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Apr 24

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Open House

This installment of the Open House brings self-assessment and emergency care; says goodbye to the old and anticipates the new; and throws in a dash of brotherly love. So grab your preferred cup of joe, or bob or serena (my name for herbal tea) and read about Jacqui, Alana, Suzanne,Tracy, Elizabeth, Johanna, Liz, Jen, and Brittany. Enjoy!

  1. Jacqui Robbins flirts with new ideas while working on her current project (I can relate to that!).
  2. Alana Kirk Gillham waves goodbye beautifully in tribute to her family’s home on the way to a new one.
  3. Suzanne Kamata considers what she loves about being a mother after being tagged. (Why do we so often wait until someone else notices us being a good mom to look at how well we are doing?)
  4. Elizabeth Beck had an ER visit, and gave an anatomy lesson.
  5. Johanna Rupp shares a meeting of herself through May Sarton and views of her garden (which is much farther along than mine is so far this year!)
  6. Liz Hum throws tarot cards to check in with herself.
  7. Jen Johnson discovers she should not Frisbee the toys across her living room when she already has frustration adrenaline pumping, with a serious consequence.
  8. Brittany Vandeputte watches her two young boys play and is justified in her decision to have them close together: no, she was not smoking crack after all.

Apr 23

6 Comments

Kristine: Hope

As I’ve been working on my novel rewrite, I’m paying a lot of attention to theme. In doing so, I’ve been trying to pinpoint not only what my story is about on a deeper level but also what I believe a reader will be looking for when he/she picks up my book if and when it gets published. Coming up with that answer means looking at human nature. What do people want right now?

What I’ve found so far? People are looking for HOPE. A glimmer of light at the end of what has been a long and dark tunnel for far too long.

Even though my story deals with a traumatic event (the violent death of teenage girl), as I approach the ending, I’m finding that my story is not just about catching the bad guy. It sends a strong message (at least I hope it does) about achieving inner peace. What I want the reader to feel after reading my book is that even though bad things happen to all of us, some of them so bad we think we will never recover from them, there is always an opportunity to find redemption. It may not come in the way we want, but it will come. We just need to keep the faith.

It is very important to me to end this story on a positive note.  With all the bad news being thrown at us on a daily basis about the economy and state of the world, I think we all need a little bit of positive reassurance that life is still good. We can all get through whatever life throws at us if we stick together.
When I first started out writing, I was a hard-core fiction writer. I’ve dabbed in everything from amateur sleuth cozies to serial killer thrillers. I’ve written scenes so gory they gave me nightmares. I’ve read them in books, too. The more chills, the better.

Now, not so much. My reading tastes have changed dramatically lately. I want lighter, more meaningful stories. Not necessarily all-happy endings, but endings that leave me feeling, yes, hopeful.

There is a lot I can’t control in this world, and even though I’d love to do it, I can’t change the turmoil and uncertainty we all feel right now. But what I can do is entertain in a way that brings some light to someone who may be seeing nothing but darkness ahead. That is my mission and what I hope to accomplish in writing this book.

So I ask you, what do you look for when you open a book?

Apr 22

6 Comments

4/22 Weekly Creativity Challenge and New Prompt

I was breathless with anticipation (sorry, couldn’t resist) to see this week’s challenge entries. Congrats go out to Nina Newton for her lovely poem. Welcome back, Nina!

Breathless

I don’t know if
            Breathless
Is a good thing or
            A bad thing
While rushing here
            And there
Late for work or
            Picking up the kids . . . .
I’m breathless.

Late at night I worry
            about money, family, time, work
And all day long I worry
            about money, family, time, work
Always searching for a place
            of peace and tranquility
Where life is simply slower,
            and in my quest for tranquility
I’m breathless.

But then I wake and see
            the face of my sleeping child
Or the reflection of the rising sun
            on the placid lake
And gaze into the loving eyes
            of the man who sleeps beside me
I silently pray that this will be
            forever our sacred place . . . .
I’m breathless –

At the wonder of life,
           the heartache and the moments
Of amazing, joyous, miraculous love
           and there I choose to stay
Remembering every breath and every touch,
          the gift of love, family, and life . . . .
I seek this place of peace while enduring the
          pain of brokenness that sometimes makes me
Breathless.

