november beach weather (#148-155 of 1000 gifts)

Our beautiful fall weather continues. Someone predicted, earlier this fall, that we were in for the roughest winter in years. If this is it, I'll take it!

My list of 1000 gifts continues with

148. My country Canada. After hearing some of the stories during the Restore Tour performance on Thursday night at church (these were teens and younger kids who were terrorized by and escaped from the Lord's Liberation Army in Northern Uganda), I so thank God for my peaceful country with its sane leaders.

149. Friends — to work beside, to do lunch with. I love you Gina, Noel, Marion, Mary, Ardeena, Ruth, Bonnie!

150. My church — the church as a whole. Our associate pastor preached a rousing sermon about the church in a series called "The Big Ones" (so far creation, the Bible, the supernatural, and yesterday the local church). If you're not sold on this institution, which the Bible calls Christ's body and Christ's bride — give a listen.

Blackie's Spit at Crescent Beach, South Surrey, B.C.

151. A November Sunday walk on the beach. It's not beach weather if your definition of that is a temperature compatible with swim suits and sunscreen. But it sure suited us and a whole lot of others.

Sea wall walk on Crescent Beach - South Surrey, B.C.

152. Chorizo Brekkie-Bowls for lunch at a favourite eatery.

153. A wonderful book on worship with stories behind some of the well-known songs of local and internationally renowned worship leader/ songwriter Brian Doerksen. If you haven't read Make Love, Make War: NOW is the Time to Worship you should!

154. Mandarin oranges. They remind me that Christmas is just around the corner.

155. Wonderful surprises - like this poem of mine, published in the December 2010/January 2011 issue of Vogue Patterns Magazine which came in today's mail. (I knew the publication was in the works, but whenever I see something I've written cleverly laid out by some talented artist, it's always a thrill.)  Is this gorgeous or what!

By the way, if you're a sewer, editor Kathy Marrone invites you to be a contributor to this beautiful magazine. In her words:

"Please accept our invitation to be a contributor to this magazine. If you have a technique, project or story you'd like to share with your fellow readers, email me  or write to Kathy Marrone Vogue Patterns Magazine, 120 Broadway, 34th floor, New York, NY 10271

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If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some members of this gratefulness community post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

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it's all about Christmas!

• Win a Christmas book.

Joanna Mallory at God With Us: Finding Joy is giving away the Christmas anthology Christmas in the Maritimes - A Treasury of Stories and Memories edited by Elaine Ingalls Hogg.

From the publisher's website:

"Christmas in the Maritimes is a heart-warming look at Christmas traditions from Maritimers both at home and away … a collection of favourite yuletide memories…. Humorous and heartfelt, these are stories of love and family coming together at the best time of the year to make it special, often in spite of hardships. The magic of the season comes alive in every story, reminding us about the history of our region as well as what is truly important about the Christmas season.” (from the Nimbus website)

Place your entry here before midnight December 13th.

• Read a Christmas story.

What happens when guests are coming for dinner and you can't even afford dessert? Read Sandy Austin's story "Simple Gifts."

• Christmas-shop online:

...and buy Canadian too. The Word Guild's catalogue of "Books In Print" lists books available from the best Canadian authors who are Christian. From TWG website: "In this catalogue, you will find a comprehensive list of books by our members, including a description of each book, distribution information, price, reviews, and awards won..." Check it out.

• Write a Christmas poem.

My newest Poet's Classroom column has 16 poem prompts to help you write fresh Christmas verse.

poetry gift ideas for Christmas

Are you a poet or lover of poetry? My latest Poet's Classroom column, "Give Poetry for Christmas" is full of ideas on how to give away your poems and the poems of others. Check it out.

chapbooks

For all my poet friends who are thinking of assembling some chapbooks of their work, there's a fine post on the Poetic Asides blog called "What makes a great chapbook?" It's actually a collection of responses to the question that Robert Brewer, the Poetic Asides' blogmeister, received from poets on the PA Facebook page.

And speaking of chapbooks, I have two for sale. You may not consider them 'great' - but they're mine and I feel like them a bit like I feel about my kids -- it's hard to be objective.


Calendar (2004). Regularly sells for $8.00 Cdn.
(I sold out the first print run and the reprinted edition has a slightly different cover)


Family Reunion (2007). Regularly sells for $17.00 Cdn.

