A Few Poetic Musings

Image: Scott Monument, Edinburgh

National Poetry Month continues unabated, as months will do. My posts, on the other hand, have something of a more stochastic nature. I am late in thanking poet Laura Stophan, of Author Amok, She has been posting a poem a day from Maryland writers, including one of mine called Shower Sprite on April 16, that originally appeared in The Newsletter Inago years ago. Her blog is a great place to find poetry that is accessible to readers of all ages.

I've had the good fortune to have lately visited the land of poet Robert Burns. I'll admit that his poetry has always been difficult for me, since parsing the dialect takes a dedication I've never applied. Visiting the country, however, does provide plenty of motivation. It's amazing to see how the Scots love their writers, particularly Scott, Stephenson, and Burns. You are probably aware that he has his own night of happy reading and revelry on January 25th. And it turns out his poetry is a bit easier to parse after a "wee dram" of whiskey.

Or two.

There is a wonderful, mournful sensibility to be found in the damp castles and misty cliffsides of Scotland. I wasn't expecting to find inspiration for my own horrific and fantastical poems, which seems obviously misguided in hindsight. Certainly on the train ride in, with the green hillsides full of young lambs and searingly bright yellow flowers, I wasn't thinking fantasy. And then you get the chance to walk through the narrow stone streets of Edinburgh, thick with fog, and your imagination starts to roll. (Even though many of those walks were a search either for afternoon tea or Indian food.)

I'm curious to know what locations you have found the most inspiring for your speculative fiction writing. Any theme - horror, fantasy, sci-fi, the weird, whatever. A specific place? City? What venues do you find get your imagination flowing?

Pax,
Bryce

Image: My own picture of the Scott Monument in the heart of Edinburgh.

Some Science in the Writing: Elemental Poetry

Image: Gold as an Element

You may recall I conducted an interview with scientist Andrew Rivkin a little while back.  It turns out that this scientist, like many of us, has a not-so-secret artistic bent.  Certainly part of what motivates me to write science fiction is my interest and enthusiasm for the underlying science itself.  And at the same time, being a science fiction fan makes the science more interesting - it makes me wonder what really can or cannot be done, and in what time frame.  Will I live to see humans on Mars?  Workable fusion power?  And where are those flying cars, anyway?

I've strayed a bit off topic, here.  The topic is the intersection of science and art, and the specific example is Andrew Rivkin's music blog, Imperturbable Music.  A place where he usually posts his own music creations, but for the month of April each year is the place where he posts his poem-a-day.  This year he has chosen to write each poem about a chemical element.  Part of the fun is that after the first two poems, he's decided not to put the name of the element in the title, so there is a bit of a guessing game involved.

The rest of the fun is in the poems themselves.  Here is an excerpt from "Metal and Metaphor."

You may think it more metaphor than metal:
shades of blonde and best-sellers,
and high-limit credit cards,
but most of it ends up in junkyards
inside rusting-out beaters.

As I understand it, platinum is used in catalytic converters.  There isn't much of it in one converter, and the energy to remove it from old cars isn't worth the amount of platinum you would get out.  But over time, apparently quite a lot of the stuff is being reallocated from the Earth's crust in rocks to the surface of the Earth in junkyards.  It's quite possible that if and when we get our limitless fusion energy, people will go back and mine the rusting cars for platinum, since it will be easier to find it there than to go mining for it anew.  The idea of the future mining of ancient junkyards is certainly a great idea for a story.

The poet notes here how the word "platinum" is so overused that the first visions it brings up have nothing to do with the element itself.  Platinum albums, platinum blonde, platinum Visa.  Gold is apparently just so passe.  And platinum is headed in that direction - I think titanium is going to be the new cool metal to reference.  Perhaps this underscores part of the narrator's point, that eventually the once highly prized platinum is going to end up in tiny flakes, scattered through the trash of our society.

We are already drinking flakes of gold in our Goldschlager, and we know where that ends up.

