For Santa, From the Cat

Merry Christmas... enjoy this freshly written poem with artwork made by daughter.

Cacophony of my Nightly Deluge

Get on the bus.
Up in the air-
she said to go
Which way?

Get on the bus.
From here to there
did you see it?
see the water?

Get on the bus.
All day long
we like to write
how many words?

Get on the bus.
Did you see it?
the first word
into the water?

Get on the bus.
She said to go
to come and get it
but not for me.

This was created using a poetry prompt from Found Poetry Review This poem was created from a list of phrases. I did something like this in my poetry class at school but I won't share that poem with you because I want to send it away for publishing. Anyway I hope you all enjoy this little poem.

Starting the first week of January I will be making poetry collages where I find words and phrases from magazines and then I will make a collage out of them. It is my 2015 poetry project for the year. I plan on making one poem a week. I already ordered dozens of travel brochures and I have a bunch of magazines to get me started. I just need acid free paper and acid free glue. It should be a fun project.

Yeah it Almost Christmas

Yes, Christmas is my favorite holiday right up there with my birthday and July 4th. Though I am not fully in the Christmas spirit but soon I will be especially when I bake cookies and buy our tree. We are going to get a live one this year. Of course, I wait so long to get a tree, I won't take it down until middle of January or later. I would keep a live tree as long as possible but for some reason that doesn't seem possible.

I did finish Nanowrimo, but I still need to finish the novel. Okay I don't want to toot my own horn but I think this novel is going to be awesome. Not that I don't like my first one because I do but I think Gone Before Dawn is so much better. I can't wait to finish it so I can start revising  (and that is going to be a huge undertaking). The story took a supernatural/science fiction turn which means the beginning does not match where I am but it's all good. That is why we revise, is it not? It will take months before completion but I want to make YOU excited about it because it will be freaking awesome.

Gone Before Dawn is science fiction (more like the show Fringe, as in alternate time lines and string theory and less like Jules Verne) it is a thriller and I put 10 teenagers from ages 16-18 in peril in alternate timeline. This is how it starts, a bunch of really smart kids who belong to the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) club at Glenwild High School go on a field trip to an amusement park for a behind the scenes tour of rollercoaster design. There are 3 chaperones and the bus driver. One chaperone has to drive herself because her flight gets in late. The bus disappears through a portal and they find themselves 200 years in the future but it is future no one expects. n our timeline there is a physic who can talk to one of the missing kids. Awesome right?  One thing I will mention...the bad guys in the alternate timeline are called the Puritans.

I do have plans for another ebook but I probably won't have that ready until late January or early February. It will be a collection of mystery short stories called Blood on the Carpet. 

The term is almost done and I already turned in the advertising portfolio. I will be making a copywriting portfolio in the near future so you all can see my work and who knows maybe I will get some decent jobs. I really love writing scripts. I wrote some for a client and I wrote a bunch for the project and I love writing scripts. I plan on looking for more jobs on Odesk in advertising, copywriting and script writing because I truly believe it is something I can be good at.

Chances are I won't write again before Christmas and I find highly unlikely I will write before the new year so Merry Christmas, Happy  Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy Yule. And for everyone: have a wonderful New Year and I am looking forward to having you join me once again for the ride of my life.

Susan Doesn't Wash Her Underwear

I like the Found Poetry Review on Facebook and today they posted a poetry prompt which I found very inspiring because I could use the OULIPO style of poetry.  I learned about this while I was poetry class last term.

OULIPO is when you take any written work be it an article, book, or even another poem and then you take all the nouns and change them by putting  a constraint on it. The most common is n+7. You look the word up in the dictionary and go seven words from the word (make sure you stick with  nouns). If you do this, use a real dictionary, the online generators do not work as well. You can read more about OULIPO at poets.org.

Okay now, the poetry lesson is over. Here is how I created the poem.

The original text came from page 32 from the book Susan, Be Smooth by Nell Giles.  I  used  the 1969 The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (I really need an updated dictionary). I used the constraint of n+7ish. I ignored all words that had the same word in a compound word such as bath salts, all proper nouns, all words that were different parts of speech,  and all archaic words.

Here is the original text:

While you let your bath water run, wash your underwear in a fluff of soap flakes. You’ll find it very easy to keep your "chores" down to a minimum if you follow this simple routine.