Anyway, for you a good deal!

For a limited time you can have both for $20 (both U.S. or Canadian funds -- and that includes postage).

Email me to order.

Offer expires December 31, 2008.

poet's classroom series

Are you one of those people who has written off poetry as just too hard to understand? I hope my newest article in the Poet's Classroom series, "Accessible Poetry and Poets," will make you reconsider.

If you don't feel like reading the essay, go straight to the sidebar where I've assembled a real meal deal - actually a banquet - of links (complete readings by Mary Oliver, Ted Kooser, Billy Collins, many great poems plus a short reading by Christian poet Jeanne Murray Walker)!

a $ tip for non-ficton writers

Several months ago I took my courage in hand and joined a web site I've known about for some years. This was a site where you could apparently submit non-fiction articles -- information, how-to, fact pieces, that sort of thing -- and people searching for web content would come along and purchase licenses to use it.

I dilly-dallied about joining. I've been a member of other sites where the carrot is that people will come along, see and buy, but I'd never seen a single sale. This site seemed different though. As I went through the list of authors, I saw hardly a one that hadn't sold at least one license.

I finally joined in early March this year.

is a huge site and it took me some time to get up to speed with the guidelines etc. Here, in simplest terms, is how it works:


1. You submit your writing via a form on the website.

2. It goes to an editor who accepts or rejects it.

3. If it's accepted, it's then online for the world of web content shoppers to see and (hopefully) buy.

You can sell previously published pieces -- articles, blog posts, reviews and tutorials -- as well as brand new ones. Of course you'll be charging more money for never-before-published content. I've submitted a little new content. But because I have many previously published articles in my files, I've been putting more muscle into getting them online and earning me a few shekels instead of laying around doing nothing.

The site does charge a commission. C-C takes 35% of the sale. Thus if you charge $10 for an article, you'll actually only make $6.50.

If you think writing articles on spec is a waste of time, C-C has a public request feature where shoppers can post their content requests. One then writes an article for their request hoping that they'll like yours and buy it, even though others may also be writing for that request.

Long story short, I sold my first Constant Content license at the end of March. One of the first articles I sold through CC is a piece I wrote some years ago but never managed to sell. I was pleased to see it finally find a home here. (Writers have no contact with the people who buy their content, however. You find things you've sold by searching your name or the name of the article after it's been bought.) And I got my first PayPal deposit yesterday (sales must total at least $50 before you get paid)! Thus I can tell you firsthand, it's legit.

So if your file cabinet or blog is full of good content, consider joining Constant Content. Submit your writing. Then sit back and watch it earn you a little cash.

(Note - I write at CC under a pseudonym.)

poemifying the missionary life

So the Moon Would Not Be Swallowed is a book of poems by D. S. Martin. They are based on letters his grandparents wrote home when they were missionaries in China from 1923 to 1951.

Sample poems are here and here.

My review of this excellent little book is here.

smiling...

because my friend Alvin's poem "From Coast to Coast" won first place in Utmost Christian Writers' first Canadian-only contest -- and my poem "Canadian Rivers" won an honorable mention. The theme was Canadian landscape.

Links to all winners here.

If you're a Christian writer of poetry who lives in Canada, you might want to check out Utmost's quarterly contests especially for Canadians.

If you're a Christian writer of poetry from anywhere, you'll want to go to Utmost's international site and find out about their big annual contest. Deadline for submission to that one is February 28/08.

when is writing considered 'published'?

I've just read an interesting series of posts in a newly discovered poetry blog (Poetic Asides with Nancy Breen and Robert Lee Brewer). Nancy Breen is editor of Poet's Market. Robert Lee Brewer is editor of Writer's Market, Writer's Market Deluxe and WritersMarket.com.

What I gleaned from "Published is Published" by Ms. Breen is that a poem (or any piece of writing for that matter) is considered published (by magazine editors, contests etc.) if it has been presented for public consumption in the following places:

- on the printed page
- on the internet (where the public has access to it -- including on sites like Facebook. And removing a post doesn't change anything; if it's ever been published on the internet, it's considered published)
- read on the radio
- read/recorded on the internet (e.g.YouTube)
- read in an open reading where the reading has been recorded.

The work is not considered published:
- if it is posted on an internet forum where the poet needs a password to participate in a discussion or to read what's posted.
- if read in public but no recording is made.

