I spent the night reading about various saints. It began with St. Anne, the patron saint of my church and of widows and also the mother of The Blessed Virgin Mary (who is also a widow and my patroness of solitude --- you know, people forget she married and is widowed indeed. I will not get into a debate about her ever virgin status even if I believe her to be so; that's a whole 'nother blog). After reading about St, Anne, I looked up other personal saints --- St. Venantius, my birthday saint; St, Clare of Assisi, my confirmation saint; St, Martha, my kitchen saint; St. Therese Lisieux, because I grew up amongst Carmelites; St. John the Baptist, my late husband's birthday saint and my mom's hometown patron saint. And St. Jude, the saint of the impossible!! I've recently added two more: St. Isidore, patron saint of farming and rural life, and St. Luke, patron saint of healers.
And of writing?
Firstly, there are saints for just about any activity, occupation, event, locale, country, ailments, and human condition. I'm currently reading Utopia by St. Thomas More. I learned he's the patron saint of ...politicians and lawyers!? Oh man. What a thing to do to a great statesman, a man of unwavering integrity, a man who put God first before man's whims and his own comfort and was martyred for it. Patron saint of sleasebags. Yet if only they would emulate him! The irony is, in Utopia lawyers don't exist. They're not needed.
And, I found out there's a patron saint even of the television---none other than my confirmation saint, St. Clare of Assisi. *note to self: look this one up*
Anyway...
There is a patron saint for just about everything including writers. Sometimes more than one. I had asked St. Paul's intercession in the past. St. Paul contributed to about half of the New Testament so yeah, I say he is one. I read tonight that St. Francis de Sales is officially listed as the patron saint of writers. Cool, we writers can have both. And King David is the patron saint of poets (and played the harp). Very nice!
So now that I bored the heck out of you reader, what do saints have to do with this blog? Okay I said I'm Catholic. While reading about my church saint, I decided to have a saint for this blog and my writing. One that I can emulate, look up to, be inspired by. A muse, if you will! Or muses. Therefore, this blog will have St. Paul, St. Francis de Sales, King David, the
Blessed Virgin Mary who is the patroness of all things good and
beautiful and pure, St. Thomas More because of his integrity and authenticity and I really like him. And St. Jude, the saint of the impossible. There may be more later.
~~ Writing saints, whose words written and spoken have edified souls through the ages and brought glory to God, pray for me, my blog's contents and my writings, that I may write in joy and truth, in Christ's name, amen. ~~
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Monday, October 6, 2014
The Villanelle
A rigid poetry form and a pain in the butt. That's the villanelle. The rhyme scheme consists of nineteen lines of five tercets and a quatrain. The first and third lines act as refrains alternatingly in each stanza until, in the quatrain, they become the final two lines. Confused yet?
The villanelle goes way back in Renaissance Spain and Italy where they were peasant dance songs. Imagine today's country songs in a line dance. They weren't as rigid back then, and had a pastoral theme. A troubadour would sing the two lines and the crowd would sing the refrain alternating with each stanza. The modern villanelle reached its defined form during the nineteenth century and written mostly in English.
Today's villanelle is obssessive and emotional by its repetitiveness. Kinda like today's country songs.
Back, oh, about fifteen years ago I decided to tackle the different poetry forms as a writing exercise. I was not doing well with this poetry form until I met the "she" at work and the villanelle took to its own. I've taken the artistic liberty to edit it. The original is at The Writer's Voice (link below).
Villanelle for the Forgotten
© 2000 Elizabeth Maua Taylor at The Writer's Voice
© 2014 edited version by Elizabeth Maua Taylor
She waits, she ponders, hopes, and prays
While dawn has yet to see the light
That they would visit her today.
Her hands no longer clasp the stays;
The nurse helps her to dress just right.
She waits, she ponders, hopes, and prays.
Through meds and tests and dinner trays
She talks to those who will sit tight
That they would visit her today.
She wonders while she's in x-ray,
Did she miss them? Did they arrive?
She waits, she ponders, hopes, and prays.
The evening television plays.
She sits, anticipation high,
That they would visit her today.
Another sleepless night she stays
To greet the chilly morning light.
She waits, she ponders, hopes, and prays
That they would visit her today.
The villanelle goes way back in Renaissance Spain and Italy where they were peasant dance songs. Imagine today's country songs in a line dance. They weren't as rigid back then, and had a pastoral theme. A troubadour would sing the two lines and the crowd would sing the refrain alternating with each stanza. The modern villanelle reached its defined form during the nineteenth century and written mostly in English.
