National Write a Novel in a Month Month

This month is National Write a Novel in a Month Month.  Sadly I am not taking part in this beautiful yearly event.  Yet I am still plugging away on the novel I am currently working on.  Hopefully one day I will be awesome enough to attempt it.  For those of you who are doing this or working on another piece of literature I salute you.  Keep your mind open and give yourself time to write.   

Character Trait

I have a character trait which I am sure has pros and cons which involves thinking over a problem, a big problem and looking at every aspect and angle.  My husband has defined this has obsessing.  Now stop.  What is the difference between a detective going over each angle to solve a crime? Now, stop, are you going to say I’m not a detective, so I cannot think like one? I think having awareness over ones thoughts gives me the control to know when obsessing is bad and when it is good.  But I have become aware that it is often hard to STOP when it is bad or pointless.  Harnessing when it is good is what I need to go after.  I know the ideas in this world that have been known for greatness involved one woman or man obsessing.  I cannot give up this trait for that reason.  I am afraid that it might kill the writer.   

Review of _ligature strain poems_ by Kim Koga

Scanned copy of book cover, ligature strain poems
by Kim Koga

The Chapbook ligature strain poems by Kim Koga plays with form as it seems to connect individual poems in a story in a format one would normally read in fiction that is the text is in a row after row not a few words and enter and new line.  However it still reads like a poem because they are not complete sentences.  The poems connect to tell a story about the experiences of a beaver.  They are very personal experiences.  One reason is the use of the second person, you or your.  I gather that the reader is this female beaver that we learn is pregnant and is dealing with the life struggles she has to go through.  The first mention of you rather your is only a comparison, "…like your feet in dirt in calm soil brown and dark and webbed…"it does not catch on at first to the reader that you’re a beaver, but turn the page and there is the words"…brown oiled fur in water to repel or release your pink child into water or wood…" It  proceeds to touch on daily habits of beavers, but what really stands out is the writers’ desire to have you, the reader feel like what a pregnant beaver is going through.  It is adult intellectual reading.  It is very smart.  The ligature strain is a reference to feeding her pups milk by her teats.  I would describe this as a beautiful and graphic portrayal of nature in specific, one pregnant beaver. 

Ligature Strain poems by Kim Koga are available from Tin Fish Press Retro Series No. 6. 
Thanks Kim Koga for allowing me to review this here.   

Creative Writing Events

Hi readers and writers.  Check out the Creative Writing Events going on at the Oceanside Public Library.  They run from 5:30pm to 6:30pm on the dates listed and are free! Interested, I went to the Postcard Fiction one.  Turns out it was flash fiction as was one of my guesses.  We did a fun activity writing our own flash fiction piece, sharing it with the group, and got to type it up on a post card via typewriter.  This is the first time I used a typewriter with some confidence. My dad had one when I was a kid.  Though fascinated by it, I did not know how to type yet.  Though he did let me use it which consisted of pushing buttons with no clear idea what I was doing. Updating, on 10.4.2025, I also attended the May 14th, Event on Graphic Novels which in complete irony was lectured by one of my prior college instructors. These events took place in 2013. 

I Want to Write All Day Long...

I wrote more today than I write most days.  Commitment, planning ahead, and using a day off from my paying job, paid off.  Like a person who does not want to put down a good book, I hate this feeling of having to take a break to work on something else, though, still important.  Paid job tomorrow.