Story Land Jamboree

Good afternoon to all the Tribal people out there,  This week, I had a conversation with an artist - and fellow Tribe member -- Dylan. He and I were riding in his car and got to talking about the ebb and flow of our creative lives. Right now, he said the issues in his personal life had led to a short attention span and he cannot seem to make himself complete any work of significant size.  I understand his frustration.  For a while, after the end of the longest relationship of my life, there was a period of several years when surviving -- being a single mom, working 2 to 3 jobs, and full time college student -- was all I could focus on. Previous to that, I had been quite prolific -- having published a poetry book and several short stories. The ideas and the characters buzzing around in my head were things I took for granted. I didn't realize they were blessings. Gifts.  Somehow, in the course of survival mode, I was drained of all else that I was. There was simply nothing el

Hello, and greetings to all members of The Tribe.  I hope all of you wonderful creative folks know that I did NOT forget you this past week. I'm a few days late on writing a new blog post because I have been down, man ... really down.  Why? Well, thanks for asking. I will tell you. It's embarrassing and immature, but it's the truth and if I am ever to relate to any of you ... I have to tell the truth.  I allowed an editor to critique my work. There. I said it. Oh, the horror!!! Here's the deal with critiques ... as writers, we all need them. If you are going to be a writer, you MUST get feedback from someone - preferably a copy editor and/or another experienced writer -- to help catch typos and grammar errors, locate possible plot issues, etc.  The problem with most of us is that we're so excited to have completed something that we just want to get it "out there" where we can share it. However, most first drafts are complete crap! Actually, secon

Good evening and Happy New Year to all members of The Tribe! Lots of interesting things are happening around my place lately. My husband, Keith, who is a poet, recently got introduced to Twitter. I have had an account for quite some time. To say he is enjoying it is an understatement! It began as a way to promote his upcoming third book of poetry -- "Lifelong Road." (He's good, ya'll. Once it's released, you will definitely want to check it out.)   He set up the Twitter account to promote his book -- the same reason I set up mine. However, he found that he has enjoyed networking with other poets, writers, and music artists. My husband LOVES music (as I do -- it's one of the many things we have in common) and he enjoys finding new prog rock bands to check out.  Allow me a moment to step away from my main point as I have to state what should be obvious to all Tribal folks out there. The obvious is the the fact that everything is changing. Indie bands/musi