A Sanctuary Built of Words: Poems of Peace, Grief, and Passion by Melora Johnson – available through Amazon and other book sellers.
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Buick Enclaves are Following Me!
July 17, 2018 at 5:00 am (Marketing, NaNoWriMo, Writing Groups, Writing Inspiration)
This past week has been a fun one even though I’m suffering with one of those awful summer colds where zinc doesn’t diminish the fires of hell burning in my throat. I keep watching more people like the post with the cover of my book and then I invite them to like the page.
And I’m really looking forward to the write-in at my library on Saturday. We welcome everyone who writes but most of the people who come will be from my regular writer’s group. People sometimes thank me for running it but the truth is that I get just as much out of it as I put in. It helps keep me focused on my writing goals. I don’t think I’d have accomplished nearly as much as I have if it weren’t for the group.
I don’t know how close I am to the goal of my writing starting to pay me back financially for all the work I put into it but I play a little game, it’s called “Buick Enclaves are Following Me!” Whenever I go out to write, usually at a coffee shop, I always watch for the Buick Enclaves, particularly red ones. Sunday I stopped at the coffee shop to write for a bit and afterward I went to the grocery store. Just before I turned into the store, a red Buick Enclave passed me going in the other direction. As I was walking out of the store, a dark blue one drove by in the parking lot. They’re my little sign from the Universe, I like to believe, that I am in the right place at the right time, doing what I should be doing.
Do you have anything like that? Little signposts along the road?
Poem: Tires on Pavement
July 13, 2018 at 5:00 am (Poetry)
A new poem for Friday! Not remotely creepy for the 13th, sorry.
Cover Appeal
July 10, 2018 at 7:45 am (Uncategorized)
Don’t judge a book by it’s cover? I’m counting on mine to sell the book!
This past weekend I was attending a craft workshop at my library and talking about my book, as usual. (Come on, it’s a new and shiny experience for me!)
As it happened, the woman sitting near me runs a Christmas tree gift shop during the season and asked to see the cover. I showed her on my phone and she offered to carry some copies in their gift shop during the season. Score!
Thank you, GreenDragonArtist!
Now, of course I want people to read the book but I have to get it in their hands first.
Food critics talk about eating “with your eyes” first. The plate appeal is real.
Real Estate agents talk about curb appeal. Here’s my curb appeal and my real estate, from my head.
Now Available: A Sanctuary Built of Words
July 6, 2018 at 5:00 am (Poetry)
Yesterday was a bit surreal. My book went up for sale on Amazon. After all the work – compiling, editing, formatting, proofs, and tweaking – there it was.
I still need to finish the Kindle file and I’ll eventually be recording an audio version but, for now, the print version is available.
“What if sanctuary isn’t always a physical place?
Sometimes it’s located in our heads, and sometimes . . .
sanctuary can be found in the stories we share.
Whether our own or the ones we create, they say –
you are not alone – in how you think, in how you feel . . .”
You can click on the image below to order a copy!
The Publishing Finish Line
July 3, 2018 at 9:00 am (Editing, Marketing, Poetry)
Well, I can see the finish line in sight. This has been an interesting process from start to finish and reminded me of the need for both patience and creativity in solutions. The book has been approved and will be available for purchase on Amazon in 3 to 5 days, I am told. 🙂
I’m not even sure when I first conceived of the idea of a book of poetry, to be honest. It was at least several months ago. Seemed an easy process – throw some poems together and make a cover in Publisher, right? Ha!
Picking which poems to include wasn’t so difficult. Editing them took much longer than I planned on. My beta readers were the best help. Then I realized the order of the poems mattered more than I had thought and had to fix that. Right up to Sunday night when a page break moved on me and put three blank pages in the pdf I was uploading to Createspace. *sigh*
This morning I went to approve my proof so it could be distributed and the computer at home would not turn on. The fan just ran and ran. 😦 Bad computer, very bad computer.
But we’re almost there. Soon I’ll be able to really start marketing the book and that will be a whole new adventure.
Poem: Considering the Fourth of July
June 29, 2018 at 10:27 am (Poetry)
The book is almost ready! Here’s a little Friday poem, written some time ago but it will also be in the book, appropriate for the upcoming holiday.
Unwinding the Brain
June 26, 2018 at 5:08 pm (Time Management)
I love to write but sometimes I need to give my brain a break. Coloring and Sudoku are a couple of my ways to do that. What are yours?
Off Kilter: A Poem Playing With Space
June 22, 2018 at 5:55 pm (Poetry)
I was inspired by a poetry workshop recently at The ARTS of the Southern Finger Lakes with poet Mong Lan. We read a poem that played with space and it reminded me of improvisational jazz. I wrote this poem that plays with spacing, line breaks, tab stops, subscripts, and superscripts. What do you think? Is it playful for you or just weird? Do you like it? Not like it? Why?
Punctuation in Poetry
June 19, 2018 at 9:31 am (Editing, Poetry)
Punctuation in Poetry
Over the past few months I’ve ramped up my scrutiny and editing of my poetry, trying to get it ready for publication. I’ve learned a few new things about what I like in poetry and I’ve found I like playing with space and punctuation.
We’ve long debated capitalization and punctuation in my writer’s group. I’m of the mind that you punctuate and capitalize as you would any sentence, even though it is broken up by the end of a line.
Now, we know periods create a full stop so that’s a fairly long pause. Commas cause a shorter pause. I believe line breaks create a pause in our brain even if we continue reading. I learned recently that our brains treat written language as a physical terrain, so I liken that line break to stepping over something in your way. You may not be stopping but it slows you up just a little.
At one point I thought to myself, “Oh, I don’t like those short dashes Word is putting in. I think I’d like all long dashes.” Then I tried it and realized, “Oh, all long dashes is no good either.” It was just too much. So I learned more about hyphens (-), En dashes (–) and Em dashes (—) than I thought possible but I also learned how to make them in Word.
And now, it ‘feels’ right, because I was able to use the right punctuation.
