A Month of Letters (for February!) Take part...

Drew Myron connected me with this incredible project-- A Month of Letters Challenge.

Here's the thing-- if you know me, you know I adore snailmail, realmail, postcards, mailart, notecards, and stamps.

I always have.

So when I read that writer Mary Robinette Kowal came up with this idea, I had to take part.

Here it is with a link to her original post:

I have a simple challenge for you.

1. In the month of February, mail at least one item through the post every day it runs.  Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.
2. Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

All you are committing to is to mail 24 items.  Why 24? There are four Sundays and one US holiday. In fact, you might send more than 24 items. You might develop a correspondence that extends beyond the month. You might enjoy going to the mail box again.

I plan on taking part.  I do Valentines, so I feel slightly ahead of the challenge, but will sit down by the fire and write some special correspondence as well.

happy letter writing.


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Confession Tuesday

Dear Reader,

It's been 5 full days of straight sunshine, a straight-shot of sunshine here in the Northwest since I've last written.  Been writing, working in the yard and kind of in the house.  Enough so I don't feel that I could be an episode of Hoarders; I'm cleaning up and cleaning out.

But enough on that, it's time to confess.  Let's start with the weather and the Northwest.  To the confessional--

I confess I learned this week that the Seattle area has only 58 (!!!) days of sunshine a year, the rest is overcast and cloudy.  58!  No wonder we lead the country in suicides and serial killers (we all suffer from S.A.D. - Seasonal Affect Disorder), but we also have the most percentage of library card holders and we buy 2x as many books as the rest of the country.

I realize why so many writers, bands and artists come from the Northwest-- we're the kids that are always inside and we have to do something to keep us entertained.

But only 58 days of sun?  That seemed so low.

Still, I am thankful for the days I stay inside and write because it's pouring outside.

~

I confess I've been sleeping better now that the haunted armoire is out of my house.  Except for last night.  Last night, my golden retriever woke me up crying.  Do you need to go outside?  Are you okay?  My dog is frozen still on his bed and won't move, but keeps doing this long sad cry.

So in the dark, I rush over to my golden panicked that he's hurt or dying or in pain.

Turns out, he is fine, but our 20 lb. cat had fallen asleep next to him on his sleeping bag and he was afraid to get up off his bed and move to the floor.  He outweighs the cat by 65 lbs and yet, he is afraid to disturb the cat.

I moved the cat and all was well for another four hours until the cat returned to sleep with the dog.

~

I confess I've been working a lot on manuscript 3 because I'm swapping it with another poet on Valentine's Day.  I confess it does not have a title yet, but the above image from my vision board this year is a huge inspiration for it.

I completely lose myself while working on this manuscript, but deal with a huge worry that it's not very good.

I haven't submitted many poems from the mss, so of the 40+ pages, only 3 have been published.  I tell myself this is not the fault of the poems, but the fault of the poet for not submitting the poet.  But the poet says she so dislikes submitting work that she hasn't done so very much this year.  Bad poet.

But I still love the manuscript even with its quiet existence.

~

I confess I think I'd feel a little better if I had a title.

Amen.

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Want a Poet-Inspired Valentine?

If you didn't know, Valentine's Day is the Poet's holiday (despite Hallmark's insistence that it's theirs.)

So for Valentine's Day, I'm sending out Poet Valentines and I have a few extras I'd like to send to you.

If you'd like a Valentine from me, leave me your mailing address in comments or email it to me at kelli (a) agodon.com and I'll put you on my list.

The above image is NOT the valentine you'll receive, but just a nod to who inspired this year's card...

I'll let you know when I've run out on this post by updating it or deleting it...


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@webbish6 Jeannine Hall Gailey Writes about her path to becoming a poet -->

Kelli & Jeannine in tiaras as they should be.

I am always interested in how we ended up as writers, poets, and artists because the path is never the same, nor straight.

Jeannine Hall Gailey writes at SheWrites how despite health issues and being a tech-writer first, she ended up as a poet and going back to school to get her MFA.

 And you know what I wanted to do? The same thing I wanted to do when I was ten years old: write poetry. My husband encouraged me to go back for an MFA in poetry, to try to send out a book of poetry. Why not give it a try? What did I have, at that point, to lose? The answer was: nothing.

If you want to see the path Jeannine took from child who loved poetry and wanted to be a poet to now, you can read the whole post here.

I think it's a good reminder that we each have things that take away from our time.  We each make a choice every day to write or not to write.  Make your challenges work for you and listen to that inner voice to tell you where to go.



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