HOMING IN

With daylight savings time coming to an end this weekend winter cannot be far away. As the browned leaves float and dance to the ground they remind me of the rhythm and swirl of poetry. My poetry collection is coming along. Just typed up the complete first draft and will go home tonight to proofread and then send off to Lorraine Mejia who is my gentle guide along this journey. May add a few more new poems before it's completely done but very close now.

I'm homing in on some writing focus, finding that poetry is my heart and soul so I need to do more of that and keeping distractions that lead me toward novel writing to a minimum. The lessons in this course --Your Life in Poems-- keeps me focused on this writing that feeds my soul.

I've already written a poetry collection as memoir and will shop it around, hopefully to be published as a chapbook. That said, it may be time to finally write my memoir of divorce and the alcoholism that lead up to it. (his, not mine) Toward that goal I just became a member of National Association of Memoir Writers. I'm exploring some of their courses, signed up for a webinar tomorrow night, and will view some of their past webinars. The site www.namw.org has a wealth of information for anyone who wants to learn to write their memoir. I encourage other writers to take a peak.

I'll keep you all posted on the progress of the poetry chapbook, the poetry collection (which is titled "I am My Mother's Only Poem") and also the memoir once that gets under way. I have a feeling I need to get this memoir written with clarity and honesty before I can go on to write more fiction. As a certified journal writing instructor I know the value of writing our stories. It's a necessary exercise in practicing authenticity.

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