writing – Jenny Wren

Tuesday Update – Writer vs. Sunshine

The woods behind our home are carpeted in Pacific bleeding hearts. It’s much lovelier in person!

These non-stop blue skies are going to ruin the northwest girl. My expectations are being compromised. This may be the first spring that I am longing for rain instead of my usual longing for sunshine!

It is hard to do things indoors when the weather is so fine. Fortunately, there is a lot of work to do outside, too.

Writing Updates:

I have been sinking deeper into a big writing project. That’s right, The Ragman. Blue, Indigo, and the Ragman himself are becoming most insistent about their story being told. Thus, I must oblige!

What does this mean? My short story output and submissions have nearly come to a full halt. I’m even having a bit of trouble focusing on my regular nonfiction essays. Having trouble, but still managing to soldier on a bit!

If you need something to read, I put out an argument against clock-watching, with the help of the neighborhood dads (the jovial cock-robins). You can read Living Life On Robin Time, free of charge, on Medium.

The newsletter has been a tough nut to crack, but I still have this feeling in my bones that it is time to write one. You can read, once again free of charge, about my struggles with the newsletter, Substack, and (un)social media expectations. Read it here: I Don’t Know What I’m Doing On Substack, and I’m Cool With That.

Reading Updates:

Much of my reading is still taken up with that required for class. In that vein, I read an assortment of Phillis Wheatley-Peters’ poems, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and part of the Decameron.

For pure entertainment, I finished Tress by Brandon Sanderson. This was my intro to Sanderson’s writing, and I must say I will be back for more! I loved the style, particularly of the narrator. It reminded me of the non-Xanth works of Piers Anthony, as well as the Princess Bride, but it was still a perfectly unique work that didn’t feel like it was aspiring to be anything but itself.

Survive & Thrive:

Mowse the kei truck is still in the shop. No word back yet on whether he can be repaired. Fingers crossed, because I would love to begin acting upon the idea I mentioned in last week’s update.

As for surviving and thriving around here, we are doing our best. We spent the weekend building a sunshade for our deck. The goal was to spend no money, and we achieved it! We built it from old lumber (we always stop to pick up lumber, whether it is from a free pile on the curb or lumber that has dropped off along the roadside from a poorly secured load). We did need one piece that we didn’t have, but a neighbor came through for us with just what we needed! I will spend the morning today painting the sunshade frame with leftover paint from past projects.

It’s also the week to put in the garden, so I will be busy between writing, school, and other tasks. Growing your own food, free of the industrial system, is a radical and revolutionary act, so I will find a way to get to it all!

Go forth in hope, my friends,

Tuesday Update: Mobile Creative Third Space Dreams

(Not Mowse, but similar) Photo by Julia Volk on Pexels.com

We had our first unbroken week of fine spring weather here in the perpetually damp Northwest. For those not privy to the PNW mindset, lots of sunlight makes us a bit crazy. We know that it will never last, so we run outside to soak up as much of it as possible.

Here on the little homestead, this meant lots of weeding and outdoor projects. We managed to sand down and repaint our entire deck, as well. This, of course, meant we had to host a bonfire and cookout. We also attended a bonfire that friends hosted.

Why yes, I do smell perpetually like a campfire. Why do you ask?

It also means that I am behind on my usual writing output. Life is lived, and sometimes the living of it leaves little time for writing about it!

Writing Updates:

Some work was put in on the novel project (working title “Ragman”). I’m still playing around with characters and plot, so most of this work went towards character development, but I also wrote a few sample scenes so that I could start to get a better feel for how all the pieces will work together.

I’ve outlined and begun a few essays, which will be hitting Medium and Substack next week.

Reading Updates:

Spending time working outside also means I slowed down on reading a bit this week.

I am still working my way through “Tress” and “The Future Is Degrowth.”

