiring event that honoured ‘the muse’ and the creative process. Thanks to Serafina and Caprice for their organizational prowess, and to the Scarlet and the Biblioasis team for, once again, hosting a fine literary event! (And thanks to the person who took at the photos…I’m sorry I didn’t get the name!)
The Gently Mad Lit Mag is open for submissions for their next issue! Click here for all the details (deadline June 15th)!
3. Reading
I’ve been doing a lot of reading…laying on the sofa with the dogs, the cool air blowing over us…I’m reading Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino right now. Um, it’s breaking my brain with it’s amazingness…and will start The Ruins by Scott Smith this week (for book club)…
4. Writing
Last week was dedicated to editing my novel, and this week I’m leaning into two poetry manuscripts – adding more poems, and making edits to existing pieces…also figuring out the order of the pieces…which can be a huge job! I’m adding about 10 more pieces to the ‘We the Mourners’ poem I wrote in April (thanks for all your loving comments!) so that the manuscript will be long enough to submit as a full manuscript (as opposed to a chapbook which is under 30 pages).
Editing the novel continues to be…intense. I’m making major changes and that means a lot of hacking entire pages out…and writing new scenes. I’m moving into act two where fiction can go to die (!), and so it’s a lot of considering, planning, plotting and staying focused on character development. Because I wrote to a very detailed structure and now I’m deviating quite a lot, I’m feeling like maybe I’m doing it all wrong…! But, I also want to keep to the integrity of the story I want to tell…and since I followed the rules to begin…perhaps it’s okay to break a few in this edit?!
I’m feeling daunted most of the time, and it’s hard as balls to get my butt in the chair and work on the manuscript. But…I also feel the fire of timing and I really, really, really want to have all the edits done by the end of June. I’ve moved up this date to account for a copy edit that I have to get done and then respond to. Sigh. Also, although much is changing, I still have to kill a darling and that is weighing heavy on my heart!
This weekend, I’ll be doing the Poetry Marathon with local poet Cassie C. What is a poetry marathon, you wonder? We’ll be writing one poem every hour for 12 hours. So, by 9pm on Saturday, we’ll each have written 12 poems! In the in-betweens, we’re gonna hit up of submission list, and send out poems/chapbooks. It’ll be a day dedicated to poetry! Though spots are filled for this year’s marathon, check out the link above and consider playing along next year!
I also have two other poetry manuscripts that I’m working on…one is a complete chapbook that if I add more, I can push to a full-length manuscript, and the other is a very early draft with a list of ideas for poems that I’m aiming to make another full manuscript. Poetry is constantly creating in my brain…and when I give it attention, the poems fly out of me. I’m doing my best to give time and attention to the poems!
5. Horses
Wait, what? Did I say horses?
In the fall, I started watching ‘Yellowstone’. I quickly remembered how much I love horses as I watched the characters ride and rage around Montana. I stopped watching the show, but my desire to connect with horses stayed alive, and I did some research on local ranches/riding lessons. There are a lot of ranches in our area!
I am currently volunteering once a week at Sarah Parks Horsemanship in Essex. I am learning how to groom the horses, lead them (walk with them), and get comfortable around them. I hope to get some formal lessons in the near future where I’ll learn how to saddle a horse, and then get on one and learn basic riding skills. Then…perhaps I’ll find a horse I can ride more consistently…
I’ve had minimal experience riding horses. When I lived in Kelowna, BC for six glorious months when I was 19-20, I went riding several times. I was able to get a horse, get on it, and GALLOP in the mountainside. It was incredible! I aim to learn how to do that again…and learn more about these wildly peaceful, gigantic animals. I’m hoping that riding will also help strengthen my pelvic floor. (You feel me, ladies?!)
6. Movies & Miscellany
I’ve started watching summer movies: Field of Dreams, Signs, Mystic Pizza (also can be a fall film!), Stand By Me I’ve watched so far. I also watched the new feature on Netflix entitled Nonnas. It was delightful, and I was a weeping, hungry mess by the end of it! Well done, Vince Vaughan and team! I’m looking forward to Goonies, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Sandlot, Runaway Bride, and one of my all-time favs, Shirley Valentine!
I went to the theatre to see Sinners. Damn! So entertaining!
Spring is officially here, with Summer slipping her heat in and out of our weeks…so yard management and pool opening has been added to the list of things to do. We’re looking forward to a busy, busy summer making films (more on this soon!) and cooling off after long shoot days in the pool.
Allergies continue to grip my nose and ears, and I’ve already gotten a sunburn (by accident!) so I’m carrying sunscreen with me wherever I go!
Time feels…like open arms filled with opportunities. I’m doing my best to be a writer and mom and wife and friend as the busyness of life ebbs and flows. Hope you are too!
Keep smiling, being kind and spreading the love!
PS. I will finish up my post on what it feels like publishing a book…and I’m interviewing author Jane Christmas about her new book A Flight of Saints…to be shared here soon!