Today's villanelle is obssessive and emotional by its repetitiveness. Kinda like today's country songs.
Back, oh, about fifteen years ago I decided to tackle the different poetry forms as a writing exercise. I was not doing well with this poetry form until I met the "she" at work and the villanelle took to its own. I've taken the artistic liberty to edit it. The original is at The Writer's Voice (link below).
Villanelle for the Forgotten
© 2000 Elizabeth Maua Taylor at The Writer's Voice
© 2014 edited version by Elizabeth Maua Taylor
She waits, she ponders, hopes, and prays
While dawn has yet to see the light
That they would visit her today.
Her hands no longer clasp the stays;
The nurse helps her to dress just right.
She waits, she ponders, hopes, and prays.
Through meds and tests and dinner trays
She talks to those who will sit tight
That they would visit her today.
She wonders while she's in x-ray,
Did she miss them? Did they arrive?
She waits, she ponders, hopes, and prays.
The evening television plays.
She sits, anticipation high,
That they would visit her today.
Another sleepless night she stays
To greet the chilly morning light.
She waits, she ponders, hopes, and prays
That they would visit her today.
Into the Writing State of Mind
There are writers that can write in any state, whether indoors or out, in the heat of the desert, and cold of snow, in silence, and in a noisy restaurant. Not me. I can't write but during a cold and quiet night. I'm busy in the day, or sleeping after working, or running errands and taking care of a household and cooking and cleaning and so on.
Autumn is here. I keep my window opened to let in the cool breeze. The nights get cold and quiet and still. My room is cosy and amber-lit by a cheap lamp until I turn off the light and then I just have my laptop for illumination. Writing is bliss when not distracted by summertime. I do miss Michigan J. Frog, though --- he's the lone bullfrog that ribbets under my window. .He's gone for the summer and is replaced by utter silence, except for the very rare life-flight helicopter approaching the landing pad at the hospital two blocks away.
The change in the season means a change in my state of mind. I love the anticipations of Autumn: the preparations for school and holidays and the coming cold of winter. The same state gets into my writing. I find myself nesting in my room, buying bulk legal pads and a box of rollerball pens and rearranging the furniture so I can write while looking up at the moon from the top half of my window. I prepare the family room so I can sit in front of the fireplace. I dig out my tea set, my crystal glasses for the occasional wine, my baking book. I do a lot of bread-making at this time, and write while enjoying the smell of fresh bread. No music, no TV, no internet.
Writing late into the night is my default state. And I like that state best during autumn and winter. The heat and humidity of summer makes it difficult for me to get much writing done. It's been that way for several summers now.
BUT, I will be moving to another location, with changes more stark, and summers not so bothersome. My entire writing state will be getting an overhaul! I look forward to it.
.
Autumn is here. I keep my window opened to let in the cool breeze. The nights get cold and quiet and still. My room is cosy and amber-lit by a cheap lamp until I turn off the light and then I just have my laptop for illumination. Writing is bliss when not distracted by summertime. I do miss Michigan J. Frog, though --- he's the lone bullfrog that ribbets under my window. .He's gone for the summer and is replaced by utter silence, except for the very rare life-flight helicopter approaching the landing pad at the hospital two blocks away.
The change in the season means a change in my state of mind. I love the anticipations of Autumn: the preparations for school and holidays and the coming cold of winter. The same state gets into my writing. I find myself nesting in my room, buying bulk legal pads and a box of rollerball pens and rearranging the furniture so I can write while looking up at the moon from the top half of my window. I prepare the family room so I can sit in front of the fireplace. I dig out my tea set, my crystal glasses for the occasional wine, my baking book. I do a lot of bread-making at this time, and write while enjoying the smell of fresh bread. No music, no TV, no internet.
Writing late into the night is my default state. And I like that state best during autumn and winter. The heat and humidity of summer makes it difficult for me to get much writing done. It's been that way for several summers now.
BUT, I will be moving to another location, with changes more stark, and summers not so bothersome. My entire writing state will be getting an overhaul! I look forward to it.
.
The Resident and her Place
I'm still on the learning curve with blogspot. The layout got messed up when I tried adding things to the sidebar and it took me the morning to straighten it out. It is time-consuming so bear with me. Back in the day, I knew all about HTML and CSS spreadsheets. Looks like they're not even necessary here. Just the same. Learning curve.