From Cathy Coley:

Magnolia

Tough cutting through the thicket of
Bermuda and Centipede grass tangles
that have invaded my lawn.
I switch shovels from the
square blade to the pointed,
point the tip in, stand on the back edge
and wiggle the tall handle side to side.
Strange pogo stick
slowly breaks the blade’s passage through
illegitimate immigrants taking over my lawn
of fescu and Kentucky blue
having not the strength
I must use my weight for leverage.

Clumps eventually separate,
I grab with both hands and pull
with all my might to break
the last stubborn runners and roots.
I turn the lawn and weed clumps roots up
earth brown, delicate, vulnerable in the sun
Surround the beginnings of the hole
Create a ring of clay with wispy tendrils.
The hole widens, rounds, reveals
the new home for the magnolia.

Switch shovels back to square,
which scoops the loose wads of clay
left from my struggle.
Pile to one side within the ring.
Step, hop out, stand back to survey,
Straighten my bad back briefly.
Remove a glove, the sweatshirt,
readjust my bra,
squint into the sun
before moving on.

Glove back on, sweatshirt tied
around my waist,
I grab hold of the tree by its base,
turn it on its side.
Give the thin plastic pot
a few punishing kicks and swats
before yanking it from the root ball
of my new tree.

She’s heavier than I thought,
but I can handle her.
Roll her in, stand her up, thump her in.
Forego the shovels,
spread by hand the looser dirt
before flipping the clumps of lawn,
place strategically around the young trunk
puzzling them back into place
where place has changed.

I straighten up, stand back,
survey if she stands straight.
Straight enough is good enough for me.
Breathless, squinting
I see the first pink to white buds
readying to bloom.
They look unsure,
but change is good.

From me (Kelly): I captured this shot Sunday evening, and it was the actual capturing of it that made me “breathless”.  I’ll have more details on my blog today. 

beholder

This week’s prompt: “April showers”
Use the prompt however you like – literally, or a tangential theme. All media are welcome. Please e-mail your entries to creativereality@live.com by 10:00 p.m. eastern time (GMT -5) on Tuesday, April 28, 2009.  Writers should include their submission directly in the body text of their e-mail. Visual artists and photographers should attach an image of their work as a jpeg. Enter as often as you like; multiple submissions for a single prompt are welcome. There is no limit to how many times you can win the weekly challenge, either. (You do not have to be a contributor to this blog in order to enter. All are invited to participate.) All submissions are acknowledged when received; if you do not receive e-mail confirmation of receipt within 24 hours, please post a comment here. Remember, the point is to stimulate your output, not to create a masterpiece. Keep the bar low and see what happens. Dusting off work you created previously is OK too. For more info, read the original contest blog post.

Apr 20

7 Comments

Cathy: Spring Break in Writing

The boys’ spring break sucked any incentive to write in my manuscript right out of me. I figured my state of constant interruption would increase ten-fold, and I was right. Anytime I sat at the computer, Baby C started ripping books apart or K engaged me in pestered conversations that went something like this:

“Mom. (brief pause) Mom. Mom. Can I use the computer. Mom, can I use the computer. Mom, Can I. Uuuuse. The. Computer.”

“K, can you see I just sat down and am using it while nursing your sister to sleep? Please let me have a moment. You can use it later.”

“Mom.”

“Let me read.”

“Mom. (pause) Mom. Mom. Mom.”

“WHaat?!”

“If I can’t use the computer, can I go see if K2 and K3 are home and can hang out?”

“Mmm…” (still trying to read, nurse C to nap and tune him out)

“Mom. Can I see if K2 and K3 can hang out? Mom!”

“Ok, but walk Lucy first.”

“AAAhhhh!”

Dog tags jingle, claws click and scrape floor, the screen door ff-ths open and closes with a bang.

Then it’s S’s turn, just when I think I may have brokered some peace from the pestering.

