JULY 12, 2009

ANOTHER UPDATE: I am going to be putting together a poetry contest. It's in its very early stages and I don't know what sort of prize support I'll be offering other than publication in a poetry compilation. I am in the middle of getting together a website with information, but I decided to post here and at fanfiction.net first because I'm just too excited to hold it in.

Contest Outline--as I understand it right now: The title of the contest is "The Sakura Tree," which will also be the name of the poetry book published. The theme, as you might have guessed, is sakura--Japanese cherry trees. Your poem can be about the tree, the blossom, or whatever you feel inspired to write when you see or think of these beautiful flowers. Anyone who wants to enter can submit up to 5 poems by email to me. The poems will be judged by a blind panel of three people. Scheduled prize support, aside from publication of selected poems, is free copies of "The Sakura Tree" to a certain number of finalists. There will be something extra special for the grand prize winner, but I don't know what that will be yet. Probably a gift certificate, or something. The tentative deadline is September 31st. This may change, but I find it unlikely.

To enter: send me an email with your poems in the body of the email. I would appreacite your real name being included in the email, and for the entries to be sent from an email address at which I will be able to get a hold of you when the contest is finished.

Any questions can be send to me either in a message here or through my email. I'll be checking in as I get more solid plans and especially when I have the website ready. I look forward to hearing from all the poets!

Just posted Corner of the Housetop. I've been working on it since summer of 2004 (or '05). I am so happy it's finished! I love this story and I very pleased to be able to finally let people read it. Now I just need to get Shinjiru and Stones of Kanderel put up here and I'll have a decent number of stories. _

Soon (read as: "someday") I am going to be editting and posting will be Shinjiru. It's a short story I wrote for Creative Writing, but due to length restrictions I could not explore it as fully as I wanted to. Most of it will just be final editting and posting, but there are some aspects I want to clean up. So I hope everyone enjoys the story and comments.

While we're waiting for me to post more stuff, however, I have a couple short projects for you enjoy:

~Issues This is a character study of a young girl who has been admitted to a psychicatric hospital. It's got some humor, and I rather like it. Not done for any particular reason. The premise just popped into my head and I started writing.

~The Judas Goat This is a script of two stand-alone scenes from a longer "drama episode." It was a project for my Creative Writing classes. It has heavy doses of irony and introduces the immortal Walter(1).

1. Walter is a character who manages to find his way into most of my stories, though his looks and name are frequently different, and his personality varies depending on which part of the "read" Walter's life I happen to be pre-occupied with. I should have a "Where's Walter?" challenge and give candy to anyone who can spot him... Hmm, I may do that once I get more posted.