My Writing Update

So I have been working hard to finish these two books that I am working on. The hours are punishing and I cannot seem to get enough done in 24hrs. Between a day job, commuting, writing, reading, family time, eating, relaxing, me-time, sleeping, exercising …. 24 hrs are not enough. I have been reading from the experts on how to get stuff done daily by prioritising the items, shutting down email and chat, being strict with distruptions etc. Its all very nice when you read and take notes …. try it and a whole new world of organized chaos emerges.

So I am working on two books, one a work of creative fiction another non-fiction. I have also been consulting the experts on publishing and am scheduled to get down to my lawyers office so we can discuss legal perspectives of this while publishing thing. I used to think that getting the words is the hard part, but the publishing industry here in Kenya (and am sure everywhere) is unforgiving and very daunting for first timers. I have read about self-publishing and all its pros and cons. I dunno.

Am just wondering, do we have some kind of agents in Kenya who do the leg work so that we writers concentrate on writing? Hallo, any agents out there? And then what about publishing abroad? Publishing online? Oh, this is so confusing …. I need a poem to help me clear my mind ……

Spinning the Yarn

It was wound taut, and
Sinews around the centerpiece
Unrelenting in its tightness,
It was almost constricting
Trying to purge it was a
Tall order, day or night

The yarn had been spun
For many years, or is it eons,
And it formed a tight, thick
Harness around his chest, such
That his heart beat an unsteady
Tattoo inside his ribcage

The yarn had started as a tiny
Wispy strand, but with constant
Spinning, stretching and tightening
Had evolved into a tight bundle
That now threatened to choke him
Like unruly weeds among flowers

Not to be outdone, the flowers
Had all intentions of blossoming
Tight yarn or no, and this meant
A constant struggle to blossom
Against all odds and even ends
Which would justify the means

As the struggle endured and wore on
The yarn became tighter and tougher
The flower became longer and brighter
For in the end the yarn could only
Stretch so much, but the flowers could
Always grow and blossom in new life

Having won the battle against the
Tight ball of yarn, the flowers
Smiled at the sun rays which
Shone directly and kissed them
On all sides and covered them
With warmth and nurturing life

The End

Now that my mind is clear, what do you dear reader have to say about writing and publishing in Kenya, or online? Oh … and self publishing too. Let me hear your comments.

When Writers Write Right

I am still agonizing and scratching as hell as the writing bug bites harder. I am tossing and turning and crunching the words and letters as I write to my heart’s fill. I am writing right, and enjoying every moment of it! Ah! the excitement!

So I have been soul searching and going really deep to find out what writing means to me and what are my options? I discovered that I write as I walk, talk, read, eat, drink …. name it. I am always forming words and sentences as I go along my day to day chores. My friends tell me I always show these signs in my emails, presentations, text messages, etc. Am still working on the speech part, especially pronounciation and enunciation. I have been rather lazy in geting that voice recorder that I promised myself a while back. Either way I am writing all the time, whether asleep or awake. And am glad I found my passion so early in life.

Writing ……… block block block block ….. time for a poem to unlock the block. Here we go …….

The Limited Edition

The words flow easily as he types
The fingers fly over the Remington
Banging away steadily, letter by letter
The ink on the carbon pungent, as it drifts
Towards his nostrils as he writes the
Limited edition

Many ridiucule his endeavours
A Remington ? they ask, sneering
Why not get a Mac, or a PC, why?
He soldiers on uncaring of their
Staring and blaring, since he’s writing the
Limited edition

Time shall pass and he shall wind up
Put the manuscript in order and place
An order for carbon copies, as he heads
For the publishing house on the hill
They will respect and hail his writing the
Limited edition

The presses shall work day and night, churn
Thousands of copies, which shall be stacked
Four boxes high, in the warehouse awaiting
Trucks and trains to send them all over
Since they shall be the sough after
Limited edition

His fame and name shall traverse the world
He shall be hailed as the hero who saved the
Written word with a Remington, not a PC or
A Mac in sight, since he shall have overcome
All odds and written the one and only
Limited edition

Ah there, now I can go on rambling about writing. Since these random ramblings are getting way out of hand as I progress, I shall put no cap on them. Let them take a life of their own. At times random thoughts are more structured than we think or know. Actually they are coalescing into something yet to be known or fully formed. They are taking a shape that cannot be immediately fathomed. They are growing like a hydra-headed creature, whose form shifts with the flow, in a word they are alive.