“MOOMM! CAN (have I mentioned he has a problem with volume control?) I USE THE COMPUTER TO WRITE MY PIRATE PLAY/LOOK UP TITANASAURUS AND BARAGON SO I CAN RESEARCH FOR THE MONSTERS IN THE MOVIE I’M MAKING IN THE GARAGE AND…”

Baby C pops off, turns to see the source of the racket, and there goes any kind of nap as she has just become interested in anything, particularly S, besides napping. I yell at S “Can you see I’m trying to get C to sleep here? You can use the computer when I’m done and she’s asleep, now please go find something else to do QUIETLY while I try to get her to nap.” After some begging and plenty of the cute face, he eventually ran off under threat of no computer ever again in his life.

We had some fun, too, especially the day we bowled and my mother-in-law kept picking up the ball with the wrong size finger holes, so it would fly backwards off her hand — a real hoot! And the bumpers were up, so what would have been gutters galore, ended up being advantageous, as the boys figured out how to make the bumpers work for them toward strikes.

So this week, as the boys head back to school on Tuesday, I will get back in the rhythm and actually type in those parts I longhand wrote a week and two ago, and fill in researched parts. I also have decided I need another name change for that character I’ve already renamed, as well as changing another name, which in effect changes two character names for a total of three. Snaggly little annoying details as I run the first read through of the completed plotline. Phew, almost there, really. Think I can finish before April ends? It’s only my third projected finish line.

Apr 16

8 Comments

Cathy: Blog Mom Award

awardBrittany Vandeputte bestowed an honor upon me at her personal blog. She has nominated me for the Mom of the Year Award.

Here are the rules:
First, admit one thing you feel awful about involving being a mom. Get it off your shoulders. Once you’ve written it down, you are no longer allowed to feel bad. It’s over with, it’s in the past. Remember, you’re a good mom!

Why was my first inclination one of guilt when I saw it? Because earlier the same morning I made the discovery on her blog, I was internally lamenting how I am so torn between my children and my writing and its (my) need for peace and quiet. This is an oft visited topic on Creative Construction, by all of us who contribute. I was thinking I spend a lot of time in front of my computer telling my kids to or wishing my kids would go do something else besides try to interact with me, whatever their purpose in doing so is. I wish I played more board games, did more crafts, etc with them. I even promised K I would take him out for sushi during Spring Break for some one-on-one, which I feel we desperately need, but didn’t ‘get around to it’ until Monday after Easter, the very last day of break. I even commented on Miranda’s post about her art closet that I look forward to the day that K goes to college so there may be a wee bit less chaos and crowd around me as C enters kindergarten at the same time. I may actually have more time and space to myself. I also wish I generally showed more patience for S.

Okay, now that’s off my chest, I’m sure I’ll revisit the paradox plenty more, but will do my best not to beat myself up about it.

Rule #2: Then, remind yourself you are a good mom, list seven things you love about your kids, you love doing with your kids, or that your kids love about you. These are the things to remind yourself everyday that you rock!

1. My kids love that I bake cookies, cakes, treats and always eat ice cream with them often.
2. I don’t totally get on their cases about the post-apocalyptic disaster zones that are their rooms, except about twice a year. It’s my tiny nod to their free expression.
3. I encourage them in their creativity without hovering: K is writing novels that he knows I would hate all the violence therein, and S draws comics and makes short films based on the Godzilla franchise. I may roll my eyes, but I never tell them they can’t do it their way. And C loves placing abc blocks in her stacking cups to rattle them and prefers to sit on open books like a cat than actually read them.
4. I cuddle Baby C nearly constantly and play, read, tickle, etc her above all else.
5. I am mesmerized by what goes on in each of their heads, how they express it, and what developmental stage they’re in: teen, asperger pre-teen and new toddler.
6. I do my best to ensure that S’s special needs are met to the best ability of the school district. I am the PIA mom.
7. I revel in activities with them: flying kites, breaking waves, going out for a treat or dinner, hiking, taking them to movies, renting for family movie night, going to the zoo, aquarium, visiting relatives, any kind of adventure we can think of.

Finally, I am supposed to link 5 other mothers across the Blog-o-sphere, to nominate them for this award.

