Mini Retreat

Have you ever dreamed of hibernating in a cabin in the woods or a beach house on the ocean or a lakeside getaway with nothing to do but write? No telephones or internet or any other time waster like Solitaire or Pyramid. I wrote in a previous post about a week-long retreat I'll be attending in Alpine, Texas. I am so looking forward to it, but it's a month away.

However, it occurred to me I could go on a mini-retreat any weekday right here in my hometown. Monday through Friday. Nine a.m until six p.m. It's cool. It's quiet, most of the time. It has spacious tables to spread out all the usual writer paraphernalia we tend to carry around.

I pull my little box on wheels full of my stuff and sit myself down in the farthest corner I can find and get to work. Then when I reach my daily word count or time allotment I load everything up and get on with other things. Also, if I feel the need to work on the weekends, the larger branches in the parish are open.

If you haven't guessed, my retreat site is the public library. Calcasieu Parish has twelve branches. I usually go to the one in my town, but I'm not too far from any of the larger ones that are open on Saturday and Sunday.

Only one problem. I worked at my hometown library for 28 years, so I know almost everyone who comes in. Sometimes they like to stop by my table and chat, but that's okay since I always like seeing everyone again. If I want anonymity I'll go to one of the other branches.

So if you're ever frustrated by all the chaos you might be living in, consider the library for your mini-retreat.

A Writer's Retreat: Scratch One Off My Bucket List

It's finally going to happen. I've been dreaming about a writer's retreat forever, and now I get to scratch it off my bucket list. Every year the Writers' League of Texas offers a week-long retreat in Alpine, Texas, at Sul Ross State University. This year it will run from July 21 through July 26 and offers five classes. I have registered for Shaping Your Book to Sell, an intensive workshop on revision with Carol Dawson. Since I'm involved with revising my novel, Wild Justice, it sounds like exactly what I need: five days of classes from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. working with a professional.

There seems to be something for every writer, no matter the genre. Long Form Journalism in a Short-Form World is offered for those wanting to break into newspaper or magazine writing. For fiction writers Writing the Novel: The Basics with historical novelist Karleen Koen is available. If you're a poet you've got One-Week Exercise Program: Forms, Formulas, and More with Poet and Editor Scott Wiggerman. And, finally, The Art of Memoir: Discovering and Deepening Your Story with award-winning memoirists Donna M. Johnson and Christine Wicker, for those who want to get their own story written for whatever reason.

I just wish there was more time. I'd like to take at least two more of the classes. Maybe next year. If you're interested go to www.writersleague.org/37/Summer-Writing-Retreat and read all about it.

One last note. I'll be going on a mini-retreat in September after Labor Day. My four daughters and I are renting a beach house in Crystal Beach near Galveston for two nights. They can walk on the beach and romp in the Gulf. I'll be ensconced on the porch writing. It's going to be a fun summer.

Poem a Day Challenge

April is National Poetry Month. My writer friend, Beverly, and I just finished a month long poem writing marathon. Every morning Robert Lee Brewer, on his Poetic Asides blog, sent a poetry prompt our way and we were to see what we could come up with. We both finished the month with thirty or more poems, but it wasn't as easy as you would think.

On the first day he told us to write a new arrival poem. I racked my brains trying to come up with something. I ended up writing about the new boy in school. The next day was Tuesday, and he always had a Two-for-Tuesday prompt. April 2 prompts were write a bright poem or write a dark poem or write both. I ended up doing both, since I didn't have too much trouble coming up with ideas for them.

Some of the prompts were quite challenging. The tentative poem, the post poem, an infested poem (interesting). The infested poem turned out to be one of my favorites. We had to write a sonnet, a sevenling, a senryu, and a shadorma. These are all form poems and I had fun with them. April 30 was a Tuesday, so we got a two-for: a finished poem or a never finished poem. I wrote about my high school graduation.

The one that stumped me the most was day five. Write a plus poem. I couldn't think of anything so I took out my trusty thesaurus and looked up "plus." One of the synonyms was "lagniappe." Voila! I researched "lagniappe" and found the original meaning: a cheap present, such as parsley or shallots, given to good customers of street criers selling produce. Here's my attempt at a plus poem.

Lagniappe

Black-berrieeees! he sings
I got blackberries
I got greens and cabbages
Come and see
Buy my potat-ohs, lady
Dime a bucket, lady

She comes to the door
Turban on her head
Basket on her arm
He fills it with his wares
On top, a sprig of parsley and a shallot---
For free

If we want to we can send five of our favorites to him for a contest he'll be judging. I got mine off on Friday. Fingers crossed.

The Importance of Research

I'm back after a two and a half month hiatus caused mostly by some health issues, but also just some of life getting in the way. I've been to a writing conference in Houma where I won third place in the Novel Excerpt contest for my first chapter of Wild Justice. It motivated me to get on the revisions in earnest, and gave me a kick in the pants to resurrect my blog. Also, I got off Facebook. It takes up too much of my time. Most of the posts are political rants, the majority of which I don't agree with. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I'm entitled not to have to sit through them. So now I have more time to spend on my blog.

Which gets me to the title of this blog. One night I was wasting time channel-surfing and came across the movie "Double Jeopardy" starring Ashley Judd and Tommie Lee Jones, one of my favorite actors. I had seen it before, but I decided to watch it again. Ashley has been framed by her husband for his murder and is in prison for the crime. While there, one of her fellow convicts tells her if she ever finds him she can kill him and they can't do anything to her since she's already paying for his murder. She gets out on parole and escapes from Tommie Lee, who's her parole officer. She tracks her husband to New Orleans where he's living under an assumed name with their son. All she wants is her son back. She finally has the jerk where she wants him--staring down the barrel of a gun. He tells her she'd better think twice because Louisiana doesn't hesitate to use the gas chamber for murderers.

