This one went super dark and creepy for which I apologize. However you only have a little bit of time to linger with me in the darkness. What will you do with it?

only 2 days left to go! I'm trying to decide how long I'll keep these up on the blog. Maybe another month. Hope you've been enjoying them! This one is another inspired by one line of poetry from a favorite poet. It's a really useful prompt.

Almost done! This one inspired by my upcoming trip to NOLA. Did you know that's where Faulkner lived when he was a young writer?

two poems today. I'm looking at my notebook with a small feeling of exhilaration and also dread for revision! But the practice of this month has been fun. Write now, revise later right?

Almost done! Although it's not been what I intended, I've enjoyed this years NaPoWriMo. It's nice to dedicate myself to something, even though I usually write every day anyway.

Two poems for the undead, for you, as NaPoWriMo draws near to its end.

Two poems today because I missed yesterday with my traveling. Sometimes it's important to take a day off.

Day 20. This one was hard and angry and I had to wake up really early to find it but find it I did. It's comforting to fight for yourself in that way.

I'll be attending Comicpalooza this year as a guest of the literary track. Here's a list of the panels, workshops, and Q + A's on which I'll be presenting. I'm particularly excited to get to chat with Lev Grossman, author of the Magicians trilogy. 

Also, a little plug for my world-building workshop: There are still seats! If you attend Comicpalooza you can attend this workshop for free. I've been cooking up some fun anti-worldbuilding ideas to help you think about this from a new angle in your writing. See you there!

​2:30 - 4:00pm – Creative Community – Finding Your Tribe
They say it’s lonely at the top – but it’s pretty solitary down at the bottom too. Wherever you are in your creative career, the war against isolation, anxiety and self-doubt is never-ending. The good news is, you don’t have to go it alone. Let’s talk about joining, creating and/or maintaining a creative support system that will help you go the distance.
 
4:00 – 5:00pm – Speculative Poetry Death Match
Join us for an entertaining and interactive panel on science fiction, fantasy, and horror poetry. Learn a little about speculative poetry, hear poets read some of their works, and then participate in a lyrical death-match, in which you, the audience, decide which poet walks away with a tinfoil crown and bragging rights.

​11:30 - 1:00pm – Worldbuilding Workshop
Drawing from popular television, movies and books, this workshop explores how to create in-depth worlds in your novels and short fiction. Feel free to bring a piece you are working on, or start something new using exercises from the workshop (Saturday, 11:30 am).  Sign up and submit your work by emailing literature@comicpalooza.com
 
1:00 – 2:00pm – Boredom-Proofing Your Story
If too little is happening, your readers get bored. If too much is going on, they'll be confused. The art of crafting an irresistible page-turner lies in skillfully walking that narrow line - and we're going to talk about how to do exactly that.
 
4:00 - 5:00pm – Lev Grossman Q & A
Lev Grossman is the author of five novels including the #1 New York Times bestselling Magicians trilogy, which has been published in 25 countries and is now an hour-long drama on the Syfy channel. The Magicians books have been praised by, among others, George R.R. Martin, Audrey Niffenegger, William Gibson, Kelly Link, John Green and Joe Hill. Grossman spent 15 years as a staff writer at Time magazine, where he served as the book critic and lead technology writer and wrote more than 20 cover stories. He has also written essays on culture and technology for Salon, Slate, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Lingua Franca, the Week, the Village Voice and the Believer, among many others. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and three children.

4:00-5:00pm – Wordsmith for Hire: All About Freelance Writing
Tired of writing as a hobby? Ready to turn your keyboard into a moneymaker? You can – but it’s not as easy as hanging out a “for hire” sign. In this panel, we’ll examine the different types of freelance writing, where and how to find work, and what you need to know to make yourself attractive to potential clients.

i had this notion that I was going to work on a specific project this year but I have all these random prose poems that want to come out so I guess that's what's happening.

Day 18! Wrote this poem about a reluctant witch. A busy week ahead - but I'm hoping I can keep it up. There may need to be coffee. And tea.

Day 17! I've definitely hit my groove. This week is going to be busy and long though, so I'm anxious to see if I can keep up. *technically* I've written enough poems to skip a day, but it feels strange not getting this time with my writing each day. This is what creating a practice feels like and it's nice to have a wellspring to return to.

Two poems today, although I can't tell if I'll keep the second. This one turned out alright though. It's a dreamy warm Easter Day and it's hard to concentrate when everything is calling you to the outside.

I've made it to NaPoWriMo Day 15 - midway! It's been a productive month so far, and I've miraculously been pretty disciplined. I'm still writing a bunch of response poems. Today's prompt was "Fireless Rivetted Babylon". Don't ask me how I got this out of that.

Im back on target again after a few days of struggling, mostly due to personal stress and busyiness. This one is super dark, but I really like the surprise of it so I'll probably let it stand. I've been writing a lot of prose poems lately, probably because I'm reading a lot of prose.

Today I practiced so form of prompt where I take a line from a piece of poetry I like and make it the title of a new poem. This is from Margaret Atwood and the line I used is "Gathering the Sunken Bones of the Drowned Mothers."

On Day 12 of #NaPoWriMo, I'm experimenting with found text from the dictionary. This one is heavily Asimov-influenced. I'm not that big of an Asimov fan, but you can't deny the heritage of the three laws of robotics. I recently discovered the zero law and that inspired this poem. 
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Day 11 was a rough day. It took me about two hours to get going, and then the poem I wrote is one of the roughest yet. But I think the point is to keep pushing myself, to keep writing. Revise later, write now.

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I had a nice relaxing day playing catch-up on personal stuff yesterday so today's poems are an excerpt from one of my extra ones and a new excerpt. My poems are in a dark place this month, but that's par for me.

Been playing around with borrowing titles from other poets. This one is from Frank Stanford.

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Its day 8 of NaPoWriMo and I managed to get three poems in today. I've been finding success with poems where I take a line from a poem I love and make it the title. Of course, I credit the author in the epigraph. It's a fun way to brainstorm because you're not starting from nothing.

Day 7! I'm managing to stay on track on this first week which is a very good feeling. We shall see how the weekend goes. Here's a bit of today's poem about an imagined afterlife.

Today's poem is a dark one about fairies. I'm not sure if it's a poem or a story or a long narrative poem. Only time will tell.

Day 5! You beautiful day of poems. At first I was struggling with where to go so I just started writing about my morning. Before long I had 3 poems done. This is what I love about NAPOWRIMO, when you start to get a rhythm. The more poems you write, the more poems you write. It's important to remember that.

This is just part of a plain old poem. Also wrote a haiku so I guess that's two for today! I'm refraining from posting the haiku though as I want to eventually publish these.

For today's poem I'm playing around with index cards to create a shuffle poem. It may turn out to be a prose piece, I'm not sure yet. The prompt for this one was "The General Store".