Pax,
Bryce

Image Credit:  gold7 by Mrs. Pugliano on flickr via Creative Commons, CC2.0

What Makes a Good Writing Prompt - Interview with Writer and Poet Amy Grier

Image: Amy Grier and a wax Patrick Stuart at 
Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, Las Vegas, NV

Writing prompts have been on my mind. I find a good prompt to be a good tool, and that is part of the reason I am creating my own archive of general writing prompts on this blog. During April, many poets post lists of daily prompts to help keep writers on their "poem a day" schedule. I had a conversation with writer and poet Amy Grier on the subject, and gleaned some great ideas, and new insight, into what makes prompts effective for any kind of writing.

Amy possesses an eclectic background that informs her many styles and platforms of writing, from plays and memoirs to poems and textbooks. She has two MA's, one in Literature and Writing from Rivier College, and another in East Asian Studies from Washington University. Her BS is in Music Education from Clarion University. Her most recent publication was the poem "The Feeling of Autumn" in Poetry East, No. 60, 2010. She has also had a short story published in Dream International Quarterly, has produced content for a series of textbooks for teaching English to Chinese middle school students, and is a certified professional resume writer (among much else). She enjoys blogging, and is planning a revamp of her successful site "Living Poetry."

Bryce: "What do you think makes for a good writing prompt?"

Amy: "A good writing prompt must spark imagination, emotion, and intellect. The prompt should make you go “Oh!” and immediately deliver an imaginative focus. It needs to prod you to start thinking organically and naturally, not something that feels like homework. Not every prompt will do that for everybody, but a good prompt should attempt it."

Bryce: "What sorts of prompts can spark that kind of engagement? What needs to be present or be avoided?"

Amy: "Prompts must be specific, not vague. A prompt that is too vague won't help you go someplace that allows you to explore where you are psychologically in this moment.  For example, the prompt "write a poem with a profession as the title" is not as helpful as the prompt "write a poem about your first experience with nursing." This immediately sparks ideas. Some people will think of breastfeeding, others about their own time as a nurse, while some people will think about their first surgery and a specific nurse that was there. This creates the opportunity to prod imagination, draw on emotion, and engage the intellect. The word "nursing" is both comfortable and threatening. The intellect might generate thoughts of caretaking, being elderly, parenthood, illness, medical procedures, and more. The word “Nursing” activates your brain in all these ways."

Bryce:  "Tell me a little more about engaging the intellect."

Amy: "Always use a word or words in the prompt with power, a word that has many associations. The prompt "write a poem about an experience you have had with a needle" might seem to border on vague, but the word "needle" is very powerful.  It generates thoughts of sewing, drug use, vaccinations, even needles of minerals in gemstones. The mind will consider the definition of "needle" as well as the historical and cultural implications. You can get an untold number of poems from that prompt, or short stories, material for a novel, or whatever."

Bryce: "Can you leave us with a few specific examples of poetry prompts that you like?"

Amy: "Write a poem with a line in a foreign language. Write a poem that starts and ends with a line of dialog. Write a poem about a nightmare you had as a child. Include a cartoon character’s catch phrase in your poem. A common prompt is to take your favorite poem and use its last line as your first line. This sounds lazy, but it can work, because it gives you a concrete place to start. It gives you something to build around. Ultimately, if that line is dropped when you edit the poem, that’s fine.

Bryce: "Thanks!"

Did you like this little interview?  Useful?  I would be happy to do an interview, guest writer, or other type of blog swap on a topic of mutual interest, just drop me a note in the comment line.

Pax, Bryce

Alive Like Grass That's On Fire, Even

Image:  Life In Me Book Cover

National Poetry Month is upon us, and I am once again hoping to join in the madness.  I have a few different schemes in mind to get involved.  The first actually started last year - I mentioned in earlier posts that I had a poem selected to be part of a poetry anthology.  The book is now out and available as of the first day of April.  I am so very pleased and honored to be included in this project.

The book is entitled Life in Me Like Grass On Fire: Love Poems.  It was produced by the Maryland Writers Association (MWA), and edited by Laura Shovan.  More than fifty poets are represented, with over 90 poems, so there is a wonderful range of style, subject, and voice.  I have always enjoyed reading anthologies.  I know (or imagine) a concerned editor has cherry-picked a diverse collection of powerful poems, and that the odds are good I will find one that will become enmeshed inside me forever.  I had the great fortune to hear several of my fellow "Life in Me" authors give readings today, and it was the best poetry reading I have attended in some time.  There is some great poetry coming out of the state of Maryland these days.

