The Lune

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The Lune is a poetic form also known as the “American Haiku.”  Poet Robert Kelly created it, and it consists of three lines with 13 syllables.  There are five syllables in the first line, three in the second and five in the last.

Jack Collom created an alternate form.  In his form the three lines contain 13 words, with five words in the first line, three in the second and five in the third.

I first learned about the Lune in this post on Poetic Asides with Robert Lee Brewer from “Writer’s Digest,” and having always been a lover of traditional haiku decided to try my hand at some.  Here are eight of the results.  I’m not sure if my poetry is good or cliché, so feel free to comment. The first is my favorite.

Viking blonde

My little one stands.

Small Norse God.

—————————–

Running fast,

tripping over toes,

falling flat.

—————————–

Why do I–

who should be so content–

want so much?

——————————

Orange and yellow

leaves blow in the breeze.

Fall has arrived.

—————————–

‘Round the board

we move our pieces.

Who will win?

—————————-

Here it is,

a constant struggle.

Life’s small joke.

—————————-

I sit, wait

for him to come back

from the edge.

—————————–

Loneliness.

My life without you,

my firstborn.

 

Rewards

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This is technically my second post for today, but the one before (Charity News and Word Count) was actually from yesterday.  I thought it had posted, but for some reason it saved as a draft instead, so I posted it today.  Sorry for the confusion.

I jumped the gun and ordered my reward book early.  If I don’t finish my 750 word minimum by today or tomorrow, I will have messed it up, so I need to get everything done.

I ordered two books actually, a “fun” book as my reward and a “work” book to help with my career as an aspiring writer.  The fun book I ordered is The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown, a book I have heard wonderful things about and wanted to read since before it came out.  I will probably review it here when I’m done reading it.

I also bought The Writer’s Market 2011 Deluxe Edition.  I planned on buying just the paper book, but I started looking into joining the website too, and found out that by buying the deluxe edition I could have both.  This way I can use the search features and other utilities on the website when I am online, which is where I do most of my work, and have the paper copy for when I’m not at home or on the computer.

Today I am going to look into how to query a magazine when you have an article idea.  I’m also going to spend some time with my kids, and that will come first.  They’re all feeling a little neglected I think because I’ve been so busy with work and taxes and house-related things.  That is, when we haven’t all been sick.

Right now, I’m baking cinnamon buns for breakfast and I plan to go eat with the kids when I am done baking.  They get to eat in the living room at breakfast because then they can watch cartoons or movies.  We’ll have a carpet picnic together.  Then, we’re going to do something together.  I’m just not sure what.  It has to be in the house, or at least at home, because Chris is working today and has the car.  It’s hard to come up with an activity that will amuse three kids when their ages are 14, nearly 11 and nearly 3.  A couple of weeks ago, we all played catch with one of M.’s bouncy balls, and that was fun for a while because we talked and laughed while we played, but it’s not exactly stimulating for the older two for long.  There is also the fact that the 14 and 11 year olds don’t get along very well.  He torments her, she blows things out of proportion to get him in bigger trouble.  It’s a whole thing.

Finishing this up much, much later because the timer went off and it was time to eat.  It’s now after dinner.  I made Philly Cheese Steaks, which were awesome.

We had our carpet picnic and watched Astro Boy together.  It was fun, but I wish we could have done something more active.  Like I said, it’s hard to find something we can all do.

So today I did a bit of preliminary research, and what I decided is that I want to start small so that I have some published material (print published, not just online) before I start approaching any major magazines.  I think it’s a better idea, and I don’t want to set myself up for failure.  I’m new to this, and want to learn more about what I’m trying to do, not just jump in all half-assed and uninformed.  I’m going to do some more writing and looking at what types of magazines I think I could write for; ones that match my writing style or to which I have something of value to contribute.

The next two weeks might be a little light on blog entries because I have both daughters’ birthdays coming up.  We’re going out to dinner for H. and she’s having her birthday party with her friends at her dad’s house, but we’re having M’s birthday party here.  Which means I have exactly two weeks from today to clean this place up and get it more organized before my in-laws all come over.  Needless to say, I’ll have to cut back on computer time to do that.

I’m nervous about getting it done and still keeping up with my writing.  I signed up for the March challenge too because I don’t want to stop writing just because February is over.  I’ll just be more time-conscious and make sure I’m working on both things each day.  What are your plans for the week?

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Ideas and a need for knowledge

I have an idea for a series of magazine articles, and I’m trying to decide if I should start writing them and then query magazines, or query the magazines first before I put a ton of effort into them.  I’m really not sure how any of these things work, so I guess the very first thing I need to do is find that out!

I know so little about any of this freelancing stuff.  That’s part of why I’m writing this blog.  I figure that if I have no idea what I’m doing, lots of other people are in the same boat.  So as I learn, I can post what I’ve learned and maybe help someone else.  Plus, if anyone reading has any advice or info that could be helpful, I’m always open to that too.

I haven’t found any new jobs on Freelancer.com or on Elance.com lately.  I’ve put in some bids, but no real response.  I’m trying to avoid the low-paying jobs that are $3-5 per 5-700 word article because I don’t have enough time to write enough articles for that to be worthwhile, if it ever is.  I also can’t see spending an hour or two researching and writing an article to get paid $3-5 for it.  I’m worth more than $5 an hour.  Maybe I’m looking at it wrong, because I used to think it was at least good experience, but now I feel more like it’s just working in an article mill.

I value my time.  I value my writing.  I just don’t see myself putting out articles for little to no money and no credit.  I do contribute occasionally to Associated Content and Helium.  I consider that different.  My name is on those articles.  I can refer to those as writing examples/clips when I’m applying for things.  These article mills take jobs from clients, assign the articles to writers, and then the articles go back to the client for use.  The writers get no credit, just the few dollars they make for the work.  I’ve done that.  I realized that, with research, it was taking me nearly 2 hours to do an article (with some interruptions) and I was getting $5 a piece.  So it wasn’t really worth it.

I want to get a subscription to Writer’s Digest.  I really love that magazine and have found very good and helpful information in it, but buying it at the store is silly because that’s so much more expensive.  I also think I should get the latest edition Writer’s Market, or at least take it out of the library if I ever have a chance to get there.  I need to start doing more things that will build my portfolio and I also need to do things that actually pay.  I love writing, and I would do it whether or not I was getting paid for it, but I also have bills and kids and a desperate need to make at least some money.  It won’t be as much as a full-time job, I’m not kidding myself, but I need to do something.

Which of course brings me back once again to the book that I should be editing but still don’t seem to be picking up.  I thought that maybe the problem was that I never seemed to get to it on the computer, so I printed some of it out so that I could do it by hand.  I wanted to at least start reading through it and making notes of where changes need to be made.  That was about a week ago, and I still haven’t done anything with it.  I need to start.  It’s not that I think it’s the next great novel, although I think that is every writer’s hope.  It’s that I don’t have the chance to even find out if it’s any good because I haven’t looked at it since November.  I’ve never even read it.

I hope that everyone is doing well out there.  If you read this blog, feel free to comment and let me know you’re out there.  I see the statistics, but I’m still pretty sure I’m just talking to myself.  I’d love to be proven wrong.