Tag: Reflections

  • The Writer Zen Garden – Tools From A to Zen: Reflections on the A-Z Challenge

    2016-05-09 A-to-Z Reflection [2016]

    Wow.  It’s hard to believe it’s already well into the second week of May already.  It feels like it should still be April.  Or, if I’m being honest, January.

    Of 2010.

    But I digress.

    We all know that time seems to whizz by.  No sooner do we put away the holiday decorations and it’s time to take them out again.  So, too, for writing groups.  I’ve noticed small groups tend to wax and wane, some succeeding and thriving, others burning brightly for a short time and then fizzling.  There’s an old adage about groups, that they have several phases:  “Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing.”  It’s an idea that a guy by the name of Bruce Tuckman proposed way back in 1965 and it’s still true today.  Some folks add “Adjourning” at the end, to signify that not all groups survive through the performing state to continue.

    That’s why I’m so pleased about Writer Zen Garden.  The group as it is today is the merging of two different groups; the original Writer’s Retreat that started in March of 2008, and the local Meetup group and international online forum of Writer Zen Garden.  We’re still going, and we launched this new website, where you’re reading this post, in March of 2016.

    One reason I keep coming back to the A to Z Blog Challenge, is that I find it pulls the team together.  Even if we’ve slacked off from posting on the blog, by doing the challenge, we come together as a group and gather ideas and write.  Since on of the central missions of the Writer Zen Garden is to Help Writers Get On the Page, this is all to the good, as far as I’m concerned.  Next year, we might even come up with a joint theme ahead of time – we’re still noodling ideas for what to post for this year, so it’s definitely a work in progress.

    I want to thank you, Dear Reader, for visiting us and leaving comments for the various authors of the Garden.  We sure appreciate your interaction.  We invite you to join the discussion in other ways, if you’ve a mind; we have a Facebook group; a live in-person Meetup group in Chicago, if you’re in the area;  a Twitter stream; and an international writers forum.  We’re glad you’re here!

    Write on!

    The Writer Zen Garden Facebook Group

    The Chicago Area Meetup

    @writerzengarden

    Forum*

    *Note: if you’re interested in joining the forum, please let me know in the comments or PM me on Facebook, and I’ll reach out to you by email.

    For your reading pleasure, here are the posts for the challenge:

    The Writer Zen Garden, From A To Zen

    A:  A is for Artist’s Way…, by Tina Holland

    B:  B is for Blogging!, by Darla Sands

    C:  “C” is for Crayon, by Evey Brown

    D: D is for Day Dreaming, by Grace Kahlo

    E:  E is for Emergency, by Rachel Wilder

    F:  The F Word, by A. Catherine Noon

    G:  G is for Goals, by Tina Holland

    H:  H is for Hens, by Darla Sands

    I:  Is It Inspiration, Invention or Insight? or, Where Do You Get Your Story Ideas?, by Evey Brown

    J:  J Is For Just in Case, by Rachel Wilder

    K:  K Is For Using Krav Maga To Kick the Inner Evil Critique Away, by Grace Kahlo

    L:  For the Love of a Library, by A. Catherine Noon

    M:  M is for Man-titty, by Tina Holland

    N:  N is for Nice Girls Writing Naughty, by Darla Sands

    O:  Things My Grandpa Taught Me – O for Orion, by Evey Brown

    P:  P Is For Prepper, by Rachel Wilder

    Q:  Q is for Writing Quotes, by Grace Kahlo

    R:  Whoops! R Is For I Gotta wRite Something Quick!, by A. Catherine Noon

    S:  S is for Sex Scenes and Story, by Tina Holland

    T:  T is for Tastiness, by Darla Sands

    U:  How to Create an Oral History for your Family; or Unforgettable and Unfortunate Things my Kids have Done, by Evey Brown

    V:  V is for Viking Swords & Fantasy World-Building, by Grace Kahlo

    W:  W is for Why Do I Prep?, by Rachel Wilder

    X:  An Alternative to Xanax, by A. Catherine Noon

    Y:  Y is for Yoga, by Tina Holland

    Z:  Zen, by A. Catherine Noon

    Thank you for joining us for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave us a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

  • Dreaming of Luna

    I recently remembered an elusive dream. 

