a.k.a. Microscopic Stories

I decided I wanted to write books when I was in the third grade. My class was assigned the task of writing a one-page story using our spelling words. That's when I first realized that I could create these wondrous story-things that I enjoyed so much and share that joy with others.

I was in high school before I started dabbling in poetry. I had always thought poetry was mysterious and confusing, but in the 9th grade, I realized not all poetry was incomprehensible. Some poems were like little microscopic stories, and if I could write pages and pages of stories, I could write a tiny little poem!

So far this year, my poetry seems to have taken on a new life in the form of even smaller poems - Twitter poems. Updates on Twitter are limited to 140 characters, so I only have a few words to say everything in the poem. There is also a fairly active poetry community developing on Twitter. Followers of the Writers Digest Poetic Asides blog chime in on "Poetry Tuesdays" using the hastag #poettues and poets post their Twitter poems using #poetweet. You can find me on Twitter @anahbird. Here are a few of my twitter poems for those of you who do not use Twitter:


(1)
Red sun.
Pink clouds.
Purple sky.
Golden star.
Twilight
stamped with memory
like a fading aurora.


(2)
Ohmm -like a monk.
Words tumble from image.
You shroud yourself
in peace amidst shattering chaos.
But photos don't tell lies.


(3)
Funny little man.
Tongue tied in knots.
Loud, proud and arrogant.
Defeated by silence.


(4)
Heavy.
Like black iron fog.
Tiptoeing upon you.
Stealing the new-found sun.
The gravity of mortality.

Whirlwind of Everything But Snow...

December has whirled in with a mountain of work that piled up during NaNo, endless Christmas cards to write, perfect gifts to find, holiday recipes to perfect, seasonal guests to accommodate, and holiday traveling to be done. And so far no fluffy snowflakes...

Work on my novel has been put on hold this month because of all of these activities. I plan to catch up on my poetry submissions before the end of the month so I can say I met my submission goal for the year. I also received good news on the poetry front.

On the same day this month, I received another poetry rejection and a letter accepting one of my poems for publication in a small online journal this upcoming March! It is my first poem to be published in a paying market! I am really excited!

I hope everyone has a happy holiday season and I wish everyone a good year for writing in 2010! Have a happy new year!

Excerpt - Kaylee meets the plant-girl

Here is an excerpt from the novel I am currently writing. I hope you enjoy it!

---

Kaylee's mouth fell open and she couldn't help but stare in disbelief at the plant-girl's words. Islen wouldn't take her to the Fortress because she didn't want to have anything to do with the outside world?!

Islen brushed a couple of small hair-like vines off of her face and shrugged.

"Why would you ever want to spend your life hidden away in some pretend-world like this when you live in a world that is full of so many wondrous things?!" Kaylee said."Since I've been here, I've seen a dragon, a flying ship, and even a horse with a unicorn's horn and a pegasus's wings; not to mention the hundreds of other things. The world is full of amazing and wonderful things if you just take the time and effort to find them."

"The real world is a scary place," Islen said. Kaylee could tell she spoke from personal experience. She wondered what had happened to Islen to make her this way. Was it the reason she rarely left the Wild Lands?

"Pretending will not change things," Kaylee said. "You can pretend things forever, but nothing will ever be real in the pretend-world. But if you work hard in the real world, all of your dreams can become real. Though things rarely happen in exactly the way you thought they would-"

Islen sighed. "You're going to bother me until I agree to be your guide to the Fortress, aren't you?"

Kaylee grinned. "Yep! You've got that right."

Alcott, Shut-In's and NaNoWriMo

When I was growing up, I read a book about the life of Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women). The book told how she would lock herself away in her room for days at a time and write frantically on her novel.

I feel a little like that while writing for NaNo this month. I feel like I have to give up the rest of my life in order to get a rough draft of the words I need for my novel. I miss my TV shows. I miss surfing the web. I miss my computer games. I miss hanging out with friends. I had to turn down an invitation to hang out with someone last week because I needed to spend that night writing and would never get the words I needed if I even spent a couple of hours out - because those two hours stretch on late into the evening.