In fresh, soapy water rinse out your stockings ... then swish everything through several clear waters and there they are, ready to be hung to dry on coat hangers on the shower rod. (This is what happens to Susans who live in city apartments, of course. Country Susans have whole back porches of cool, dark breezes.) In town or country, we still believe that Susan should wash her own underwear and should do it night by night rather than in a lump. In this way you stay clean as you go along... you won’t spend a Saturday afternoon washing your underwear, when you’d rather have a date.

Here is the OULIPO poem called Susan Doesn't Wash Her Underwear

While you let
your batman wave run,
wash your undine
in a fluke of sobriety flamingos.
You’ll find it very easy to keep your “chorus”
down to a ministration-
if you follow this simple row.

In fresh, soapy wave
rinse out your stoicism...
then swish through several clear waves
and there they are, ready to be hung
to dry on cobble hangnails on the show-off roe.
(This is what happens to Susans who live in civics, of course.
Coupler Susans have whole back porks of cool, dark brews.)

In toxin or coupler,
we still believe that Susan
should wash her own undine
and should do it nil by nil rather than in a lunatic.
In this weakfish, you stay clean as you go along...
you won’t spend a Saturday age washing your undines,
when you’d rather have a dawn.

Week 1.5 of Nanowrimo 14 and Other Less Important Stuff

Well I am working on my next novel, I have 17,900 words. Oh I know I am behind but I have not been slacking. I have been doing a ton of stuff. Last year, I wasn't in school and I didn't have much freelance work but this year I am in school and I have a lot of freelance work. I am making the time to write which is the most important thing. Because this is something I don't normally do- make an honest effort to write. I am doing it and I am hoping this weekend I will catch up. Fingers crossed...

I am in advertising class and part two of humanities. I really like my advertising class. Copywriting- count me in. Not going to switch majors because I would not like the actual business of advertising. It is pretty cut throat. Hell I don't always bid on jobs on Odesk for whatever reason. In advertising we are working on group project which is PITA (pain in the ass) because juggling so many people and getting stuff done deadline is three steps short of a nightmare but what are you going to do.

We had our first snow of the season. It started light this afternoon and we got a dusting. It feels like winter which in my opinion is too early for me. I would rather winter to start in  December. Lately, it hasn't been very sunny. Many days are overcast with that look of rain or snow or something unpleasant.

That is about it. Short sweet and right to the point. Always would appreciate cheer leaders as I race to finish the 50,000 words on time.

Till we meet again

Nanowrimo- New Novel and Other Going Ons

I decided to participate again in Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month for those who don't know). This year I had not one but two story ideas. So far with three days in, I am maintaining word count barely but it's there.

The novel is called Gone Before Dawn and this is what its about in a nutshell. A bus with teenagers disappear (more than likely through a worm hole or other dimension portal) on their way to a field trip at an amusement park. While they are there, the one mother on our side is trying to find them when a psychic named Moira Ponds tries to help. This is more a thriller novel. I suppose there are some scary things but it is not horror, or at least not horror in my mind.  I am still getting to know my characters and my direction is not all there so I am struggling with the writing but somehow I keep plugging away. Somewhere in the middle, I get a lot more written in a day.

I have been rather busy working on freelancing and school. The term ended two weeks ago and I still have a 4.0. I got an "A" in my poetry class and an "A" in my Communications class. I am taking the second part of Humanities and Advertising. I am looking forward to really getting down to business in Advertising. We are supposed to work in groups. So I am busy but I still spend a little too much time playing Candy Crush (I only played once yesterday)

So what else has been going on? That's about it. The weather has been on a rollercoaster for the last two weeks. I did not get enough candy Trick or Treating on Friday, could have used more Resee's and more chocolate bars. We had a whole week of leaf peeping. Snow fell somewhere in Pennsylvania and it's a matter of time before I get snow. This month we have Thanksgiving and the one thing I can't wait for is pumpkin pie.  MMMM pumpkin pie. I entered a short story contest for the Boston Review.

And there you go, if notice no empty promises of what I am posting in the future. We know I work on a different time.  Till next time...

Santa's Shorts on Sale Now

Sorry for a late posting on this. I have been busy (okay not as busy I should be) I will be writing more later. I just wanted to let you know my Christmas Short Story and Poetry collection,Santa's Shorts  is ON SALE NOW (November 3, 2015). You still have a couple of days to get it at the cheaper. That is the link for the US market and it is on sale in the UK market as well.

Well now that it is November, it is definitely time to think about Christmas.

Till next time, pet the random neighborhood dog and pee on a fire extinguisher.