The last couple of months have been busy Postcrossing months for me! Lots of postcards sent all over the world, and many more received.
Instead of uploading every single card that found its way to my home (like I did in January), I thought perhaps this time I would share only some of my favorites. Continue reading
Happy National Poetry Month! (Also known as, you know, “April”.)
To celebrate awesome poetry (and the first months of this blog), I am participating in the 6th Annual Big Poetry Giveaway. To enter, simply comment with your name and email at the end of the post! I will draw two winners in the first week of May.
I participated in this giveaway last year as an entrant on several blogs, and as a result was lucky enough to win several books of poetry. How do you say no to the chance to discover new (and sometimes old) poets? Because of this giveaway, I have fallen in love with many poets once unknown to me.
This year, with the new blog officially released, I wanted to participate on the side of giving away. Continue reading
Saying no is tough. Saying no is frowned upon. The corporate world would have us be a herd of yes-men and the non-creative sector of our social world doesn’t understand why anyone could possibly say no to an engagement to pursue an often frustrating, often rejection-ridden hobby. (For more on “The Stigma of Pen and Paper“, you can check out my post on The Rabid Rainbow Ferret blog today as well!)
There is a fabulous quote by Neil Gaiman from his 2012 keynote address at the University of the Arts where he said, “There was a day when I looked up and realised that I had become someone who professionally replied to email, and who wrote as a hobby. I started answering fewer emails, and was relieved to find I was writing much more.”
I can’t begin to fathom the demands he deals with for his time, but I can take his words and apply them on a smaller, more personally appropriate level. Continue reading
Last week a started a new job. Sort of.
I never exactly set out to be an insurance agent. First I was a hostess for 3 1/2 years, then a photo lab tech/drug store stocker for 2 years. After that it sort of fell into my lap that I got my insurance license for personal lines (think home and auto insurance) and for the last 5 1/2 years that’s where I’ve been.
It’s been alright. I have more good days than bad, and it’s been a good job to me in most scenarios, so I’ve put down roots. I am not a creature who enjoys change. I prefer to stay where I am if at all possible.
Last week, however, things changed… at least somewhat. I still work in the same office, I’m still the office manager (and the ONLY consistent person in the last 6 years), but I work for a new boss. The office was sold to a new agent and we’re starting over from scratch. This is incredibly nerve-wracking as we’ve hired new people, started tons of new ‘processes’ to run the office, and questioned and second-guessed nearly everything I do.
But now, 11 days into the month, I can see that this change will be for the good. The past week and a half have been a non-stop messy roller coaster for me and I feel as though surely I have worked at least three weeks already, but it is good. Once things settle down after another month or so, I believe my bad days will be fewer and my stress will be lower.
I never intended for insurance to be my career. Even though I don’t see me leaving the profession any time soon, I still don’t intend for it to be my career. But the recent flurry of new-found structure in an office-setting has me rethinking what I want out of writing. Continue reading
I made two promises to myself this year after taking the vast majority of last year “off” from creative pursuits due to a host of reasons, including poor health and feeling totally burnt-out and lost.
The first is to finish at least one poem (all edits done, not just a complete draft) every month. So far I have not done this. But I didn’t decide on this goal until halfway through January and I did do work, but much of it was to gear myself and my life up again to being more conducive to having the time and mindspace to write. I know this doesn’t sound like an impressive goal compared to so many poets out there, but its purpose is to create consistency in my creative life. I would like to finish 30-40 things this year, but realistically I am aiming for just one a month.
The second promise was to stop shelling out money to contests and start answering open submissions instead. (There are a small handful of contests I do still enter, but we’ll save that for another post.) Continue reading
I’m a giant fan of anything to do with snail mail and good, old-fashioned, written correspondence. There’s just nothing like having something tangible delivered by post. I find that I write in a very different way when I do so by hand than by keyboard, and I like the me that shows up in ink.
Long term pen pals can be difficult to keep up with, not to mention difficult to find. So many people only like the concept of snail mail for the first few letters before they grow bored with the idea.
Enter postcrossing: the perfect combination of low-commitment and the love of sending letters! Continue reading
Welcome!
If you are new to following me, thank you for dropping by! I hope you will enjoy the time you spend here. This blog is just getting on its feet, so please give it a bit of time to begin generating the sort of content you can look forward to.
If you have followed me here from a previous blog, I appreciate you making the move with me! I am excited to begin again, and I sincerely hope to bring you something better than before.
Over the last four or five years I have played at blogging, both semi-seriously and for fun. I’ve read so much advice about how to blog, what to blog, who to blog to, and how often to blog that I feel perhaps it was entirely overwhelming and by trying to follow all of the advice, in reality I could follow none of it at all. I’ve been trying to live up to someone else’s standards, and those someones aren’t even people who read my blog.
I’ve created this blog out of the past several years of experience. I have learned what I enjoy and what I am capable of when it comes to blogging. I have renewed focus and purpose, and I am ready to keep learning. This is a place for me to write about writing and poetry in particular, but also glimpses into my thoughts and daily life. It is a place I aim to be professional, yet completely myself at the same time. There will be serious and silly posts both, and I have a few small features I look forward to introducing over the next couple of months.
There is no set schedule for this blog, but I will post at least twice a month, though I am sure most months will see me a bit more active than that.
Your support encourages me. Please follow me on this new journey!
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