Renee is Writing

No one likes to admit she failed, but in failure there always sleeps a lesson waiting to be aroused. I set out to post every day for the month of June based on one writing prompt or another. I wanted to write twenty minutes a day--a story, poem, or essay--and post it here. But as John Lennon said so well--life is what happens while you're making other plans. What lesson was asleep in this recent failed challenge of mine? Of course, the lesson is when you commit to something you need to follow through, but we all know that. And it is significant to the writer because you can't publish if you don't write. But there is another lesson that perhaps slept a little more deeply. The lesson, or question, of finding time to write so I can follow through on my commitments. I did find twenty minutes a day to write--exactly where I'd left them each morning. I've been a writer of "morning pages" a la Julia Cameron's suggestion in her book "The Artist's

Writers are frequently asked where they get their ideas for stories or poems and the answers seem endless. Sources range from dreams, to news stories, to the ephemeral muse, to strange voices in the night. I never know the original source of my story ideas but I don't go looking for them, they seem to seek me out instead. They find me, grab me, reside in me, until I finally agree to write the story. I have notebooks filled with ideas for stories, poems, essays and art pages and if I had 24 hours a day, every day I'd never have enough time to write them all. Ideas are everywhere, at least for me. There are stories behind every face I see. Faces of family and friends. Faces of strangers in coffee shops and colleagues at work. No one is storyless. As the stories around me reveal themselves I see that this world is filled with stories. You never know what dramas--triumphs and defeats, joys and sorrows-- live behind the faces you see each day. Sometimes the stories come out of hid

This poem was inspired by a true family story. Her father sent her to Paris to make money as a chanteuse. She boarded a plane, baggage in hand, and hummed a few bars on a flight over the Atlantic. While in Paris she learned to sing like a bird. She went nightly to cabarets and wore the finest silk dresses in the colors of jewels. One night she met a tall dark man who offered her his love, a kiss and a ring that made her eyes light like sapphires. She accepted the ring. She silenced her song. She stopped answering her father’s letters asking when she would be coming home. One night, on a flight back over the Atlantic With her tall dashing husband, she returned To New York, where she and her young man started a farm in the Catskills. And she never heard from her father again. But her song can be heard in the wind that races through the trees and over the sharp pointed mountains---and she is happy as a lark.

            “What are you doing?” Alice yelped.             Her husband, blonde ponytail knotted from an afternoon in the wind, looked up.             “What do you mean? I’m planting eggplant seeds.”             “They’ll never grow. I told you to stick with tomatoes and cucumbers.”             Tony laughed and wiped sweat off his forehead leaving a trail of moist dirt.             “Of course they will,” he said. “I need a change. We always plant tomatoes and cucumbers. I wanted to be innovative. Can’t do the same things all the time. Break out of the box. Fly the coop. Don’t be so boring.”             “Boring huh?’             Alice snapped around and stomped back to the house. Eggplant will never grow in this tight earth. They need loose sandy soil. He’ll see come August when this garden is barren.             In the bedroom she pulled the blanket down to the foot of the bed. Then she showered and anointed herself with musk scented body oil. When Tony came up fro

Today is the first of June and as good a time as any to begin a new 30 day challenge. In the month of April, in honor of National Poetry Month, I posted a daily poem and art piece on my sister blog http://www.amarriageofpoetryandart.blogspot.com/ . Now in honor of Short Story Month I am challenging myself to post a daily story on this blog. It will be a 20 minute free write from a daily writing prompt. The inspiration for a twenty minute a day writing challenge came from my online writing teacher Len Leatherwood and her blog http://www.twentyminutesaday.wordpress.com/ Len is an amazing teacher and seeing her daily writing encouraged me to do the same on my own blog. My prompts will come from Melanie Faith. Melanie is a fabulous flash fiction and poetry writer and teacher. I've taken several classes online with her. Today I began a new flash fiction class with her. Melanie provides daily prompts to her students so I will use those for my free writes for this blog. I'd also