Babysitting

Here is your Saturday post.

It is a sparkling afternoon, with traffic heavy yet moving along. I get the call on the way and before I hear the voice, I know. The day becomes a cracked glass flute...Read the rest here.

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo

Onward Looking

© Tiffany Monique February 2014

Moving

Welcome back! Here's your Saturday post!

There has been a lot of heavy furniture moving

In my house of late

The same room becomes brand new

Using old things in new places

Redeeming time by redeeming space

Air flow

Light flow

House to home

There has been a lot of heavy furniture moving

Sore muscles speak

The pain of change

Appreciated exhaustion

Stubbed toes and bruises

And admissions

Of being weak

Broken

Valueless
There has been a lot of heavy furniture moving

Changing minds

Keeping paradigms

Live that may or may not matter

Lies turned into truths

Truths strengthened by facts

Dead things come to life

And living things begin to die

There has been a lot of heavy furniture moving

Lexicon evolutions

Old markers moved

Justice for more

Still not for all

Love cause political

Politics cause love

There has been a lot of furniture moving

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

I submitted another piece for the AWwYP "Again" writing contest. Please read it and comment! I wrote my submission from the perspective of stream-of-consciousness breaking the fourth wall. I did it to be corny, shocking, and to let me hubby know I was thinking about him, but according to the responses I received, I was a bit more honest than I meant to be about what I feel about making the money vs. making the art. Sometimes the facade holds, but "truth melts magic, always." 

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo

Onward Looking

© Tiffany Monique February 2014

Two Gold Lines

Hey hey! Here is your Saturday Post!

This is my time, to sit, to sip, to look, to listen
This is my space, for pondering, for dancing, for writing, for singing
This is my joy, loving, giving, hoping, living
And learning
Let's not forget that

***

I am tacitly mindful of the length of my posts, and weight of my words. Someone taught me, I think it was Mom, that words are like toothpaste - once out of the tube, they can't go back in. I've been failing, and succeeding at that whole "keep it in the tube" way. Even the bible talks about it - "The tongue is a “small part of the body” (James 3:5), yet Proverbs 18:21 says it “has the power of life and death.”" There are a great deal of self-help books and gurus who basically say the same thing, "watch what you say...", and I just want to shout out to the writers... WATCH WHAT YOU SAY! Watch it grow, change people, start or stop wars. King David was a psalmist. Solomon was a song writer. I am a griotte! I claim it. I own it. I walk in it. And I share the joy of it. As you may or may not know, my first solo book of poetry has been published, and I can't be more humbled by the hard work that so many people put in. Thornton Sully, CEO of A Word With You Press, saw me at one of his writer's group dinners, and became my friend and mentor, even though he's admitted to lacking weight as a connoisseur of poetry. But for my non-poetry works, he's a beast of an editor (in the best way), and someone whose criticism I truly respect.

A Word With You Press has a contest with a 7.00 entry fee and a 350 word limit. The contest ends this coming Wednesday. Even though my book is now in their catalog (with more to come!), and I will never win because I'm basically staff, I submit a piece every time there's a contest. I will always participate, not just because of the awe-inspiring feedback, but because I believe in the mission of this publishing house - to put gravitas on a low carb diet. As the type of poet I want to be -  well, gravitas comes with the pen and paper. Yes, tech aside, I have journals everywhere...

​I digress.

The following was edited out of my submission, but it's so fun to write, and every time I read it I smile to myself... Enjoy!​

Mama has been harpin’ on Brook to “cover her cooty cat ‘fore the smell of her in heat attracts all the Tom cats from Dana Point”. Maybe if I dressed like that for Kimber, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Yeah right, my sexiness was never an issue. It always came back to the kids.

If you would like to read the full piece Two Gold Lines, please click here...

With words, song & prayer
TiMo

Thorn & Me - The Day He Saw the Book 

P.S.
Blackbird
Bluest Eye
Bone straight hair
Skinny thigh
This is not I
This is part I
This in part I
This impart I
Winged creature fly
Dragon
Fly
Dragonfly
This is I
This is why

Thanks... giving 11.28.13

The following post came from the Monday Morning Memo for 11/25/13. I thought I'd share it with you for Thanksgiving.

Of course, I've Tiffanyzed the turkey out of it.

mondaymorningmemo.com/page/beaglethanksgiving2013

Here's your assignment, if you're willing:

Write down at least 5 things for which you are thankful. And you cannot list "Family," "Friends" or "Health," because frankly, these go without saying. To be thankful for broad categories like these is lazy, bordering on the unspeakably cliché. So be specific in your thanks. And don't just name the thing, explain it.

