What is your writing process like?: Part 8

Click here for part seven.
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It's taken a minute, but I finally revised my bops. The goal was to write five, however, the deadline is creeping around the corner and I rather send the four that I have done, then risk forgetting to send them on time. The beginning of the school year is a difficult time crunch for me, so I'd rather play it safe. Besides I don't want to be on the bottom of the slush pile. My poems might sound better with a fresh pair of eyes on them.

*smile*

I am nervous about the cover letter though, not sure of how to format it correctly. Clearly, I'm a rookie at this. I'm going to let them marinate for a week until I can get feedback from my online writing group and then I'm sending them off.

*thinking positive thoughts*

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 27

This is my last postcard for some strange reason...I was supposed to have 31. That must mean that a few people dropped out of participating, or either there was never enough in the first place...

I still have some postcards left. Who should I send them to?

It was fun postcard challenge. Adios last card, in the mailbox it goes.

What is your writing process like?: Part 7

Click here for part six.
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Alrighty. I haven't give y'all an update on my bop process. Actually there hasn't been much to update because I haven't been working on them.

Yeah.

However, a few days ago, there was a slight break through. Right now, I have four bops. Two of them I already mentioned and the other two, I wrote a while back. One of them I really like, and would probably be the one that would make the cut. The other was a freeverse poem that I'm modifying to be a bop.

Saturday, I was given suggestions on how to make these two better. For example, the one that I'm modifying didn't even have a refrain, but I couldn't think of any songs that would work. My normal process for writing a bop, is to pick the music first and then let the poem form itself. So I was stuck trying to go in reverse order...but Vizionheiry came up with the perfect song:



The mood of this song, hopefully will help me get my last stanza together.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 26

You know, I wonder if the people I'm sending these postcards to are receiving them. How would I know? Just curious.

Another video for today. I didn't show the actual poems last time, but this time I got it right.

Twenty-six is in the mix, into the mailbox it goes.

Story time: Substitute Me by Lori L. Tharps

Substitute Me by Lori L. Tharps will be available at your local book store on August 24th.

In order to encourage you to pick up a copy, I read aloud a snippet of page one. Push play below to hear it.

Reeeeeejected #3

*blink, blink*

Got another one. This time from The Orange Room Review.

*sigh*

At what point do you retire a poem?

Not that I'm giving up or anything crazy like that, but how many rejections should you rack up before coming to the realization that the poem might be crappy?

Just saying.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 26

Alright, alright. I did another monotetra. These things are super fun and the perfect size for a postcard (and my attention span).

This poem came from the recesses of my mind.

*record scratch*

I'm not sure why I said that. Anyway, the poem is about the bops I'm writing for the Bop, Strut, and Dance anthology. A poem about my poetry process...how original of me. Do you feel my sarcasm?

Good night.

Only a few days left, into the mailbox it goes.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 25

Okay, so I wasn't able to get my one poem in yesterday.

*hangs head in shame*

I did get two done today. I'm really running with this monotetra form that I learned about recently (thanks Robert). One poem was about the fact that I made my last payment on my car, while the other was about Substitute Me by Lori Tharps because I finished reading her book today.

If you have been following along since the beginning, you might remember that I bought a stack of blank postcards from the US Postal Service. I've been doing my best to design the front of these postcards, but I'm a stick figure type of artist.

*grin*

Decided to share two of them to make up for not having that one done yesterday. Click on the video and prepare to be underwhelmed.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 24

No poem yet.

*hand on forehead*

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 23

I did another monotetra for my postcard to Carolee Sherwood. Now, I don't know Carolee at all, but I do recognize her name from being on Read.Write.Poem.

*moment of silence*

Wish RWP was still going strong.

Anywho, because I am reading Substitute Me (by Lori Tharps), it keeps finding its way into my poems. Not a problem, I'll take inspiration where I can get it.

Twenty-three and me (are done), into the mailbox it goes.