    It’s premise?  I learned that someone invented a type of loom through which raw fiber could be instantly converted into a fine, diaphanous cloth.  While somehow offering the results of an overly large circular loom, the fantastical tool lacked every real-life component, including yarn.
    With this wonder, a mysterious woman showed me how to transform my recently deceased cat’s fur into a seamless blouse.  You see, years before I began collecting the shed, rabbit-soft fibers.  The white tufts simply seemed too soft to discard.  I’m serious when I say they make cotton feel almost like burlap.
    The dream, meanwhile, provided a clingy garment interspersing her lovely fur with a black fabric for strategic modesty.  The swaths were vaguely triangular, simple contrasting slashes in a timelessly classic pattern.  I adored it.
    My recollection process is, if I may say so myself, more interesting.  It began with thought of Luna’s portrait on my laptop, in turn reminding me how her image replaced that of Craig Charles dressed as Dave Lister from “Red Dwarf”.
    (Sorry, Mr. Charles.  For now, I choose this bittersweet lamentation over a fond chuckle.)
    While this consideration didn’t bring back my complete memory, the process started because my dream’s sole comedic twist came in the form of Craig Charles somehow being involved.  Whether as himself or Mr. Lister, I cannot say.  Either way, he amicably helped me run this fictional loom.
    Then, hours later, something else happened to help my mind fill in the blanks.  I discovered a chair pad still decorated with wisps of Luna’s telltale fuzz.  It all flooded back fast after that.

    I still miss my itty bitty pretty kitty but have to smile at this unique memorial.  Too bad there is no magical loom.  Sigh…

    –

  • Memorial to a Writer’s Cat

    I lost my best feline pal early this afternoon.  Her little body just couldn’t battle cancer any longer, so we released Luna to peace with the assistance of a very compassionate vet.  Those folks and a local oncology team are forever in my debt for all their tender care.  Today our vets’ office even wrote off the cost of a physical examination after we decided to let her go.  Classy and caring, eh?

    I must admit that Luna was not the best of writing buddies, typically demanding attention, often giving a painful claw poke inside my upper arm.  But I wouldn’t have traded her for a bookshelf full of publications.

    Yet now I have more time to write.

    There are no more daily and weekly medication schedules.  I no longer need monitor her food intake, making sure her two fellow felines eat only their share.  Nor do the litter boxes require constant scooping to prevent toxic chemotherapy chemicals from spreading to others.  I cancelled several pending veterinary visits and can even sleep without sharing my pillow or waking with fur in my hair.

    Yeah…

    So now I have more time to write.

    This is my first, truly intimate pet loss.  The darn cat actually picked me while living on local streets, visiting me in my burgeoning garden.  She insisted on moving in despite my allergies, resulting in the salvation of our other rescued cats.  They just happen to be happy without me as a human futon.

    So.  Okay.  Yeah, now I have more time to write…

    … and garden, for that matter.

    Sigh…

    –

  • Herding Turtles

    An Australian Turtle Dog?
    The other day I snapped this photo of Zipp, the Australian Shepherd at my local arboretum.  He’s there to keep Canada geese from overwhelming the area but, having done his job too well, resorted to this showdown with a local red-eared slider.  While perhaps he was simply bored without his fowl nemesis, the analogy of his predicament struck me nonetheless.
     
    Forgive my whinging, but annoying mishaps and stressful trials have plagued my year so far.  It’s like trouble just keeps creeping in, piling up, and boldly staring me down.  Attempts to overcome issues seem fruitless as poor Zipp’s efforts with this stubborn amphibian.
     
    I mean, honestly, while I’m facing one persistent frustration…
     
     … more stack up, quite amiably awaiting my notice.
     
    And of course you just can’t flip a switch and make life perfect any more than you can herd turtles.  Somehow, goose poop seems almost preferable.  But it’s not all bad, and I am having fun with my camera.  ~grin~  Perhaps I’ll stop by the arboretum later this week and check on Zipp.
    After all, the dog mutely suffers while I can put the drama on the page.  So that’s enough griping.  Maybe I’ll crank out a few paragraphs of angst-ridden fiction before bedtime.

