I'm participating in the Smashwords.com Summer/Winter Sale during which tons of stuff are available for 25% to 100% off. All three of my books are only 99 cents during July. Click on the covers above to go to each book page. Use coupon code SSW50 to purchase. I thank you in advance.
Also, Cathartes Aura 3 is coming along. 340 lines done, 660 to go. But I need a title. Cathartes Aura at the Last Call Mall was my first idea, but I've come to dislike it. It's okay, but I can do better. Something that mixes both the location at a shopping mall with the religious and apocalyptic overtones. CA at the Mall of Revelation? CA at the Gas 'N God? I need to brainstorm synonyms for mall, terms for close-out sales, and different armageddon terms. Who has a suggestion?
Preview stanzas are coming soon. Publishing will happen around then end of the summer. Until then, read up on CA 1 and 2. Get drunk with David Priest.
Digital home of Eighty Six, also known as David Klenda. Poet, story teller, freelance writer and co-owner of Dragon Knuckle BBQ Supplies.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
10 x 10 Contest Wrap-Up
I was honestly pleased with the range of work submitted for this contest. I'm supposed to say I liked them all, but I truly did.
Read All the 10 x 10 Entries Here
We had a couple of lurking, skulking predator poems. Some metaphorical internal animal poems. A graceful swan poem. A surprising suicidal earthworm poem. A personal and cathartic dead kitten poem. Some my-favorite-pet poems. A werewolf poem. And an unforgettable piece about a father much like Animal from the Muppet Show.
What is a 10 x 10?
A couple rhymed. One was built from two five line stanzas. Another was written in five unrhymed couplets. Strange to me, but only two had titles.
In truth, I never counted the syllables in any of them, except my own after I published it. I realized it had one nine syllable line and one eleven. Mortified, I rapidly rewrote but my fumble is on the web plain as day. I also typed in my wife's poem and changed her correct spelling of "dessert" to the wrong one. Remember, you want seconds of dessert, hence two Ss. No one wants more desert. And I'm the one who grew up speaking English.
Judging was tough and a bit confusing. A week before judging was due to be finished, Rafflecopter published a second and third place winner. I wonder what would have happened if I chose their number 3 as my number 1? Fortunately, I have all the prizes and control who receives them. After weighing the input of the entrants, the judges and my wife, I decided three finalists were too few and chose five.
I gave Amber's poem the win because of the emotional power, imagery and her use of the form. She combines physical details and memories of her kitten I could feel and hear. Her ninth line is one reason I love the 10 x 10 form so much. "Feline Infectious Peritonitis." Don't know what it is and sure don't want it, but it slams the door on the furry and fuzzy kitten verse. The ten syllable limit forces this line to be point-blank and concise. "The dry form, took my purring sweet baby." Yes, it's easy to get an emotional reaction when you play the dead kitten card, but I think these words were placed precisely and thoughtfully.
I think everyone, including myself, grew a bit from this experience. I'm know most of the entrants are not primarily poets. Most are unused to restrictive forms. This is an exercise in control, like dribbling a soccer ball around cones. I find that even when I'm not writing verse, I take a poet's economy of language with me.
A few entrants I had to nudge into unfamiliar waters and I know they had fun despite apprehension. My own "Wanna be a Fish" is a repackaging of some rambling free-verse I'd scratched on paper years ago, but I recognized the same sort of understated irony I used in "Fake Flowers". In the latter, I describe how I really prefer fake flowers to real because they're "Not hungry, always growing at the sun." In the former, I mention how I want to be the best fish, a goldfish. Truly, I can think of hundreds of ways real flowers are better than fake and I would rather be any kind of fish than a captive goldfish. But to a jaded, tired, frustrated personality, the easy way is better. Fake flowers don't wilt. Goldfish swim circle and eat flakes.
More of My 10 x 10 Poems
Also, in promising the winner a spot in the back of my next book, I realized I'd better get to writing it. No obstacles accepted. So now, Chapter 3 of Cathartes Aura 3 is done and the boulder is rolling downhill. Yes, I need a better title. End of summer is the tentative launch date.
Keep track of my progress here
I'd love to do something like this again. 10 x 10s on another theme? Maybe later. A different form, perhaps. Whatever it is, it should be short for a few reasons. I like getting as much as possible from a small number of words. I know writers are busy with other stuff and I want it to be easy to find time to participate. I also want to have time for the judges.