* * * * * * *

In non-postcard related news, I've been doing some research on low-res MFA programs, and so far here are three I am interested in:

1. Bennington College
2. Queens University of Charlotte
3. Fairleigh Dickinson University

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 22

Welp, HawthoRNe is on so I must bid you adieu. I know I just got here, but I didn't want you to think that I didn't do my postcard for the day. Wrote a monotetra after reading about it on Robert Brewer's blog.

If you want to know what the heck a monotetra is, go visit his page. They are kind of fun.

Twenty-two is through, in the mailbox it goes.

New Writing Goals

I need some new writing goals. I initially had two, and I completed one.

New Writing Goals:

1. Compile a set of 15-20 poems that can be used as a writing sample.
2. Submit poems to 12 different literary journals/magazines.

Why these goals? The first one is because I'd like to apply to an MFA program. All of them ask for a sample of your poetry, so I need to have something ready. They don't usually ask for 20, but I have at least two schools in mind that focus specifically on writing for children/young adults and I figure I'll need a different set of poetry for those schools.

The other goal is because I don't submit my work enough places. Even if all 12 of them reject me, it's still better than never submitting anywhere, right?

Right.

Do you have writing goals?

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 21

I have to stop keeping vampire hours because summer is dying. Oh, summer, how I wish you would beat up the other seasons and keep them from coming back.

Anyway, I finished my poem for the day. It has become more difficult to come up with interesting things to write about...but do all poems have to be interesting?

Yes, of course. Why else would you read them, silly Billy?

Twenty-one and done, into the mailbox it goes.

Reeeeeejected #2

I received a nice email from the editor of Alba, that said he "enjoyed reading" my poems, but wouldn't be able to publish any of them. He also mentioned I should "try again in the future."

I might just do that.

I'm not too wounded by it, however a cupcake could make me feel better.

*grin*

32 Candles Winner

The winner of the 32 Candles Book give-away is...

*drum roll*

*more drum roll*

*cymbal crash*

Kismet!!!

Congratulations Kismet and thank you for entering my contest.

...and also thanks to everyone else who entered, I appreciate you all too.

I can't wait to do another contest. Giving away books is fun.

Book worms unite.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 20

I went to Busboys & Poets earlier and had several ideas about poems. If only I had written them down while I was still there, because by the time I made it home, the ideas had evaporated. Dang.

Oh well, I did manage to find a new idea for a poem after reading a few chapters of Substitute Me by Lori Tharps. I know it's a work of fiction and everything, but some of it feels very authentic...like, one of the characters attends Smith College, like Lori did. There was actually one section that...let me just write it here, and then I'll explain:

The truth was, she loved cooking, she loved traveling, and she liked kids. She liked feeling useful, and she liked being in beautiful spaces. She loved music and dancing and the taste of a foreign language rolling off her tongue. She loved reading literary fiction with multicultural characters and watching spoken-word poetry performances in intimate theaters (pg 18).

This passage is what inspired my postcard. Novels may come from an author's imagination, but I think pieces of themselves also sink in between the lines, by choice or unconsciously.

Two-thirds done with this challenge, postcard 20 is finished, into the mailbox it goes (tomorrow).

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 19

Arrrgh! It's irk-ing me that I might have sent a postcard to the wrong person today. I made a habit of taking a picture of the postcards before I sent them out, to chronicle them here on my blog, but to also help me keep the order of them straight. I dropped the habit while in Atlanta.

I hope I didn't make a mistake, but if I did, that means I skipped over Mary in St. Louis and sent Jill in Delmar, Mary's postcard.

Well Mary, if you don't get a postcard from me in a few days, send me an email and I'll send you one. I don't want to deprive you of my poetry.

*smile*

The two postcards in the picture are from the Salvador Dali exhibit at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. The bottom one is the card I sent out to Jill and the top one, I hope is heading to Mary...the one I was late writing yesterday.

Eighteen and nineteen were fun (and now done), into the mailbox they go.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 18

I don't have a poem done yet, and I don't think it's going to happen today. I might be able to squeeze something out, but it won't be making it to the mailbox tonight.

I'm going to blame it on traveling back to Maryland, but that's really an excuse I could have written one while I was on the plane ride. Or instead of watching that episode of HawthoRNe, I could have written one. And instead of trying to finish reading The People of Paper, I could have written one.

