Renee is Writing

I just bought this doll, Princess Merida, from the Disney movie Brave and put her on my writing desk to remind me to be brave and go for the gusto. I am a "play it safe" kind of gal and I need to take more risks. It means writing more and submitting more of my work. It means being brave enough to announce to the world that I believe I have finally found my passion and my desire in writing. I've written in too many genres. But now that I have a poetry collection published and being purchased from poetry readers from amazon.com, I know that I must focus on writing poetry. I am presently working on a new collection and will send out individual poems as they are completed.   I am also going to start a poem a day challenge for National Poetry Month in April. I only have a few days left to decide what my topic and/or form will be. But I will be brave and choose something. I know I can do this. I am looking forward to completing and publishing a second book or chapbook of...

This is such an exciting time for me. My stepson and his wife have given birth to a beautiful baby boy--Giovanni Roman Cassese. He is bright, alert and wonderful. They live two states away and I won't get to hold him for a while but so happy and grateful to welcome this little man into the world and into our hearts. Family is such a treasure to us that it makes us smile knowing our tribe is expanding. The other birth that took place this weekend is my book of poetry "I am My Mother's Only Poem." It is available for sale at the link below. It is a wonderful feeling to see my own book for sale and even more exciting to know I can share my heart and soul with the world. Well with anyone willing to plop down some dollars in order to read what I have written and gaze at the art I have created. Now I am challenged to keep up the momentum and write and publish more books--collections of poetry and short stories, and perhaps one day a novel or two. So much writing to do...

When I first started writing seriously, many years ago, getting published was the ultimate recognition of opening up heart and soul onto the page. Yes there was the fire of inspiration, the slow burn of getting the words down, and then the smoldering work of revising and refining the poem, essay or story. I remember writing two essays about my Dad and thinking that if I could get those published I would be a satisfied writer. As it turned out I placed both essays and rather than quelling the need to be published it simply started a bigger fire. Over the years I have published essays, poems and stories. Novels are a bigger and more difficult sell and so far I haven't reached that goal. Agents and publishers all have their individual needs, likes and moods and who knows what preference or mood a manuscript will meet when it's first read. In response to so much rejection and so many frustrated writers the world of self-publishing opened up. What first appeared as a panacea to ...

Yesterday I arrived home from work to find a box from amazon.com on my doorstep. That's not unusual since amazon's "one-click" ordering allows me to order coveted books by the dozen. I set the book on my dresser, did a kettle bell workout, ate dinner and took a shower. Refreshed and comfy in light cotton PJ's I slit open the box. Had I known what I would find I would have torn it open hours earlier, while still wearing my coat and hauling my purse, lunch bag and tote. Inside the nondescript brown box, nestled beneath wadded up brown paper, I found the proof copy of my poetry collection. WOW!!! What a feeling to see my own book inside an amazon box. There it was, with my title and artwork and name on the front, my author photo on the back, and all my poems and artwork inside its pages. My husband and I gave it a careful reading and only found one error that needs to be fixed. After that people all around the world will be able to order MY book online at www.a...

One of the difficulties of writing a memoir is going back in time to relive, and describe in detailed scenes, bad times in my life that I would prefer to leave behind. But there is no leaving those times behind. They are loud and solid ghosts that haunt me night and day. I know that I must face them and write my way through them if I am ever to let them go. I have read Pennebaker and Progoff. I am a certified journal instructor having worked through the training at the Center for Journal Therapy with Kay Adams. I have no doubts that I need to do this. And yet resistance is an invisible but strong wall that keeps me from the page. I once had a therapist who said you have to go through all the fires in your life, there is no way to go around them. But I am stuck today. But I think I've found a way to crack the resistance and that is through art journaling. I need to journal my feelings in paint and collage to get them out. I need to write things I want no one to see and then paint ...

Those who know me well are aware that I write in many different genres--short stories, novels, poetry, memoir and personal essay. I've had some nice publishing successes with personal essays and short stories and my poetry collection is being designed as we speak. Still, I have always had the feeling I should be writing novels. First because that's what I read the most. Second because it seems to be the most viable publishing option in commercial terms. But what about my heart and soul? What kind of creative work lies there? I am writing a book length memoir and I will continue with it because it's an important story for me to write. But after that I need to seek my creative center and when I cut through the fog--which in real life was thick as whipped cream this morning- I do not find novels in the slivers of cleared space. What I find inside the soft rosy tissue of my creative soul is poetry. Poems sing to me, both reading them and writing them. If I'm away from w...

Here we are at the start of the new year with a rainbow of possibilities strung out in 365 days of awesome. How will you make 2014 your most awesome year? I've given up on making resolutions that are forgotten in the fog of real life. I prefer intentions and goal planning. When I create goals for myself I can envision the little stepping stones I need to follow in order to reach that goal. Here are my intentions for 2014: focus on health and wellness and not let the pressures and stress of my job prevent me from doing what I need to do for my physical, mental and spiritual health spend more quality time with friends and family take time to meditate and be still every day do more guided journal writing to enter more deeply into who I am keep my mind set on the goal of writing my memoir and write 3-4 pages a day be a kinder more spiritual woman who lets stress roll off her back and not strangle her I wish my family, friends, and my dear readers a healthy and awesome 2014...