 Bzzzzt! Red flag. Why didn't I catch that the first time around? This was a big-time movie when it was in the theaters. Someone didn't do their homework. Everyone who's spent any time down here knows Louisiana has never used the gas chamber to kill their citizens. We had a neat little contraption called the electric chair. A traveling one, at that. We aim to make the death penalty convenient.

My point in all this is DON'T TAKE ANYTHING FOR GRANTED. Do your research and get the facts straight. You never know when an expert might be reading. 

Keep On Learning

Scientists have discovered our brains are highly plastic, according to Barbara Baig, author of the current "how-to" book I'm reading right now, titled HOW TO BE A WRITER. This means they are capable of lifelong learning and change, that new ideas and insights are on our horizon, no matter our age.

So, guess what? I'm going to have a busy February and March in my pursuit of more knowledge. Beginning February 19 I'll be taking a four-week Leisure Learning class at McNeese with instructor Connie McDonald entitled "Where I'm From: A Workshop Approach to Writing from Life." We'll be mining our memories and life experiences to produce poems, stories, or memoirs.

Beginning February 21 Rachel Rinehart, MFA student at McNeese, will conduct a four-week class on "Writing About Place," in which we'll explore setting as another character in our stories. We will learn craft techniques, do writing exercises, and write our own stories or memoirs about place.

To finish things off Dr. Gabriel Morley, Director of Calcasieu Parish Public Library, will be leading a six-week class beginning March 5 on memoir writing. This will be held at the Central Library on Tuesday nights.

On top of these things I have two contests with a March 1 deadline. Writers League of Texas has a contest for a novel competition with a critique to go along with it. Southern Writers magazine is sponsoring a short story contest. I'd better get busy and quit playing Solitaire on the computer. Also, there's a little matter of revisions on my novel, WILD JUSTICE, to get ready for the Houma conference in April.

To all you wannabe writers out there: Don't wait around for inspiration to strike. Sign up for a class and inspire yourself.

Confession of a Bookaholic

I hope everyone enjoyed reading about the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II. I enjoyed sharing it with you, but it's time to get back to my other writing pursuits. I couldn't believe it when I saw I hadn't posted to the blog since October 13. Our writing group, the Bayou Writers, was in the process of putting on our ninth annual writer's conference on November 10, and then Thanksgiving dropped in on us, so time got away from me. I realize Christmas is only two weeks away, but I'm pretty much caught up on that.

Everyone who knows me knows I'm a bookaholic. I never met a how-to-write book I didn't love. I found a real gem just put out by Writer's Digest Books a few weeks ago. It's entitled
Where Do You Get Your Ideas? A Writer's Guide to Transforming Notions into Narratives by Fred White. I've only made it to Chapter 4 and already I have enough inspiration to keep my pen moving all year.

For example, there's a section in Chapter 2 on finding ideas in reference works. Encyclopedias, almanacs, handbooks, dictionaries--all kinds of dictionaries--to name a few. Mr. White recommended Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words by Josefa Heifetz Byrne. It sounded interesting so, of course, I had to have it. I just found the word "doxy." We all know a doxy is a "prostitute," but it also has an alternate meaning--a creed or doctrine, especially a religious one. I'll take myself out to the McNeese library and research the word in the OED. There's bound to be a story there somewhere.

Frank Warren put together a compedium of anonymous confessional letters titled Post Secret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives. Some examples:
     
     < I waste office supplies because I hate my boss.
      <When I get angry I write bad words on my toaster strudel.

I bought that one, too, as well as another he recommended. Dear Old Love, compiled by Andy Selsberg, has hundreds of anonymous messages addressed to former loves. It's on my Kindle.

That's three and a half chapters down and twelve more to go. I need to win the lottery. How many of you can't resist?

The Unbreakable Code: After the War

The Code Talkers had not been nationally recognized until 1969, when the 4th Marine Division Association held its reunion in Chicago. At that time a group of Code Talkers was invited to the reunion and presented with a medallion specially minted in commemoration of their services. In 1971 President Nixon presented them with a certificate of appreciation on behalf of the nation. He thanked them for their patriotism, resourcefulness, and courage. August 14, 1982 was declared National Code Talkers Day by President Reagan, who issued a proclamation of tribute to all members of the Navajo Nation who gave their special talents and their lives so that others might live.

Dan Rather interviewed the oldest Code Talker, Carl Gorman, at his home in 1997, and after the interview said the American way of life might not have survived if it were not for their service. Ninety-year-old Gorman's closing statement reflected the true heart of a Marine when he said, "Old Marines never die. They just go to hell and regroup."

The Navajos today:
Edward S. Curtis was a photographer whose pictures of Native Americans are in museums and private collections across the country. One of the most famous of these, "The  Vanishing Race," was taken in 1904 and is supposed to show the Indians passing into the darkness of an unknown future, stripped of their tribal strength and culture.

The Navajos did not vanish into the darkness, however. Today they are the largest Native American tribe in the United States with a population of over 200,000, and their rich culture is alive and well. They lived through the Spaniards, the Mexicans, the Utes, white settlers, slave traders, the U.S. Army, Kit Carson, GeneralCarleton, the Long Walk, Bosque Redondo, livestock reduction, and boarding school. Many native nations have disappeared, swallowed up into the Anglo world. The Dineh, however, remain distinctly themselves. They have survived.

From the Night Chant

In Beauty (happily) I walk.
With Beauty before me I walk.
With Beauty behind me I walk.
With Beauty above me I walk.
With Beauty all around me I walk.
It is finished in Beauty.