  • Writer Wednesday – The Importance of Hope

    I am considering changing my career and have gone back to the basics, which for me, is What Color Is Your Parachute by Richard Nelson Bolles (which, if you haven’t read it or it’s been awhile, go pick up the new version, it’s awesome).  In the very first chapter, he writes about Hope and how to find it.

    I think he’s right-on.  You can read his book for his four keys to finding hope because they’re well worth reading – regardless of where you are on your career path.  But for my purposes here, I wanted to highlight his first point:  make sure you have at least two alternatives in every situation.

    We’ve talked about this kind of mindset on Writer’s Retreat before.  Darla’s Keeping the Faith and my own Power to the People are two recent examples.  Writing is, by its nature, a solitary pursuit and it’s critical to keeping the fingers moving on the keyboard that we keep the right mindset.  I don’t know if “right” is exactly the word I want, more likely it’s “effective” as in, “does what I’m doing work to keep me on the page?”  If it does, great, if not, try something else.  And that, Dear Reader, is where having alternatives comes in handy.

    For example, let’s say we’re writing a story about Jake and Luke.  Jake is a biker and Luke is a day trader.  What happens if we make Jake a suburban cyclist instead?  Or what if Luke is a child counselor?  What if Luke is Lydia?  What if they’re brother and sister, instead of a romantic partnership?

    It makes sense from a battle standpoint, as well.  There’s an old saying, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.”  How does a strategist prevail, then?  By having a backup plan, contingency plan, whatever you want to call it.  Figure it’s your Zombie Apocalypse Survival Plan.  It doesn’t matter what you call it, it matters that you have it.

    After all, having a plan to survive the apocalypse means you have to hope that you will survive the apocalypse, eh?

    See why hope is so important?

  • Darla’s Day Out

    The local arboretum called to me recently for a much needed walk in the fresh air.  To my delight, a mother mallard watched over her newly hatched brood in one of the ponds.  Not wishing to disturb them, my companion took this picture.  If you look closely, you can spot a couple of the ducklings in the direction the cautious mother faces.

    I decided that an excuse was in order to share this iconic and heartwarming image of spring.  So here is my resulting thought, that writers need to be like this duck.  We ought to be on constant lookout, though not in search of the dangers for which she scanned.

    Our eyes should be open to inspiration.  It’s simple, I know, yet our view is often stunted by daily chores and responsibilities that narrow our focus, directing our vision toward mundane matters.
    This blog’s own talented A. Catherine Noon recently hosted a workshop to spur writing from prompts.  Her grand ideas support the notion of awareness, whether she guided us to write from a set of written criteria or via the use of our various senses.  It did me good to open my mind and just let inspiration spool out.
    Just the other day I stumbled upon an ancient Israeli name, Aziel, that spawned an idea for a character.  It’s difficult to say where this might lead, but I intend to find out.
    I hope we can all expand our horizons and see what creative sparks fly.  Happy writing!
    –

  • Can You Spare Some Change?

    I’m writing this post two days late because I forgot when it was due.  Unfortunately, the online calendar I relied upon to keep track has been dismantled, the domain name now up for grabs.  It’s just a modern example of the inevitability of change.

    Change and I have never been friends.  I tend to stick in ruts rather than forging a new path.  My life would probably be very different but for simple events that led me here, plodding along in their wake.

    Oh, I make cosmetic changes, for sure.  I’ve gone through various phases, from conservative to goth in dress and attitude; exchanging talk shows for alternative rock on the radio.  The important matters, however, such as where to work and live, have been dictated by chance.

    There have been no big dreams I took a chance on trying, just jobs found through temporary agencies and a house that limited the resulting commute.  Even my pets, whom I love dearly, have been virtually (in one case, literally!) dropped in my lap as strays.  It’s pretty sad, in retrospect.

