Day One: Writing Marathon
Here I am, Day One! There’s so much mental activity that goes with “putting your work out there.” I notice it’s not the work – my notebook has been scribbled in daily, and it opens with ease every...
View ArticleUpdate: 30 Poems in 30 Days
Dear Friends: Taking part in the 30/30 Project began with the thrill of accountability and the challenge to daily arrange and rearrange my poem pieces like a secret tray of Scrabble letters in a game,...
View ArticleGet Published in 2022!
Want to publish a short story, flash fiction, or poem? Time to learn a little strategy, perhaps? I love teaching this mini-seminar for Clark College—it’s completely different from most of my classes,...
View ArticleHow to Take a Forest Bath
It’s been an interesting poem-writing marathon this month, feeling exultation and pride one day and like a complete dud the next. Some poems were effortless, while others exhausted my brain. Hiking at...
View ArticleWhy Be a Rockstar? Why Get Published?
I was at Willamette Writers when first introduced to the writing of William Stafford two decades ago. The poems seemed understated and bland, and I was hoping the speaker would move onto a sexier...
View ArticleDon’t Leave the Beach!
I can’t believe it’s been nine months since I moved to the Oregon Coast. Some adjustments have been huge, some small. One thing that’s changed: all my jacket pockets are lined with sand. When I walk...
View ArticleSaying Yes in 2023
YES It could happen any time, tornado, earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen. Or sunshine, love, salvation. It could, you know. That’s why we wake and look out—no guarantees in this life. But some...
View ArticlePoetry Marathon! A Month of Writing Poems
Dear friends, I’m challenged, excited, baffled, stumped, inspired, energized, disorganized, off and running in the month’s marathon of writing 30 poems in 30 days for Tupelo Press. Your sponsorships...
View ArticlePoetry Marathon – Will I Make It?
When I applied to be a Tupelo Press 30/30 Poet for February and was accepted (for the second year, hurray!), I had no idea that my client and work schedule would be exploding—in a good way—making it...
View ArticleThe Real Danger of Social Media – for Artists and Writers
Or What I Learned About My Addiction Hal mentioned how hard it is to be creative these days—but he’s on Facebook every day making puns with friends’ posts. Ben is alluring on Instagram—that smile, and...
View ArticleBrain Creativity Training and Nature
According to Bas Korsten at the Harvard Business Review, spending time in nature is one of the best ways to train your brain to be more creative. Because you can! And you must. Contrary to what we...
View ArticleWonder, Transformation, and Pain
Yesterday I met Sterling, a gifted memoir writer who has been learning to tell his story. I encouraged him to launch . . . not just a writing life, but a reading life. When we read, we connect, absorb,...
View ArticleYour Needs Map
Watercolor & Ink, Christi Krug Noticing my needs! Plotting them on a map of my imaginary creative landscape. What do I need? Vast territories of unstructured time, rivers of spark, plains of...
View ArticleThis Writing Train Chugging Along
Wildwrite* 15 minutes (typed from handwriting) It’s hard, abandoning my agenda for the page. Not knowing how it will all shake down. I notice—whew! Thoughts of to-dos bursting in my thoughts like...
View ArticlePoetry Marathon III
Dear friends, I’m challenged, excited, baffled, stumped, inspired, energized, disorganized, and not exactly sure if I’m in my right mind. I’m volunteering again to be a Tupelo Press 30/30 Poet for leap...
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