January, 2011

Travel Tips for Writers

In the last several months, have you taken a trip or welcomed visitors from out of town? Have you considered your own travel plans or those of others? Have you watched the news and seen people stranded in airports or on snow covered highways? If so, it might have occurred to you that better travel plans might have allowed for a better experience on the road.

The same might be said about your journey as a writer. If that’s the case, here’s a list of travel tips that might be useful to you.

• Keep your eyes on the prize whether it’s a trip to Palo Verde or to publication. Stay focused on your goals. Avoid distractions like email, Twitter, Facebook or online shopping during your established writing time. Give yourself time to take care of correspondence, but once done, don’t fall victim to lost time because you’re curious about someone else’s high school friends or photos.

• Be persistent. Ever wait for your luggage at one carousel only to have your bags tossed onto the conveyor belt of another? Or not show up at all because they’ve taken a side trip to Sheboygan? It’s easy to get discouraged. Keep on keeping on and you’ll arrive at your destination just like that luggage.

• Trim down for the journey. Take only the essentials with you. Leave jealousy, unrealistic expectations, unfair demands on your time or talent behind. Lighten the load and hasten toward your goal of publication in whichever form you most desire.

• Travel together. One person may be able to provide direction when a piece of narrative doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. When you’ve lost your way, another might make suggestions about how to get back on track, just like an attendant at a service station with advice about which road to take when on the way to Washtenaw.

• Never go empty-handed. When you attend a critique group meeting, bring an article to share with writing buddies. Bring the name of an agent or publisher open to queries to submissions, or bring a book on the craft of writing that someone else may not have read. It might open the door to solid discussion and it might have the intended outcome of leading someone to a sale or a byline. Exchange information related to your shared goals as writers.

• Finally, have hope. As best you can, overcome discouragement, the skepticism of others or your own uncertainty. Provide a good example. Sometimes the best way to encourage others is to describe your own journey and what has sustained you on the quest to publication.

When you do finally arrive at that place where you see your own name next to some text you’ve composed, enjoy! Kick back, read it a time or two, share it with friends and family as you would photos from your trip to Poughkeepsie. And when you’re done, plan your next trip or project. Pack your bags and enjoy the journey!

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, Down on the Farm

‘Twas the night before Christmas down on the farm,
not a critter was budging, no cause for alarm.

Cattle were resting, snug in their stalls,
while hay forks and rakes were propped near the walls.

Little mice skittered ‘cross cobweb-draped beams,
spoiling old tomcat’s mouse-chasing dreams.

I stretched out on straw bales, my eyes shut tight,
For Bessie would calve this Christmas Eve night.

When out in the field I heard someone sputter,
I sprang from the bales amidst all the clutter.

Curious now, to the window I sprinted.
The glow on the snow was so bright that I squinted.

The moon shone on mounds of fluffy white stuff.
It glistened but I could see well enough.

When what to my dog-tired eyes could be seen,
but a small wooden sleigh and eight sturdy Holstein,

with a little old farmer so bubbly and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick!

Headlong, these eight airborne heifers they came
Nick clicked and he chortled and called them by name:

“Now, Bossie! Now, Sassy! Now, Francie and Ellie!
On, Bluebell! On Arbelle! On, Connie and Nellie!

To the top of the silo, to the top of the mow,
Come, boss! Come, boss! Come, boss! Come cow!”

Up to the hay mow those bossies they flew,
with a load of fresh hay, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a jiffy, I heard on the roof
the stomping and plodding of each heavy hoof.

As I hid behind bales, I jerked with a jump.
Through the hay mow St. Nicholas came with a thump!

He was decked out in denim from his head to his boots,
and his plaid shirt was flannel, the stylish old coot.

Feedsacks of grain he had slung on his back,
and he looked like a hawker just opening his pack.

His eyes—how they sparkled! His chins how they jiggled!
His cheeks were like apples; his nose, how it wiggled!

His comical mouth curved up in a smile
as he tromped up and down each wide dusty aisle.

He whistled a tune and hummed its refrain
and filled every manger with silage and grain.

Then, just when I thought he would pack up and go,
I heard a loud MOO and it started to grow,

for Bessie was calving, ready to pop.
She bawled and she wailed in her pen without stop.

She quivered; she shook; she rattled; she moaned.
and down, up and down, she mooed and she groaned.

The next thing I knew, on the straw lay a calf,
a beautiful, new, black and white spotted calf!

Nick knelt in the straw and saw all was well.
So, he lifted the calf for its mother to smell.

Then, laying his finger aside of his nose,
giving a nod, through the hay mow he rose.

And I heard him shout out as he flew through the sky,
“Happy Christmas to all and to all a good-bye!”

Swinging Sweet Tooth

Swinging Sweet Tooth

Oh, Kinkajou, you’re light as air,

A forest home serves as your lair.

You hang on, without fail,

By curling your prehensile tail.

You balance on your treetop limbs,

Your complicated jungle gym.

You live in groups, you greet and groom.

You forage there for balsa blooms.

A skinny tongue, slurping honey,

Get it while it’s sweet and runny.

You raid beehives, termite sleuth,

To satisfy your own sweet tooth.

You’re talkative, you shriek, you’re shrill;

While you get your nectar fill, then

You find a hole within a tree,

A lovely tropical canopy.

You’re blanketed while you sleep.

You dream of nectar, fast asleep.