Tag Archives: books to read

Monday Shout Outs

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Hello, Monday! I’m actually pretty awake for a Monday, especially considering we have now added a new kitten to the household and he is a bit frisky :)

  • I recently finished reading the graphic novel version of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. I read the book a few months back and the graphic novel is very similar, of course, but with more action. It was ok and actually might be a fun pick instead of the book if you have already read the un-zombie, original version of Pride & Prejudice but I did find the illustrations a bit annoying because so many of the characters looked like the other characters. That drives me nuts in graphic novels!
  • I’ve read some good posts about the MFA recently. Here is one.
  • This week author AJ Jacobs will be speaking at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, NC. The event starts at 7pm. AJ is a non-fiction writer. I really enjoyed his books Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically.
  • Story with great use of extended metaphor.
  • I recently finished reading Praying at Coffee Shops by Maureen Sherbondy. I picked this up when Maureen and I read together at the end of April so you can see how far behind I still am on my reading list! I love this little collection. It confronts some issues with being Jewish in the South. My favorite poem is probably A Child’s Voice where Maureen writes:  In the room of silent prayer /eyes closed to visual distraction / air spinning with thoughts / and wishes, one young voice / breaks through / Where is God? / drops like a rock / in the sanctuary.

I may need to do a link round up soon because I have a document full of great links for you guys! Tomorrow I am hoping to post an interview with a poet. So stay tuned!

And, have a great week :)

Hour by Hour

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What does my day look like? Let’s take a look.

  • 8am – got up and around. Straightened up a bit and had a breakfast of water and grapes. Computer is set up and ready to go
  • 9am – entrenched in the internet. Blog reading and commenting. A bit of Twitter. A bit of Facebook. Even checking on on Poets & Writers Speakeasy which I do once a week (when I remember!)  Trying out an online program that might help my upcoming classes but also deciding where to send my first submission packet of the day – an essasy
  • 10am – released an editor’s challenge update at Referential and submitted two poems to a certain wonderful online publication. Read a little bit in an issue of Main Street Rag where I had a poem published and a few pages in Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert. Also doing a lot of online reading including Connotation Press and The Northville Review (links in the sidebar for litmags)
  • 11am – early lunch of WW mini frozen pizzas. Love those things! Read a bit in the novel Nothing Happened and then it Did and sent out another packet of poems to an online publication (all the places I have sent to today, I have appeared in before..interesting) Catching up on some writerly YouTube videos in between answering interview questions from a lit mag
  • Noon – finished the last few pages of my re-read of Peter Carey’s Wrong About Japan. I’ll be talking about this book in a future blog most likely. Did a 20 minute wii fit workout. Whew. Checked my list but no where to send my chapbook for consideration this week although did find some details on a book award that Paper House might be entered into. Really should look into more of those for my book and for my chapbooks but don’t really know much about them. Also corrected a few typos on Referential. I am not a copy editor. That’s why I have help! :)
  • 1pm – Clean up after shower. Read through comments from one of my readers on a recent essay I’ve been working on. Think I will need one more read through on the essay and it’ll be ready to go. I strongly encourage everyone to have readers at every level of writing. I think the lack of community is why I stopped writing for 5-6 years in my late 20′s. But, no, I can’t be your reader. Sorry! I already have too many and everyday more and more limited time. I, sadly, have to charge now to critique stuff :( my plan to do revisions in the other room with no internet on my netbook has been working out great! Finished the interview questions, whew. Now need to draft the poetry workshop course description that I need to turn in ASAP.

Well this is going on too long so you’ll just have to say my day ended in the 1 o’clock hour! The rest of the day will be more revisions, have two essays, hopefully typing up some poems from my notebook and finally finishing the poetry workshop course description. Sometime in there I think I’ll need a snack :)

What are you guys up to?