Category Archives: Writing

Project 366 – Week 24

162/366
Sunday evening smells
of barbecue sauce and grill
smoke floating like fog

163/366
what’s got into me?
conquering my to-do list
Monday morn machine

164/366
today it’s gray and
dripping rain. darkness hovers
around the edges.

165/366
production station
is a wind tunnel, vortex
of shivery cold

166/366
wandering the aisles
late night at the grocery store
foraging for food

167/366
dear self: sharing your
“deadlines” doesn’t speed you up
it stresses you out

168/366
working on weekends
is for chumps (and grad students)
welcome to my life

Project 366 – Week 23

155/366
it perplexes her
his enthusiasm for
these interactions

156/366
procrastinator’s
motto. if there’s one more sleep
there’s lots of time left

157/366
every time I grade
try a different strategy
with the same outcome

158/366
all papers graded!
three cheers and a tiger for
me! I have won! grr!

159/366
this bit of news that
makes you catch your breath is the
seed of a story

160/366
you work until late
consider skipping a run
are glad when you go

161/366
the sun is shining
and my tax refund arrived
what an awesome day

Project 366 – Week 22

148/366
Joan better get a
partnership out of this,
I said. And she did.

149/366
taunted by a stack
of shiny 2012 coins
need to do laundry

150/366
deciding to purge
old email is like being
sucked into a vortex

151/366
says he has 12 sons
skates 100 miles a day,
made and lost millions

152/366
visions of severed
feet dance in your head as you
dodge a pool of blood

153/366
a chat window pings
“it’s not the same without you”
there is no response.

154/366
doing yoga while
inhaling neighbor’s pot smoke
this is Vancouver

The Real Fear isn’t Rejection

There are some great quotes in this Ray Bradbury profile:

The time we have alone, the time we have in walking, the time we have in riding a bicycle, is the most important time for a writer. Escaping from the typewriter is part of the creative process. You have to give a subconscious time to think. Real thinking always occurs on the subconscious level.

Note to self: go for a run.

If there were three of me, I could keep us all busy. Painting fulfills a need to be non-intellectual. There are times when we have to get our brains out in our fingers. After a good day of writing, I feel like I’ve been for a long hike in another world and painting helps me relax.

Don’t you just love “we have to get our brains out in our fingers”?

I worry about rejection, but not too much. The real fear isn’t rejection, but that there won’t be enough time in your life to write all the stories you have in you. So every time I put a new one in the mail, I know I’ve beaten death again.

This is going in my FEAR! article.

It’s quite wonderful to see writing treated as a legitimate occupation, not a “tedious delusion” (TM Marge Piercy), though it may make you long for the days when a writer’s work was done when s/he put the story in the (snail) mail.  lol.

Project 366 – Week 21

141/366
people partying
in the rain on Sunday night
it’s May long weekend

142/366
spring greens glow, backlit
against layers of slate gray
clouds weighted by rain

143/366
tasks half-finished are
so unsatisfying; can’t
cross them off my list

144/366
early morning line
snakes outside Service Canada
waiting patiently

145/366
light a fire under
me. kick me, push me under
fire. set me alight.

146/366
fresh crusty baguette
peppery brie, chilled glass of
gewurztraminer.

147/366
my new neighbor is
hacking up a lung again
smoking for the win

Project 366 – Week 20

134/366
running on sunshine
today it’s actually warm
summer illusion

135/366
dusk revelation
it’s still warm enough to sleep
with windows open

136/366
morning. construction
birds chirping, neighbors chatting,
bottles clattering.

137/366
when did showing up
for the semester’s first class
become optional?

138/366
work, in its own way,
is a seductive form of
procrastination

139/366
a good run equals
momentary transcendence
fleeting perfection

140/366
a walk around  the
neighborhood in the sunshine
a tease of summer

Project 366 – Week 19

127/366
Sunday afternoon
perfection is curling up
with blanket and book

128/366
he spends long hours at
his laptop by the window
working… or playing?

129/366
to the west pink light
interwoven with puffy
blue-gray clouds. sunset.

130/366
a wall of windows
this building is new to me
sunny beginning

131/366
calendar. may 10
so early and yet it’s true:
I’m running in shorts!

132/366
shop, clean, bake: prepping
for the parental units’
weekend arrival

133/366
the weather network
warns of hot temperatures
(20 Celsius!)

Project 366 – Week 18

120/366
a spring ritual
put away the flannel sheets
time for crisp cotton

121/366
if I smash my toe
many more times I think it’s
going to fall off

122/366
picking and choosing
weighing the merits of this,
that, and the other

123/366
an editor’s wish
finding a gem in the slush
it happens sometimes

124/366
why is it so cold?
it’s because I put the summer
sheets on the bed, right?

125/366
you are already
further than most who want to
write will ever be

126/366
first, the nursery
for plants, then fingers in dirt
planting and scrubbing

Project 366 – Week 17

113/366
a mid-grading lull
exams done, papers await
for a moment: pause.

114/366
runniversary!
10 years ago, a decade
I started to run

115/366
o. m. g. I just
want to be done already
so very boring

116/366
framing in the rain
fresh-cut lumber permeates
the damp nostalgia

117/366
they enter at back
“you’re not used to this?” he says
“you’re a bad-ass now.”

118/366
just one snafu and
you feel like an idiot
even though you’re not

119/366
walking down this street
so much has changed in 10 years
petals fall from trees

Project 366 – Week 16

106/366
my superpower
I am stronger than I look
just test me. you’ll see.

107/366
when I read the card
enclosed with Phoebe’s ashes
my tears flowed again

108/366
“it’s been too long,” we
say and it has. let’s not let
that happen again.

109/366
light slants from the west
across blackened sky, clouds sink
down the mountainside

110/366
sign: “we will close at
4 until further notice”
time: 4:02. argh.

111/366
off to a good start
satisfaction: reaching goal
before end of day

112/366
strawberry french toast
random delicious breakfast
to start grading day