So, what's the next poetry or short fiction contest? Suggestions very welcome, plus feedback on CA3. Vulture writing contest?
Thanks to all the Book Bloggers at The Indie Exchange.
Get CA1, CA2 and David Priest at Smashwords
Read All the 10 x 10 Entries Here
We had a couple of lurking, skulking predator poems. Some metaphorical internal animal poems. A graceful swan poem. A surprising suicidal earthworm poem. A personal and cathartic dead kitten poem. Some my-favorite-pet poems. A werewolf poem. And an unforgettable piece about a father much like Animal from the Muppet Show.
What is a 10 x 10?
A couple rhymed. One was built from two five line stanzas. Another was written in five unrhymed couplets. Strange to me, but only two had titles.
In truth, I never counted the syllables in any of them, except my own after I published it. I realized it had one nine syllable line and one eleven. Mortified, I rapidly rewrote but my fumble is on the web plain as day. I also typed in my wife's poem and changed her correct spelling of "dessert" to the wrong one. Remember, you want seconds of dessert, hence two Ss. No one wants more desert. And I'm the one who grew up speaking English.
Judging was tough and a bit confusing. A week before judging was due to be finished, Rafflecopter published a second and third place winner. I wonder what would have happened if I chose their number 3 as my number 1? Fortunately, I have all the prizes and control who receives them. After weighing the input of the entrants, the judges and my wife, I decided three finalists were too few and chose five.
I gave Amber's poem the win because of the emotional power, imagery and her use of the form. She combines physical details and memories of her kitten I could feel and hear. Her ninth line is one reason I love the 10 x 10 form so much. "Feline Infectious Peritonitis." Don't know what it is and sure don't want it, but it slams the door on the furry and fuzzy kitten verse. The ten syllable limit forces this line to be point-blank and concise. "The dry form, took my purring sweet baby." Yes, it's easy to get an emotional reaction when you play the dead kitten card, but I think these words were placed precisely and thoughtfully.
I think everyone, including myself, grew a bit from this experience. I'm know most of the entrants are not primarily poets. Most are unused to restrictive forms. This is an exercise in control, like dribbling a soccer ball around cones. I find that even when I'm not writing verse, I take a poet's economy of language with me.
A few entrants I had to nudge into unfamiliar waters and I know they had fun despite apprehension. My own "Wanna be a Fish" is a repackaging of some rambling free-verse I'd scratched on paper years ago, but I recognized the same sort of understated irony I used in "Fake Flowers". In the latter, I describe how I really prefer fake flowers to real because they're "Not hungry, always growing at the sun." In the former, I mention how I want to be the best fish, a goldfish. Truly, I can think of hundreds of ways real flowers are better than fake and I would rather be any kind of fish than a captive goldfish. But to a jaded, tired, frustrated personality, the easy way is better. Fake flowers don't wilt. Goldfish swim circle and eat flakes.
More of My 10 x 10 Poems
Also, in promising the winner a spot in the back of my next book, I realized I'd better get to writing it. No obstacles accepted. So now, Chapter 3 of Cathartes Aura 3 is done and the boulder is rolling downhill. Yes, I need a better title. End of summer is the tentative launch date.
Keep track of my progress here
I'd love to do something like this again. 10 x 10s on another theme? Maybe later. A different form, perhaps. Whatever it is, it should be short for a few reasons. I like getting as much as possible from a small number of words. I know writers are busy with other stuff and I want it to be easy to find time to participate. I also want to have time for the judges.
So, what's the next poetry or short fiction contest? Suggestions very welcome, plus feedback on CA3. Vulture writing contest?
Thanks to all the Book Bloggers at The Indie Exchange.
Get CA1, CA2 and David Priest at Smashwords
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
10x10 Contest
Two weeks to go. 10x10 contest sponsored by me and Book Bloggers' Collaborative. The writing prompt is simply "animal". For details, visit:
http://bookbloggerscollaborative.com/10x10-writing-contest-sponsored-by-thepoet86/
If you speak a language and can count to ten, please participate.
http://bookbloggerscollaborative.com/10x10-writing-contest-sponsored-by-thepoet86/
If you speak a language and can count to ten, please participate.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
The Ten-By-Ten Page
Went digging through some old files.
NEVER throw away those scraps of paper you scribble on.
