And the Award Goes To...

It's Blogger Award time! YaY! My friend, Gabby, just passed this award to me. Much obliged, my friend. Now I have to pass it to 7 other people and answer 7 interesting questions about myself.

This should be fun, right?

Humm... Let's see.

1.) I won my first short story contest at the age of 6. It was a "big book," and it landed me a seat with real (adult) authors in a creative writing conference at Troy University Dothan.

2.) My first poem was published at the age of 12.

3.) I started my first novel way back in high school, and it wasn't until 6 years later that I picked it up and actually finished it.

4.) I met the love of my life way before I knew he was. If you would have told me that we would be married back then - I would have laughed.

5.) I hated reading when I was a kid/teen. I know, I know... pure sinful for a writer. I'm making up for lost time now.

6.) My major in college was originally History. It was my first love, and is now my minor.

7.) I would love to live in a big red barn someday. Yes, I'm serious.

You can't get much more random than that. (lol) That wasn't too bad. Now I must nominate 7 bloggers for the award.

1.) From Sarah, With Joy
2.) a tailored line
3.) Veritas 4 Five
4.) girlaboutbooks
5.) TheSecretWriter
6.) Paperback Writer
7.) TLC Photography

These are some amazing blogs. A couple of them are good friends, and the others are just blogs I love. Check them out! Anyway, I've done my job. Happy writing or reading - whatever your thing is. :)

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100th Birthday of Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams would have been 100 years old today. He was a remarkable dramatist, and he remains an important writer in American literature. 

Ironically, this week in my American literature class, I read my first work by Mr. Williams. A Streetcar Named Desire was absolutely wonderful. I found myself loving or hating the characters early on, and I can't tell you how much I've thought about the play since I've read it. Now that is good writing. There have been two movies (that I know of) based off of the play. One was filmed in the 50's and the other was in 1995 and features Alec Baldwin. It was a great movie.

It is always amazing to think about how words outlive us. Writing is like a time capsule of our thoughts in a solitary moment that will engrave itself on paper/screen for years. Our work, ideas, and creativity can grace the pages of literary books long after we're gone.

It reminds me of Shakespeare... the greatest quote I've heard about him is: "Shakespeare never grew up knowing he'd be Shakespeare." He just did what he loved. We will never know how vast our potential can spread. All I know is that maybe somehow, somewhere in 100 years, my words will still be read.

Mr. Tennessee Williams - Happy Birthday. May your words still captivate audiences for 100 more.

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My Beautiful Spring Day

 Okay, so admittedly this is not a "real" post about creative writing, but it is a post about things that inspire me. Nature is my muse very often - especially in poetry. Spring has given me much to write about this year. I don't think that I've ever been more excited to see warmer weather come! Winter is the worst season for me. The gray skies, cold temperatures, and dead vegetation is nothing short of depressing.

I just figured that I'd share with all of you what I did today. I planted some herbs (super excited about that). To your left I have Lavender and Rosemary, which smell wonderful!

Below is my tomato plant. I've never had much luck growing tomatoes, but who knows, maybe this is my year to get it right. Hopefully, I'll have some plump, red balls of yum hanging from it soon. :)

I gave my mom my beautiful Ric-rack cactus, and I've been sad about it ever since. I decided to take some clippings of it and see if I can't get it to work for me.

 My sweet mom allowed me to get some clippings from her beautiful jasmine plants. I really hope they take. I have always wanted some. I can't wait to smell their sweet blooms.

Below is a picture of more of my herbs and some jalapeno peppers (yum). I can't wait to see little green goodies hang from the branches. So excited.

This is the mother of all spider plants, is it not? There are 11 clay pots carrying the babies of the mother plant that is sitting in the middle. It is craziness! What's even more surprising is that if we had more pots, we would still have more babies to put in them. Wow - that's all I can say.

Anyway, sorry if I got a bit off topic with this post. At least I was able to add some pictures (which is the downside to a writing blog). Hope you are feeling inspired by the season.

Be blessed!

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New York Times Creative Writing: Poetry waiting to be written

The other day, the assignment in my Creative Writing class was to write a poem using headlines out of the New York Times. He passed us all out papers, and he gave us 30 minutes to complete at least a 20 line poem. At first, I think we all were panicking a bit, but it turned out to be a little adventure. It really was poetry waiting to be written.

We could split  the headlines, use half here, half there. We also could add a few words to the line to make it make sense. It was the March 14th copy. Here is what I came up with. The * means that this is the headline.

The Tricky Times

I've never been good at *betting on not-so-sure things*.
I always leave *feeling burned*.
I detest the *twilight's mysteries*.
And the gambler *winning at cards*.
My *aim is true*.
I don't gamble *for all the wrong reasons*.
For a bid *can be brave or foolhardy*.
And *very tiny packages can lead to very bad things*.
A beautiful flower can be *a prickly pear* instead.
So this is this *woman's desperate proposition*:
If there's *lockouts and loopholes* be aware!
The sudden *lack of rules and penalties* extends to us all.
*Beginners luck* makes for an ominous beginning.
We all turn out to have *not-so-kind enemies*.
*Our culture will proceed*.
*Soaring ambitions* can lead to disaster.
Bet only when you're *in the glow*.
Let your heart and magic *roll the dice of chance*.
When you have *questions and amendments to reshape your path* remember:
Every dog *has its day*,
Especially in *love and trick*.

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