Sisters

My sister and I were almost Irish Twins. Eleven days after I turned one, she was born. We were raised like twins, though, for the first couple years of our lives. Mom dressed us in matching clothes, cut our hair in identical styles. But as we grew into our personalities, we learned how different we were. How different were the things we coveted in life.

We left the family nest on opposite roads, in search of our desires. For several years, we hardly spoke.

I wrote the first "Sister" poem during those angry, silent years.

Just before last Christmas, my sister cried out. For help. For her life. I answered. That week, I wrote the second "Sister" poem.

My sister is starting a new life. Clean. I'm so proud of her. She's (always) on my mind, and since I can't seem to concentrate on much else today, I'll share my "Sister" poems with you.

A Sister Lost

Ages ago we shared our lives, but now.....

Sadness tortures my soul when I think of you
Immersed in glamorous audacity, skin and ego
Stroked by countless people, but none who really love you. I see you
Trample down fields of flowers in reckless pursuit of nothing that matters
Eager to finger that golden horizon.
Reaching, insatiable, for the jewel-encrusted platter

Laden with unrestricted choices, you are
Oblivious to the pewter chalice you've knocked to the floor
Spilling my love, unnoticed, under the
Table of your life.

By Nicole Ducleroir 10/2008

A Sister Found


Aging accusations became brittle with time

Siphoning the last of my stubborn resolve
Into the abysmal void where what matters not is
Silenced, forever.
Time is touted as the healer of all pain, but
Everyone knows it takes more.
Reaching out from your fractured world, shaking the family tree, you

Forced me forward, frightened, until the gap between us snapped shut and
Order returned to the universe in my heart.
Unwritten chapters await our pen; across the first pristine page I write:
Never, ever again will I accept a day of my life
Devoid of your precious light.

By Nicole Ducleroir 12/2009

Author's Note: Due to width limitations of blogger post columns, some of the longer lines of these acrostics fell to the next line. Arg.

Artwork by Linda Wilder @artistwilder.deviantart.com

S-t-r-e-t-c-h-!

In the gym, I spend five minutes warming up before moving into the strenuous movements of my workout. If I plan to run, I walk at a quick pace to raise my heart rate and loosen up my legs. If I'm weight training, I do an opening set of 20 to 25 reps with just the barbell, letting the movement and the bar's weight gently ease my muscles into action. If I'm short on time and skip this vital step, the workout is more frustrating in the beginning and less efficient overall.

Considering how long it seems to take me at the beginning of each writing session to get into the groove, I've decided to add a warm-up to my daily writing practice.

Sarah Ahiers at Falen Formulates Fiction sent me a great little writing book as part of my prize for winning third place in her 100 Followers Flash Fiction Contest. The book's called The Writer's Book of Matches, 1001 Prompts to Ignite Your Fiction. At the outset of each writing session, I'm going to open The Writer's Book of Matches and copy one prompt into a Word document. I'll set a timer for fifteen minutes. The only rule will be: Don't let my fingers stop typing. Launched by the prompt, I'll just write whatever flies into my head. No rules, no punctuation, no limits. And NO BACKSPACING ALLOWED. When the buzzer sounds, I'll save/close the document and open my WiP. Warmed up, I'll be ready to go!

Do you warm up before writing? What's your method? Have you found it works all the time, some of the time, or rarely?

Genre Headache

As I work through the first draft of my WiP, I realize identifying a genre to describe my work will be an ongoing process. My style tends toward literary fiction, in that I explore the human condition through character-driven storytelling. I'm a fan of lush descriptions, a poetic voice. On the other hand, the plot I've devised is riddled with suspense. The stakes are high, life-threatening. Each character is plagued with conflict borne from psychological tensions. Oh yes, and there's romance in there too. Is there a blanket genre that covers all those characteristics?

Perhaps there is. Perhaps, I'm writing a work of commercial fiction.

AgentQuery.com says, "Commercial fiction uses high-concept hooks and compelling plots to give it a wide, mainstream appeal...Like literary fiction, the writing style in commercial fiction is elevated beyond generic mainstream fiction. But unlike literary fiction, commercial fiction maintains a strong narrative storyline as its central goal, rather than the development of enviable prose or internal character conflicts." (Read all their genre definitions HERE.)

