Valkyrie

Why am I suddenly afraid?

Submissions are coming in for both the Diversity poetry anthology and Creature Feature fall anthology. I think we've set some kind of record because I've received not one, not two, but three submissions already for Creature Feature! Not bad for an event that's still six months down the road. Based on what I've read so far, this is going to be a fantastic anthology! There's also two submissions for the poetry anthology, which is only a month away. So, how is everyone doing with their anthology poems/stories? Let us know in the comments if you have an idea, outline, scribblings, poetic ramblings, and if you've started writing for either anthology. I have some ideas for Diversity and started a couple of poems. I just need to work on finishing and refining them. I don't have an idea for Creature Feature yet, but I know inspiration will strike when I'm ready to start working on it.

Thank you! These are all very good points. I'd like to think that Ivan has truly changed, for Dana's sake. The cycle of abuse definitely needs to end!

This was a tough story to write, since there was so much to juggle, but I think it ended the way it needed to. Thanks for the awesome comment

OMG yes I was flung off those things more times than I can count!

Wait till you hit 50. The not giving a frig amps up sooooooo much more And yeah, us '80s kids totally know how to keep swimming Great interview!

Great question. It comes down to nurture vs nature. How many of Hank's issues was he born with and how many were created by his upbringing? I doubt Danny cares; he's just glad Hank can't hurt anyone else anymore. Thanks for commenting!

Aditus and I did some brainstorming, and we have come up with a new twist for the prompt blog. We'll still be featuring our usual Prompt Team prompts, but on the second Friday of the month, we thought we'd try something different. We will start the story, and then ask you to continue it in the comment section. On the fourth Friday of the month, we will post the completed story in the blog. Since today is Valentine's Day, we came up with a theme of love gone accidentally right. I'll start: Jason leaned against the stone wall and set his backpack down at his feet. He smoothed out the crumpled map of the zoo and traced his finger across the labeled exhibits. "Lions and tigers and bears... oh my, where are the freaking capybaras? I swore they were just past the elephants," he muttered. He'd been looking forward to seeing the renovated capybara exhibit for months. "I think I took a wrong turn at the otter exhibit." He yelped as another zoogoer suddenly slammed into him, tearing his map. "What the hell?" Now who wants to continue the story? I can't wait to see where this leads!

Before I get into today's blog, I just want to say how thrilled I am that submissions for both anthologies have started coming in! I'm loving the enthusiasm. You guys are what make this site so amazing ⭐ Now back to today's regularly scheduled blog feature... One of the reasons I chose the theme "Diversity" for our poetry anthology is because poetry is... well... diverse. There are so many forms to choose from, and exploring those forms can be a fun aspect of writing poetry. Including several diverse forms in an anthology entry is one way to address the theme, while giving the poet free rein content-wise. Included in the Genre section under the Writing tab is a list of all the genres available on the site, along with definitions of said genres and subgenres. There is an extensive list of different types of poetry and their definitions. I will link to the genre page and also copy and paste them below. I can't wait to see what poetic forms our site poets decide to offer us! Poetry - Various poetry types in the system. See sub-genre descriptions for details. Ballad - a poem that tells a story and was traditionally set to music. Usually follows a form of rhymed (abcb) quatrains alternating four-stress and three-stress lines. Blank Verse - a poem with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. Cinquain - a short poem consisting of five, usually unrhymed lines containing, respectively, two, four, six, eight, and two syllables. Cinquains may be paired and manipulated to create longer forms. For example, the mirror cinquain has lines of syllables 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, 2, 8, 6, 4, 2. Cinquains are often used in teaching schoolchildren early forms of poetry. Confessional - Features intimate and personal revelations, often drawing on the poet's own experiences, emotions, and struggles. Ekphrastic Poetry - Responds to or describes a work of visual art, capturing the essence of a painting, sculpture, or other visual medium through words. Epic Poetry - a lengthy narrative poem, typically set in the far past, involving heroic and extraordinary adventures and dealings of people with gods or other superhuman forces. Free-Verse - poetry that follows natural speech patterns, but does not rhyme or follow a regular meter Ghazal - A poetic form with rhyming couplets and a repeating refrain, often exploring themes of love, loss, and longing. It has its roots in Arabic and Persian poetry. Haiku - a short poem of three lines with five, seven, and five syllables respectively. While there are several schools of Haiku writing, the most faithful to the original will use some aspect of the natural world as its subject, and will not contain any personal references to the writer/observer. Limerick - a poem that is typically humorous and bawdy, written in five-line, predominantly anapestic trimeter with a strict rhyme scheme of AABBA, in which the first, second and fifth lines rhyme, while the third and fourth lines are shorter and share a different rhyme. Lyric - a poem that expresses personal feelings or emotions, typically written in first person. There are several general groupings of lyric poetry, including elegies, odes and sonnets. Mixed Forms - a mixture of two or more forms of poetry Rhyming - a poem containing two or more words that repeat the same or similar sounds in the final syllable, usually placed at the end of lines placed so they echo each other Sonnet - a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, typically containing ten syllables per line, traditionally using iambic pentameter. A sonnet must contain a turning point (or, volta), in which the thread of the theme changes direction. There are three main sorts of sonnet: Italian (or, Petrarchan), Shakesperean, and Spenserian; each of these has a different rhyme scheme. The Italian rhymes ABBAABBA CDCDCD or ABBAABBA CDECDE; the Shakespearean uses ABAB CDCD EFEF GG; the Spenserian ABAB BCBC CDCD EE. Translation - a poem translated from another language https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/genre-tag/

There needs to be some positivity to balance out the negative. I hope the human survived as well. You never know! Thanks for reading and commenting.