I'm the lone resident of this blog: my words and my works, unless I'm quoting someone in which case the proper grammar of attribution will be applied. Having links and blogs on the sidebar do not necessarily mean endorsements of their contents. Comments are the responsibility of the commenters and do not imply agreement, especially if I don't reply. I do delete spammy comments pronto and immediately---we all know what a spam looks like -- and I will delete comments that highjack the original post. And I shouldn't have to teach about plagiarism and intellectual property rights. You take what's mine, it's stealing. There are laws against stealing and there's still a social stigma against that.
I also want to make something clear. I'm a conservative, traditionalist, mantilla-wearing, Latin-Mass-attending Catholic. One of my novels, Kingslyn (working title), will reflect a lot of that. I will appreciate critiques of my work, but not criticism of the Catholic Church. Be hostile all you want to my writings but any comments hostile to my faith will be deleted. Hey, if you want to bash Catholicism and Catholics, go to your own blog and bash away! But not here, thank you.
And I require standard English usage, not leet or tweet or text speak. They have their place but are not needed here since there are no set character limits here...that I'm aware of. I don't want to have to decipher them.
No swearing or cussing or bigoted, racist, ad hominem comments.
There. My house rules are simple and there are not many. But don't test me. I really do not like disciplining netizens who ought to know better but because they have the screen to hide behind, they think they are being cool when breaking rules. Nope.
But I do welcome and much appreciate what you think of my writings. Critiques and discussions are great! My goal is to write, and write well, hence this blog! Thank you.
I'm the lone resident of this blog: my words and my works, unless I'm quoting someone in which case the proper grammar of attribution will be applied. Having links and blogs on the sidebar do not necessarily mean endorsements of their contents. Comments are the responsibility of the commenters and do not imply agreement, especially if I don't reply. I do delete spammy comments pronto and immediately---we all know what a spam looks like -- and I will delete comments that highjack the original post. And I shouldn't have to teach about plagiarism and intellectual property rights. You take what's mine, it's stealing. There are laws against stealing and there's still a social stigma against that.
I also want to make something clear. I'm a conservative, traditionalist, mantilla-wearing, Latin-Mass-attending Catholic. One of my novels, Kingslyn (working title), will reflect a lot of that. I will appreciate critiques of my work, but not criticism of the Catholic Church. Be hostile all you want to my writings but any comments hostile to my faith will be deleted. Hey, if you want to bash Catholicism and Catholics, go to your own blog and bash away! But not here, thank you.
And I require standard English usage, not leet or tweet or text speak. They have their place but are not needed here since there are no set character limits here...that I'm aware of. I don't want to have to decipher them.
No swearing or cussing or bigoted, racist, ad hominem comments.
There. My house rules are simple and there are not many. But don't test me. I really do not like disciplining netizens who ought to know better but because they have the screen to hide behind, they think they are being cool when breaking rules. Nope.
But I do welcome and much appreciate what you think of my writings. Critiques and discussions are great! My goal is to write, and write well, hence this blog! Thank you.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Rearranging the Furniture and Unpacking my Stuff
Pardon the dust. I'm still doing some housework and getting my bearing. It's been some time since I've been here on blogspot and it has new things for me to learn.
I will get just a few of my favorite sites and blogs listed and try not to hang too many pictures on the sidebar. I like an uncluttered place...
Blog theme? Not as much to pick from as other blog providers but that's okay. After trying a few, I like this one. I might change it for Christmas. And learn how to customize.
Eventually I will get into a posting routine.
Anyway...let me unpack Kingslyn. That's my novel set in Medieval Cambridgeshire during the war between Stephen and Queen Maud. Okay, I can't hide the fact that I am a Queen Maud fan. I believe she was the true ruler genetically, legally, and by appointment in the king's will, and Stephen was the usurper. But the story is about a Priory and life in a convent. It spans the life of Mariah from orphanned toddler to young woman. I started writing it as a trilogy but might edit it down to a three-part novel. And Kingslyn is just a working title.I will eventually have an official title..when I think of one.
Another work out of the box is a story I am converting into a story poem called Cielito Beach. Part fantasy, part horror, it is an episodic work currently in prose centered around the disappearance of a young woman, but it's a story about a town. I'm experimenting on the story poem angle.
Ahhh....Out of His League. This one is dusty indeed! I started this one in 2004. A story about the curious death of a talk show host. I have gotten further along on this novel than all the others because it was a NaNoWriMo novel.
