Social Justice Reading Challenge

I just signed up for a 2010 reading challenge at Maw Books Blog that, each month, will focus on a different social-justice issue. Maybe you’d like to join, too? The way it works is this: Each month you read a book, or watch a program, from a list of resources suggested by that month’s host. Going the next step, if you wish, you can take an action related to the issue. Your level of commitment is based on what you’re able to do.

The challenge is being hosted by Amy @ My Friend Amy, Hannah @ Word Lily, and Natasha @ Maw Books. With thanks for suggesting and organizing this great idea for a challenge!

Guerrilla Video Mom

As a communications major in college, I took all sorts of video production classes. After graduating, I worked in production for a while. Lots of what I learned proved helpful to my writing, like writing with visuals in mind, also writing for the ear. (Thankfully I managed to escape the habit of PUNCHing what I SAY with a kind of news-reporter imPORTance.)

Anyway, back when I was doing all this production work, camcorders were just coming into vogue (we’re talking the mid- to late-80s here). Kids today would laugh at the size of these things. Basically, if you could carry the camera on your shoulder without your legs buckling beneath you, it was considered lightweight.

My writing went down other paths in the years since, some projects involving interactive content/the Web, other projects, “old-fashioned” storytelling and poetry. And all the while, video cameras got smaller and more streamlined.

All of this to report how excited I am to have received a Flip camera for Christmas. My niece received a Flip last year, and I’ve been eyeballing one since. It’s the size of a cell phone. You shoot, you drop the clips onto your computer, you can do a little editing (actually, I’d like to find a better editing package; anyone have any suggestions?). At the risk of becoming the annoying lady constantly pulling the video camera out of her bag, I’m planning to have some fun with this!

This morning I’m trying to figure out how I can upload clips to this blog (I think I may need to pay for the WordPress video upgrade, though I may try another uploading option through Facebook, but that means joining Facebook, so a few things to think about here …) In the meantime, I’m using the snap-shot feature, through which you can grab stills from the videos, which is also quite handy:

Turny Burny's debut

Ugly Doll not included, though does make for a fun subject.

Agent News Hot Off the Wire

I’m thrilled to announce that I have signed with Ronnie Ann Herman of the Herman Agency. Yay!

Ronnie has been very supportive this year of a humorous, high-energy PB collection of poems I’ve written. I’m excited that you are now my agent, Ronnie!

A shout-out, too, to Jill Corcoran, whom I “met” via Poetry Friday. Big thanks to my awesome critique-group members, who have given me extremely helpful feedback on these poems, and to Nandini Bajpai, who is right about good fortune spreading!

It’s winter solstice today, a turning point. Best wishes to everyone in my writing community!

Image by fotolia.

Winding Down, Gearing Up

• A year-in-review poem taking shape in my head. Next stop, the keyboard.

• Writers and other creatives interested in a productive, committed-to-your-craft start to 2010, check out Ann Patchett’s essay in the Washington Post on setting the course during the first 32 days of the year, “Resolved: Writing Is a Job.” (With thanks to @readandbreathe on Twitter, retweeted @curiousmartha.)

• This is the first blog posting I’ve ever done with bullet points. A sign of being organized at year’s end? Let me work up a PowerPoint chart and get back to you.

Human Rights Day

December 10 is Human Rights Day, a day to commemorate the UN’s 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an international agreement outlining the fundamental human rights of all people.

This week, and throughout December, Amnesty International is holding a global write-a-thon, through which members and nonmembers alike are writing letters on behalf of human rights defenders imprisoned or held unjustly.

For those looking for a writing-related activity this month, check out the write-a-thon page. (For any young friends reading this, please have your parents review the content first.) Included are summaries of the cases as well as sample letters. It’s an easy way to let your voice be heard in support of human rights. Do these letters really make a difference? Read more here. And for more information on Amnesty International, go here.

Some December Day

I haven’t had much blogging time this week, but I figured I should provide at least a quick update since the “Fresh Snow” posting from the weekend looks funny given today’s not-so-lovely storm—started as snow, then turned to sleet, then rain. It’s messy out there! Once again, another “good storm wasted” according to my daughter, who was really hoping for a no-school announcement today; didn’t come. (p.s. Great way for kids to practice alphabetical order, reading the school closings. Also practice in accepting some of life’s disappointments, sorry kid.) I’m not actually planning on turning this blog into a meteorological outpost, though it would kinda cool to put a barometer or thermometer or snow-measuring gizmo on the sidebar.

On standby ...

Maybe I’ll include some type of meter or gauge for ranking the quality of our sledding adventures? Haven’t gone sledding yet, but eager to. So what would the meter be called—a sledometer? No, that would probably measure the speed or distance, right? This would be more about level of fun/daring. Okay, name to come.

By the way, as I was typing this, we saw lightning and heard a clap of thunder. What? So from snow to sleet to rain/ice to thunder and lightning. Wow, some December day.

Fresh Snow

We had a dusting of snow already this fall, but last night’s accumulation (not tons, about 3 inches) felt like the first real snow of the season. Big, wet flakes and a brilliant winter morning when we woke up. And although my daughter called it “a good snowstorm wasted” because it took place over the weekend and not during the school week, there’s nothing like that first snow. Why is that? The newness of it? We’re not yet tired of scraping and shoveling and being cold? Or is it the snow-globe-iness of it to kick off the holiday season? Could just be all the fresh air that comes in with the storm. Inhale, exhale, renew.

One thing’s for certain, we all notice the first snow, whether we’re out playing in it, standing at the window, watching it come down, or blogging and tweeting about it. It snowed!