    But, on the bright side, I’m not dead yet.  Maybe there is a butterfly inside this shell, waiting for the right time to break free from its cocoon.  And despite temperatures in my boring, landlocked suburban neighborhood, the old fashioned wall calendar I’m looking at announces Wednesday as the first day of spring.

    What better time to spread my wings?  Now if I can only figure out in which direction to fly.  I’ve never been a migratory creature.  Wish me luck.

    –

  • Emotion for the Masses

    It’s common knowledge that emotions show unconsciously in our body language.  In jurisdictions practicing wise policy, police officers and their ilk receive training to translate this instantly, enabling life saving reactions to armed suspects about to shoot – or not.  Human beings transmit these signals from our faces to our very feet depending upon the circumstance.

    So ingrained, these reactions show even when there is no one present to read them.  I realized this in a unique way yesterday.  A mild skin irritation between my eyes would hurt whenever I made certain expressions, and this happened frequently while reading a newly purchased book.
    This author drew me to experience the various highs and lows, the shock or joy or sorrow, right along with her characters.  That immersion, this ultimate escapism, is what draws me to fiction.  Hence I’m reminded why I enjoy writing.
    I want to pull others out of their reality.  Heck, even when penning something private I gleefully submit myself to the sentiments and passions within the words.
    These are, of course, the same reasons we listen to music and look at works of art.  I sincerely thank those who’ve moved humankind through the ages and look forward to what comes in the future.
    Meanwhile, may you discover something today that transcends your spirit from the daily grind.  Or, perhaps you will craft it yourself!  Now, time to dust off my muse and get busy, right after I search out another book by this particular author (and leave praise of her craft while I’m at it).

    –

  • Writer Wednesday: Power to the People

    Betcha thought this was gonna be about the election, eh?  Nope!  It’s about personal empowerment!

    Aunt Noony’s Five Tips to Regain Your Power and Your Voice

    1. Try morning pages.  Write three pages of longhand writing in the morning, each day.
    2. Eat clean.  Close your mouth, honey, and don’t put that crap in there.  You know the crap I mean.  Treat your body like a fine, precious object, ’cause it is.
    3. Go to bed.  Make sure to get lots of good sleep.
    4. Say no!  Keep your schedule clear of minutiae that only pleases others.  Schedule time for yourself and for passtimes you enjoy.
    5. Follow your passion!  What excites you?  Do that thing.  Don’t know yet?  Get yourself a copy of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and experiment until you find something.  Don’t be afraid to play; all the big kids do it!
    And remember!  Your vote, and voice, are critical!  ~hugs~

  • Lovely Monday

    Boria

    It’s Monday at four o’clock in the morning, almost five.  I couldn’t sleep so I got up to write a bit.  I figured I’d use the time to share some thoughts on writing and life, at least according to Noony.

    First, a digression: the picture above made me laugh this morning when I wandered my archive looking for something to illustrate today’s post.  Boria is an odd cat.  Raised by our dog, he thinks he is a dog.  This is a look he gets on his face when I do things he doesn’t expect – like get out of bed at an unholy hour.

    I talked about blocks last time I had a regular bimonthly post, and I’m still in a similar situation vis a vis my story.  But this isn’t all bad, at least in my opinion.  Why?

    Fallow periods are necessary in any artist’s life.  Sometimes they arrise because we fish our pond too aggressively and don’t take the time to restock the fish.  Other times they arrise because of outside stressors.  This latter one is the case for me as I extricate myself from an organization I’ve been actively building for the last three and a half years.

    On the other hand, as I sit back and reflect on all I’ve done and learned, I realize I am wealthy indeed.  I’ve made friendships that I’ll keep for a lifetime, and, like Thomas Edison is quoted as saying relative to his failed attempts to invent a working light bulb, I’ve learned things that don’t work in running a business.  While I haven’t been writing as much in the last two months in terms of story output, I have been blogging quite a lot and working on my social media tasks.  I think it’s important to remember that even if we aren’t working on a particular project, it does not mean that we are not working – even if there’s no action apparent to the outside eye.

    Fallow periods are necessary and deserve our respect.

    One hopes that after this one, I won’t freak out my cat anymore, as well.

    Boria