Sometimes I look to visual art for writing inspiration. I have a stack of little Dover Fine Art Stickers for several painters (Kahlo, Klimt, etc.) that I'll randomly select and stick in my notebook and then write whatever comes to mind. Here's what spewed forth from Kahlo's "The Little Hart".
The little hart fled through the dark wood, hips hobbled by multiple arrows thrust in her body. Wind licked blood trickling down her fur, drying in spots, mingling with sweat in others. Brush crunched underfoot and she was conscious only of her labored snorts of breath and the thought that They were out there, waiting for her to collapse in exhaustion, ready to saw her limbs apart for their great spring feast.
Her antlers had only recently grown so long and majestic and she lowed at the thought of them being carved off and used as tools to separate her flesh from her skin. Or worse, as mere decoration, her head mounted on a wall as a show of might and extravagance.
A bird twittered in a tree and she realized she had stopped running, was actually stumbling. She looked up at a broken tree branch, jutting from the trunk she leaned against. Above, a blue patch of sky.
Then, a whistle, a swift thrust of sharp in the soft part of her arching throat. A buckling of the knees, the underbrush against her cheek, then nothingness.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
National Grammar Day!
In case you were dreadfully unaware, this Tuesday is National Grammar Day. Here is an interesting rebuttal to the whole concept. Hooray for descriptivists!
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Boarder
I just got my contributor copies of Western Humanities Review, which includes my short story "The Boarder". It's a lovely magazine with some beautiful etchings from the Saltgrass Printmakers. Ever since I made my first print at the Vermont Studio Center, I've been especially keen on the art form.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Hungry Hungry Writers (AWP on Day 1)
Last week I attended the AWP conference. I'm probably eons behind other blogging attendees in reporting about my experience, but here's a bit about the first day.
Neophyte that I am, I exhausted myself on that first day, attending panels and readings and wandering the book fair from 9 am - 10 pm, buying way too many books and magazines way too early (no strategy-- none). I went to a panel on putting together short story collections, in which Steve Almond called short story writers "poets of the prose world". He gave fresh, honest advice about not letting agents or editors shove gimmicks on your collection (which appeared to make some other panelists shift uncomfortably in their seats). As such, deciding on where your commitment is and what your aesthetic may be before seeking representation may be helpful in staying true to your art. Noted.
After the panel, my grumbling stomach led me to room of pastry, bagels, and coffee. AWP attendees were heaping cheese danishes and pineapple slices onto little white plates. "What a pleasant surprise!" I said to a fellow writer as we munched on. Half-way through my raisin bagel, a Hilton security guard came in and asked if we're from the writing conference, with a look of disdain at all the AWP badges. "This isn't for you! It's for another group." he lamented. "Get out before my manager sees you." Twenty odd writers then scurried off with their half-eaten food. I felt like a coyote.
One of the readings I went to that day was the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" . One question posed during the Q&A was how the writers are able to stay motivated to write despite mounting obligations to other things (jobs, children, compulsive self-googling). Two recent mothers chirped that less time for them means becoming more efficient with the spare hour left for writing-- that they actually get more done. And while that's encouraging, I had to admire Amity Gaige's honest response: that she wishes she had more time to think and to wonder.
Perhaps more AWP stuff at a later time (jobs, wedding planning, and actual fiction writing may delay the next post...not to mention compulsive self-googling).
Neophyte that I am, I exhausted myself on that first day, attending panels and readings and wandering the book fair from 9 am - 10 pm, buying way too many books and magazines way too early (no strategy-- none). I went to a panel on putting together short story collections, in which Steve Almond called short story writers "poets of the prose world". He gave fresh, honest advice about not letting agents or editors shove gimmicks on your collection (which appeared to make some other panelists shift uncomfortably in their seats). As such, deciding on where your commitment is and what your aesthetic may be before seeking representation may be helpful in staying true to your art. Noted.
After the panel, my grumbling stomach led me to room of pastry, bagels, and coffee. AWP attendees were heaping cheese danishes and pineapple slices onto little white plates. "What a pleasant surprise!" I said to a fellow writer as we munched on. Half-way through my raisin bagel, a Hilton security guard came in and asked if we're from the writing conference, with a look of disdain at all the AWP badges. "This isn't for you! It's for another group." he lamented. "Get out before my manager sees you." Twenty odd writers then scurried off with their half-eaten food. I felt like a coyote.
One of the readings I went to that day was the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" . One question posed during the Q&A was how the writers are able to stay motivated to write despite mounting obligations to other things (jobs, children, compulsive self-googling). Two recent mothers chirped that less time for them means becoming more efficient with the spare hour left for writing-- that they actually get more done. And while that's encouraging, I had to admire Amity Gaige's honest response: that she wishes she had more time to think and to wonder.
Perhaps more AWP stuff at a later time (jobs, wedding planning, and actual fiction writing may delay the next post...not to mention compulsive self-googling).
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
AWP
I'll be attending the AWP conference here in NYC this month. I've never been to the AWP and I hear it can be a bit of a madhouse. As I understand it, there will be more attendees this year than ever before. Hope I survive the crush of the crowds!
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