Help Save RIF!: Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) Funding Cut From Government Budget

My mother read to me from an early age. She grew up in a household of teachers; she understood the importance of introducing literacy early and reinforcing it often. She deserves most, but not all of the credit for my love of a good book. The Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program sealed the deal.

When I was in kindergarten RIF visited my school and scattered books on, under and around a large table positioned center stage in our auditorium. I selected my book then as I do now, with great patience and consideration. I was one of the last to leave. A RIF sticker saying, "This book belongs to Desiré," was centered in the front cover of the book completing the exchange. It was the first time that I chose the story; that day, my reading life became my own, and I became a writer in the making.

Stories like mine are being jeopardized by recent budget cuts. Given the successful 42 year history of the program and the consistent lament regarding the state of literacy in the U. S., a state of decline, how can this budget cut have been supported? If you believe in RIF's Mission, write your Congress person and let them know that you want funding returned to this successful and necessary program.

Turn Your New Year's Resolutions into Writing Goals

Happy New Year!

Tomorrow brings the first day of the New Year, and for many the downward spriral of failing resolutions. As the year marches forward, the good intentions of January 1st become daily afterthoughts, or postponed tasks. How do you keep this from happening to the list of resolutions you selected after a solid investment of time and reflection?

You don't....unless those resolutions go through a conversion and become goals. Goals are accomplished in measurable increments and have deadlines or due dates. Take a look at your list. Then, for each of your resolutions, write the steps required to accomplish them. Next, go through your calendar and select a due date for each step, followed by a deadline for completion of the actual goal. It's a little more work upfront, but the odds of success go up exponentially.

Here are a few suggested goals for the writing life in 2008:

1. Improve your current organizational systems, or if you don't have any, get some.
2. Get a planner and use it. I'm trying out the Franklin Covey 365 system from Target.
3. Learn how to sell yourself. In this competitive publishing world, auhtors have to be their own best publicist--just the way it is.
4. Get more and better sleep.
5. Get fit. Writing is not only about genius;it's about longevity--outlive the competition. You'll up your chances of large scale, long term publishing success.


Suggestions anyone?

I've really been enjoying my time at Gather.com. The conversations have been lively and stimulating. If you haven't found an online writer's workshop or found the right place to connect with other writers online, I'd definitely recommend Gather.com. The site provides these elements and more:

• Live chats with popular authors, like one of my personal favorites, Diana Gabaldon
• Special Election 2008 Group
• The opportunity to earn points which can be redeemed for products, gift cards, and if you get enough of them cash

Word for the Week

community

ownership or participation in common

Keep informed on Gather.com! Content ranges from politics to cooking, and we earn Gather Points™ or cash for using the site!View my content here: desireh
desireh.gather.com

Are profit and posterity mutually exclusive?

Quote for the Week


"The fact that writers will go through so much to remain writers says something, perhaps everything. It would be far easier (and nearly always more profitable) to become a real estate agent." -Maria Lenhart

Five Ways To Hunt and Capture Great Writing Ideas

1. Scan the newspaper for stories that catch your eye. Who know's one might inspire you to write a manuscript in the tradition of Truman Capote.

2. Revisit a place that you used to frequent, but no longer visit quite as often or at all. Why did you used to go there? Why did you stop?

3. Listen to your local NPR station or visit npr.org. NPR is full of opportunities to cull news and features for ideas based on current events, historical references, and scientific discovery.

4. Make a list of the most interesting people you know or have known. How could you create a composite of their most outstanding characteristics to feature in your next story or novel?

5. Create a list of all of the places you'd like to visit. Then write about them. This will require stellar research and ideally a personal visit.

Market Recommendations: Krista Barrett's Weekly E-zine

If you're looking for markets, a writing job, a way to network with other writers, and solid free-lance advice, check out Krista Barrett's Writer Gazette. Each weekly issue, is full of opportunities like these and more. She also offers writing classes and her writing texts are available for purchase at Lulu.com. You can also promote your work and accomplishments in the Writer Gazette (Remember, there's no such thing as too much pub).

