The following is a snippet from my recent WEP Challenge project. I have not published it anywhere but on this site. However, it is doomed to eventual inclusion in one of my unspeakable volumes of poetry and prose.
Genre: Nonfiction, Personal Essay
I have lived in dry climates all my life. Where most people use rain as a euphemism for gloom, to me rain always represented hope. I was always happy-ish when it rained.
It was hot during the first part of September 2013. To quote the Boulder Daily Camera, “the talk on the street the first full weekend of September was about the heat. Boulder tied a record for the date with 93 degrees that Sunday.”
I was living in a mobile home park in Lafayette, Colorado, and working the night shift as a resident assistant in a retirement community with independent apartments, an assisted living center, and a long-term care center. I liked working the night shift. If things were quiet, following my rounds through the halls of the apartments, I had ample time to complete my clerical tasks and then work on my own projects. Or play games.
Follow the link if you'd like to read the remainder of the 1000-word essay.
In honor of completing this year's Camp NaNoWriMo project, I will donate a dollar for every comment received on this post to NaNoWriMo.
In my Make It Happen Thursday post, I contrasted my love for Camp NaNoWriMo with my loathing for regular NaNoWriMo.
Here are the highlights from that fevered foray into madness.
Camp NaNoWriMo and regular NaNoWriMo are like two sides of the same coin. The Camp NaNoWriMo side is shiny, pleasant, and encouraging. It plays uplifting music whenever it comes up in a toss while beautiful birds fly through the air carrying a brightly colored banner proclaiming YOU CAN DO THIS, WINNER!
The regular NaNoWriMo side of the coin was minted in the depths of Mount Doom from shards of broken glass, rusty nails, and used razor blades, and carries with it the sensation of being forced to do horrible homework in hell while being whacked across the knuckles at varying intervals by a demon nun wielding a spiked ruler. It plays the screeching sound of nails on a chalkboard turned up to 11 every time it comes up in a toss.
I also discuss my return to writing erotica.
I will be pleased to wrap this poetry manuscript up. The April PAD Challenge/NaPoWriMo, September's Haiga/Poetry Illustration Challenge which I inflict on myself annually, OctPoWriMo in October (duh), and the November PAD Chapbook Challenge/NaNoHellMo really wring me out. Each of those sessions leaves me feeling like it's time to throw in the towel, but there's no rest for the wicked. I also need to complete a 5000-ish word story for The First Line by the end of this month. I forgot about it, so it's time to get crackin'.
You have until the end of this month to sign up for my newsletter if you'd like to receive a free copy of my first poetry volume, Another Autumn. I'm planning some cool changes to the newsletter format this year, so don't miss out!
Click the following link if you'd like to have a sneak peek at Another Autumn.
~Ornery Owl Has Lost the Plot~
The Hops You Want
