Writing, Exhaustion, and Other Thoughts

It's cold this morning. All I have to do is look out the window and know its cold. I don't know. Maybe it's a New Jersey thing. We are in tuned to the weather. Lucky us. It's the low 60s. Good stuff. I've just started the next batch of projects. I took a few days off of the submission process just because I was lacking in time. Plus, I think I've found the form I really want to focus on writing so I need to get a few more of those longer pieces done before I have enough excess materials to send out. Of course, I've also been playing around with fonts. I've been thinking that I want to add a visual graphic to my chapbooks but want to make certain that the file sizes remain small. So now I finally have a use for dingbats and webdings. Thank god. I found some really cool fonts with anatomical pictures and intricate flowers that I can use as borders. It's just the touch I've been wanting. 


My next two weekends are incredibly busy. I'm talking about a montage of football games, birthday parties, anniversary dinners (4 years for the hubby and me!), and perhaps some hiking here and there. We shall see. The weather is crisp but it's perfect hiking weather. I don't want to miss out. Plus, my favorite part about fall is the leaves changing colors and thus, hiking is the perfect way to get that. Oh yes. 


Oh, check out this link. It's about these two guys who are protesting a church that is actually opposed to funerals for homosexuals who have died of AIDS. The guys have turned church bulletins from the hateful pieces they were intended to be into more transcendental pieces about tolerance. I like it. That's what poetry should be used for. Not trying to destroy people. I don't like the idea of people actually complaining about men and women having proper burials because of their sexual orientation. That's so stupid. Then I think about the book Orange is Not the Only Fruit. That was a good book. If you haven't read it, you should. It talks a lot about how religion tries to change the way people are. If anything, true religion should embrace all sorts of people and strive to love them regardless. But I forgot... we live in an imperfect world and so many people are judgmental pricks. Sigh. http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2010/09/17/129934773/blog-mashup-turns-messages-of-hate-into-poetry-preaching-tolerance-and-love


In other news, we're a little less than a month and a half away from National Novel Writing Month and the Poetic Asides November Chapbook Challenge. If this is the first time you've heard of these challenges, then tsk tsk. This is some good stuff. In November, you can either choose to write a 50,000 word novel before midnight on November 30th or you can write one poem a day every day of the month. As for myself, I'm an over-achiever and do both. Why? Because it's fun. I'm deciding if the stuff I post will be put here or on my website. I might do both but just link to the website because it's simpler. I'm not sure. I do not know. I think I'm going to change the challenge around and instead of doing a poem a day, I do a chapbook on the subject a day. That'll require more commitment but I think I can do it. I have no idea what my novel is going to be about. I'm thinking that instead of working on a novel, I might write two novellas that are companion pieces but can survive in the world without one another. I'm not sure yet. But now is the time to start compiling information and inspiration so you can get down to the writing nitty gritty. I'm excited. I love writing challenges. 


So I guess that that's it for now. I have so much to do and so little time. Have a productive Tuesday.