"I have just read the immortal poems of the ages and come away dull. I don't know who's at fault; maybe it's the weather, but I sense a lot of pretense and poesy footwork: I am writing a poem, they seem to say, look at me! Poetry must be forgotten; we must get down to raw paint, splatter." Charles Bukowski Confession: I loathe most formal poetry. Sestinas, sonnets, terza rimas, oh my! While I appreciate the exercise of writing in a particular form, the end result is usually a self-indulgent bit of forgettable wordplay rarely worth reading, never mind hearing…
Marketers have spammed, lied, deceived, cluttered
and ripped us off for so long, we’re sick of it.
–Seth Godin
I love coaching Little League baseball.
This is my son’s third year playing and I’ve been fortunate enough to coach his team each year, experiencing first-hand the beauty of playing baseball for no other reason than because it’s fun. When the kids have fun, their parents have fun, and I get to have fun — as a result, I tend to go above and beyond, doing things like writing team newsletters; buying extra training equipment; and organizing a team picnic at the end of the season.
Last year, our first year out of tee ball, with runs and outs being counted and every game having a winner and a loser, our team wasn’t very good, winning only two games while getting blown out badly in several losses. As a team, we had many Bad News Bears moments — including a couple of my own with one particular umpire and one opposing coach — but despite all of that, we always had fun playing, the parents had a good time, and I slept well after every game knowing that we were achieving our primary goal of learning how to play baseball.
Two of the most reassuring moments were the time between the first and second season when my son, out of left field (metaphorically), told me I was a great coach and he loved playing baseball; and a couple of weeks ago, when the girl who earned the game ball asked me to sign it for her!
Working with seven and eight-year-olds who are learning the fundamentals of the game, my philosophy is pretty simple: Pay Attention; Always Hustle; Have Fun.
“I don’t know if there’s any light at the end of the tunnel for publishers, but I think the future for writers is bright.”
–Maria Schneider, Editor Unleashed
I had the pleasure of working with the Editor Unleashed herself, Maria Schneider, for about 18 months, back when we were both with Writer’s Digest — as Editor (her) and Ad Director (me) — and am happy to still call her a friend despite no longer being corporate colleagues and with more than 600 miles separating us.
Maria is a smart, savvy writer AND editor, who understands the difference between the two, and who fully grasps the integrated world publishing has become, able to speak fluently in print and digital. Her ability to brainstorm new ideas that work from multiple angles without ever compromising her editorial integrity made my job much easier, and her outspoken, engaging personality has always been refreshing.
Her openness to new ideas and engaging personality allowed her to hit the ground running when she left Writer’s Digest last year, immediately launching her own website on October 8, 2008 with a post entitled, “So here’s how I got here…“, adding a forum two weeks later, and never looking back. Since then, she’s been offering near-daily content, featuring inspiring writing prompts and invaluable resources; interviews with successful agents, editors, and authors; and sharing her own hard-won insights with an appreciative and steadily growing community of aspiring and professional writers.
I’m delighted to have her as the first in a new series of interviews with insightful publishing and marketing professionals — 6Qs: Maria Schneider, Editor Unleashed.
It’s been just over six months since you were “unleashed” and went freelance. What’s surprised you, in a positive way, and what hasn’t quite gone according to plan? (more…)
Things were looking dicey for April — I’m still almost a week behind on NaPoWriMo, not to mention the craziness of the real world — but I managed to post some new content before the calendar turned, with great poetry from Erica Miriam Fabri and micro-fiction from James Bezerra and Dominic Preziosi.
Also, be sure to poke through the archives and revisit some great features like “Love, New York Style” and an interview with WORDS IN YOUR FACE author, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz.
OTHER UPDATES:
You do know Spindle has a spanking new Facebook Page now, right?
Next month, I’m hoping to get our columnists back up and running again, as well as to start catching up on the growing backlog of 2009 submissions. (I’m finally completely caught up on everything Spindle-related from 2008, except for the columns.) I’m also going to have a great special feature that came out of the Acentos Writers Workshop I facilitated this past Sunday. (more…)
I’m way behind again, the furthest yet, and am “cheating” a little bit to catch up by going with only one of the PAD prompts I missed (Day 21) and two from the Acentos Writers Workshop I facilitated today. I’m still commited to making 30/30 by the end of the month, but from here on they might not all be via the PAD prompts, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Prompt: Pick a place and an emotion; personify the former using the latter.
Prompt: Write a poem about a paradox.
Prompt: “Two for Tuesday”: Write a haiku, or write about the haiku.
YANKEE STADIUM CRIED
As its replacement evolved
from good intentions to boondoggle
the House that Ruth built and Dent furnished
looked across the street and shed
no tears, confident that its memory
would live on in the hearts
of the true fans who can’t afford
to embrace something new.
I don’t do many events these days beyond the random open mic appearance at louderARTS or Urbana, so I’m very excited about these two gigs this week, the NY Round Table Writers’ Conference and Acentos Poetry Workshop, as well as the Conversational Marketing Summit I’ll be attending in June.
The Acentos Writers Workshop was established with the purpose of nurturing the newer voices in the poetry community. With writers from across several genres donating their time, the workshop encourages newer writers to hone their craft, establish and create community, and perform their work in front of growing audiences. The workshop accepts writers of all backgrounds and skill level to foster growth and maximize their full potential and grow as writers.
I’m falling behind more frequently as the month progresses, but still trying to stick to the 30/30 goal instead of combining a few prompts into a single poem. Every one of my NaPoWriMo poems has been a first draft, but these four are especially so.
Prompt: Pick a color, make that the title of your poem, and write a poem that is inspired by that color.
Prompt: Write a poem with the following title: “All I want is (blank),” where you fill in the blank with a word or phrase of your choosing.
Prompt: Write a poem with an interaction of some sort.
Prompt: Write an angry poem. That is, a poem about someone or something that gets angry.
BLUE (for India)
It’s no surprise you favored
blue over pink from the start,
defining your own identity,
defying easy categorization.
Society prefers labels, though,
requires them to [dys]function,
loves to segregate with clever
wordplay and games of semantics.
When you chose blue and pink
nail polish, alternating fingers
that pick rocks as comfortably
as they draw dinosaurs,