Here are five things for which I am thankful:
1.  I have a relationship with God that has been tested (by others & myself).

I know that some people don't like Christians as a rule, and for a while I was one of those people, but then I learned to forgive (including myself), and it has made loving God, others and myself (Jesus' ONLY TWO RULES) much simpler. I am not perfect. But I am on a journey and I will run that race to win.

2. I sing.

I don't know how I would've gotten through any part of my life (good, bad, ugly, pretty) had I not been able to sing, publicly or privately. I've been told my voice is beautiful and keep singing, and I've been told I'm distracting and asked to stop. But even if I do it for no one but me, I love singing. The 2nd to last time I sang in public, I got such an adrenaline rush that I cured my own sinus congestion.

3. I've lived on both sides of the continental United States. 

It has affected my understanding of people, and place as a construct. It has opened my mind to people (and strangely, made me close-minded in some ways I own - happily). It has also made me want to explore areas of the world that I've never seen, and that Tiffanyzed wanderlust has netted me some awesome covenant friends that I'm far enough away from to extravagantly love, and be extravagantly loved by in return.

4. I've learned to give my flowers now.
I have some people who were very close to me in high school, college, the band, other areas in my life, and now are no longer a "part of my world". I've also lost friends to death. I'd like to think that I've learned how to make sure that when someone is in my life, for however long, they are aware of how much I love them, and that no matter how our relationship ends (hey, it happens), they have memories of me which included expressions of love - even when it didn't "serve" me.

5. A Word with You Press via the Anti-Social Writers and Creative Misfits writing group

I graduated with my Masters in February of 2013, but I admit, I was still not that good at writing academically. My hybrid arts-based thesis project was able to give me a platform to write creatively, but after all the thesis submissions and edits and re-edits and re-submissions, I was burnt. As a self-dare, I joined the Anti-Social Writers and Creative Misfits writing group (held at the now closed Oceanside AWwYP location), and not only did I get awesome critiques about how to improve my writing, I very quickly found myself inspired to just write! AWwYP's Wingnuts contest introduced me to Peggy Dobbs only months before she left this earthly plane. Had it not been for Peggy, Thorn, Billy, Ed, Ronnie, Russ, Kyle, The Tall Poet Guy and others (you know who you are), I would have not made it through the transition of graduating from Graduate School and putting my feet back on my own artistic ground.

I consider myself most blessed. Thank you for your part in it.

With words, song & prayer,

TiMo
Here's where you can read me:
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com 
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

A Write of Passage- Submission #2

The Peggy Dobbs Writing Contest allows up to three entries. This is my second. Please feel free to comment, or better yet, submit an entry yourself.

For Peggy Dobbs "A Write of Passage" Writing Contest.
Click to read "The Heart has an Acid Trip" © Tiffany Monique 2013

With words, song & prayer,

TiMo
Here's where you can read me:
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com 
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

Here's the fine print for the contest:

Submit up to THREE entries. Each entry must include the author’s name and email address (which we will not share except with Edward Snowden). Entries should be sent to thorn@awordwithyoupress.com. Entries should be submitted as a Word (.doc) attachment, double spaced and in twelve point Times-New Roman font. For those who have submitted an entry to previous contests there is no fee. For all others there is a fee of $10 per entry by Paypal (also submitted to thorn@awordwithyoupress.com). 

However, once you have entered three of our contests you will be considered part of the family and there will be no additional fees to enter, except in extraordinary circumstances, such as a highly monetized prize.

Peggy's 1st Comment (May 2013)

Friday 11.1.13 - Percolating

I am still here. I am just not, here right now. I am molting right now, and my wings are still wet...

© Barndog Photography 2009

Sometimes this is a good thing to admit. Sometimes it is not.

While there is poetry in me wanting (begging, nay aching) to come out, I must admit to not having the energy to present it at its best just yet. Work, art, friends and family are occupying my mind, time and space and I have to experience those things in order to write about them later. Those of you walking with me right now are smiling, laughing, praying and waiting.

Stay tuned.

And in the meantime, please check out my submission to A Word With You Press's first annual  Write-of-Passage Contest in honor of our recently passed friend and writer Peggy Dobbs. Here's the link. It is a tribute to both Peggy Dobbs and William Shakespeare.

Please let me know what you think about it.

