Week One of My DIY MFA

This Week, the Short Version:

1. I read Take Joy by Jane Yolen and the Best American Poetry Anthology for 2012.
2. I submitted poetry to seven different places.
3. I edited some of new poems I am sending out so they're ready.
4. I attended the Muse Online Writers Conference

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The Details:

I only found three poems in the entire poetry anthology that moved me in some way.  A handful were good, but not striking, and the rest were terrible.  I have found I am very picky in what poetry I like and that many modern poems just don't strike me as poetry but some weird poem/story hybrid.  The three I liked were:  "Sparrow" by Joseph Chapman, "To the Angelbeast" by Eduardo C. Corral and "More Than Twice, More Than I Can Count" by Peter Cooley.

The specific workshops I took at the conference were:

1.  Horror and Paranormal Trends 2013

2.  Hot Topics:  Writers Edition

3.  Introduction to ePublishing

4.  Thinking more Entrepreneurial even as a Writer

5.  Writers Guide to Shoe-String Marketing

I learned a lot from the workshops, even if I can't use much of it at this stage in my career.  There were a couple of craft workshops but I didn't take any as none had to do with flash or poetry this year.  Maybe next year.

I have already submitted some of the poems I have revised but am still working on submitting the others.

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I am now going to leave you with some quotes from Jane Yolen's book:

I contend it is not the writing that makes writers miserable.  It is the emphasis on publication.

Fiction is more than a recitation of facts or author embellishments.  It is reality surprised.

The only constant in your life is you.  The best audience for what you write is you-- the child you were, the adult you are.

Yet is important to remember that poetry, at its most basic, is a short, lyrical response to the world.  It is emotion under extreme pressure or recollection in a small space.

Always something going on.  In some ways plot boils down to those four words.

If the opening line is a promise, the ending is payoff to that promise.