December 20 Submission Workshop for San Diego Writers

Salvage Your December with Tania Pryputniewicz at San Diego Writers, Ink

I'm looking for a few more students to come out this coming Sunday, December 20^th  for three hours to join me for my Submission Blitz workshop. We will bring work, work in progress, and lists of places to potentially submit. We will match work with targets so that January 1 you are ready to come out of holiday haze ahead of the game and eager to submit to new venues.

Remember to bring your own list of targets to share and any hard copy zines you want to let us peruse as well as at least one in-process poem or short story or project you are revising. I’ve printed out a copy of Tweetspeak Poetry's Submission Map for us to flag state by state to indicate where we’ve published as a class. Bring a friend…you’ll keep one another accountable to your goals!

All the details here: Salvage Your December with Tania Pryputniewicz.

Interview Live at r.k.v.r.y. Quarterly Literary Journal with Tina Pocha

Suffering was incredibly grounding. It brought everything into perspective--what was important, what was painful, what was undoing. It returned me to love—Tina Pocha

I had the honor of interviewing poet Tina Pocha this week for r.k.v.r.y. Quarterly. You’ll find a link to her poetry and her reflections on the gift of disclosure and other musings on addiction, the role of labels such as “addict” or “poet,” and the ways Pocha’s childhood in India weaves itself into her approach to valuing the process of writing poetry:

In Indian tradition, the marriage of Shiva and Parvati is thought to be symbolic of the ultimate integration of the soul, the achieving of enlightenment where we bring together all the (seemingly) disparate parts of our selves into one whole. I’m tired of living divided—head from heart, strength from tenderness—and poetry helps me to bring it all together.

We’d love it if you have a moment to read her poem and interview and drop a comment if so inspired.

Quest 2016

I’ve committed to blogging in response to prompts offered by Tracking Wonder’s December line up of visionaries. (Yes, you can still join us if you want to play in public across platform of your choice and/or in private Facebook Forum. To join, visit Tracking Wonder's Quest 2016 page; from that page, you can also view my short video about the work last year's Quest helped me develop with Tarot and Writing as well as videos by my stellar Quest mates and their projects). This year, I’m using the lens of the Tarot and blogging in response to what I see as well as creating a synthesis image of the cards in colored pencil. Most recent posts address:

The Star Card as Daydreaming Self…(Barry Kaufman’s Daydreaming Prompt)

Re-visioning the Aeon Card Through Lens of Birth…(Seth Godin’s Miss Me Prompt)

Heart Lighthouse on the Horizon…(Jeffrey Davis, an extra Horizon Exercise Prompt)

Pet Bedlam: Three Takes to Record a Poem

Luna, oh innocent Luna

I spent this morning trying to make a simple recording of “Walking the Laguna,” a poem I wrote dedicated to poet Reginald Shepherd, and which TAB, A Journal of Poetry and Poetics, accepted for Spring 2016 publication.

Silly me….thought I could record in peace! Kids at school, husband at work. Garbage day behind us. Early morning motorcyle thrash of traffic long past, no storm gale thundering surf. We’re talking about 3 minutes.

Take 1: Heading into couplet 4, Luna--preferring musky stem water to her own drinking water, takes down the vase on the dining room table, scattering bouqet. Rivulets chase her sleeping counterpart, Sam, off the new red sparkling chair cushion Grandma just bought for the house at Thanksgiving. Luna lifts her paws daintily out of the way and looks at me, forlorn, waiting for rescue. As if. Of course, how can I be mad at a cat famous for keeping the kids company while they read?!

Take 2: Four lines left to go! The Husky bolts up from her nap in the stripe of sun in our bedroom and tears to the front door in search of The Phantom Guest, her four paws’ worth of nails clicking across the floor all the down the hallway past my microphone. Unmistakeable in playback: the solid thud of her body hurling against the front door.

Take 3: Success!

(A special thank you goes to my father, for Nessie, my so easy to use microphone! She plugs right in to the Mac, hooks right up to Garage Band...so easy....)

Submission Workshop

Letter Press by Robyn Beattie

Please do come out on December 20^th  for three hours to join me for my Submission Blitz workshop for writers at San Diego Writer, Ink; we will bring work, work in progress, and lists of places to potentially submit. We will match work with targets so that January 1 you are ready to come out of holiday haze ahead of the game and eager to submit to new venues.

All the details here: Salvage Your December with Tania Pryputniewicz.

Quest 2016

I’ve been blogging up a storm with a growing group of creatives at Tracking Wonder. We answer prompts doled out by visionaries Jeffrey Davis chose for us, so far Susan Piver, Jonathan Fields, Debbie Millman, and Dr. Tina Seelig. We envision our best coming year across layers of our lives, including business artistry and how we might apply ourselves to making a difference.

My Quest 2016 Dragon of Imagination

For my version of Quest, I am pulling three Tarot cards to deepen my relationship to each prompt as well as drawing my answer as a synthesis of the three cards. I’m posting the drawings in process as I can’t seem to keep up with the pace of finishing drawings and blogging and keeping the cats Off The Table While Recording Poems and feeding the kids...Here is my Dragon of Imagination, a reminder from my Future Self to play more.