Get To Know Other Writers

As writers, we spend a great deal of time working in solitude. I believe that in order to produce a continuous flow of meaningful work, a writer must strike a balance between living their craft and experiencing the world in which the live. It also means forging relationships with other writers.

Writers must challenge themselves to expand their circle of relationships to include more writing colleagues. I've started building more connections online, because as a parent my time is somewhat limited. I also attended the Kansas City Literary Festival last weekend and picked up some great information there as well as joining a few mailing lists. Other possibilities are writing conferences and author events in your area.

There are several benefits with getting to know other writers. The more writers you know the better informed you become regarding the publishing industry and the writer's craft. Getting to know other writers allows you to build a circle of people with whom you can workshop, exchange constructive criticism or even plan events of your own. It helps you keep perspective when you interact with other people taking on similar endeavors; being a writer is great, but it's not easy.

Here are a few links to get you started:

Gather.com

Associated Content.com

My Writer's Circle.com

Edit Red.com

A Multi-leveled Labyrinth Holds The Muse

As we practice the craft of writing, some days it proves a frustration and others a delight. Writing can become like finding one's way through a multi-level labyrinth. Think in terms of the space which is fabled to have held the Minotaur. However, unlike the home of the Minotaur, a writer's labyrinth is not static; it is ever-changing. The lighting within it ebbs, grows and flows as we seek our destination. Each corner holds a new and different treasure. When we solve the puzzle and exit the space, we are eager to move on to the next challenge.

Word for the Week

labyrinth

an intricate structure containing winding passages hard to follow without losing one's way; maze

Source: Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language

Mother's Day Is An Opportunity To Reflect On Our Children and Ourselves

Writing prompt

I've been showered with flowers, charm pins and thoughtful assistance this week. Mother's Day is Sunday and since my children are school age, I've pretty much had mine. Their intentions are so sweet and genuine.

Take a moment to reflect on your relationship with your mother and your own children if you have them. How are they the same? How are they different? As you consider your relationship with your children, how do you wish to shape it?

We live in a world of wide and varied relationships and family units. If you don't or didn't have a mother in the traditional sense, consider the person or persons who fulfilled the role which we usually attribute to mothers.

Happy Mother's Day!

Samara O'Shea Shows Us How Letters Remain Center Stage In the 21st Century

Word for the Week

Letter

Currently, I'm reading Samara O'Shea's For the Love of Letters: A 21st Century Guide to The Art of Letter Writing. It's the perfect how-to book to have on one's shelf in light of recent events and the time of year. We've suffered yet another national loss, the shootings at Virginia Tech, and ironically, we are about to enter the month of May, the month when many graduate from high school and college.

Both of these circumstances, seem to bring our focus upon a heightened sense of vulnerability and the desire to cement and create bonds with friends and loved ones. When moments of crisis strike, our impulse is to connect with our friends, family and loved ones. Where our predecessors relied on newspapers, television and correspondence, we have the added benefit of the internet and mobile communication. Aside from cell phone calls, we send text messages and emails to confirm the well being of the people about whom we care. These for all intents and purposes are letters--albeit most likely more brief than a traditional letter, but they're still conversations in text.

O'Shea packs great deal of information regarding letter writing in her 172 page volume. She discusses a broad range of letters, those regarding getting together as well as saying goodbye and those which recommend along with angry letters which may offend. She also touches on letters written for matters of business, thank you letters and letters of recommendation.

Her writing style is direct and conversational. The book flies. Her letter writing instructions are simple to follow. She also sprinkles example letters by herself, both from her personal life and her professional life, as a letter writer for hire at LetterLover.net, and famous authors, John Keats' declaration of love, Edgar Allen Poe's angry adieu to his estranged parent and Andrew Carnegie's letter to close a deal, are featured among others.