Love poetry (without some kind of strange speculative quirk) hasn't been the top of my list for projects.  But just at the moment I was becoming aware of the MWA, they were looking for poems for this book.  And I also happened to have several poems I wrote within the last few years that were right on topic and had yet to find homes.  My poem "Officemate" has now found its permanent place of residence.

But I have no intention of straying far from my speculative genres of choice.  Last year for National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo - A Poem A Day In April), I chose to write in the theme of "the horrors of childhood."  I gleaned ten workable poems from that experience, and am two days into the same plan for this year.  Poetry seems to be a very effective platform for the subject - direct and with a strong emotional punch.

What are your plans for writing in April?  Any poetry reading or writing in the lineup?  I'm planning to push through with my poem a day plan, but also keep working on my current fiction writing project.  With that and the blogging, I'd say it was shaping up to be a very full month.

Bryce

Prompt the Muse #28 - Speculative Writing Prompt

Image:  Dense Object with Rays

A door has opened from here to there. It might be a wormhole in space, a magical wardrobe, or an actual door frame saying "abandon all hope ..." Consider the doors you have seen in speculative fiction, and try to think of something new, or an original twist on a gateway that people have already encountered in literature. Give yourself 150 words to describe your new portal to the unknown.

Image credit:  NASA/Spitzer

Prompt the Muse #27 - Speculative Writing Prompt

Art: Lake and Castle

Consider a scene that seems ominous and foreboding when experienced at night, but feels beautiful and serene during the day. Describe the elements of the environment that appear different depending on if they are viewed during the day or night. Now consider a scene that is the opposite, one that seems frightening during the day but feels safe and peaceful at night. Again, what are those elements that are perceived differently based on day or night? What is it about these elements that alters the viewer's perceptions? Take 250 words to answer the questions.

Image Credit:  Lake with Castle on a Hill, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Prompt the Muse #26 - Speculative Writing Prompt

Image: Iapetus

There is something dark covering the land, and a character has stumbled across this phenomenon. How did he/she find it? Is it malevolent, beneficial, or neutral? What is it made of, and what does the character plan to do now that this discovery has been made? Answer in 250 words.

Image Credit:  Saturn's moon Iapetus, NASA/Cassini

New Projects Amidst the Snows and Melts

Photo: Crystal Grotto in Snow

While I wasn't surprised at the usual December rush and January catch-up, I was indeed surprised by the overall magnitude of catch-up. So while the snow variously piled up and melted away (iterate) outside, I was busy inside, trying to finish edits to my novel and keep up with paperwork for a poem to be published in an anthology.

Although I did not keep my blogging schedule, I can at least say I kept my overall writing schedule. But since this blog, and your blogs, remain very important to me, I have once again renewed my commitment to blogging, and have returned - hopefully refreshed and invigorated to tackle the challenges of 2011. Or to continue to tackle them, since the year certainly started off in the fast lane for writing projects.

My novel with the working title "A Warm Day in Hell" is now edited and ready to go for further critique, if necessary, and publishing, if I can hone in on the skill and luck necessary to make that happen.  I'll be taking it to "The Muse in the Marketplace" conference in Boston later this spring.  It should be a great meeting for networking, learning more about how to approach the issue of publishing, and hopefully a chance to get my novel one step closer to the printed page.

Late last year my poem "Officemate" was selected for publication in an anthology being produced by the Maryland Writer's Association.  The book is close to rolling off the presses, so soon I should be able to tell you more about it.  I can already say the Association has been quite proactive in setting up readings, events, panels and more to give area poets a chance to meet, mingle, and present their art.  I am looking forward to participating in a reading or two in the spring and summer, and perhaps attending a writing conference if my schedule permits.

