creativity – Page 2 – Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher

The Farmington Writers Circle Meets Next on October 13, 2016

doctorsleeppromo The Farmington Writers Circle will meet again on October 13, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. at Starbuck’s at 4337 East Main, #101 (near the intersection with 30th Street). The evening’s topic has not been determined.

The Farmington Writers Circle is nascent organization of Farmington-area writers who are interested in finding or developing innovative ways of publicizing and marketing their works. Meetings are usually round-table discussions, although occasionally a member will lead the discussion when it deals with an area of the member’s expertise. There are no fees or requirements to attend meetings. Writers of any and all genres, regardless of writing experience, and non-writers with an interest in the art are welcome. Previous topics have included establishing a website to maximize the use of social media in publicizing works, writers’ conferences, and finding an agent among other topics. Meetings generally run for two hours. For more information, contact me via this website.

The Next Farmington Writers Circle Meets on October 13, 2016

Work in Progress Photo by Phil Slattery — Work in Progress
Photo by Phil Slattery

The Farmington Writers Circle will meet again on October 13, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. at Starbuck’s at 4337 East Main, #101 (near the intersection with 30th Street). The evening’s topic has not been determined.

The Farmington Writers Circle Meets Next on October 13, 2016

GRACIN~2 The Farmington Writers Circle will meet again on October 13, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. at Starbuck’s at 4337 East Main, #101 (near the intersection with 30th Street). The evening’s topic has not been determined.

“Write Drunk. Edit Sober.” from Live to Write – Write to Live

Here is some good advice, but be sure to read the entire article. “Suddenly Jamie” is not advocating boozing as a means of opening the doors of perception (as the Beat Generation and others tried long ago), but attaining a certain mindset, a certain perspective, without altering the senses chemically.

Personally, I have tried writing while drinking, and for me it doesn’t work. I can’t focus on ideas for very long. My coordination is off making typing impossible. My handwriting (my first drafts and initial ideas are usually by hand) becomes increasingly sloppy. And I soon fall asleep. I do get ideas, but I can manage little more than to jot them down on a cocktail napkin.

For me, writing requires clarity of mind and I do my best work while sitting in a coffee shop in a hard chair at a table while drinking black coffee or soda or iced black tea and writing in a notebook. Sometimes, I write well, as today, on my laptop at home with the TV off, but sometimes I become distracted or my mind wanders. Sometimes, not as often as I should though, I take some time to simply contemplate where I want to take a story and go smoke a pipe of good tobacco under the tree in my front yard or at the picnic table in the back, depending on where the shade is best. Those places and non-alcoholic beverages I find help my mindset, but coffee shops (like at the Barnes and Noble in Midland, TX, or at the now defunct Hastings in Farmington, NM) tend to be my favorites. Anyway, I digress. I will let you get on with the article.

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Blogging can be scary. Some days, it feels like you’ve been pushed on stage and asked to do stand-up. The guy who was on before you totally killed it. The crowd was laughing in the aisles and peopl…

Source: Write Drunk. Edit Sober.

The Farmington Writers Circle Meets Tonight, September 8, 2016

The Farmington Writers Circle meets tonight on September 8, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. Because of the closing of Hasting’s Hardback Cafe, the Writers Circle will now meet at Starbuck’s at 4337 East Main, #101 (near the intersection with 30th Street) until further notice. The evening’s topic has not been determined.

Hold onto your seat at “Don’t Breathe”!

Dont breathe Sept 2016 Pay full ticket price to see this at the first opportunity. This is one hell of a suspenseful movie. I’m old enough that I fall asleep in action movies and shoot’em-ups if they flag the least in holding my attention. I sat on the edge of my seat like a teenager through this entire flick, flinching, dodging, squirming, and ducking with the action every step of the way.

The plot is incredibly simple. Three teenage friends work as a team to break into rich people’s homes for different reasons, a girl to earn enough money to run away from home, her jerk boyfriend who trips on the vandalism, and the intellectual who has a crush on the girl and will follow her anywhere. The jerk finds out about a blind veteran of Iraq, who won a lot of money in a lawsuit involving the death of his daughter. They film the vet’s house in a deserted section of Detroit until they find out that he rarely leaves. They decide to go against their usual practice of waiting until the owners leave and instead break in during the wee hours with the intent of chloroforming him while he sleeps. Of course, things do not go as planned and the friends find themselves trapped with a tough, twisted killer who has a dark, sinister secret to protect.