Last year one of the NaNo pep-talk writers said that he wrote 1,000 words a day, writing over the course of the entire day. For those of us who have day jobs or must take care of family members, we do not have that luxury. Someone once said to be a successful writer, you have to want it more than anything else. A strong desire, produces results.

Is locking yourself away from the world for weeks at a time to complete a novel really worth the sacrifice? That's up to each aspiring writer to decide for themselves.

Here's the video!

Here's the video. It's embedded now to make it easier to watch. Thank you, Glynis, for your help with how to embed it!

The Perfect Gift

This month I am working at my job during the day and am writing for NaNoWriMo at night. It's starting to take a toll, but the words are starting to add up and make the writing worth it. Still I feel like I don't have a moment's time to do anything except work for my day job and write on my novel. I can't imagine the holidays yet and I haven't even tried to think of the perfect gift for everyone.

At work, we just released our holiday video. It's about finding that PERFECT GIFT this holiday season. It's really a heart-touching video and I wanted to share it with everyone. I hope you enjoy it!

I haven't figured out how to embed a YouTube video in this blog yet, so you'll have to click on the image below to watch the video.

Where Life Flies Us

I was in meetings in Dallas most of this week for my day job. Thankfully the flight home was uneventful - no issues with doors not closing. That's the reason my initial flight to Dallas was delayed and eventually cancelled. The good news is I was able to read about 400 pages on The Stone of Tears because of all the delays.

Anyway, I made it home safely and now have several days backlog of work for my day job, work around my house and things to do with friends. And that's not to mention any writing. I have two days left to prepare for NaNoWriMo if I am going to participate. Of course, there is also Halloween to think about.

If you are a writer with a full-time day job, how do you find time to get everything done?

Oxymoron of writers and getting published

Writing is a solitary art. We write alone. We edit alone. We rip our manuscripts apart and start over alone. No one else can pluck our words from our heads and put them down on paper. Only the writer. Often writers are also quiet people, and spend a great deal of time alone due to our art.

But publishing is a social business. It requires a completely different skill-set. It demands that writers reject their nature in order to be successfully published. Pitches. Presentations. Meetings. Marketing. Many very social activities.

As a writer, how do you balance the solitary side and the social side?

Stop Over-thinking and Do It

I read an article the other day about procrastination. I think it would definitely apply to most of the writers I know. We are all the same - we find ourselves cleaning the whole house from top to bottom to procrastinate writing.

The article had one very simple tip. Stop thinking about it and just do whatever it is you are trying to do. As people, we often over-think things. Apples turn into melons in our heads. The bigger something is, the more intimidating it is and the more we procrastinate.

If we stop and leap onto the path we really want to be on before we can cross over the bridge to procrastination, we can accomplish amazing things. Each small step brings us closer to our dreams as writers. So stop (over)thinking and do it.

2009 OCW Conference - Part 2

Part of the reason I usually love the Ozark Creative Writers' Conference is the scenery. Eureka Springs sits high in the Ozark Mountains, and the sky is always a deep blue. It makes me feel like I am closer to heaven.

However, this year it was cloudy and rainy and dreary most of the conference. It has been raining nearly everyday for weeks now. If I liked constantly cloudy weather, I would have moved to Jersey when I had the chance a few years back. Most people prefer sunny weather, and I think the weather set the tone for the conference this year.

By no means was it a bad conference. It simply lacked the spirit of inspiration that I've felt at other conferences. There is a certain feeling that writers get when they connect with another writer and excitedly share their creations. That's the same feeling a good speaker can inspire.

I am glad I attended the conference. I had the opportunity to speak with an editor from Tor, and I saw a fellow-writer who I have not seen in several years. I also won an honorable mention for one of my poems! I also learned a valuable phrase from a fellow-writer at the conference, "Instead of asking why, ask why not?"