It's my fault.

I didn't make writing the poem a priority.

I still have about 40 minutes before this day is officially over though...so off I go.

P.S. I had 4 postcards in
the mailbox waiting for me
when I got home.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 17

Project Runway is on...gotta go.

My postcard was about cupcakes, sorta.

Seventeen is done, in the mailbox it goes.

P.S. I designed the front
of my postcard for this one.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 16

I'm at the halfway point with this poetry postcard challenge. It is becoming more difficult to find things to write about. Some days I'll write 3 poems and none the next. It isn't that I'm running out of ideas, but the more of them I write, the more pressure I put on myself to make "good" poems. In all honesty though, these poems are basically rough drafts.

The poems are first written in my composition book, then I piece together the parts I like into a pseudo second draft, and then I write that second draft on to the postcard, which may or may not get tweaked one last time.

My initial thoughts about this poetry challenge is that these poems would be only seen by the person who it was mailed to and post office workers who enjoy reading the backs of postcards. Now I'm thinking there may be a few of them that should be reworked and sent off to a literary magazine/journal.

The poem I wrote for tomorrow's postcard was inspired by my want for a red velvet cupcake in my tummy. The 16th postcard I was already written since Monday.

All done with sweet 16, into the mailbox it goes.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 15

Did you notice yesterday that I didn't close my blog entry by saying my postcard was in the mailbox?

That's because I hadn't mailed it off yet. Being in Atlanta, I am unfamiliar with post office locations. I happened to find one inside the Phillips Arena...or it might have actually been part of the CNN building, they are connected somehow.

The Coca-Cola postcards I bought yesterday ended up being a short series of three. I mentioned it on my Twitter page and World of Coca-Cola replied back to me about sharing them. Maybe I will.

Fifteen is finished, into the mailbox it goes.



P.S. I have 70 followers now.
Amazing and #70 is Carleen Brice.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 14

At the Coca-Cola factory, I found some postcards that were cute. That was wonderful because I struggled to complete a poem, and was only able to after spending time at the factory. I'm surprised it encouraged me to write, but I am grateful. I'm not even a Coke drinker.

I wonder if I have some postcards back home waiting for me.

The Sandman is calling me and I'm listening.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 13

It's difficult to blog when you don't have a computer handy. I hope this blogger app works. I'll make this short and sweet, or maybe just short.

I'll have to add a picture later, but I do have a completed postcard for today, even though I mailed it yesterday. While I'm visiting Atlanta, I'll see if I can find some new postcards, but I do still have the plain ones I bought from the post office.

Did I mention that I purchased some color pencils so I can attempt to decorate them?Anyhoo, still poet-ing on with #13, in the mailbox it goes.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 12

Time is running out for me, because I need to wash my hair before I get too tired to do it. I had to update you on my postcards.

There's something that I noticed with the August Poetry Postcard Fest. The specific order that we are supposed to send our postcards is not being followed, unless some people are just late in sending their postcards out. Simply an observation, not a dig. Just saying.

Thus far (yes, I said thus), I have received 3 postcards from other people participating, and I have mailed off 12. I'd say out of those 12 poems, I like 3-4 of them.

Off to wash and twist, adios postcard, into the mailbox you go.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 11

The poem I wrote for the eleventh day came from a comment that Terry McMillan made. She said something about cuc-a-bugs and I just ran with that word and created a poem from it. Now, I think the average Black woman knows exactly what a cuc-a-bug is, but will the person who receives my postcard know? My guess is that she won't, unless she has or has had cuc-a-bugs, or has a lot of Black friends who have been open with her.


Anyway, I hope the poem will make sense to Mya even if she doesn't understand what it is.


*giggle*

Eleventh postcard done, in the mailbox it goes.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 10

Yeahhhhh! I got a postcard today from Jessica. She did something really smart on her postcard, something I wish I had thought of. She added her website information on her postcard. Click here if you'd like to visit her. After I went to visit her website for myself, I found out that she also has a Twitter page.

