I guess I went back this weekend for the tanka….you know me and tanka….and I was really disappointed that the situation was as bleak as I was warned. I remember a few years ago, even a year ago…when the spirit and efforts on that site were marvelous.

Perhaps we are just ….tiring? Or people there? I do know there are wonderful and published writers there, but I don’t ever see their work posted…except somethings in Writers. I would like to read excerpts from their novels, chapters, etc…but no luck.

Under the suggestions of a good writer there I really ruined “La Vendetta”. I beefed it up sexually for inclusion in their pages, and I spent hours, days revamping it when it was not deemed ’sexy’ enough. That taught me something. There is a question of IMAGINATION!!! and I do find that missing a lot with some writers.

Perhaps I just am not a writer that should be there. In fact, I think so. I have moved away from straight erotica. It’s only a spice now to the story…IF.

And I am more interested in my poetry (tanka and freeverse) being NON-erotic.

I can do that myself, mother! LOL!

As for new writers, yes I agree with you. So many come and go…sink into oblivion. I do know that when I privately wrote to a couple they also stopped posting. That was unfortunate because they were just starting out. I don’t have any answers anymore.

I just want to keep writing and I am very sorry that I can’t give any direction here.

The level of encouragement to new writers varies, but of course the level of competency varies there, too. As to judgmental? Well, I think many would take that by the silence and lack of crits as to be rather judgmental.

I have been fortunate in that people have ‘noticed’ my work there, and for that I am very grateful. It was and is a good classroom.

I think the issue for me, again, is that I am growing and changing as a writer. I am not a writer of erotica, though my first book certainly was that. This second and third one will not be so much of that. At all.

That group is a long standing group. There are many very successful and published writers there…who aren’t submitting…or do only rarely. The success of the lists can’t be supported by only a handful of the same all the time. I think that group has some issues, but I don’t know what they are.

For me…the issue is this. I spent exactly three years there….I learned a lot from that group. But I also feel that there is a time to go out into the world. Actually, it’s more than that, Malcolm. I find that it’s addictive and takes a lot of time. I would rather write on my blog as to these life passages…and write my novels.

I am a very different person than I was three years ago. I have developed a certain discernment (good Quaker word, that! ) about writing, literature in general and life. And people. I don’t want to sit with people who haven’t moved in their opinions. I have.

I don’t need to know what other writers are doing for ‘blockages’, etc. I don’t have time for them. Frankly, I also think it’s part of the “Stumped Writers School”….we twattle on so much about our fleeing muses, our mental blockages, etc. I think writing is a great privilege…this cobbling of words together. I think it’s something we want shortcuts and detours to get to…and it is just a solid work ethic.

I find movement and gardening and the beauty of nature enough to start those things of imagination going in my head and they are a bank of ideas for stories, poems, novels.

It’s just applied hard work. The the best thing is that we grow…don’t we! At any age.

We’ve talked about this elsewhere. I see that group as having potential as a writers’ group to be more active and useful, but I think that will take an effort on the part of the admin folks which they don’t seem willing to make.

But I love Handelian opera. Problem is….he uses the same tunes….arias, in other places, scores, so if you like it…you have a good chance of hearing it again in another piece.

It doesn’t sound a BIT like you are roughing it….LOL!…especially with the ‘truffle gnocchi’.

Huh.

So are dreams quite often. Stories are sort of dreams preserved.

We eagerly await the return of a sink, cabinets, and countertop; right now it’s like living in a motel, with the microwave and toaster on tables in the living room and doing dishes in a tiny bathroom. After some Plain Speaking with the project manager about him slipping the end date – assuming nothing goes wrong – from the 20th to the 24th (our big Thanksgiving potluck is on the 26th as I told him two months ago), he has mirabile dictu managed to find subcontractors and move the completion back up to the 19th. They’re measuring for the Corian as I type.

I think tomorrow we’ll head into S.F. and North Beach for some opera on the jukebox and espresso and homemade minestrone at Cafe Puccini, to get away from the scene of devastation here. CP is one of my favorite run-away-to places. And maybe pick up a bag of truffle gnocchi at Molinari’s Deli for later. Almost makes roughing it worthwhile.

And it’s actually harder this time with a shorter book…I have learned some things from the first book….

But it’s still a very exciting process.

Thanks for asking…how’s the kitchen re-do coming??

So, how is the book coming along?

for some reason, these seem off to me….I don’t know why, but I think it’s possibly ‘evidence’ of some internal growth…when we can look more critically at our own work and go…’ugh’.

I have to get back into the swing of tanka…I love the form more than anything. It seems so ….balanced and complete to me.

Well, the form does….what the form contains is another issue.

I think when we feel this way about our work (unease) we have to step back and reconsider some things. What was the mental/emotional environment when we wrote these things??? (and this can be applied to any writing…not just tanka).

Have we moved away from this and what are we attempting to replace it with? Or are we?

I think….I am beginning to think…that so much of our work is colored by things we really don’t have control over.

And when we do have more control over an emotional environment?? Can we write so close to the bone/heart???

I just don’t know yet. Perhaps this period of struggle to get together (final stuff) “The Zar Tales” has thrown my taste sensors off badly?