Amazing book on Writing

For Christmas, My mother gave me a book on writing called 'Writing Down the Bones' I know that many of my followers are writers or aspiring ones at least. I am sure many of you have heard of and read this book already, but if you have not, I strongly suggest that you do. Some of the stuff in it is really basic, but it is helping me organize my thoughts, and I have only read the first couple chapters.

Happy new year from Howling Turtle!

3 Resolutions

All right, so here are my new year's resolutions:

1.) I will finish at least the first rough draft of my novel. (Seeing as I can only write it in my spare time, even though I am about a quarter of the way there, this still might be a challenge).

2.) I will post at least twice a month.

3.) I will not procrastinate. (This does not necessarily pertain to blogging, it is something I have struggled with for years, and I figure if I post it online I will be more motivated to no longer do it).


I'd love to hear yours!

Questions about the Moon

Wow, I have been writing a ton of poetry lately. Here's another one for you guys!


Why does the moon lay gracefully in the night sky?
Was she a curious star that gave up her twinkling
To cast silver beams on Earth?
Was she banished to the darkness
Only ever reflecting the light of her love
The sun
Is her light meant to be:
Melancholic?
Peaceful?
Eerie?
Magical?
Or were we meant to decide?
Is she watching us?
Or is she forever gazing
At the stars
Using our gravity
Only as an anchor
So she does not drift
Lost forever in the nothingness of
Space
Time
Infinity?

Ode to Max

I wrote a mock love poem to my cat, Max, this afternoon. He's one of the cutest things you'll ever meet - if you meet him that is, but he's quite shy, so he'd probably try to hide from you.


You are a lion of majesty
You are the clouds over the rolling hills of the prairie
You are the knight, valiantly slaying all invaders of the castle grounds

Oh, how I count the hours till I can sleep beside you!
Your soft breathing soothes my core
How your nails dig into my flesh
As if at any moment I might disappear!
How lonesome you make me feel, when you leave me in the middle of the night
When you leave my side
Your half of the bed, slowly growing cold
Leaving me
To cower under the futon bed you had been so content on a moment ago
How I wish to call out your name
To have you back by my side
But alas
I am unworthy
But I know when your next appearance will be
At five a.m.
Your mournful ridiculously-high-pitched pining beseeches me to open the bedroom door
And I know our night together is over

You will leave gifts for me on the front porch:
A bird
A mole
A shrew
A mouse head for my mother to step on
Initially unnoticed
Stuck to the bottom of her shoe
The surprised gasp that brightens my days
All because of you

Your ample frame glides across the floor with uncanny grace
Your back arches when I stroke you while you’re eating
An orphan
Your affections are not easily earned
But you have chosen me
And we shall be together until the end

In the Mindset of a Tree

This poem I wrote is about what it would be like if I were a tree. When you think about it, there are some trees that are thousands of years old! They must see a lot of things, and they can't really change anything, just watch. That was why I settled on it. I was choosing between that or a rock, because rocks are pretty ancient as well and would be just as good material.

If I were a Tree


If I were a tree
I would take root
By the side of a bridle path
And the noble’s horses would be
Tempted by my newborn shoot
I would grow taller
And when the sun would hit me
I would cast shadows on passing carriages
I would see the children grow up to be adults
Now in coats with tails and silk skirts
I would see the world changing around me:
The bridle path broadened and paved
The horses replaced with pistons and gears
I would see the first airplanes
Casting their shadows on me
I would grow even taller, thicker
The meadow that I knew as a sapling
Now a forest
I would be a constant in the world around me
If I were a tree

My Very First Drabble

A drabble is a short work of fiction with exactly 100 words (not including the title). I decided to write one as sort of a challenge. They're fun little things, kind of like a literary puzzle: there are 100 pieces, and with them you have to create a beginning, middle, and end that flow and make sense. Anyway, enough with my analogies, I'll just let you read the drabble!


A Grasshopper on a Summer's Day

The sun’s rays pierced threw the green foliage of the weeping willow I was sitting under, reflecting off my laminated bookmark as I placed it inside my novel. I exited my leafy shelter and saw a cricket flowing downstream in the creek beside the tree. I bent down to scoop him up, my red hair touching the water. I held him in my cupped palms, gently blowing his wings dry. His body was the color of the grass all around me; his gossamer wings, almost translucent, but had tinges of iridescence. Chirping a few bars of thanks, he flew off.

NaNoWriMo

Happy NaNoWriMo! NaNoWriMo is a challenge for people to write a 50,000 novel in the month of November. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. I have wanted to do it since I first heard about it a few years ago. The closest I have ever come to writing a novel is my novella, 'War is Not a Game of Chess', though, but I do have sixty pages of a real novel that I am working on, perhaps NaNoWriMo will help motivate me. One year, when I can have more of a say with my schedule, I will take the month off and do a real National Novel Writing Month novel. But until then, I will just inform my followers, who, for your sakes' I hope have a more flexible agenda about it.

This is the link to the NaNoWriMo website:
NaNoWriMo

(Sorry I have been writing out NaNoWriMo so much, but it is really fun to type! ;-))