Remember you can join us on Quest 2016 if it sounds fun at any point. Honestly.  Here are the posts so far:

What I most need to tell myself about 2016…

Choosing a question to pursue…

If I thought I couldn’t fail…

What my future self would tell me…

Photo by Robyn Beattie

Last but not least, here’s a guest post I wrote for Ginny Lee Taylor at Women of Wonder; I “met” Ginny on Quest last year and have long admired the work she does on behalf of survivors. In this guest post, I address one of her Compass Points for Healing: Own Your Story, by explicating three of the poems in November Butterfly, “Absolute Power,” “Peer Counselor,” and “(25) Floors Up An Open Balcony Guinevere Fails to Appear” in order to address the healing power of poetry and nature. You’ll find writing exercises for survivors at the end of the post

Words as Spiral Path: Tania Pryputniewicz on Owning Your Story

Also check out Ginny’s beautiful post on Quest along this topic line, a haunting look at the collateral affect of a survivor’s path through life; Ginny acknowledges lost dreams for survivor, family, community, and more:

What’s Knocking

Photo Credits: Letter Press and Frost Rose by Robyn Beattie

Noctiluca Live at One

Poetry Publications: “Noctiluca” and “Walking the Laguna”

I’m honored to usher in December with the publication of the poem, “Noctiluca,” in which the ocean, Midwest, and the dreamfield converge. “Noctiluca” is live today at Jacar’s Press online magazine, One. I think you’ll enjoy the cover art, “Dirty Laundry,” by Katie O’Hagan and the rest of the poems in Issue 7 selected by Richard Krawiec and his team of editors. The issue has been carefully put in order and is meant to be read in sequence...let me know what you think.

Also forthcoming in the spring: “Walking the Laguna, for Reginald Shepherd,” online at TAB: The Journal of Poetry and Poetics.” TAB also publishes recordings of the poems in each issue, so I’m at work on an MP3 of “Walking the Laguna.” I will post a link here when the issue goes live in the spring.

Submission Workshop: Salvage Your December

Photo by Robyn Beattie

Most writers I know are pretty grumpy around holiday time—don’t get me wrong—we love our friends and our families. We just also really love to write. Come join me on Sunday, December 20 to brainstorm potential submisison targets for the New Year for your work; that way you can relax for the rest of holiday season knowing you have a map for January 1, 2016. You’ll need to bring a list of your writing inventory (list of work either complete and ready to send out or nearly ready to send out). We will meet and share submission targets. I will bring my own list and ask each of you to bring your list. We will also reserve time to free-write or revise one piece of writing during our workshop. While poetry and blogging are my specialties, I will bring lists for other genres as well.

This is an in person workshop offered at San Diego Writers, Ink from 10 a.m -1p.m Sunday December 20, 2015 at Inspirations Gallery at NTC, Liberty Station.

Cost is $35 for members or $40 for nonmembers; join a great group of students already signed up and working on their inventory lists. To register, visit Salvage your December with Tania Pryputniewicz.

*I will be also bring example magazines to our workshop; please feel free to bring in your own stash of physical publications or magazines that have showcased or published your work or bring in your favorite potential target magazines or publications.

Photo by Robyn Beattie.

Catalyst Door Quest 2015

Business Artistry: Quest 2016 Kicks off December 1st

Tomorrow I’ll be joining Tracking Wonder on Quest 2016. Here is a "Catalyst Door" I drew last year on Quest 2015. I'm once again opening my heart to visioning a prosperous and creative year with a group of like-minded creatives.

Quest 2016 promises to be another dynamic business artistry adventure under the guidance of Jeffrey Davis and his team at Tracking Wonder. You can view the short video testimonials by my fellow questers and I about our highlights from last year’s Quest on a range of topics from Authenticity, Connection, and Saying Yes to Expanding Medicine, Bravery and Permission Slips here: Tracking Wonder Quest 2016. In my video you'll hear a bit about my Tarot Writing project that I developed on Quest last year.

There’s still time to sign up and join us if you wish; we’ll be responding to prompts and questions posed by a series of visionaries Jeffrey has assembled for us (Chris Brogan, Jonathan Fields, Charlie Gilkey, Seth Godin, Todd Henry, Sally Hogshead, John Jantsch, Scott Barry Kaufman, Jen Louden, and Susan Piver so far). I have met, and continue to meet, an amazing group of artists from all walks of life through Tracking Wonder. We'll be conversing throughout this adventure on Twitter using the hashtag #Quest 2016 and I'll be blogging on my main website in response to the prompts (www.taniapryputniewicz.com).

New Post up at Mother Writer Mentor by Ann L. Carter:

Also, if you missed it, a lovely post is up at the site I co-curate for writing mothers; check out our latest guest post by Ann L. Carter:

The Art of Slowly Softening Butter

And please don't hesitate to send me a guest post of your own; latest call for guest posts is on the topic of Mothers and Daughters and Secrets (based on a presentation I gave this summer at A Room of Her Own Foundation). To read about this call for submissions, visit Secrets Between Mothers and Daughters.