Category Archives: Blog

Good ghosts from the past…

Rachel and I

I miss my Kansas folks. In particular the ones that kept me writing. See, you would think that as a journalist, with daily deadlines, would be able to keep on track with my writing schedule.

But alas, no. I have trouble like everyone else when it comes to finishing, starting writing.

Maybe because I do it everyday that I’m tried or maybe there’s no push.

In Kansas I had a group of people that pushed me. My old critique group that was constantly producing, therefore I had to produce. Now I’m wavering. Ugh!

Rachel, a member of said group, drove through on here way back to Kansas from Baton Rouge. I got to have lunch with her and her traveling campaigns. It was so much fun. I miss her and it was great to see her if only for an hour.

And of course the first thing she said was…”do you have something for me to read?”
See what I mean?

Sigh.

I’ve become one of those people

I needed Root Beer. Absolutely in dire need of Root Beer. Didn’t want it from Wal Mart. Only Target would do.

So here I am, Root Beer in hand zooming for the Express lane and this woman with like ten things gets right in front of me. I had ONE thing and she had more. But whatever. I’m a patient woman.

Halloween costumes and food. That’s all she was purchasing. And just as she was about to pay with a check (People still have those?) she sneezes, not only on her credit card, which I don’t know why she would have that out when paying with a check, but on the machine used for credit cards! YUCK! Hija de su grand…

I had the person behind the counter run my card. And if she had some Clorox, I would have disinfected that area. Yeah, I’m one of those people now. The extra careful one that would have something run the machine rather than use the one that was sneezed or coughed on.

Flu and cold season is upon us people. Cover your mouths!

Homework

Gone with the Wind movie poster. Just in case you didn’t recognize it.
My first creative writing class was the past week. Homework: Write for 15 minutes a day, work on the exercise given, and watch movies like Gone with the Wind.
Done. And done.
Totally can’t be that easy, can it?

An awesome visitor on the way

My Kansas girls. Power to the pen. Rachel is the one
on the far right with the glasses

“So I’m coming next week.”
“What?”
Rachel is coming to Louisiana for her trip to Baton Rouge. She’s going to spend sometime with me in Shreve on the way there. Yeah! I miss Rachel.
My girl is part of my former writing group in Wichita, KS (and one of the few redeeming things about the city). She’s read my stuff and is not afraid to tell me when it sucks.
And she has.
And it had.
And when it was, it was rewritten.
And it didn’t suck anymore.
Can’t wait to see her and hear all the cool things in Wichita.
I miss my crew.

About me

This is me
I’m a (gasp) 30-something writer in Shreveport, LA trying to figure it all out. I’ve written countless articles for newspapers and, am very proud to say that I am a Nuestra Discovery, which essentially means I’ve performed and have had work performed at a Nuestra Palabra showcase. That is such a blessing!
I’ve thrown down in the poetry scene in Houston, Austin, Wichita, and Shreveport. Although my roots are in poetry, right now I’m working primarily in fiction authoring my second book. But sometimes I go back and dabble in poetry from time to time.
As far as fiction, I’m a women’s fiction (yes, chic lit too) writer and I’m going to be making a transition into mystery soon. Just don’t know when yet.

"Latina" has won people over

For about ten minutes I was frustrated at myself.

What goes after swish, sway, swoosh?

After being away from the spoken word stage since…late July of 2007 (disappointing shake of the head) I went back up on the stage tonight and I KILLED IT!

I attended the Write On Stage Reading and Spoken Word event in Shreveport. It was a free event and I wanted to see what was going on in the poetry scene here. It was a great experience and I enjoyed it.

And of course, there was an open mic portion. So I texted my homeboy S to get his take on it.

“Step up. U’ll be different and a hit. Watch”

So during the first couple of poets, I strained to remember Latina, my signature. I have it committed to memory but since I hadn’t used it in a minute, I was petrified when I couldn’t recall a couple of lines as I was saying it to myself.

But eventually, it came back, and so did the cold feet and the dry mouth. Sorta. I got the cold feet once I was on stage and the dry mouth right before. The nerves came when I sat down. And of course, as what happens with nearly EVERY performance, the minute I start the poem, I blackout and don’t remember what I did. I remember saying hello, the start, and then I remember getting off stage.

Oh but the people loved it! And I got so many compliments. They were feeling me. And it felt good to be back on stage. Will I be going back to poetry? Not sure. But it’s nice to know I can go back to it if need be.