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo
Here's where you can read me:
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com 
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

Yours Truly, Summer 2011
© Tiffany Monique

For Peggy - A Write of Passage

My first interaction with Peggy Dobbs was this comment:

Peggy's 1st Comment (May 2013)

She became my Facebook friend, and true to her word, commented on my stuff (Jaded and Abbey Normal and the Fool - either directly or on the book of Face) before she left this earthly realm in June.

A Word With You Press felt her absence so acutely that fearless leader Thornton Sully immortalized her via The (First) Annual Peggy Dobbs Write-of-Passage contest... 750-1000 words in an original piece of fiction or nonfiction that must contain the words, “I swear, it’s not too late.”

I wanted to do something really special for Peggy. So I wrote Shakespeare... ish. 

For Peggy Dobbs.
Click to read "But Biding, I Live Beyond My Own Love"
© Tiffany Monique 2013

He's timeless, as she is timeless. I hope she would like it. I hope you do to.

With words, song & prayer,

TiMo
Here's where you can read me:
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com 
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

Yours Truly, Summer 2011
© Tiffany Monique

Here's the fine print for the contest:

Submit up to THREE entries. Each entry must include the author’s name and email address (which we will not share except with Edward Snowden). Entries should be sent to thorn@awordwithyoupress.com. Entries should be submitted as a Word .doc attachment, double spaced and in twelve point Times-New Roman font. For those who have submitted an entry to previous contests there is no fee. For all others there is a fee of $10 per entry by Paypal (also submitted to thorn@awordwithyoupress.com). 

However, once you have entered three of our contests you will be considered part of the family and there will be no additional fees to enter, except in extraordinary circumstances, such as a highly monetized prize.

A Contest From A Word With You Press

A Contest I Say! A Contest! From A Word With You Press!

h

There is no greater pleasure than helping a student discover the beauty and power of the written word, but of course I am preaching to the choir.

We currently have a contest open to cyberspace and to all local students that allows them to see their work on line and to get valuable feedback from other writers who read their entries. Writers must create an original work of between 750 and 1,000 words that contain somewhere within the text the phrase "I swear, it's not too late."

Here are the parameters of the contest, which will accept final entries up until Thanksgiving Day.

http://www.awordwithyoupress.com/2013/09/19/500-reasons-to-read-this-entry/

To kick start some interest, AWwYP is offering $500 to the contest winner.

A Word with You Press will select six finalists who will then write a new piece to a different prompt to by judged independently.

I look forward to meeting you and discussing plans to save the world.

best

--

Thornton Sully
Editor-in-chief

A Word With You Press

Publishers and Purveyors of Fine Stories

106 North Main St.

Moscow,Idaho 83843

***

A Word with You Press is a consortium of writing and publishing professionals whose purpose is to see that new and used authors reach a broad audience both on line and in print, and that their work loses fat and gains muscle tone.

We achieve this by hosting writing and publishing workshops, by editing, designing, illustrating and publishing both fiction and non-fiction manuscripts and by sponsoring inter-active writing contests from our website,

A Word with You Press would very much like to establish itself in their new community. We have since our founding in 2009 published ten books, including a Pulitzer Prize winner and award winning poetry and fiction, and we have sponsored over a hundred and fifty events for writers. 

Let's get the word out!!!

With words, song and prayer,
TiMo
Here's where you can read me:
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com 
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

Yours Truly, Summer 2011
© Tiffany Monique

Chris Moore (The Author Guy) as my Wingman - Flash Fiction Submission #2

 Below is the link to my Wing Nuts Contest submission from earlier this month. 

(c) Tiffany Monique 2013

I haven't had this much fun writing in a long time. Hope you enjoy it too!

(c) Tiffany Monique 2013

These most auspicious Literati were even nice enough to give me a mini-blurb on their site. Read that bit o' honey here.

Write on!

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo
Here's where you can read me:
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com 
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

Yours Truly, Summer 2011

Dean Koontz as my Wingman- Flash Fiction submission

Photo by Yours Truly
Washington, DC Spring 2010

First of all, Happy Friday to all, and to all a GOOD WEEKEND! Now to 'business'. 

In an effort to get out of my own way artistically, I am entering writing contests. I do hope you will also submit. Below is the link to my Wing Nuts Contest submission from earlier this month. 

Jaded by Tiffany Be

Please do me a solid, and read it (a double solid would include a comment or two)... I have a second submission coming. Be on the lookout. 

These most auspicious Literati were even nice enough to give me a mini-blurb on their site. Read that bit o' honey here.

Have a great one!

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo
Here's where you can read me:
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com 
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

Yours Truly, Summer 2011