The verdict's still out. Hopefully, my beta readers (*waves to DL!*) will help me categorize my work before researching agents. And that, my dear friends, is still in the (near?) future.

Does your WiP fall gracefully under one genre heading? Have you found an umbrella genre that pretty much covers your work's characteristics? Do you wish there was a genre called "Other?"

Sick Day

I have a little one home sick with Strep :(

Hope everyone's day is going well. I look forward to visiting your awesome blogs as soon as I tuck my nurse-Mom cap back in the drawer and don again my blogging beanie.

(I am wearing my writer's socks...in case my patient dozes off and I can word-doodle in a notebook. That's the closest thing to an author's hat I'll be wearing today!)

Have a fab day!

Getting the Flow On

I have started and restarted Chapter One six times now. Each time, I get about 800 words in and stop.

I'm driving myself crazy.

I know I just have to get the first draft down. It will stink, most likely. It's supposed to stink. This is where I audition ideas, see what works, play with the possibilities. I'm not worried my writing will stink.

Yes. I am. Arg.

I want the voice to be right, that's all. And I think, maybe, this morning, I got it right.

Now, I've got to loosen up, already. If it takes six restarts for every chapter, I'll be eighty before the first draft is done!

What do you do to override the perfectionist in your head? I've tried timed writing, music, calisthenics between paragraphs. More coffee. Less coffee. Handwriting. Writing in public places.... I'm open to any new ideas!

In the meantime, I hope your weekend is full of sunshine and ignored inner editors!

My Way of Saying...

I was in unfamiliar territory when I decided I would write a cover letter to accompany a short story I was submitting to a literary magazine. Finding little guidance after a Google search, I turned to the blogging community and asked for help. I was overwhelmed with the number of writers who came to my aid and offered their advice, experience, and support!

As a small gesture of my gratitude, I'm passing awards on to each and every person who posted a comment yesterday. If you find a name you don't recognize, please follow the link to their blog and say hello. I hope you follow them, too! :)

I want to thank Annika at A Swede Abroad for the Sweet Blog Award! Her beauty is evident in her writing, pics, and eye-catching blog background. She's saying good-bye to a loved one so please send some love her way!

The Meaning :
Sweet Blog Award is an award for blog which you think is so friendly and make you enjoy to visit it often.

So now there's two things:
1. I give this award to ten people
2. The people I give this award to need to make a post about the award(include the picture & the person that gave it to you!)

I'm passing this award to the following people who came back twice to offer their opinions on the second letter as well as the first. It meant the world to me to get hear your impressions and, in some instances, to exchange emails with you!

Valerie @ Something to Write About

Lisa K. @ Writing on Thin Ice

Lisa Gibson @ Random Thoughts to String Together

B. Miller @ B. Miller Fiction

Wendy @ On' n' On' n 'On - Because a Writer Always has Something to Say

Portia Sisco

Matthew @ The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment

Shelley @ Stories in the Ordinary

Anne @ Piedmont Writer

Thank you to Jen at Unedited for the Soulmates Award!

The rules:

1. Choose five followers/commenters that 'get' you
2. Write something fake (preferably not too mean) about them
3. Link to them, and link back to this post to comment your receipt of the award

The five of my awesome commenters from yesterday receiving the Soulmates award are:

Roland @ Writing in the Crosshairs, who went on ancestry.com and traced his family tree back to Edgar Allen Poe.

Lindsay @ Unicorn Ramblings, who once achieved so much leg-pumping momentum she got the swing to go over the top crossbar in a perfect 360 degree arc.

Shannon McMahon, who loves cheese fondu so much, she's been known to serve it for breakfast featuring chunks of Canadian bacon and her favorite, biscuits of Shredded Wheat.

Aubrie @ Flutey Words, who can burp the entire alphabet, backwards!

Sarah Jayne @ Writing in the Wilderness, who is the base guitarist in a newly formed garage band called The Bomb.

