Posts Tagged ‘Weather’
Another lovely, warm evening greeted the Bloomington Writers Guild’s “Last Sunday Poetry Reading & Open Mic” (see February 25, et al. — a March “Last Sunday” having been pre-empted by Easter), including this time sun!, at Morgenstern Books. The opening featured reader was Writers Guild founder Patsy Rahn, with nonfiction and poetry publications both in the US and England as well as being 2021’s recipient of the People’s Choice Award from the 5th Open Eurasian Literary Festival of Festivals (LIFT), with — with an eye toward Gaza-related protests on the local IU campus, including incidents spurred by IU and state police — a series of poems from both her 2018 collection, THE GRAINY WET SOUL, and a new collection currently in press, based loosely on the idea of “humanity.”
She was followed by Zionsville resident Rosaleen Crowley, a graduate from University College Cork, Ireland; past president/interest group leader of the Writing Group, International Women Indiana; and a current Creative Writing-Poetry MFA student at Butler University with, first, a group of poems written in and about Ireland coupled with many reminiscences, and finally some poems from the most recent of her six poetry books, BE PREPARED TO BE LUMINOUS, written in and about Indiana.
This was followed by an open-mic session with a record eleven people signed up of which, due to strict time constraints given the session’s 7 to 8:30 p.m. time slot (that is, running up to the bookstore’s closing), only nine were able to be heard. Of these I came sixth with, noting May’s upcoming Second Thursday Spoken Word where poems originally selected to be published in THE RYDER’s spring poetry edition (up in the air at this moment due to the untimely death of its de facto Editor-in-Chief/general firebrand Peter LoPilato) are to be presented, and as a sort of preview of mine, three brief poems that THE RYDER had rejected: two shadormas, “The Health-Conscious Vampiress Reflects Upon Her Most Recent Meal” and “Error in Judgement,” and a more conventional “Pas de Dead.”
Strange Storm Described for March 3rd Sunday Write (Feb., Meantime, Having Been Lost in the Shuffle)
So the time comes again for the Bloomington Writers Guild’s “Third Sunday Write,” with me as usual a few days late. At the least (see January 23, et al., but also below for a “missing” last month). With four prompts supplied by moderator Shana Ritter, I chose the third, to “Describe a Storm” — an active one, seemingly popular with other writers as well, though mine perhaps just a tiny bit different. Thus:
A Whirlwind of Frogs
Yes, another whirlwind of frogs greeted Wednesday,
green hopping as it hit,
the ground teeming with frogs’ legs
(still attached to the amphibians, of course,
this is weather, not dinner)
but messy underfoot as one steps on them.
Take care you don’t slip!
But it could be worse, these changes wrought
by a warming climate;
in California they have rains of sharks —
it was on the TV —
but luckily less deadly than it might seem,
they falling through air which they cannot breathe
forcing a passiveness on them.
Here though I fear summer,
the long-range forecast predicting, first, turtles
(snappers among them!)
but then alligators.
February’s entry, in the meantime, somehow got lost in the shuffle (I didn’t get to it, in fact, until February 29, a strange day in itself and one dominated by sales for Femmes Fatales and another reprint for New Orleanian vampiresses), but was no great shakes. Still, for the sake of completeness, here’s what you (probably) didn’t miss:
(3. When I Looked Up)
When I looked up,
Wow! a pizza-moon
round and orange
filling the sky!
“Family size,” no doubt.
Until, bat-like, black clouds
nibbled the edges —
politely, in sections —
but nevertheless the light
growing dimmer.
Gold going to darkness.
It’s been awhile since I’ve been to the Bloomington Writers Guild’s “Last Sunday Poetry Reading & Open Mic” (see October 29, et al.), in part because both November and December were cancelled for Thanksgiving Weekend and Christmas.* And while January was on the 28th as scheduled, due to host Morgenstern Books changing the time for the readings from afternoons to 7 to 8:30 at night — especially inconvenient since I usually walk there — I elected to miss it.
This month, however, was different because of the lineup, combined with an unseasonably warm (even if no less dark) evening, and I do generally enjoy the sessions. So — cut to the chase — the session opened with featured poet and Writers Guild founding member Antonia Matthew, author of the audio theater production “Antonia’s Homefront” as well as a poetry chapbook, JOURNEY, along with many appearances in journals including VERSE WISCONSIN and Bloomington’s own THE RYDER, with a series of poems on subjects close to her own life, including such things as family, events, friends, and nature. She was followed by self-proclaimed “new kid in town” Peter Kaczmaraczyk, a friend to felines and co-creator of Bloomington’s Captain Janeway Statue, with poems in numerous periodicals and anthologies including a chapbook, DISTANT YET ALWAYS HEARD, reading work on varying topics (including at least one specifically on cats), with a tending toward themes of love and fading and loss.