O'Shea makes a convincing case for letter writing. The historical background of letters that she offers illustrates how letters can change lives and shape deaths (see the letter by Marie Antoinette pages 39-41). Take the time to read this book. Then, give a gift; write a letter.

Charles Bukowski Says, If You're Going To Write, Then Do The D___n Thang!

As I read "so you want to be a writer?", I wondered if Charles Bukowski intended it as reverse psychology to treat the reader, himself or both. Of course the obvious possibility remains; he means just what he says.

Check it out, and tell me what you think: so you want to be a writer?

Visit Poets.org to find for thousands of poems, biographies, essays, and audio clips. Poets.org is a program of the Academy of American Poets.

"Poetry is that which helps us live." --Wallace Stevens

Passion and Discipline Are Key to Writing Great Poetry

The best poetry is born of passion and discipline--depth of feeling and effective application of the tools of the writing craft. When poems are written with too much of one and not enough of the other, they end up in the trash, or at least they should. Passion and discipline, the means by which we create art, cultivate them and prosper.

Quotes for the Week

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.
Kahlil Gibran

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
Aristotle quotes

Making Time, Borrowing Time, Stealing Time ~ How To Get The Writing Done?

Writing Prompt

Life is full of distractions, from the inspiring beauty of spring to the not so inspiring like doing laundry. Make a list of the things that you view as distractions from your writing practice. Try to think of some solutions to deal with them. Are they actually the fertilizer for that next piece, germinating in the back acres of your mind?

Walter Mosley Shapes His Work and World, One Book At A Time

I'm currently reading Walter Mosley's historical/science fiction novel, 47, and I have to say that I'm impressed. With 47, he manages to craft a story that acts as a history lesson, possesses the qualities of an allegory as well as a fable and keeps you turning pages. It has been many years since I've read a piece of fiction by a modern author, in which I became so immersed, that I lost track of time.

As I was reading the "Meet the Author" page on his website, I found a quote which seems to me to serve as a diplomatic and hopeful alternative to Christopher Paul Curtis' position on seeking publication in today's market:
"The independent Black Classic Press located in Baltimore, Maryland published the prequel to the Rawlins' series Gone Fishin' in January 1997, Mosley decided to give the novel to a small black publishing house, because he felt it was important "to create a model that other writers, black or not, can look at and see that it's possible to publish a book successfully outside mainstream publishing in New York."


Click on this post's title to visit Mosley's website. You may find that his perspective makes for interesting reading.

Writing Prompt: MEMSA/Word Play Joke

Language is constantly changing and evolving. Words enter the common language as others fall into disuse. A friend of mine sent the excerpt below to me. Read through this inventive and entertaining list, then create a few of your own.


The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to
take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or
changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's
winners. Read them carefully. Each is an artificial word with only one
letter altered to form a real word.

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until
you realize it was your money to start with.

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops
bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows
little sign of breaking down in the near future.

4. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the
subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the
person who doesn't get it.

7. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

9. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

10. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these
really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's
like, a serious bummer.

11. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.

12. Glibido: All talk and no action.

13. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when
they come at you rapidly.

14. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after
you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

15. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into
your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

16. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in
the fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the lot:
17. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an a__hole.

Is Your Writing An Expression of the Three Dimensions of Life?

Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech treating the meaning of living a complete life, a life of three dimensions. He defined the three dimensions as:

• length--fully developing and applying one's personal abilities and purposefully applying them; loving oneself--viewing the world and one's actions with regard to oneself
• breadth--the ability to come to the aid of others and apply those same abilities to this goal--viewing the world and one's actions with regard to others
• height--the reach for God--the reach for something greater than the material world and work in which one lives

Dimensions of a Complete Life

Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 1962

www.pacificaradioarchives.org

Take a survey of your writing. Which of the dimensions do you think it reflects most? Consider whether or not you're satisfied with the current dimension or dimensions which seem to dominate your writing. How can you incorporate all three in your characters, in your plots, your essay topics, etc.? Do you believe that attempting to do so will help or hurt the quality of your writing?