Related:
- Is reading in public publishing your poem?
- The importance of setting poetry goals

Hat-tip: www.inkygirl.com via my weekly ICL newsletter - yeah, this is getting bunny-trailish!

remember Uncle Arthur?

Yesterday a package came in the mail. I was puzzled at first. I didn't recall having ordered another book. Then I opened it and remembered. A few weeks ago I got an email, asking me to confirm my address before sending out a book from the Seventh Day Adventist Southern Asia-Pacific Education Division for a reader which has a story I wrote in it.

At the time I faintly remembered giving permission for this story to be included. Yesterday that book came.

It's a colorful paperback. I crack it open and scan the contents page. Yes, here is my story -- "Never Silenced," a two-part about John Bunyan, first published in Guide. Then I look at the other stories and authors and find an author name that sounds familiar: Arthur S. Maxwell.



Indeed it should be familiar because I grew up on Arthur Maxwell stories. We had a set of five books called Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories. Our set became completely tattered with all the use it got. And when my own kids were little and a traveling salesman came around selling an updated edition -- I bought. (After reading them to my own kids, they're sitting upstairs in the bookshelf, just waiting for story-hungry grandkids to come along.)

So, how cool is that -- to have a story in the same book as Uncle Arthur!?

sometime on the sixth day

...the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world... Revelation 13:8

It stands there
blinking, surprised
then begins to ba-a-a-
this wooly,
trusting
easily-led-astray animal
just created

and a shudder goes through heaven.

© 2007 - Violet Nesdoly (Family Reunion)

april is poetry month

Poems are the wool ends

Poems are the wool ends
which stuff the small crafts
the pincushions and the dolls.

They are the fabric leftovers
of jeans, taffeta dresses
Christmas aprons
and a daughter’s fluorescent play suit
pieced into a quilt.

They are the tiles of a life –
smell of breakfast cinnamon buns
notes of “Pomp and Circumstance”
the womb-wrap
of mother’s arms
arranged in a mosaic.

They are all those accessories
one’s house doesn’t really need
but would be soul-less
without them.

© 2007 - Violet Nesdoly (Family Reunion)

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April is poetry month! Whatever kind of poetry you enjoy, treat yourself to lots of it this month.

The photograph is one of the poems that hangs on my kitchen wall. It was made by my very crafty sister Bea.

and the winners are . . .

Some weeks ago I came to you with hat in hand, asking you to vote for my poem in Infuze Magazine’s “Best of 2006” contest. The results are now up – and “Some Words” made it! To everyone who voted for me – Thank you so much!! The winning entries will be published in Infuze’s second 'Best Of' book.

Let me draw your attention to some wonderful writer colleagues whose poems and story will also be in the book – these are all members of my favorite writing organization Inscribe Christian Writers Fellowship:

“Claim the Horizon” by Valerie Coulman

“One Winter’s Day” by Marcia Lee Laycock

“Gasping for Air” by Lorrie Orr (who lives just across the pond from me in Victoria. I love this story!)

Congratulations to my writing friends!

The top vote recipients of the whole shebang were:
- in the poem category - “American-American” by Rachel Holmes
- in the story category - “The Knitting Box” by Jamie Carie

show-and-tell

About 10 o’clock this morning the doorbell rang. I opened the door to a man in brown, holding a clipboard. At his feet was a big box which, after he left, I promptly opened to find it was full of this.

Yes indeed, it’s finally here, my hot-off-the-press book of poems, Family Reunion! It is one of the perks of being named Utmost Christian Writers Poet Laureate. Many, many thanks to my editor Nathan Harms for his help in putting this together. What a fabulous prize and honor!

(Yikes, a hundred books looks like a lot. But then, I guess I have the rest of my life to dispose of them.)

actually you could...

vote for me. Frankly, I feel uncomfortable asking, but just this once... Here’s the deal.

A few months ago a poem I wrote was published by Infuze Magazine. Every year they also put out a book of the best poems and stories published in the previous year. The long list of the best of 2006 is up here and my poem – well it made the list. So now if enough readers vote for it - it makes it into the book. So, as I say, if you like, you could vote.

To view the competition, type the title of the piece and author in the search box on the top right of the voting page.

a little inspiration

from moi.

Posted at Lifetools for Women - 'Six Steps to a Beautiful Countenance.'