The essential question is, “Have you found a space, that empty space, which should surround you when you write?” Into that space, which is like a form of listening, of attention, will come the words your characters will speak, ideas––inspiration.
-Doris Lessing
Morning Seeding & Tending Adds Pacific Hours for December!
Hi all,
It’s Halloween/Samhain, and, thanks to rebound COVID, I am in Little Blue quarantining for what my doctors promise will be the final few days––Friday, I obtain my freedom from the fear of infecting anyone with the remains of my COVID. Though I miss my people, I’m happy because all this alone time allowed me to send a draft of Pimmit Run to my editor. Now I have the month of November to write poems, songs, essays, and whatever I want. I like to write whatever I want, whenever I want. I like writing even better when I have other writers joining me.
To this end, for three weeks this December, while my Weekly Workshops are on hiatus, I’ll be adding a second session of my popular Morning Seeding & Tending. For those of you on Pacific time, this really will be morning, but for East Coasters it will be 1pm-2pm. So I’m calling it Seeding & Tending Tea Time. I mean, it’s not really teatime for anyone, except maybe if you lived in Greenland or Iceland, but since lots of you drink tea when you write, I figure that name works.
Think of this as a chance to continue your writing practice, keep your intentions going, check out the general idea of Seeding & Tending: your chance to free-write, continue a project, get your word count in, be a part of a literary community on your own terms. The Zoom room will be open Tuesday-Thursday 1pm-2pm. You can come once a week, twice a week, three times a week––totally up to you! We begin with a short greeting and prompt (quotation/poem fragment which will be emailed daily to all participants), then set intentions in the chat. We write with our microphones muted, cameras off. If you arrive late, no problem. When the timer goes off at 2pm, we’ll say a quick goodbye. You can choose to leave Zoom early. Or you can keep writing long after the group officially ends. What will you do with your hour of writing? You can mull over your plot and characters. Outline. Write a query letter, or submit for a fellowship. You can zip out 1000 words. Or write a series of Social Media posts, or blog. Or make a video. Or write a song. It’s up to you. This is your time, and we are honoring it.
Time: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 1-2pm EST. Exact dates: Dec. 5, 6, 7; Dec. 12, 13, 14; Dec 19, 20, 21.
Cost is $20 ($25 after Dec 3) and free for Morning Seeding & Tending subscribers. In fact, if you sign up for Seeding & Tending Tea Time in December, you can also come to the 10-11am Morning Seeding & Tending for the entire month of December. What a bargain! And while we’re on the subject….
Morning Seeding & Tending
Morning Seeding & Tending is a low-stress, no-share writing and accountability group. We meet Monday-Friday, 10-11am Eastern Time. Same basic rules as above. Some people come daily, some weekly, some whenever they can.
After signing up, you’ll get a welcome email and thereafter a Zoom link which changes every month. Pay by the month, via subscription, or a month at a time via my website. The longer you commit to write with us, the cheaper it is. The month begins whenever you start payments.
By website, it's $25 per month. This is a great way to try it out.
By Ko-Fi subscription, it's $20 per month, with automatic payment (like Patreon).
By paid subscription to my Substack newsletter, it's $20 per month, with automatic payment.
OR the very cheapest is to subscribe via Substack newsletter for an entire year, which is $200 upfront--but that makes the cost between $16-17 per month.
Best of all? You can start right now!
30 Poems in November
This year, I am dedicating my work to the memories of two poets who were long-time members of my Writing It Up in the Garden community: Michael Biegner and Richard Fox, both men brilliant poets and the bravest, most optimistic, honest battlers of cancer I've ever met. Brothers, I salute you.
Every year, pretty much, I participate in 30 Poems in November. Because I am a bit on the compulsive side, I actually DO write a poem a day, though some of them are dreadful. Even so, I usually publish all of them eventually. I’ve even collected them into books. I love the permission this month gives me to play, have fun, try something new and let it go. Sometimes I write proems—short prose pieces that use poetic language and play with form. Once I wrote a kind of play-in-verse. Often I write songs. In fact, two of the songs off of our latest album Circle of Days (Amen and Magnificat) were written during one of these November challenges. Below is one of my favorites of the poems I wrote last year. If you want to support the work of Center for New Americans, please pledge right here. All proceeds go to support the excellent work of Center for New Americans whose mission is to welcome and serve immigrants, refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers in Western Massachusetts. Additionally, they offer free classes in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), career preparation assistance, support services and immigration legal services.
Digression from Book Talk: Latest from the Blog
Though it’s hard for me to focus, there’s something to be said for completely surrendering to the experience of diffusion. I have no stamina, so after doing anything, after about five minutes I have to lie down and close my eyes. I threw some extra quilts onto my treadmill and sometimes I lie there when I want to get away from Tom and remind myself that I am too sick to exercise. Also just to mix things up.