With evening hours forcing a more rigid schedule, facilitator Hiromi Yoshida decided to skip the usual break (leading, as it happened, to extra time for schmoozing after the program’s end) moving directly into the “open mic” portion where I came in sixth of a healthy total of eleven walk-on readers, with two poems written to “Third Sunday Write” challenges for the past winter months, both on the subject of snow, “This Is What I Love About Winter” and “Under the Snow.” Though, belying the picture accompanying this post, the second, especially, not nearly as jolly.
.
*As will next month’s too, March 31, for Easter. What a year!
But on time, I think, this month for its Facebook announcement: the Bloomington Writers Guild’s “Third Sunday Write” (cf. October 23, et al.). Any lateness on this post, then, entirely my problem — though then, one might note, I had had lots more going.
So that’s how it happens. And as for November, if there were prompts for it, for some reason I was unable to find them. And that’s how it goes too.
But now is now, so: December, 2023
- This is what I love about winter
Well, yes, the snow,
the first flakes drifting down,
or with a bit of wind
settling against one’s face —
at worst, its still not rain
though the breeze, if strong,
adds insult to cold;
the sight of the wood, whiteness
now on the ground,
more swirling still, falling
against a gray sky.
The softness of sound, hushed
as echoing death . . .
well, yes, not all romantic.
Thoughts of feet frozen, flu,
shivering on porches
while getting one’s key out.
Of basking on furnace grates . . .
Warming, rememberings
of one’s true love —
Summer.
For one reason or another it took its time, but at last, on an otherwise windy and somewhat cold Saturday, Madness Heart Press’s charity anthology MONSTORM (see February 24, 12, et al.) has arrived in my mailbox! This is the one produced as a response to hurricane Ian, with proceeds earmarked for Florida’s All Faiths Food Bank, serving the areas most affected by Hurricane Ian.
To quote from the blurb: Storms are the epitome of nature at her most primal, savage, and untamable. They inspire awe and terror in equal measure. When storms unleash their fury, nothing and no one can stand against them.
Hurricane Ian was such a storm. When Ian ripped into South Florida in the fall of 2022, homes and businesses were reduced to piles of rubble. Cleanup and recovery were slow, and as of the printing of this book, there is still much to be done to get things back to normal for those in the region whose lives were turned upside down.
And so, MONSTORM, with twenty stories about wild weather. Dangerous weather! Mine, fourth in the mix, is one of five or so reprints, “I’m Dreaming of A. . . ,” originally published in chapbook form by Untreed Reads Publications in 2011, the tale of a “white Christmas,” but one more likely to have been a part of a Bing Crosby nightmare. To see for yourself, more information including ordering can be found here.
Quoting the blurb again, [t]hese are stories of terror, but this book is one of hope, produced to help raise money to support those who, in Ian’s wake, need help most. Or to the main point: Storms will always come. What matters most is how we respond to them.
A quick note for a Friday. MONSTORM, as noted below (cf. February 12, et al.), is still on track for publication next Tuesday, February 28. And I now have a PDF, including a copy of the table of contents.
Thus:
I’m still in number 4 position of stories proper (after, that is, the Foreword and Introduction) with “I’m Dreaming of a . . .,” originally published in 2011 as a chapbook by Untreed Reads, on Page 37. While for more information on MONSTORM, including instructions for early ordering, from (as it were) the horse’s mouth, one can press here. Or if into Amazon, here.
Things progress, if sometimes slowly. Saturday afternoon brought this word from Editor Josh Strand: I just wanted to shoot out a quick update to let you know we have an official announcement about when MONSTORM is coming out! According to John, the big cheese at Madness Heart Press, we can expect it to release on February 28. Thanks so much for your patience in this process. We are very excited about getting this book out into the real world.
The story in question is a Christmas tale, “I’m Dreaming Of A. . . .” (see January 8, December 21, et al.), originally published as a stand-alone chapbook in 2011 by Untreed Reads. But the time is not that important. What is, is that the anthology’s earnings are earmarked for charity, to go, as I understand, to the All Faiths Food Bank in Sarasota FL. Or, as a truncated part of the blurb explains: This book contains 20 stories by seasoned genre veterans as well as fresh voices and represents the horror community’s response to hurricane Ian. There are stories about storms, the devastation they can cause, and what they reveal about the people who live through them, stories of tearing wind, driving rain, blizzards, hurricanes.