I found a folder full of hand-written notes on the back of restaurant menus, notepads, spiral notebook pages, a chunk of corrugated cardboard. Some things printed off a very old computer. Some things done on my typewriter.
Lots of it was early Cathartes Aura stuff. Much before I even decided upon a turkey vulture narrator. Some featured a vulture with a much more malevolent attitude than the one that made it into my books. The narrator was anxiously waiting for victims to fall and sometimes helping them fail.
Also I dug up two early characters: Harald and Sal. They are a comic yet vicious duo, joking along foolishly until they find someone who has something they want. Then they are swift and violent.
I stumbled upon a crazy project I'd begun and never finished called "Ship of Fools" involving a bus, not a ship, full of lunatic characters on a lunatic ride and a captain (driver) who never spoke, but could twist the lug-nuts from the wheels with his bare hands.
Encountered a frustrated series of poems titled "Fuck Money" with a ten syllable scheme that was an early ancestor of my favorite 10x10 form.
Some of this stuff I've mentioned was sitting in my drawer in perfect 10x10 and I've put some on the page. A stack of it is currently sitting at my right and I'll type it in soon.
May need another page for the really random stuff.
Ten-By-Ten Page
NEVER throw away those scraps of paper you scribble on.
I found a folder full of hand-written notes on the back of restaurant menus, notepads, spiral notebook pages, a chunk of corrugated cardboard. Some things printed off a very old computer. Some things done on my typewriter.
Lots of it was early Cathartes Aura stuff. Much before I even decided upon a turkey vulture narrator. Some featured a vulture with a much more malevolent attitude than the one that made it into my books. The narrator was anxiously waiting for victims to fall and sometimes helping them fail.
Also I dug up two early characters: Harald and Sal. They are a comic yet vicious duo, joking along foolishly until they find someone who has something they want. Then they are swift and violent.
I stumbled upon a crazy project I'd begun and never finished called "Ship of Fools" involving a bus, not a ship, full of lunatic characters on a lunatic ride and a captain (driver) who never spoke, but could twist the lug-nuts from the wheels with his bare hands.
Encountered a frustrated series of poems titled "Fuck Money" with a ten syllable scheme that was an early ancestor of my favorite 10x10 form.
Some of this stuff I've mentioned was sitting in my drawer in perfect 10x10 and I've put some on the page. A stack of it is currently sitting at my right and I'll type it in soon.
May need another page for the really random stuff.
Ten-By-Ten Page
My goodness, has it been three weeks since I made a post? Not that I've been lazy. I've been busy.
My Gorgeous Illustrator and I have an infant in the house to go along with our toddler. Enough said. That's been taking up a lot of time and energy. I find it even more difficult to utilize that 2am to 4am writing slot I have relied upon.
I've been being social, at least in the social media sense of the word.
My How to Write a Ten-by-Ten post has been featured at:
Alchemy of Scrawl
and
Caron Rider's Blog
As part of the launch of Pavarti K. Tyler's Shadow on the Wall I wrote a post on Superman.
I exchanged interviews with Laura Roberts from Black Heart Magazine.
I've had a few good reviews at Amazon, Smashwords, and Goodreads.
And Book Bloggers' Collaborative is hosting a Ten-By-Ten Contest sponsored by this guy.
Winner gets all three of my books plus future Cathartes Aura works plus their poem published in the back of my next ebook.
Which means, I need to get to work on my next ebook.
Just the kick in the ass I needed.
My Gorgeous Illustrator and I have an infant in the house to go along with our toddler. Enough said. That's been taking up a lot of time and energy. I find it even more difficult to utilize that 2am to 4am writing slot I have relied upon.
I've been being social, at least in the social media sense of the word.
My How to Write a Ten-by-Ten post has been featured at:
Alchemy of Scrawl
and
Caron Rider's Blog
As part of the launch of Pavarti K. Tyler's Shadow on the Wall I wrote a post on Superman.
I exchanged interviews with Laura Roberts from Black Heart Magazine.
I've had a few good reviews at Amazon, Smashwords, and Goodreads.
And Book Bloggers' Collaborative is hosting a Ten-By-Ten Contest sponsored by this guy.
Winner gets all three of my books plus future Cathartes Aura works plus their poem published in the back of my next ebook.
Which means, I need to get to work on my next ebook.
Just the kick in the ass I needed.
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