See, if I had done that for all of my postcards, I might already have 10 new people visiting my blog and reading my poetry. Better late than never.

For the postcard I mailed out, I wrote an epistle, which I figure is fitting.


I wonder if the other people participating in this August Poetry Postcard Fest get as excited as I do to check the mailbox.

The tenth postcard is all done, in the mailbox it goes.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 9

Turns out that I didn't get a postcard (sent to me) today. I'm not disappointed, really.


*pause*


The poem I created was my attempt of copying the technique Salvador Plascentia used in his novel The People of Paper.


I'm happy with poem. It's happy with me too. I know this, because it whispered to me after I applied Oscar Micheaux.

Ninth postcard finished, in the mailbox it goes.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 8

Ooops, didn't get a chance to write about my postcard challenge yesterday, but that doesn't mean that I didn't write one.

I was unable to blog because I went out last night to Houston's restaurant. Have you ever had their 5-nut brownie? It made my eyes roll back in my head. It's that good. It's topped with vanilla ice cream and is surrounded in egg custard. Yum-o. I stayed on the treadmill for an hour today to compensate for it.

Wait, I'm supposed to be talking about postcards, aren't I?

I have yet to go to the mailbox to see if I received a postcard myself, so it remains a mystery.

I'm running out of the postcards I bought when I was in California. Tracking down some new postcards has been fairly disappointing. The places that did actually have postcards only have the location-type postcards that look cheesy. You know the kind I'm talking about. The ones that have the city you live in, that only tourist to the area buy. I don't want those.

Guess where I found some? The U.S. Postal Service. The positive thing is that the correct postage amount is already on the postcard. Not so positive is the fact that it basically just a unlined 3 x 5 index card. If I had any drawing skills then a blank slate would be great, but I don't.

Oh well, the eight postcard is done, in the mailbox it goes.

Poetry Postcard Challenge - Day 7

Guess what? My first postcard arrived in the mail today. I don't know who sent it, but there initials are E.L.D. and they wrote me a poem about music, no doubt inspired by the picture of John Coltrane on the front of the postcard. I noticed the stamp on the postcard is only 29 cents. Man, I didn't know you didn't need the full postage for a postcard.

Eh, you live and you learn.


Someone has probably received one of my postcards too. Thrilling, isn't it?

The seventh postcard is out the door, in the mailbox it goes.

32 Candles Contest

Do you want this book?

I know you do.

I'm sure you've heard about how fabulous it is by now, and due to circumstances out of your control, you have not been able to get a copy for yourself yet. No problem, I'm going to help you out.

You can have my copy. For free.

*and here comes the catch*

You must give me your first born child, so that my mother can have at least one grandchild, and she can be happy with the world.

*okay, the real catch*

You can have the book if you enter my contest. Here's what you can do to win:

1. Describe your favorite scene in the movie 16 Candles - 5 entries
2. Follow my blog - 1 entry
3. Tell me your favorite Maxwell song - 5 entries
4. Follow me on Twitter - 1 entry
5. Tell me what the original name for 32 Candles was going to be - 10 entries
6. Follow Ernessa T. Carter on Twitter - 1 entry
7. Write me a quatrain on any topic - 10 entries

It's up to you how many of the above you choose to do, but the more you do, the better your chances to win.

Don't forget to leave your email address in your comment and tally your entry points for me please. Good luck.

The contest ends August 15th.

P.S. Don't think that I'm giving away my copy
because I didn't like the book. That is far from
the truth. I won a copy of the book from another
blog. Since I have it on my Nook and have it in
hardback already, I figured I'd share this copy with you.

Poetry Challenge - Day 6

It's almost time for bed, but I did do my poetry postcard for the day. The front of the postcard had a nice looking tree on it, which reminded me of the one tattooed on my foot. I used the lack of color in the photo to inspire me.

I put this postcard in the mail today, but I realize it won't be mailed until tomorrow. I wonder if anyone has gotten my postcards yet?

Wouldn't it be fantastic if you received a postcard from your favorite poet? Or what if you received a postcard from a poet that would one day become famous?

Good night.