In addition, of course, is this blog.  I have really enjoyed my association with other writers in the blogosphere, and want to expand that.  I've forged a few good partnerships on deviantArt and I think the art helps keep my posts fresh, interesting, and useful (definitely for me, anyway, and hopefully for you, too.)  I've wanted to make sure my own project updates were included on the blog, but were not the focus.  The focus is on writing.  Along with that I did want to continue my 'weekly' writing prompts.  My goal is an archive of about 100, to use as an educational tool, a fun activity, and to keep my own creative wheels turning.  I thought it would take two years to build, but given the pace it is looking like three or four.  They call that the 'Planning Fallacy'  :)

Those are my most concrete goals for the year, but other ideas continue to percolate.  I am working sporadically on two other novels, one a stand alone book, and another a part of the sci-fi series I've been kicking around for so long.  I've been trying to produce a body of short stories to publish, say 25 or so, as a means to hone the craft and get some name recognition, but that goes slowly.  I have eight right now, and I have not worked very hard to get them out on the street.  As always, I'd rather be writing than anything else, and that is not too practical if the goal is publication.  Otherwise, I have my eye on producing a chapbook of poetry centered on my theme from last year, 'the horror of childhood.'  I have about a dozen good drafts in the theme, and want to work through NaPoWriMo (A poem a day in April) to see if I can manage to get the number up to two dozen.  And of course I'll rifle through my ideas and outlines for novels come November, and jump in once again on NaNoWriMo.

That is enough.  It is certainly plenty.  And yet I actually hope I can do more.  I've been kicking around an idea for a workshop for other writers.  This would be something I would offer to writers of science fiction, given my own background in planetary science and astronomy.  One idea was a workshop about why water is considered necessary for life as we know it and the basics of astrobiology, so sci-fi writers can be more informed about the topic when they create their own life, alien or otherwise.  It would be an enjoyable way to meet other writers, and to give something of value to the community.  So the first question for you, is this ... if you as a speculative writer could attend at workshop given by a professional astronomer-type, what subject would most grab you?  What do you hope you'd walk away with?

I'm interested to know how others have set up their goals for the year.  Has 2011 started with a mountain of projects, or has it moved in nice and easily?  What are your major milestones, and your 'if everything goes perfect' plans?  Any meetings or conferences in the works?  Plans for your blogs?  I'd love to hear it ...

Pax
Bryce

Image Credit:  Crystal Shrine Grotto, Wikimedia Commons, CC 3.0

Ending Another NaNoWriMo

Image: Nano Bag o' Skulls

First things first, this image needs a good caption. Write what should be the title or caption to this picture and put it in the comments. I'm sure I'm not the only one coming to the end of NaNoWriMo with some mixed feelings.

The real story behind the bag starts with the fact that our Halloween decorations were put away rather haphazardly this year. When I went to find certain winter holiday decorations, I had to move a pile of skulls out of the way. The NaNo bag was convenient. Then I looked over and realized I had a NaNo bag full of skulls and had to take a picture.

Why mixed feelings about NaNo? It isn't NaNo in particular, but this month has made it clear just how much my writing routine has changed in the last year. This is a good thing, by the way, but still, it a dose of reality to be ingested and assimilated. Two years ago I was writing as I pleased (or not), and left bits and pieces of work in various stages all over various hard drives. Millions of words of writing, actually, and while I had the idea that 'I'll get some of it published someday' I didn't have a plan for that.

Now I do have something of a plan, and it includes 'administrative' work as well as the fun 'writing with abandon' work. I have to be more focused and efficient, planning out projects in advance, choosing what old writing needs edited and what new writing needs to be done before I can move forward. My time includes looking up markets for short stories, targeting them, submitting them, and then iterating the process as necessary. It includes taking bits and pieces of novels - all the outlines, sketched out scenes, character profiles - and crafting them into actual books. There is also staying informed with general goings on in the speculative genres, writing in my blogs ... you know it all, I'm sure.

This year's NaNoWriMo made the changes in my approach much more clear to me. Last year I wrote over 75K just on the one novel, and poked around with various other projects without too much direction. I updated my word count daily and spent a lot of time on the forums. This year I'll clear the post at just over 50K, and didn't spend as much time as I would have liked on the site. I had to split my time more efficiently. I wrote with 'some abandon' which was fun, but more controlled than last year.

Still, I met new people, finished one project and started another, and had the experience capped by being interviewed by writer and fellow blogger Maureen O'Donnell for the Columbia Patch. So my feelings are mixed, sad to see NaNo go before I could really lose myself in it, but also glad to see it go, since I do need to keep my writing schedule balanced to meet all of my goals. In any case, as of this moment, I'm planning to get involved again next year.


Image credit: Bag o' Skulls by me.