Many time, ramblings are just the process of exorcising the demons that lurk in the sub-conscious wafting and drifting around, swirling in endless loops, unabated. Ramblings like these are simply, an expression of the inner self! Ramble! That really feels good!

Writing, right? Part 3

I have been in alot of thought of late … I do not know why am spending time thinking instead of writing which is my first love. May be I have been too busy with my other pet projects. This is the first part of this series and the second is here. So that makes this one the third one, right?

Nonetheless, I shall let my mind wander and thoughts coalesce all on their own. I shall allow my mind to cross seas and scale mountains, down ravines and canyons, into the blue sky yonder. I shall let the written word take a life of its own and flutter away as I do other imaginative and creative things. I shall write and write right. I shall not stop, shall not relent from my pursuits, my passion shall crown me with glory, my moment in the sun, glory to the king!

Sounds like time for a poem ……….. here we go

Hibiscus and Cassis

Floral potpourri scented and tinted
With a burst of colour and painted
On the damask blinds, praised
The world over, is the raised
Hibiscus and cassis

Taking a life of its own and living
In a world devoid of any leering
To creativity and always bringing
Out the very best in painting
Hibiscus and cassis

When all is said, but not done
When we have all but gone
We shall remember the bone
We had to pick all alone
Hibiscus and cassis

Stanza to the end and last
Because it is not the fast
Or in any way to blast
Leaving all aghast
Hibiscus and cassis

Where did that poem come from? I have no idea, but what important is that we keep scratching as the itch comes to haunt us. To live by the writing rote, to live by the confines of the writing world, is to truly live. To explore and tell all, to create and live by the written word, is to truly live.

These are but ramblings and random musings of this writer, one on a journey of self discovery, by writing, right? One more poem.

Poetic Justice

When shall the crying stop
So we may hear the wind rustle
And the leaves flutter in the wind
As we witness justice being done
Neither delayed nor denied, it this
Poetic justice?

Shall we pen poems or prose
Or plays or filmscripts or
Graffiti on the walls or
Blogs and vlogs and stuff
Online and offline, it this
Poetic justice?

The weak and downtrodden
Shall inherit the kingdom
And so shall the meek, but
Not the greedy and corrupt
And the plunderers, is this
Poetic justice?

Only when all the chicken and
Cows, sacred or not, and goats
As well as sheep and rabbits
Are home to roost, not roast
Shall we say we indeed have
Poetic justice

Nairobi’s Booksfirst online

Just stumbled across this link to a site for Nairobi’s premier bookstore, Booksfirst. They accept many forms of payment and the books are actually cheaper online. Check it out!

Writing, right? Part 2

My mind has been on writing and living. Or rather, writing to make a living. Or is it living to write. Or is it making a living to write. The thrust of my thinking …. thrust of my thinking? Well, what am trying to say is, I have been thinking alot about how I can start writing full time. More importantly, why I am not, and how I can have the writing put enough bread on the table, and a decent roof over our collective heads. And how the writing can deliver broadband to my balcony (my pet subject elsewhere).

If I am writing right, should I not be exploring the world of the written word, and churning masterpieces like the masters have done in the past, and continue to do? If I am writing right, I should have the world enthralled by my prose, and poetry, and plays, and film scripts. I should entertain and educate, and inspire and be controversial and be right, in writing.

Am I rambling again? Let me write a poem, to calm my nerves, and recollect my thoughts.

Sultry Sunday

The choice of colour was wrong
Black, the magical and mystical
Colour that holds Africans in awe
And instills a sense of pride
From lions to men, and even women

The black SUV is now baking him
As he dozes in the sultry Sunday
Heat in the church car park, as
The pastor drones on and on as
Heard through the PA system

The SUV is slowly baking the
Heavy set, heavy eyed man, as
Sweat drips from his brow, as
It makes rivulets down his back
To the nether regions, yonder

The buzz from the fly, or is it
The drone from the distant aircraft
Or is it the drone from the PA system
Is torturing his day dream, of a night
Past, filled with with myriad events

Since he cannot doze in church, his
Drunken stupor beginning to fade
The heavy set man, in the baking
Black SUV must suffer in silence
As the pastor condemns him, on and on

Sunday is supposed to be a day of
Rest, from nocturnal activities, both
In-house and otherwise, but as fate
Would have it, he has to drive the
Family to church, and suffer and bake

The SUV should have been white, so
As to reflect the sun rays, and give
Him respite from the heat, that is slowly
Baking him and fermenting the chemicals
In his body, thanks to a long night out

Away from the prying eyes of his family
The heavy set man stirs to life, ignites
The engine, and slowly drives away, to
Get a drink and calm his nerves, and
Halt the drumming in his head, for now.