With Iced Tea, Farmington, New Mexico, March 20, 2015

Now, at this point, you can probably guess who is the first to die and then the second, but don’t be too sure about the ending as there are innumerable twists and turns throughout and they are particularly rapid-fire at the end. I found the action very inventive and well done with completely unsuspected twists. One moment that had me twisting and muttering “Ewwww” was the most wicked and innovative use of a turkey baster that I have ever seen or even heard of.

I found the acting first-rate and the use of close-ups very effective for bringing the viewer directly into the fast-moving, blood-splattered heat of the action. I didn’t catch any slip-ups and I thought all the action was logical and exceptionally well planned out down to the tiniest detail. The set-ups to maintain or generate constant suspense were right on the money.

See this movie at your first opportunity. This is one of the most terrifying thriller/horror movies I have seen in a very long time.

Backstory When Creating Characters

How Important Is Backstory When Creating Characters? To my fellow writers here: Got 3 minutes to learn something interesting about backstory when writing? Are you stuck in too much research or stal…

Source: Backstory When Creating Characters

The Farmington Writers Circle Meets Next on September 8, 2016

The Farmington Writers Circle will meet again on September 8, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. Because of the closing of Hasting’s Hardback Cafe, the Writers Circle will now meet at Starbuck’s at 4337 East Main, #101 (near the intersection with 30th Street) until further notice. The evening’s topic has not been determined.

New Poetry by Marieta Maglas: “Evil Earths” (third of three poems)

Screaming voices shattering the inner mirror of love

Clattering to nothingness, searching freedom in space,

Bloody songs tightly warping their blue heaven above

In the thin and chill air disappearing without a trace,

O’er sad whispers wind whipping through the wounds

In the symphony of demons’ dreams as a hot disguise,

Bloody voices needing to build up stomping grounds,

Buried danger sprouting out to keep growing in size,

The salty tears of liquid souls forming watery waves,

Beauties in the road waiting to face with their fear of death,

Still screaming while drowning in the cold watery graves,

Tearing the silence with their groan and bleeding breath.

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Ardus Publications, Sybaritic Press, Prolific Press, and some others published the poems of Marieta Maglas in anthologies like Tanka Journal, edited by Glenn Lyvers, The Aquillrelle Wall of Poetry, edited by Yossi Faybish, A Divine Madness: An Anthology of Modern Love Poetry, edited by John Patrick Boutilier, Near Kin:A Collection of Words and Art Inspired by Octavia Estelle Butler, edited by Marie Lecrivain, Three Line Poetry #25, edited by Glenn Lyvers, ENCHANTED – Love Poems and Abstract Art, edited by Gabrielle de la Fair, and Intercontinental Anthology of Poetry on Universal Peace and Love, edited by Madan Gandhi

New Poetry by Marieta Maglas: “Blind Reality” (second of three poems)

Hollow-eyed shades

of human beings,

human beings

cogitating on jazz music,

jazz penetrating the silence

of the bleeding angels,

angels in a fight for

the awakening of this blind reality,

monetization of

the objects & spaces, asylums,

sexual harassments

for anxious women, prostitution,

deadly ocean waves,

terrorist attacks and

Islamist militancy,

racism,

multiple vortex tornadoes

to damage gas stations,

ISIS’s strategies,

public executions, crucifixions,

vegetation fires,

emblazoned clothes

and precious stones,

children murdered

in egregious crackdowns,

meteorite impacts,

wars,

illegal immigration,

exposed naked bodies,

powerful quakes striking

near the plate boundaries,

changes

in refugee policies,

kidnappings, sales of

stolen artifacts, drugs,

protests blocking roads, landslides,

macroeconomic policies,

casino culture,

silent strategies of democracies,

food securities

for starving people,

food price increases,

Monsoon rains

and flash floods,

nuclear disasters,

smiling volcanoes,

human cells mixed up with

animal embryos,

sphinxes, thermal shocks

caused by global warming,

dengue fever, songs,

warming parties, temporary work,

seasonal unemployment,

low wages,

alcoholic cocktails,

ill people not displaying symptoms,

Zika and Chikungunya viruses,

birth defects, theatrical triumphs,

crime watchers,

new hairstyles,

glacier calving,

different drivers having

different styles to run their cars,

cars blinking their headlights

while their motors scream,

screaming trees and revolvers

that shoot up walls to write lyrics,

lyrics of jazz penetrating the silence

of the bleeding angels,

angels in a fight for

the awakening of this new reality.

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John Patrick Boutilier, Near Kin:A Collection of Words and Art Inspired by Octavia Estelle Butler, edited by Marie Lecrivain, Three Line Poetry #25, edited by Glenn Lyvers, ENCHANTED – Love Poems and Abstract Art, edited by Gabrielle de la Fair, and Intercontinental Anthology of Poetry on Universal Peace and Love, edited by Madan Gandhi.