First and foremost:

  1. Miranda Hersey Helin here at Creative Construction for getting the shebang rolling while tending to five kids and running her own editing business, and moving, and this blog.
  2. Bethany Hiitola, for her courageous and witty balancing act.
  3. Mary Duquette, for her consistent honesty in plumbing the depths.
  4. Jen Johnson, for her magical jewelry, and sparkling stories of daily life with children.
  5. Elizabeth Beck who has the happiest and most colorful blog on the net.
  6. Liz Hum’s music and book reviews, rants on current hot topics, and funky blogs on family life at .

And there are many more I would like to nominate, but Brittany has already or I’ve seen them nominate before, or I ran out of the five spaces, but I must nominate one more (I was never good at following rules):

Lisa Leonard has recently revamped and moved her blog to a new address. Her photography and jewelry are beautiful as is her sense of peace about the challenges of motherhood with special needs. She never makes the big deal out of it that too often I do.

Thank you, Brittany! I am grateful you recognize a good mom in me, and made me look at ways that I do a decent job of it, as well as the opportunity to give props to other good moms in the blogosphere. Of which, of course, you are one!

Apr 15

3 Comments

4/15 Weekly Creativity Challenge Winner and New Prompt

Can you smell the fresh air and green grass of the farm? Three submissions this week, with the winner being Cathy Coley for her poem that I think all mothers can easily relate to.   Congrats Cathy!

I farm out tasks,
unsuccessfully.
The kids ignore,
the husband groans.

Would it be different
if we lived on a farm?
Would the chores be done
Simply because
The cow will moan
The rooster crow
The hens cluck
And the fields
Grow wild, inedible.

If they had to get it themselves,
Would they eat besides sugar
Would they pick the sun hot
Tomatoes, carrots, wash them
And eat?

Or would they wither
Away to bones
Naked
no laundry done
Because I’ve mastermind
my escape?

From Karen Winters, a beautiful painting titled “Peacefull Valley Farm”: California’s rich farmland is disappearing as open spaces once filled by family farms are bought up and developed. In places fruit groves are seen dying, unattended, and signs are posted announcing that new homes are coming. The burst of the real estate bubble will probably change that, but the farms won’t likely return. Still, in California’s great central valley there are fields as far as the eye can see. It’s no wonder that California has often been called the Salad Bowl of America.

california-farm-painting-b

From Kelly Warren, a photo titled “Family Reunion”: On my late February jaunt to photograph my Harvey Collection series, I also came across a field of very friendly cows. When I pulled over to the side of the road near their pasture, they all immediately headed straight over to check me out, hoping for a nibble, I’m sure. But when I started photographing them, their true model side came out and they all garnered for front and center camera space. They were quite fun to talk to!

family-reunion

This week’s prompt: “Breathless”
Use the prompt however you like – literally, or a tangential theme. All media are welcome. Please e-mail your entries to creativereality@live.com by 10:00 p.m. eastern time (GMT -5) on Tuesday, April 21, 2009.  Writers should include their submission directly in the body text of their e-mail. Visual artists and photographers should attach an image of their work as a jpeg. Enter as often as you like; multiple submissions for a single prompt are welcome. There is no limit to how many times you can win the weekly challenge, either. (You do not have to be a contributor to this blog in order to enter. All are invited to participate.) All submissions are acknowledged when received; if you do not receive e-mail confirmation of receipt within 24 hours, please post a comment here. Remember, the point is to stimulate your output, not to create a masterpiece. Keep the bar low and see what happens. Dusting off work you created previously is OK too. For more info, read the original contest blog post.

Apr 13

1 Comment

Weekly Creativity Challenge Reminder

Have you been having thoughts about escaping to a farm, funny or otherwise?  Send them in!

Apr 13

4 Comments

Miranda: Sometimes staying in the closet is a good thing

art_closetWe moved into our new house just over two months ago. Many weeks after I had everyone else settled and box-free, I was still at a loss when it came to organizing my creative supplies. My home office — the library — was the last room I dealt with. Today the boxes are all gone, and the books are all on the shelves, but they aren’t organized and the shelf fronts are littered with little “things” that haven’t yet found a home. The space is workable, but not complete. I’m still not sure what to do with a lot of those little things. (Which probably means I should throw them away.)

While I managed to get the library in a habitable condition, I still couldn’t figure out what to do with my art supplies. I’d earmarked the front hall closet — convenient to the library — for my art stuff, but I had many many bins and boxes of supplies — far more than would fit into that closet space. This week I finally brought all those boxes and bins down from the attic, and sorted out the space. Well, I should clarify.