A little box no bigger than a stationery..this one contains my collection of poetry. Some had been posted on other sites. I will post some here, maybe editing and updating some.
Another NaNovel, The Quality of Mercy, an urban fantasy about a doted-on suburban housewife/mom with a tremendous imagination who yearns to be a playwright. Kinda like Walter Mitty meets Shakespeare.
Speaking of Shakespeare. I was late in joining a challenge to rewrite a Shakesperean play into steampunk and therefore could not submit, but I went ahead and wrote one based on Othello. Set in Victorian New York, the Iago character is a woman.
My newest, untitled story set in a war about a young girl who turned sniper. It is based on a true story.
Another untitled Nanovel set pre-Flood that features Noah and his family, specifically his son Japhet. This one got tougher and tougher to write because of the evil of the time. It has Nephilims. The main character is the great-granddaughter of a ruling Nephilim. The story is about steadfastness and transformation. It looks and sounds contemporary with contemporary dialogues.
A miscellaneous box of bits. Scenes, character profiles, story ideas, dialogues, monologues I wrote for my daughter for her auditions, pieces of narratives, even a children's story I began two years ago.
Taking a break for tea. Those are my works. Then there are books I've read I want to talk about, not necessarily review..or yes, a review. And of course, the writing process.
It's nice to look at the stack of writing. A majority of them will need editing, research, rewrites. I will write about those things, too.
Note to self: NaNoWriMo is one month away. I have no problems writing for it. BUT, I am planning to move to another state and may miss it for the first time since 2003.
Anyway. Tea time.
,
I will get just a few of my favorite sites and blogs listed and try not to hang too many pictures on the sidebar. I like an uncluttered place...
Blog theme? Not as much to pick from as other blog providers but that's okay. After trying a few, I like this one. I might change it for Christmas. And learn how to customize.
Eventually I will get into a posting routine.
Anyway...let me unpack Kingslyn. That's my novel set in Medieval Cambridgeshire during the war between Stephen and Queen Maud. Okay, I can't hide the fact that I am a Queen Maud fan. I believe she was the true ruler genetically, legally, and by appointment in the king's will, and Stephen was the usurper. But the story is about a Priory and life in a convent. It spans the life of Mariah from orphanned toddler to young woman. I started writing it as a trilogy but might edit it down to a three-part novel. And Kingslyn is just a working title.I will eventually have an official title..when I think of one.
Another work out of the box is a story I am converting into a story poem called Cielito Beach. Part fantasy, part horror, it is an episodic work currently in prose centered around the disappearance of a young woman, but it's a story about a town. I'm experimenting on the story poem angle.
Ahhh....Out of His League. This one is dusty indeed! I started this one in 2004. A story about the curious death of a talk show host. I have gotten further along on this novel than all the others because it was a NaNoWriMo novel.
A little box no bigger than a stationery..this one contains my collection of poetry. Some had been posted on other sites. I will post some here, maybe editing and updating some.
Another NaNovel, The Quality of Mercy, an urban fantasy about a doted-on suburban housewife/mom with a tremendous imagination who yearns to be a playwright. Kinda like Walter Mitty meets Shakespeare.
Speaking of Shakespeare. I was late in joining a challenge to rewrite a Shakesperean play into steampunk and therefore could not submit, but I went ahead and wrote one based on Othello. Set in Victorian New York, the Iago character is a woman.
My newest, untitled story set in a war about a young girl who turned sniper. It is based on a true story.
Another untitled Nanovel set pre-Flood that features Noah and his family, specifically his son Japhet. This one got tougher and tougher to write because of the evil of the time. It has Nephilims. The main character is the great-granddaughter of a ruling Nephilim. The story is about steadfastness and transformation. It looks and sounds contemporary with contemporary dialogues.
A miscellaneous box of bits. Scenes, character profiles, story ideas, dialogues, monologues I wrote for my daughter for her auditions, pieces of narratives, even a children's story I began two years ago.
Taking a break for tea. Those are my works. Then there are books I've read I want to talk about, not necessarily review..or yes, a review. And of course, the writing process.
It's nice to look at the stack of writing. A majority of them will need editing, research, rewrites. I will write about those things, too.
Note to self: NaNoWriMo is one month away. I have no problems writing for it. BUT, I am planning to move to another state and may miss it for the first time since 2003.
Anyway. Tea time.
,
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