I’ve Been Busy

Well- I’ve kind of been busy at any rate. Knitting has taken an abrupt halt as I rest my poor, aching fingers and wrists. The shawl I was working on is very slowly coming along, maybe thirty stitches at a time. But that’s because November has been a busy month full of writing for me. Writing and socializing.

I’m a part of two writing groups- The Hickory Writers Society and Tri-County Writers Group. With November also comes National Novel Writing Month. I’m very behind on word count- but I am hoping a write in tonight at Barnes & Noble will help to get me back on track. If I actually write for a solid four hours, I’ll definitely be caught up. I can easily crank out a few thousand words per hour. My word count is sitting at a measly 6224 at the moment. But I have faith that I can manage to get back on track before the month is out, if not before the night is out. I think my word count should be somewhere around 15k? Maybe 20k? Oh well.

Tuesday was Poetry Hickory. I was glad to go, and glad to have been able to go back at least semi-regularly. One of my favorite local poets read the open mic- Tony Ricciardelli. His poems always make me smile and I think he’s very talented. I was very glad to get to hear some of his work that I’d never heard before. It’s always exciting to hear any of the Open Mic readers, because I almost always see a new face. All in all it was a great night and, as always, jump started my creativity.

I’m actually going to be reading the open mic in December. I’ve been working on some new poems for it, too. I’m hoping to have a few things that are new to read. New and different from my usual style of writing. Some of the people from the Tri-County group helped me tweak a few today. I also e-mailed a couple of them to Scott to get some more “professional” feedback. I’m hoping that it goes well. They’re definitely outside of my comfort zone and a new type of subject matter and approach than what I’ve been writing.

The Poets for Change issue of Wild Goose Poetry Review is also out. It features one of Tony Ricciardelli’s poems, as well as works by Helen Losse, Scott Owens, and two of my favorite girls Shane Manier and Morgan Depue.

So that’s the update. And hopefully I’ll post sooner next time.