On Thursday, when I’d finished all the pressing client work for the day and had another hour of babysitting to put to use, I decided that THAT would be a great time to get the art closet sorted out. So I ran up and down the stairs, lugging everything downstairs from the attic. I took many things out, filling the hallway with my bits and pieces. I made a big ol’ mess. But then I got stuck.

I was well and truly stuck (Fireman Sam, anyone?), and the timing was terrible. I really should have been preparing for my four-year-old’s birthday party — somehow I’d managed to invite nearly a dozen pre-schoolers to the house for Batman festivities on Saturday afternoon, and had many things left to prepare. (Yes, I really am nuts.) But there I was, late on Thursday afternoon, having turned my front hall into complete chaos, with no exit strategy in sight. What’s a girl to do?

Call Mom, of course!

Happily, my mother was coming down on Friday anyway, so it wasn’t too hard to rope her into lending a hand — and a lot of moral support — so I could clean up the mess I’d made. After I turned the corner with the organizing, we had to go out to do some errands — and I picked up a hanging shoe organizer for smaller items, which was just what the closet was missing.

Now, as you can see from the photo, it’s an organized space. I can find everything I need. And if inspiration is in short supply, I need only pull open a drawer or two and the ideas come wafting out. I didn’t have room for everything; a few bins of more specialized supplies went back to the attic, and a bin of kids’ art projects got stashed on a tall shelf in the playroom, but my basics are here — as is a bin of basic supplies for the kids. I wanted it to be easy to grab the bin and do something fun with the little ones, rather than having to drag a box down from the attic or bring it up from the basement.

It’s satisfying to have the closet sorted out, but I do wonder why I’ve had such a hard time getting my own creative things sorted out in our new space. What’s the block? Is it as simple as not wanting to have everything organized, because once it is, then I have no excuse not to work? That angle doesn’t really resonate with me, but who knows.

How about you? If you’ve ever had a room of your own, did that space have priority in your life? And if you don’t have any personal space, or your creative space is shared with many others, do you correlate the state of your space with the state of your creativity? Is that why it so often gets pushed to the bottom of the list?

Apr 10

6 Comments

Open House

Another week, and time to get this resting puppy back on its feet! I feel for Miranda’s need to give herself a rest. So I hope she breaks out her cup of coffee, or Mother’s Milk herbal tea and relaxes to the music that is the blogs of creative women. And that you do, too! Enjoy!

  1. Liz Hum has gone a noveling and is excited it grows bigger bones.
  2. Elizabeth Beck overhauls her studio and admits she has a problem.
  3. Jennifer Johnson’s husband has hijacked her blog to show that poetry is in the genes.
  4. Kelly Warren is back on the market.
  5. Karen Winters is grateful she only lost some paintings in a tragic accident.
  6. Mary Duquette fights against the rising tide and wins.
  7. Brittany Vandeputte continues her war with disease while keeping pace with her renovation.
  8. Bec Thomas courts creative copyright laws.
  9. Lisa Damian’s writer retreat feels indulgent, but she makes it work for her by producing.
  10. Amy Grennell is making the most of of her shortened creative hour.
  11. Kate Hopper announces her toddler haiku contest winner and shares her favorite top seven (warning: lots of poopku).
  12. Carmen Torbus dreams big, feels vulnerable when dreams start to come true.

So, enjoy a lucky 13 blogs (and one more for luck, as I tapped 2 of Liz’s) with your morning cup of preference. Maybe it’s enough to last you through the holiday weekend.

Apr 9

5 Comments

Brittany: What I’m Attached To

After reading Kelly’s post from last week, it got me thinking about a similar topic that comes up in the lives of creative women — marketing ourselves. I’ve been to a couple of writer’s conferences now, and every one has stressed the importance of having a presence — taking advantage of any and all social networking opportunities, becoming active in the writing community at large, and creating an identity in cyberspace. Then in this month’s Writer’s Digest, six pages are devoted to Christina Katz’s article on building a “power platform.”  A strong platform, Katz says, includes an author’s Web presence, classes taught, media contacts, articles  published, public speaking services, and any other means available to make an author’s name known.

