More Writing Oldies from the Vault

So yesterday, I dusted off my published pieces folder and shared my first writing ever published. Today I'm going to share two more poems with you.

The first poem is a short one I wrote around my senior year of college. It was written for a creative writing class lead by my professor and mentor, Peter Blewett, who now serves as Board Vice President for Milwaukee Public Schools. This poem was featured in my friend and fellow English major's senior project. For those of you who aren't familiar with a college English program, your senior year you are required to do an indepth project, usually a paper with a presentation of some sort. My friend, Amy Murre, chose to present on the need we have for art in society and made her own independent magazine. This poem was in Unsung, 1998.

Knowledge

I am on the ledge of knowing,
and soon I will stretch my self,
and with a silent prayer,
drop
       off
           into
                nirvana.

This second poem is very close to my heart. On Friday the 13th in November of 1998, I lost my half-brother, Greg, to the new strain of tuberculosis resistant to antibiotics. My brother was an alcoholic, something I discussed when I presented this poem in a Fox 6 News featured poetry month spot that ran
in 1999 or 2000. (Sorry, the date escapes me right now. I looked and I can't find it anywhere on the net or I would share that with you too. But I have it on VHS, which is totally useless now *grins*). My brother drank and would not see a doctor. He thought it was just a bad cold. By the time we convinced him to go to the hospital, they couldn't save him. I don't share this with you for sympathy, but to make other people aware of the serious issues surrounding alcoholism. I had to watch my elderly father bury his second son and he has never been the same since.

This poem was part of a trilogy about this family tragedy and a way for me make peace with the situation, though I don't think there truly ever is peace when something like this happens to you. It was first published in The Neovictorian/Cochlea in the Fall/Winter of 2001.

A Red Carnation
In memory of my brother, Greg
Born Dec. 27, 1954-Died Nov. 13, 1998

So this is where it all ends,
right here inside this wind-shelter
in the middle of dreary November
with a tinny pre-recorded version of "Taps"
whimpering through the veterans' speakers
like a pitiful puppy.
All of us struggling to stay strong.
and for what -
all of the get-better-soon's and we-love-you's
muttered amongst the sighing of ventilators
and the bleeping of heart monitors,
the painfulness of time stretched out
like a winding road,
waiting for the phone
to slice through the tension
of silent dinners of cold spaghetti and dry meatballs
and forks scraping on plates?
And for what?-
to follow our mundane routines,
to rise stoically every morning
and go to work and to school
while you lay there dying,
suffocating on your own phlegm?

No more vows of you going back to school
and making dad proud,
no more sketching winged dragons
and  knights riding majestically into battle on Arabian horses,
no more Thanksgivings or Christmases
with you stealing all the mashed potatoes,
just this cold piece of ground
and a temporary marker until the spring thaw
when your headstone can be set on your grave.

And next Memorial Day we will attend
the ceremony for the veterans at Woods National Cemetery,
and drink lemonade and eat sugar cookies
while listening for your name to be called out from the roster,
and we'll walk through rows of white gravestones standing at
               attention
to place a single red carnation on your grave,
our father's favorite flower.


Thank you for listening today, reader.

Important Writing news: I have landed my first blog interview. More information to be announced when I have it!

I also just found a nice mention of my blog on someone else's site, Horror Books with the Undead Rat. Apparently, they liked my article about exercising your writer's imagination.

http://horrorbooks.co/vacation-time/

And my Godzilla/Hello Kitty story met with mixed reviews on Critters. I had preivously blogged about this story. People either thought it was funny or just plain weird. I got some feedback on focusing more on Kitty's character and checking up on some of my Godzilla facts, which is great. Always check your facts before you submit! Otherwise, you will hear about it from your readers in email some day.
As always, happy reading and happy writing to all!

David Wellington Came for Christmas - 2007

I racked my brain for a few good titles for this post.  I came up with the following:

1) The Best Damn Christmas Gift Ever (but this one didn't have Dave's name mentioned)

2) My David Wellington Christmas Gift (which just sounded lame and did NOT really tell the full story)

3) the one that I actually used -- Dave Wellington Came for Christmas 2007

I waited to blog about this until I got Dave's permission, which he kindly gave. For those of you who are not familiar with Dave Wellington's books he is the author of the popular Monster Island zombie trilogy, the Laura Caxton vampire series, and now, his new werewolf series, Frostbite. You can visit him at his site here:

http://www.davidwellington.net/

I haven't read Frostbite, yet, but when I do, I'll let you know what I think.

You're probably wondering how I managed to get Dave Wellington to my house for Christmas. He was there in spirit, not in person. Here's the story.

I have a wonderfully, sneaky, conniving husband, with only the best intentions who decided in 2007 to log onto my computer to get my unpublished, unedited stories so they could be sent to an author for review. He wrote to several authors asking them for permission to send my work. Kim Harrison kindly responded in a very nice handwritten card that he needed to run my stories through her agent. Other authors declined as well. However, Dave has a kind heart and took pity on my husband.

Dave read through six of my unpublished/unfinished stories, which I learned on Christmas Eve when I opened one of the best gifts. My husband had taken my stories and put together a book to show me what my name would look like in print and motivate me to get back into the publishing industry, which I had been out of since the late 90s.

Here's the book he designed. I found out he spent waaaay too much time researching how to put together a book from scratch, which if you know my husband, is a sign of true love because he doesn't even read the same books as I do, let alone know anything about the publishing industry.

I was puzzled when I opened my present from him and saw my name on the cover of a book with a shark. I flipped through it, wondering when he had stolen my unfinished work and I was going to get a little upset, until I saw this on the back cover:

*blink, blink* I couldn't believe what I was reading! "Was this for real?" I asked my husband.  He told me it was. Dave Wellington gave him this quote with permission to use it however he wanted.

