Yesterday I…

Well, I didn’t quite finish my to-dos from yesterday. One out of three’s not terrible, is it? Wait. It’s 2 out of 4, that’s 50%. That’s not bad.

The postal carrier drove off with my picture book manuscript. If, by June 15th, I have not heard anything, I supposed I’ll have to hire myself an illustrator and self-publish it. At least I’m not giving up.

Then, I realized that I only have 2 poems worth submitting. I’d really like to have 3. Those last 2 sentences make me sad… Maybe today I’ll look around for a contest or something that only wants 1 poem, or 1 poem at a time.

And also, maybe today I’ll raid my journal for any poetry worth revising…

Instead of that, though, I signed up for the April A to Z Challenge (click the widget on the side there for more info). You may recall (or can look back and see) that I have, in the past, devoted April to poetry (because, duh, April is National Poetry Month) by challenging myself and you-selfs to write a poem-a-day. Honestly, the past 2 years, I’ve fallen short. I’m a slug.

I blame my muse. She is growing up. And she goes to school all day and isn’t around inspiring me because kindergarten is important or something. To hear her talk, it’s more of a social-club than a school, though. And the bigger one is a tween. ‘Nuff said.

Maybe I’ll A to Z poetry somehow and combine the 2 challenges. You should check back in April and see.

I didn’t type up my story scraps. That’s to-do today. I hope it will help.

And I did do a little blog lurking and commenting and added more to my list to follow. Oh! And of followers! Hello, Word Nerd!!

Plus also I went to the grocery store. I’m awesome!!

Today I will…

• Submit 2 poems somewhere.
• Submit my picture book manuscript one more time to the publisher recommended by an illustrator I know .
• Type all of the bits and pieces of the short story that my journal and I have been fiddling with onto separate strips of paper so that I can shuffle them and figure out how the story goes.
• Leave comments on blogs in the hope that someone will find me…

…right after I finish the grocery list.

The Best Part Was the Reading

Yesterday was the Gallery Crawl. I mentioned it 2 posts ago (so I’m not going to link to it – just scroll down, silly!). Brief reminder, I spent February turning 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders into published poets. Yesterday was the Big Event at the school, where we showcased our project. It was inspiring to be there and see the young poets lead their parents and friends to our table, search the display for their own poem and their favorites written by their friends, and then watch their families react to their work. It was evident that they were proud of what they’d done, which made me feel proud. One of the parents said that her daughter had been talking about the project and calling herself a poet all month. I didn’t stop smiling for 90 minutes (more really, but that’s how long the Crawl was). And as wonderful as that was, that wasn’t even the best part of the day. Of the whole experience, really!

That happened earlier, during the school day. I spent an hour with this fantastic group of kids, doing a POETRY READING! It was wonderful to hear the poems read by the authors (or the authors’ friends, in some cases). It made the whole experience, all the time and work and feelings of inadequacy on my part, that much more worth it.

Someone needs to remind me more often how rewarding volunteering is…

At Least I Don't Text and Drive

This morning, I had the unusual experience of cursing the green lights at EVERY intersection. Usually I'm annoyed by the miserable timing that causes me to have to stop at each cross-street for the detested crimson. This morning, though, with my notebook in my lap and pencil in hand, I hoped and hoped that the next light would ripen just as I got to it, giving me (howevermany) minutes to record this brilliant and unexpected bit of dialogue that presented itself to me at the worst time before I forgot it.

Instead, I had to wait until my driveway before committing it to paper.

Sooo? Whatcha Been Doin’?

Well, I’ll tell ya…

I got a job and I love my job, but it keeps me busy and so I haven’t been blogging. Or writing much, really, except for journaling when I think of it.

I’ve been reading. Currently I’m reading Runaway, a collection of short stories by Alice Munro, which I am loving. I had veered off my preferred sunlit and wildflower-lined path of short-story writing to spend some time in the murky swampland of poetry and am hopeful that reading stories will start the story cogs running again. So far, so good. I have this idea…

I did get a couple of worthwhile poems out of my detour. I’ve never been able to say that before!

Oh, and this:

The girls’ school has a sort of “gallery crawl” every spring. Guest artists spend the month of February working with a class on some sort of project to be showcased in March at the crawl (in the rooms and halls of the school). I spent February turning a classroom full of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders into published poets. It was a lot of fun (I am REALLY glad it’s almost over). This could be what inspired my longing for prose again…

If I can stay off Facebook – well, cut back on my FB time (can’t abandon my WWF friends and everyone needs to see photos of Pete and Lulu doing awesome Pete and Lulu stuff), maybe I can trade it for blogging again. I’ve missed it.

How about you? What have you been up to?

Now to go get my readers back…