I've travelled quite a bit across the States, as far west as Arizona. I haven't counted how many states, but Bill has me curious now I've been to Canada many times, since I live only 15 minutes from the border. The furthest I've ventured in Canada is Toronto, so there's a lot more I'd like to see, like Montreal and Calgary. I've been to Mexico, and also England and Wales. Technically, I was in Ireland too, but that was a stopover at Dublin International Airport on my way to Bristol. I love to travel and would like to do more of it. My dream trip would be to tour Europe. If I had to pick one country, it would be Germany. Maybe Steve and I could book a trip together

Go Eagles!

Thank you so much! This story wasn't easy to write, but I really like writing redemption stories, and I tried to make it as realistic as possible.

When I interviewed for a job a few years ago, one of the questions they asked me was "what does diversity mean to you, and why is it important?". I told a story in that interview about a woman I had worked with at my old job who uses a wheelchair and is also non-speaking. She had a communication device and was capable of using it; however, she wasn't very motivated to do so. She frequently refused therapy and was depressed. I knew her abilities and things that she enjoyed doing in the past, but was struggling to find a connection and ways to encourage and motivate her to communicate more. Then I started working with a student intern who was also a wheelchair user. My depressed client now attended all her therapy sessions, and seeing the two of them going down the hallway together on their way to and from the clinic, a giant grin on her face, actually brought tears to my eyes. I realized they had connected on a level we never could. Here was a mentor just like her. I even had co-workers comment on the difference in her demeanor and how incredible they thought it was. What are some of your stories about the importance of diverse connections? These stories are the heart of the meaning of "diversity" and can also be shared in poetic form. I would love to see some of them included in our upcoming poetry anthology. Writing this blog has inspired me to create a poem about the individual in the story above, and I will include it in the anthology.

Great interview! I'm really glad Impunity talked you into persevering.

there's a lot more I could have written family-wise, but I chose to focus on Eli and Isaac's relationship instead. I'm glad you liked it!

I moved across the country after college, and then ended moving back to the northeast and eventually back to where I grew up. I enjoy living here, although I suppose it's not exactly my dream location. Yes, we occasionally get a season's worth of snowfall dumped on us all at once (stupid lake), but we also know how to deal with it. I don't feel like moving is an option since my family is here (and my mom is aging), and I bought my house at the right time, before the housing market here exploded. I have a nice, affordable mortgage, which I would not have if I moved. My dream location would be somewhere less suburban. A nice house with a little bit of land and closer to my friends. Although, I think I need to move to Calgary and share a place with Steve so we can watch Kids in the Hall, The Littlest Hobo, (I finished Corner Gas last night ) and Heartland. I'll drag him to all the Spruce Meadows events and the Stampede 🏇He says no, but he's the one who suggested it, so I think he really means yes. 😁

Thank you for reading and for commenting! It was nice revisiting this

If I was that groundhog, I'd probably have the same reaction

Me too

Aditus and I have been doing some brainstorming and have come up with some exciting new twists for the prompt blog. Stay tuned next month to see what devilry fun we have devised Now back to your regular scheduled prompt blog.... February is almost here, and that means getting out of the January doldrums. Punxsutawney Phil is getting ready for his big day, and fingers crossed he doesn't see his shadow, and we'll get an early spring. I am totally ready for all the snow in my driveway to melt! PT Prompt #267 It's Groundhog Day and a crowd of people, along with throngs of reporters, are waiting for the furry beast to pop out of its den and see its shadow... or not. When it finally does surface, the first thing it does is run to the nearest reporter and grab their microphone, then proceeds to start speaking. What does it say? PT Prompt #268 Word list: use the following words in your story: shadow, demon, cheesecake, flower, phone booth Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection. If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here: https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/

You didn't miss it because I haven't created them yet. Guess what I'll be doing tonight? After I create the prompt blog...

Diversity is a topic that has been on my mind lately, which is perfect timing since it's the theme of our annual Poetry Anthology. One of the things I love about my job is the diverse nature of the individuals I serve. I've gotten a bunch of new referrals lately; many from cultures I am only rudimentarily familiar with. So, I've been doing a lot of research to ensure I account for these individuals cultural heritage and beliefs when providing services. I recently attended a continuing education class on diversity, and one of the exercises we did is a perfect jump-off point for exploring the theme of our poetry anthology. We explored our own culture and identity and how they can potentially impact the services we provide. We were asked to write a series of statements starting with the phrase "I am from". These are some of the lines I came up with: I am from identifying birds from description while seated cross-legged on the floor I am from snow angels and snow forts and ice skating in the back yard I am from dirty hands and beautiful flowers I am from curling up in the closet surrounded by my favorite books I am from riding my bike until the streetlights came on I really enjoyed reading what others contributed, and while this isn't a complete poem, it has the potential to be. Some people (like me) chose to feature elements from their childhood, while others chose to write more current lines, or even relate them to geography. Feel free to share your own "I am from" statements in the comment section, or maybe even craft them into a poem to feature in the anthology. I will be working on expanding these lines into something more cohesive and plan on including it in my own anthology submission.

Did you plan this to coincide with @Headstall's CSR feature?