Lately, I’ve also become much more aware of where my name is and what it’s attached to. I Google myself periodically (am I the only one who does this?), so I know that my name is attached to my master’s thesis, the three playwriting awards I’ve won, and blog posts about my novel-in-progress. But my name is not attached to any short stories or poetry, and this frustrates me. I’m frustrated because while these aren’t my favorite forms of writing, I feel quite confident that if I just put my mind to it, I could write both, and write them well. Then I could submit them to literary magazines and develop the “street cred” that eludes unpublished novelists and playwrights.

The South Carolina Writer’s Workshop is the main literary arts organization in South Carolina. They put on the yearly writer’s conference, sponsor the Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Awards, and publish the Petigru Review, a literary anthology. I’ve joined the organization, attended conferences, and won two Carrie McCray awards. All that’s left is being published in the Petigru Review, at which point, in my own mind, I will have achieved state of South Carolina superstardom.

The deadline for submissions is April 30, and a week ago, when I got the last reminder e-mail, I thought to myself, “Oh, easy peezy. I can whip up a couple of submissions. How hard can it be?”

Oh Lord, please deliver me from my unfailing optimism…

I started re-working the Sam/Squirrel story for a nice nonfiction piece, but it’s still incomplete because 1) I’ve never written any kind of nonfiction before and it was stressing me out and 2) I got this truly compulsive desire to write a poem about a diphtheria epidemic that killed two of my great-great grandfather’s sisters on the same day (who also happened to be  the same approximate ages as Sam an John at the time).  A week later, I’m still working on it. It’s a horrible, stark, Spoon River-esque kind of poem and I have the worst of the three stanzas to go. I have done so much research on the topic that I’m almost too shell-shocked to continue. And it certainly hasn’t helped that John ran a high fever all last week and seemed seriously ill, or that Sam developed a nasty finger infection that required antibiotics. Writing about dying children while my own children were fighting illnesses of their own brought my little poem a bit too close to home.

But despite all my reasons for not wanting to write it, it is coming along, and that makes me feel good. It’s a beautiful poem, and something that I’d like to have my name attached to.

Apr 8

4 Comments

4/9 Weekly Creativity Challenge Winner and New Prompt

We’ve been reaching for beautiful things this week! (and I’m new to this WordPress editing system, so bear with me!) Four great entries, but the challenge winner this week is Carmen Torbus with her gorgeous painting titled “Reach”.  Carmen said, “This is my favorite painting and it’s perfect for this week’s creative contest!”.  Yes, indeed, Carmen, congrats!

reach-carmen3

From Cathy Coley, a haiku…

Reach

My baby drops it,

I bend over to reach it,

and get stuck that way.

From Bec Thomas, a photograph titled “Reaching Up”.  Bec also has a nice tag line in her email: “The camera doesn’t make a bit of difference. All of them can record what you are seeing. But, you have to SEE.” Ernst Haas

reaching-high3

And from me (Kelly), a photograph titled “Reaching Out”, a photo I took while walking around downtown St. Petersburg, FL, early one morning in back in February while I was there for our state student government conference. 

reaching4

This week’s prompt: “Farm”
Use the prompt however you like – literally, or a tangential theme. All media are welcome. Please e-mail your entries to creativereality@live.com by 10:00 p.m. eastern time (GMT -5) on Tuesday, April 14, 2009.  Writers should include their submission directly in the body text of their e-mail. Visual artists and photographers should attach an image of their work as a jpeg. Enter as often as you like; multiple submissions for a single prompt are welcome. There is no limit to how many times you can win the weekly challenge, either. (You do not have to be a contributor to this blog in order to enter. All are invited to participate.) All submissions are acknowledged when received; if you do not receive e-mail confirmation of receipt within 24 hours, please post a comment here. Remember, the point is to stimulate your output, not to create a masterpiece. Keep the bar low and see what happens. Dusting off work you created previously is OK too. For more info, read the original contest blog post.

Apr 7

Creativity Challenge: What Are You Reaching For?

Don’t forget about this week’s Creativity Challenge!  What are you ‘reach’-ing for today?

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