Flamingos Converge in Gualala: A Conversation with Nine Women Writers

Read this wonderful post from my Flamingo friend, 

Tania Pryputniewicz at Feral Mom, Feral Writer. 

And if you're near Gualala that weekend, come see us!

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Flamingos Converge in Gualala: A Conversation with Nine Women Writers

Every year I have been so blessed to sneak away on writing retreat with eight other actively publishing women writers on the northern California coast. Finally, this year, we are breaking our monastic routine to join the community, to give back in a sense, by appearing for a Meet and Greet as a form of thank you for the beauty of our surroundings, to show our support for the local bookstore, Four-Eyed Frog Books, and to meet other writers in the area.

(read more here)

Slice of Life: NaPoWriMo

Hello Slice of Life community! Happy National Poetry Month!

This is my third year of participating in NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month.  The goal is to write a poem every day for the entire month. This year, coming right off the Slice of Life Story Challenge in March, I wasn't sure I'd make it all through April this year so I decided not to post every poem as I did last year. It turns out my instincts were correct. So far, I've done fairly well but have missed a couple of days. Since sharing is part of the fun, I joined a private Facebook group with a several of my friends. We're posting our almost-daily poems and commenting on them. Because it's private, the pressure is off. They will still like me if I don't show up every day. 

Writing a poem a day means quite a few mediocre poems, but once in a while there's a keeper that could turn into something significant. And sometimes, there is something that is just plain fun.  For Day 10, the prompt was to write a poem based on the titles of books taken from my bookshelf. Since I have a stack of poetry books sitting next to my writing chair, I decided to use the titles of those books. Here's what came from them:

Ask Me

Dear Girl

How to Read a Poem

it is

Difficult Fruit

this Crazing

of The Human Line

Ordering the Storm

Like a Beggar

The Sharp Edges of Knowing

blurred with

Smoky Inky

Felicity

it is the

Taste

and Shift

Small Things:

Owls and other Fantasies

flying like angel

Ariel sending out her

Cry of the Nightbird

I thought this could be a great prompt to use with students. If you try it in your classroom, I'd love to see the results. Happy writing.

SOL 2016 Day 31: The Last Day!

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge 2016

This March, more than 300 teachers have committed to daily writing. If you’d like to read more “slices” (from other teachers and even students), visit: twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/challenges.

Now that this day has arrived,  I'm sorry to be done.  Along the way, more days than not I grumbled and moaned about committing to this challenge.  I'm so glad I kept going because this has been one of the best online writing challenges I've been involved in. What made this experience so special? The writers, and the amount of interaction between bloggers.  I've been in other online "communities" with almost no interaction at all. During the Slice of Life Story Challenge, for almost every post I got at least a few comments from readers, letting me know they appreciated my words. 

I know this project is so wonderful because it was created by teachers. The women behind Two Writing Teachers live what they espouse for developing writer capacity in students and teachers alike. I am so grateful I discovered their blog while researching  professional development ideas as part of my job. I've recommended their blog to other teachers in my district, and have added them to my reading list.

I'll be back for Slice of Life Tuesdays and look forward to reading

many of the blogs I discovered during this month. So farewell for now.

SOL 2016 Day 30: Taking What Others Give Us

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge 2016

This March, more than 300 teachers have committed to daily writing. If you’d like to read more “slices” (from other teachers and even students), visit: twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/challenges.

The best thing about this month-long blogging challenge has been reading other blogs and gathering ideas for writing along the way.  A few weeks ago I saw this format in someone's blog (I wish I had written down whose! Maybe someone out there will tell me who you are!). Then yesterday I read someone else's blog (again - why didn't I bookmark it?) using the same idea. Thank you to those now-anonymous bloggers. Next time, I will bookmark your blog:

Currently enjoying a time of peaceful solitude 

Listening to the refrigerator hum

Drinking my second cup of coffee

Wearing my weekend clothes on a Tuesday

Reading over my words as they flow from pen to paper

Feeling that familiar doubt that always creeps in

Wanting to banish that critic for today

Watching sun light slant across the living room floor

Needing to breathe in and out

Thinking of all the things I could be doing but am not

Enjoying the spring flowers blooming outside my window

SOL 2016 Day 29: Spring Break!

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge 2016

This March, more than 300 teachers have committed to daily writing. If you’d like to read more “slices” (from other teachers and even students), visit: twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/challenges.

Today I consider my first real day of Spring Break. I've been off for four days now, but  visiting family always takes a bit of work,  driving back and forth to visit Mom and Dad, Brother, Sister-in-Law and Niece takes energy. Wonderful to see them, but still some work.

This day I slept in, wrote my morning pages, then unpacked my suitcase and went out to buy groceries. Enough chores so that I didn't feel completely slothful.

But for the rest of the day, I did very little. I read a few pages of my new book and fell asleep in my chair. I watched some inane television shows, and fell asleep in my chair.

Yep, today feels like Spring Break.

SOL 2016 Day 28: Really Only Four Days Left?

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge 2016

This March, more than 300 teachers have committed to daily writing. If you’d like to read more “slices” (from other teachers and even students), visit: twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/challenges.

Here I am, having posted for 27 days in a row. Some posts were more successful than on others, depending on the demands of daily life and my involvement level.  That's how writing goes no matter what the task. For a few days now I've been counting down, hoping I could make it to the end of the month. Now that there are only four more posts, including this one, I find myself feeling almost nostalgic. 

I've participated in such online challenges before. For the entire year of 2014, as part of a private Facebook group, I wrote and posted a haiku everyday (well, to be honest, almost every day. I missed 2 or 3). 

Writing haiku became so much a part of my life that I've continued with that group although I  admit I haven't written one every day. But every few days I find a haiku within me to post.

Last year I wrote a poem each day for NaPoWriMo as part of National Poetry Month.  National Poetry Month - April - starting four days from now.

And that's what I've been pondering as I reach the end of the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Am I up for another month of writing and posting? Can I come up with 30 poems? 

I find myself doubting my ability to commit in the same way I felt as March 1st rolled around for Slice of Life. But as I make it to the home stretch of this wonderful journey, I feel that maybe, just maybe I can keep going.

SOL 2016 Day 27: Portland Haiku

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge 2016

This March, more than 300 teachers have committed to daily writing. If you’d like to read more “slices” (from other teachers and even students), visit: twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/challenges.

blue grey northwest sky

rain clouds sun playing tag while

spring green dances wild