And, thank you to Ellen at Pink Tea and Paper and Amalia @ Good to Begin Well, Better to End Well for the Beautiful Blogger Award! I'm supposed to give this away to 15 fellow bloggers and list 7 things about myself, for your entertainment. I'm feeling goofy so hang on! Here goes:

1. My preferred Oreo is quadruple-stuffed: Open two double stuff Oreos, toss out the tops and sandwich the two halves with cream. Ta-DA! Quadruple-Stuff!

2. My husband proposed to me while I was sitting on the toilet (lid down, pants up!) and he was in the shower. Thus proving the old adage incorrect, that a bad proposal signals a bad marriage.

3. I'm practically ambidextrous...of course, the only thing I can't do with both my right and left hands is WRITE.

4. I make hubby and the kids hook their dirty socks together before putting them in the hamper or I refuse to wash them. (I grew up in a family of 7, and my mother's solution to pairing socks was to not do it. Instead, all clean socks went into a laundry basket in the hall closet. I'm maimed for life by nightmares of ploughing through that damn basket every day, settling on two socks that were at least the right color and thickness...)

5. I never throw away used tin foil. If it can't be wiped clean and reused, it goes in the recycle bin.

6. I put a plant on my desk yesterday because someone (*waves to Summer*) said,

"One tree neutralises the carbon dioxide emissions of your blog."

7. I never open my eyes underwater, even though I haven't worn contact lenses since my Lasik surgery seven years ago.

I'm passing along this award to more of yesterday's commenters. Thank you for the incredible support you showered me with!!

Justine Dell

Summer @ ...And This Time, Concentrate

Chrisi Goddard @ A Torch in the Tempest

Tracy @ Forever Endeavor

Sarah @ Falen Formulates Fiction

The Alliterative Allomorph

Southpaw @ Scribbles and Splashes

Jaydee Morgan

Alex J. Cavanaugh

Nicole Hadaway @ All Things Smart and Scary

Al @ Publish or Perish

Cherie @ Surrounded by Books

Lastly, and by no means leastly, a huge thank you to my sweet friend Anne at Piedmont Writer for the Awesomesauce Award! What a great title!!

This one goes to the remaining bloggers who took time out of their day to offer me the guidance I needed. Your support lifted me up!!

Kristen @ Disobedient Writer

Talli Roland

Lola @ Sharp Pen/Dull Sword

Natalie Bahm

Linsday @ Adventures in Writing

Jemi Fraser @ Just Jemi

Stina @ Seeing Creative

Susan Fields

Hannah @ Musings of a Palindrome

Medeia Sharif

DL Hammons @ Cruising Altitude

Again, my heartfelt thank you to all these talented, generous writers for helping a girl out when she asked. You all rock!!

I hope these lists help visitors meet someone new today!

Second Cry for Help of the Day

Thank you to all the wonderful commenters on today's first post (below). Taking into account your suggestions, I revised my cover letter and submitted a story to a second literary magazine: Crazyhorse.

I'm sorry for being so shamelessly self-centered today! I promise to visit all your blogs later this afternoon and evening...

But I wanted to post my second letter, and (*blush*) ask again for feedback. If this is your first visit to my blog today (Welcome!!), please scroll down so you can compare the following version with the original below. If you've returned (*hugs!*), you're an absolute BFF and I look forward to hearing your reaction to the second letter.

Here goes:

Dear Crazyhorse Editors,


Thank you for the opportunity to submit my work to your literary magazine. I have attached a PDF file of "Homage," my currently unpublished short story of 1,990 words, for your consideration. It’s the story of a young maimed soldier, home from the war in Iraq and struggling with the alienation he feels from his own country, who answers a call to heroism on domestic soil.

My work is featured in the fourth issue of The Writer's Bump E-Zine , and my short story "Mariposa" was accepted for print publication in the Writer's Bump Anthology Volume One (Copyright 2009 by Richard Lee).

I'm a former Peace Corps volunteer who, having lived on three continents, has many stories to tell.


Sincerely,

Nicole Ducleroir

Email: http://www.heftynicki@writing.com
Website: http://nicoleducleroir.blogspot.com

Looking forward to any comments/advice :)

Thanks for putting up with my cover letter mania today!