Now imagine you're me -- haven't tried to publish seriously since the late 90s, have a lot of work in progress, but nothing finished, with no goals to publish any time soon, in a writing funk. You see this and flip!  Hell yeah, baby! An author whose books I can actually find in my LIBRARY likes my work. Of course, then utter humiliation ensued as I thought of all the typos that could be rearing their ugly heads in my unfinished work that he looked at, but apparently, Dave was kind enough to look past that and focus on the storytelling.

My book was never really for sale anywhere and now sits on my bookshelf at home, but when I have a really bad writing day and want to give up, I just look at that quote and smile.

Thanks, Dave Wellington! You went out of your way for my husband and I know you heard all this already from us, but this was really a nice, wonderful gift you helped out with.

And thank you to my loving husband, who motivated me to get back to the keyboard!

Since Dave Wellington looked at my work, I've actually published some of the unfinished stories he read and had a few news one published as well.  If any of you want to check out my work, go here:

http://norabpeevy.com/

And that's my Dave Wellington story ...

As always, happy writing and happy reading to all!

Off topic Note: My Godzilla/Hello Kitty story I blogged about is up on the Critters writing forum for critique this week, if anyone wants to check a work in progress. It's entitled: It's About Damn Time!



Godzilla Falls in Love with Hello Kitty

In my demented writer's mind this actually happened last year! I haven't published the short story yet, but am putting it up on Critter's, the online writing forum, for peer review very soon. I saw this Beanie Baby today and just had to get it to keep Godzilla company in my writing toy collection.

The short story is currently titled:  Godzilla Falls in Love, but I am thinking about changing it. The new title is:  It's About Damn Time! To find out what it's time for, you will have to come visit me on the Critters writing forum. I promise it will all make sense, or you can choose to wait until it's been accepted by a publication. However, if you are at all curious about a work in progress and following a story to completion, you might be interested in jumping on Critters and viewing the critiquing process.

The premise of the story is that Godzilla and Hello Kitty meet at a support group for movie stars with phobias, one of the featured characters being King Kong who suffers from acrophobia, the fear of heights.  The support group meets at The Schlitz Audubon Nature Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  This is a real center connected to a wonderful nature preserve near where I used to live.  The nature preserve is 185 acres of undeveloped land with hiking trails through the woods, down to Lake Michigan's beach, through a native Wisconsin prairie, and even a pond with turtles and other wildlife. I've seen wild turkeys, deer, coyotes, and more on my hikes there. It was the perfect setting for my short story.

While I was photographing Godzilla and Hello Kitty for their world debut here online, Derrick, one of my bearded dragons, got quite upset. He decided to fight Godzilla to defend Hello Kitty's honor.

Then he asked Ms. Kitty if she would pose for a picture with him. I had no idea that Derrick had such a crush.

Ms. Kitty was flattered by Derrick's amorous advances, but assured him that she and Godzilla will be together for a long time.

I wonder what their babies would look like, if they had any.  If you're interested, you can email your artwork on the subject and I will post it on my blog.

As always, happy writing and happy reading to all!

My Room With a View

I had to borrow liberally from Virginia Woolf for this title -- one of my favorite authors.  People have asked me where I write and it's not very glamorous, really.  A writing office is on my wish list in the next few years.  Currently, I work downstairs in my open concept townhome, which is nice, but sometimes distracting when others are watching T.V., etc.  Thankfully, I own an iPod which helps filter out noise and am not easily distracted.  I write at my dining room table -- the black hole for mail, books, and ongoing art/crafting projects in the house.  If there isn't clutter there, it doesn't feel like home. 

This is my view outside as I write:

It looks kind of barren now, but its winter.  What can I do?  I wish I had a lush, green pic to share with you, but when I moved in it was winter as well and shortly thereafter my tree was struck by lightning.  The tree promised to be amazing in spring when we moved in on New Year's Eve 2007.  It had a gorgeous structure and towered over the three story building in front of my townhouse.  Its limbs covered the entire balcony from view until calamity hit about two months later.  It was struck by lightning in the middle of a tornado!  I hadn't even been in Dallas but a few months when this giant tree limb fell on top of my car.  Gone was the promise of a shady, regal tree and left was the smaller version you now see in the previous picture above.

I am glad the tree was salvaged, though.  I like to watch the birds and squirrels while I write.

I have various writing toys that hopefully, will find their way to my dream writing office, when I move and have room for one.  My two favorites to bring out are the 1985 Godzilla action figure and the Creature from the Black Lagoon that I acquired used at a comic book shop in New Mexico.  You can see them looming tall in the background.

The following picture shows what I have to contend with on a daily basis while writing. 

This is my breditor, Toshio.  Now I realize this nickname warrants some explaining, so here goes:  I got Toshio, my adopted Bombay, from this wonderful no-kill cat shelter, Texas Cares.  He was already eight months old and responded to his name, so I thought it would be confusing to rename him, but if I had, it would have been Bradbury after Ray Bradbury, one of my all-time favorite authors, who has also owned a black cat.  Toshio quickly took an interest in my writing, as you can see from the pic above.  He seems to think my laptop case is his office.  One day my husband and I were joking around about Toshio being my editor -- thus, the nickname "Breditor", a combination of Bradbury and editor.  So really, I don't have an editor at the moment, but a "Breditor".

This is a more regal photo of the laptop bandit:

So there you have it -- my crazy room with a view!  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some more writing to do.

As always, happy writing and happy reading to all!  (And if you happen to enjoy what you're reading, feel free to become a follower below).