Now that my nerves are calm I shall continue to meditate and write about writing right in another part of this multi-part series. Keep this space locked.

Are You Really a Writer?

Are You Right for Writing?

© by Holly Lisle

All Rights Reserved

You’re pretty sure you can string together sentences in a coherent manner. You even have fun doing it. And God knows you’d love to see your name on the cover of a book — maybe a best-seller, even.

But do you have what it takes to be a writer, year in and year out? Could you write your way into a decent supplemental income? Could you write your way out of your day job?

I can’t promise you a definite answer, but I might be able to give you a pretty good idea. Take my Are You Right for Writing quiz and find out where you rank on the writing personality index.

Read the original article here and take the quiz.

Writing, right? Part 1

I have started this series as I seek to explore where my writing is taking me. Why is my writing causing so much itching, and how am I going to scratch? So It has came to pass that I am a writer. Yes, that rare breed of people who are always banging at their keyboards and churning lots of text, whether relevant or not. Writers write because they have to. Writers tell society stories that they want, or do not want, hear. Writers are destined to write, until they breathe their last.

Writing is usually an itch. Until you scratch, there is no stopping the discomfort. It shall disturb your soul, your sub-conscious shall have swirling bits and wisps of fleeting thoughts. You will lay awake in the wee hours wondering why you are awake. It shall then dawn on you, at dawn, that the disturbance to your sleep was due to some idea that was forming. If you do not write, it shall disappear.

I always keep a pen and notepad on my bedside. Actually I have notepads all over my house, and the law, cast in stone, is that they are never touched. I usually jump out of bed and scribble away as ideas flood. It is a bit zany, but hey, you have to scratch when the itch starts. Am ordering one of those flexible USB LED light that lights up my keyboard like daylight. This will enable me to jump out of bed, hit the power button on the laptop to get it out of hibernate, and type away with the LED illuminating my keystrokes.

Why I am not writing, right?

So I have been off air for a couple of days, even managed to slacken my pace. I have not been faithful to my promise of 5pages a day. Having let that off my chest, let me now write about writing.

My friend challenged me on why we are not writing full time. I have agonized with this question for long. The more I think about writing, the more I feel the itch to drop everything and write. The more I write the more I feel good. Am enveloped by a surreal sense of calm, my mind engages in high-level creativity and I just see the words building on my word processor, effortlessly. The whole process is extremely satisfying and fulfilling.

It is the fulfilling part that I really want to focus on. Many a times we are distracted form out true calling by inane things. There is no greater joy than to have found your true calling, that main thing that brought you here. There is no greater sadness than to be distracted from this calling, and to be very busy doing other things that are unimportant …….. I think am rumbling. Let me recollect my thoughts.

…. after the weekend

Saturday mid-morning. I sat at my balcony, kicked off my shoes as I powered up my hp nc6120 laptop (been admiring those sleek, razor-thin Macs, but that’s a story for another day). 5 hours later, I had done an impressive 3000 words, on my other fiction book, titled The Well. I was ecstatic! I was jumping up and down around the house showing everyone who cared my impressive word count of 6,000 plus. Did I mention the new Word 2007 counts as you type (see earlier post). I was impressed. Just goes to show that with the right discipline and concentration, one can achieve alot. Writing wise that is.

Which begs the question, why am I not writing full time? To that am still looking for an answer.

Of Facebook and Writing

I must admit am a late adopter to social networking, but am now totally hooked. Been Facebooking like crazy. I never knew the power of social networks and how easy it is to find people. I have connected with old friends, have made new ones, joined networks of interest …… The possibilities are endless.

This could not have come at a better time, as I need all the networks possible to help me promote my upcoming book. It is in very good shape and am optimistic that it shall be a hit.

I have been listing all the places I shall donate my book including churches, schools, youth groups etc since it has a positive message for everybody. I am also convinced that it is blessed to give

Am off to Facebook!