Today’s writing prompt is inspired by Ron Salisbury’s poem “The Ride Southbound.” When the writing prompt is a poem, you can write about the title, a line or a word. You can also write about Hope. Just write whatever comes up for you. The Ride Southbound by Ron Salisbury When I jerked open the cab door, Hope was sitting in the back seat, Prada dark glasses and lip gloss. This is mine, she said, but we can share until 34th street. What’s at 34th street? I asked. Just a sale at Macys. The driver put my two-suiter in the trunk and the extra bag on the front seat, I climbed in with my briefcase and umbrella. Is it gonna rain? she asked. You never know, I answered. What’s with all the bags? It’s been a long trip. You need all that stuff? Most of it, at least I thought I…
Month: November 2015
Concept is simple, execution is difficult.
Once again, I’m embarking on a new food plan. I’ve done this one before and lost a ton of weight. Then I slipped into old habits and all that weight I released came drifting back. This time, it feels like . . . scratch that. . . It is a lifetime change. I’m eating very simply: lean protein, most vegetables, some fruit and a little grain. Minimal processed food. It’s a very simple concept, yet hard to execute. It takes determination and keeping my eye on the goal: being healthy. It’s a lot like writing. Many of us want to write but either don’t have the time or don’t know how to start. Right now about 56,000 writers are participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). When you come up for air, NaNoWriMo Campers . . . let us know how you managed to fit writing time into your busy…
Take note.
It’s early Monday morning. The day is just getting started and it’s very quiet. The softly falling rain has hushed all ambient noises. No cars drive up our country lane. People are still sleeping on this soft-feeling day, not quite ready to begin the busyness of our lives. Even the birds are quiet this morning. And I’m wondering, do you want to write? Do you contemplate ideas to write about as you stay in bed just a little longer in the morning? Do you have brilliant, awesome thoughts for writing while you are driving? As you wait for sleep to settle in, do these brilliant ideas swirl in your head? And they are brilliant, I am sure. You tell yourself you will remember everything until you have time to write. Finally, you sit down to write and those creative ideas seem to have vanished. You stretch to grasp your dazzling…
Miss Desert Inn by Ron Salisbury
Reviewed by Dorianne Laux Ron Salisbury’s poems in Miss Desert Inn move us from the poverty of Maine, to the grittiness of New York, from the glitter of Las Vegas, to the glamour of California’s coast, informing us of the truth about this life, harsh as it may be, sorrowful, and wondrous and brief as it is. This is one man’s journey, and we learn as he does what it means to live with loss, with memory, with desire. An accomplished first book, informed by the poetry of Gilbert, Hugo and Kowit, these are poems of the middle passage, where there’s sometimes a woman and a glass of wine, always a good dog nearby, and a bad but beloved cat slipping out the side door. Dorianne Laux‘s poems have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Romanian, Dutch, Afrikaans, and Brazilian Portuguese. Her selected works, In a Room with a Rag…
Main Street Rag Publications
Main Street Rag Publications: Literary Magazines, Anthologies, Book Publishing, Contests. Main Street Rag Literary Magazine Fiction/Creative non-fiction: Please EMAIL THE IDEA FIRST. Main Street Rag will tell you whether the subject appeals to them and if there is space for it. Prefer social or political themes over How to, process pieces or literary pieces about the life of a literarian. Images: Need high resolution to print, but require low resolution to submit.” If you don’t know the difference, you’re not ready to have your work published.” We like it all—no subject taboo—but if you are targeting cover art, we like people doing what they do, street scenes, a world in motion. Send us a picture we can hear and smell. Interviews: Prefer interviews with those in the arts—mostly literary—but visual and performing arts will also be considered. Poetry: Up to 6 pages of poetry. That can mean one long poem…
Suicide Doors . . . Prompt #200
Today’s writing prompt is a poem by Ron Salisbury. You can write on the theme of the poem or the mood. You can use a line or a word for the writing prompt. Ready? Read and write. Just write, without worrying how your writing will sound. Suicide Doors Don’t put that in a poem, she said. What? Don’t put what I said in a poem. We talk and a week later I find what I said in one of your poems. What’s the matter with that? He’ll find out. He doesn’t read poems. His friends will tell him. His friends don’t read poems. Just don’t put me in your poems. How about I make it in the 1960’s and it happens in my 1951 Merc with suicide doors, I got a D.A. haircut, smell of Bay Rum and your angora sweater comes off on my sport coat. Then what happens….
So you’ve earned that MFA, now what?
Guest Blogger Ron Salisbury talks about MFA – Master of Fine Arts writing programs. “Everywhere I go, I’m asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. There’s many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”–Flannery O’Connor Flannery may be a little tough but not far wrong. What will you do with your MFA in poetry or fiction or non-fiction or children’s literature? Is it different from what you thought you would do before you started that MFA program? The proliferation of Master of Fine Arts Writing Programs in the United States (some 200 as of this writing) requires new crops of students every year; cannon fodder, inductees to charge over the lip of the trench into the guns of Admission Departments and Student Loans without much chance of becoming that famous author, a goal which…
What is a good life? . . . Prompt #199
What makes up a good life? What are the ingredients for a good life? If you could combine essential ingredients to produce a good life, what would those ingredients be? Is there a secret ingredient? If there was a recipe for a good life, would people embrace it? Would they conform or rebel or ??? If you were going to stitch qualities for a good life into a quilt, what bits and pieces would you need? What would the final piece look like? Is this even a fair or answerable question? Are there too many variables to consider? If you could create, cajole, conjure, form, shape a good life, would you? What would it look like. . . that good life many people strive for. Today’s writing prompt: What do you think a good life is all about?
Let’s discuss and write!
Hello and welcome. Do you have a writing question or a topic you would like to see discussed on The Write Spot Blog? Perhaps I can research and discover answers. Also, you are welcome to contribute as a guest blogger. ~600 words something inspirational or informational for writers. Have you read a book that you love and want to tell others about? Send an email to me. Let’s talk. ~Marlene
Flight of Destiny by Francis H. Powell
Reviewed by Anthony Jones Flight of Destiny is a great collection of quick reads that will linger with you after you’ve read them. Powell has mastered his craft and, more importantly, clearly acquires his material from an authentic place. I’m a huge fan of surreal/disturbing/magical realist stories and am always on the lookout for authors who work in that genre. I find it frustrating, however, that the majority of them usually “fake it.” It’s usually pretty obvious that they’re engaged in a race to the bottom in a mad scramble for the oddest or most disturbing ideas they can come up with. The ethic of weird = interesting ironically results in nothing weird at all. Instead, it usually amounts to little more than sophomoric stories with no arc and no emotional engagement. Not so with Powell. His stories are genuinely unnerving and very original. He doesn’t just throw weird random…