Writing Projects

It's going on three years since my debut title was published. One might wonder "girl, what you been doing?" Well, I've asked myself that same question. Over and over again. And, "what had happened was"...

I got tangled up in too many commitments. Things I said "yes" to when the answer was clearly, "no", or "not at this time". On my desk at this very moment, laying peacefully beside me, is the unfinished manuscript of my next project "This October". I even have a publisher who expressed interest in reading it, and is waiting. Unlike "Come, Joy!", this project is not a book of poetry. It is my maiden voyage across the ocean of short story writing. I'm nervous, excited, crazed, giddy...numb, and, dare I say it... blase' about it.

The basic theme of the book is my call to my sisters for the restoration of "the sisterhood". The stories are vignettes telling the tales of our struggles, strengths, and weaknesses - but all for the rebuilding of our families. I've seen far too much disregard, disrespect, and alienation going on in our interpersonal relationships. From partnering to parenting, from the backyard to the schoolyard, there have been devastating blows and attacks against us as a culture and a community. It is a book that my brothers will hopefully embrace and enjoy...but I'm speaking to and through the sisters. Some of the stories were taken from real life situations and retold, with permission, with sensitivity. There is humor that inevitably rises from the deepest places. And some of the stories were woven and spun straight from the cracks and nooks of my own experiences and observations (my "book of pitfalls").... True lessons infused with fictional elements that keep it real. (a category I like to call "faction") The moral of the stories is the same. We must bring back loving, model it, and perpetuate it throughout our generations. The title, "This October"... has everything to do with a personal epiphany... and that's all I'm able to share on that ...

"The Woman In My Attic" is the title of what will eventually (hopefully) be my memoirs. I use that word loosely, however, because I don't really believe anyone would be that interested in my life and times.... Originally, about 8 years ago, I wrote a poem of the same title, in the third person. It created quite a bit of attention...folks wondering (I was sharing on an online poetry site back then) who this woman was. From that experience I began to write pieces with "her" in mind... and the readers and other poets began urging me to put a collection of "her" poems in a book. Intially when I set out to publish my first book, it was going to be the "Attic" collection. But then I became impressed (strongly) that it would not be my debut title. It became clear to me that the fullness of time had not come for "the woman". And I also began to see that the woman in my attic is, indeed, me...several years from now.

We shall see...

In the meantime, I've got work to do that will hopefully see me with my second work at least by NEXT October!