New Poetry by Marieta Maglas: “Screaming Mannequins” (first of three poems)

Eyes huddled in fear,

that paralyzing fear in front of

the bullets mercilessly sprayed,

deeply sprayed by some cruelty,

which is fed up

with a lot of victims,

those defenseless victims of hate,

a dreadful hate,

which is fed up with a little love

as well as

a little pleasure can be fed up

with a lot of pain,

that extreme pain,

which embellishes the madness,

one round and seemingly

nonexistent madness being like

a strange cold having

many moisturized rosy-red,

rosy-red ring-shaped patches

associated with

a giant Quincke swelling

and with a boisterous cooling

noisy breath,

that snorting breath

like a groaning song,

a love song for a dance of death,

that painful death for all the hot puppets,

beautiful puppets becoming

cold wax mannequins,

those mannequins screaming

in their red rain

of feelings,

those red feelings coloring

a few sad moments,

cool moments of many winter fires

those burning fires

in the lost caves of shadows.

###

Ardus Publications, Sybaritic Press, Prolific Press, and some others published the poems of Marieta Maglas in anthologies like Tanka Journal,

edited by Glenn Lyvers, The Aquillrelle Wall of Poetry, edited by Yossi Faybish, A Divine Madness: An Anthology of Modern Love Poetry, edited by John Patrick Boutilier, Near Kin:A Collection of Words and Art Inspired by Octavia Estelle Butler, edited by Marie Lecrivain, Three Line Poetry #25, edited by Glenn Lyvers, ENCHANTED – Love Poems and Abstract Art, edited by Gabrielle de la Fair, and Intercontinental Anthology of Poetry on Universal Peace and Love, edited by Madan Gandhi.

The Farmington Writers Circle Meets Next on September 8, 2016

New Fiction by Alexander Zelenyj: “The Flies Will Be Here Soon”

Robert Hooke, head and eyes of drone-fly, 1665

Something compelled the little brown sparrow to drop from the sky and enter the glade. It swooped down and down and down to light onto the gnarled branch lying in the grass. Another bird, a blue jay, was already resting further along its twisted length and turned its head at the new arrival.

“Oh, good morning,” it said.

“Hello,” said the sparrow. “It’s going to be a beautiful day – The sun is so bright.”

The blue jay sounded solemn as it nodded its blue head and said, “We’re lucky to be here to feel its touch.”

The sparrow watched the blue bird, admiring its brilliant feathers. A moment later it turned and began grooming its own feathered stomach with its little beak in order to make itself more beautiful too.

After a while they turned their attention to watch the sun singing the tops of the apple trees in the east, and then crawl its way slowly into the sky overhead.

The blue jay began to sing a song and the sparrow, listening and admiring its melancholy beauty, joined in.

Their voices filled the glade like the sunlight.

“The flies will be here soon,” observed the blue jay. “Here’s one now.”

The sparrow followed where the jay looked. Indeed, just beside them, a fat bluebell had landed on the human lying crumpled in the grass and flowers, rubbing its legs together earnestly where it perched along the edge of the immense raw crater where the animal’s face had once been. The fly’s buzzing was very excited in the quiet glade as it stayed a moment in the red meat there, feasting its fill before moving with a flash to a place on the opposite side of the gaping hole where the blue skin looked cold even in the warm morning sun.

“Yes,” said the sparrow, feeling a sudden sorrow in its heart. “Yes, I see him.” A subtly rancid smell had entered the glade and diluted the vibrant green smell of the apples and flowers, and seemed to grow more pungent every moment passing.

“Let’s leave this place,” advised the blue jay. “Let’s put ourselves in the sky where nothing can touch us.”

The sparrow had never before been invited to fly with a blue jay, and the invitation filled it with pride. It felt beautiful, and welcomed, and safe.

Together they lifted from the branch, away from the quiet dell, and up and up and up into the clear clean sky.

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Alexander Zelenyj is the author of the short story collections Songs For The Lost (Eibonvale Press, 2014; digital edition: Independent Legions Publishing, 2016) and Experiments At 3 Billion A.M. (Eibonvale Press, 2009); the poetry and essay collection, Ballads To The Burning Twins: The Complete Song Lyrics Of The Deathray Bradburys (Eibonvale Press, 2014); and the novel, Black Sunshine(Fourth Horseman Press, 2005). His fiction has appeared in a wide variety of magazines and anthologies – for a more comprehensive bibliography please feel free to visit his website at alexanderzelenyj.com.