Or in the case of “I’m Dreaming Of A. . . ,” perhaps not a blizzard as such, but a very unusual snowfall just before Christmas. Which, notwithstanding the popular Bing Crosby song its title cites, is perhaps not so much a good thing this time.
To see for yourself, more information on MONSTORM — including instructions for early ordering — can be found here.
Another one of those very quick “The Writing Life” updates, this from Christine Morgan of Madness Heart Press. Actually going back two days to December 19: . . .I’ve been tasked with doing the edits on this anthology. Thank you all for contributing, congrats on being accepted! It’s for a good cause and I hope we can make it a success.
Over the next few days, I’ll be contacting each of you individually, sending a draft of your story with my suggested edits as well as any comments or questions. Look them over, accept or reject as you see fit, make any other changes or revisions as needed, and return another draft to me when you can.
The book in question is MONSTORM: A CHARITY ANTHOLOGY (cf. November 18, 13) and so this morning, December 21, my turn came. But going through it, line by line, the few suggested changes I found were very slight, and with no quarrels with them on my part at all. So that was easy: this evening I’ve sent back a reply saying, in effect, just to use the “corrected” copy exactly as I received it.
The story is “I’m Dreaming Of A. . . ,” its title reflecting the Bing Crosby still-sung yuletide hit, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” But as for MONSTORM (to quote myself from November 18), [a]s noted, it is a charity anthology for relief for victims of Hurricane Ian, with stories revolving around monstrous storms. Thus mine, originally published as a stand-alone chapbook in 2011 by Untreed Reads, is a snowy description of a Christmas season, decidedly NOT filled with peace and/or joy.
A very quick “The Writing Life” update. With similar swiftness, Editors Josh Strand and Matt Masucci have sent the contract for MONSTROM: A CHARITY ANTHOLOGY, including my story “I’m Dreaming Of A. . . .” (see November 13). So, as of this afternoon, I’ve signed the agreement and sent it back.
As noted, it is a charity anthology for relief for victims of Hurricane Ian, with stories revolving around monstrous storms. Thus mine, originally published as a stand-alone chapbook in 2011 by Untreed Reads, is a snowy description of a Christmas season, decidedly NOT filled with peace and/or joy. And a warning for Santa (well, not so much in the story itself, but you know. . .) to be very careful with weather predictions in making his flight plan.
Or more for a wish for an early spring, but myself, I’m hoping that MONSTORM will be out in time for Christmas.
Well hopefully not quite. Nevertheless, Saturday morning brought the season’s first snowfall here, a not too deep dusting, enough to shovel but nor really an annoyance. At least so say I, who it being the weekend stayed home anyway, other than shoveling a little bit of it enjoying the white, peaceful calmness outside through the window.
The story, however, “I’m Dreaming Of A. . . .,” first released by Untreed Reads Publishing in December 2011 as a stand-alone chapbook, is about a far, far, more serious snowfall, its title reflecting the Bing Crosby croon longing for a “White Christmas.” But not the way I wrote it. And the acceptance to be in MONSTORM, a collection of weather-themed horror stories [quoting the guidelines] edited by Josh Strand and Matt Matsucci and published by Madness Heart Press. Storms are elemental forces — at once oddly beautiful and devastatingly destructive, and as such serve as prime fodder for dark, fantastical fiction. We’re looking for anything scary you can think of about weather — a rain-summoning charm gone wrong, a mad scientist with a weather-control device, angry gods of thunder and hail. Give us unnatural rains — of acid, of eyeballs, of lava. Give us wind that tears flesh from bone. . . . Well, you get the idea. And moreover, it would be for charity: All money earned from sales of the ebook or print editions of the anthology will go directly to All Faiths Food Bank in Sarasota, Florida.
So, long story short, the word came today, Sunday: We’re pleased to inform you that “I’m Dreaming Of A…” has been accepted for publication in the MONSTORM Hurricane Ian Charity Anthology. We feel that your story is a great fit, and we’re happy to have you aboard.
Contracts will be sent out soon.
Publication, according to the guidelines above, is hoped for for December — so perhaps out in time for Christmas giving. In any event it sounds like a winner, and for a good cause.
jamesdorrwriter 