I also finished “The Way Home” by Mark Boyle. I reread this book every six months or so. It’s a comfort tool at this point. It is also an inspiration, because although I don’t want to live exactly like Mark, I do wish to emulate many of his choices in my own ways. This is Mark’s last public work, which he wrote in a note with a pencil after he decided to follow a life without wasteful modern tech. He contrasts his journey against the Blasket Islanders, a group of people in Ireland that lived cut off from the modern world in many ways until they were forced to evacuate their homes in the 1950s. I consider this book one of the great inspirational works in my life, so of course I recommend it!

Survive & Thrive:

It’s hard not to thrive when the sun is dealing out photons like candy. Vitamin D is my favorite drug!

My thoughts have turned towards finding more ways to cope within the confines of a capitalistic system that doesn’t value, well, anything of true worth. Unfortunately, the system is set up in such a way that fully eschewing it and remaining part of community is difficult. So, I constantly seek ways to live between the lines of capitalism and to thrive within its margins.

I’m playing with a brainstorm right now. I have a little Japanese Kei truck named Mowse. This used to be my work truck when I was gardening, but the economy and my failing rotator cuff is only going to allow me to work for a couple of regular clients going forward.

What to do with Mowse?

I’m still noodling, but here is my idea. What if Mowse stands for Mobile Outreach Wonder SpacE? And, what if this mobile space showed up at local parks or other public areas, similar to an ice cream truck. But, instead of ice cream, what if this space set up an arts and crafts table, where kids and adults could come and create something beautiful and happy, together? What if this space was actually a mobile third space, free of charge, for people to gather and create an impromptu (and, even, perhaps, a lasting) community?

Yes? Yes!

We’ll make books from recycled items, share poetry, have music jams, create art from what is available, read stories to young and the young at heart, and teach the kids and the kids at heart new ways to make, well, anything!

Maybe we’ll add some display racks to the back of Mowse. Sell some art and writing, but not really sell. Suggested price, sure, but I imagine a “pay what you can” model, especially since most of our creations in this household take time but very little money since we scavenge nearly everything we have. I’m not aiming to make money, so much as making sure we can continue to provide art and words and craft and community to everyone!

Things are hard out there. We gotta make it better.

As always, go forth in hope!

Tuesday Update – Spring Is Springing

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich on Pexels.com

Folks, it happened. Spring arrived in a torrent of sunshine and 70 degree days. The green haze that was buzzing around the trees suddenly erupted into actual leaves. Flowers are blooming, weeds are invading the garden beds, and the insects are back.

A mating pair of ravens has moved into one of the sequoias. I can see the tree from my desk, and all day, every day, two ravens take turns sitting and hunting. Whether there are chicks yet or just eggs, I do not know. I do know that both of them took a break from the nest yesterday to catch the air currents above their tree. I watched them swirling higher and higher, in a perfectly choreographed dance, before they lazily floated back down to only start the climb over again.

Ah, to be a raven on a perfect spring afternoon!

Writing updates:

I wrote 12,482 words last week. These consisted of:

“The Daily Ramble”: 4,128 words.

This is what I call my daily free writing practice, which is where the seeds of many of my story ideas first take root. Normally, the ramble’s word count is a bit higher, but I took a couple of days off because I could.

Medium: 1153 words. “Hope Is Collaborative.” Go ahead, you know you want to read it. There’s no paywall!

Cunning Creatures: 1050 words. “Can Creatives Change the Systems That Destroy Us?” This weekly newsletter is free, so please subscribe!

The balance was written on various other projects, primarily fiction. I didn’t make any submissions this week nor did I hear back from any submissions I have out. It’s like that sometimes!

Reading Notes:

I finished the second book in Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot duology, “A Prayer for the Crown Shy.” These books encompass a vision of the future that I desperately hope we have a chance of realizing. Sure, it’s fiction written about a fictional civilization on a fictional moon, but it is still a vision of hope for me!

I am currently reading:

“Tress of the Emerald Sea” by Brandon Sanderson. This is my first introduction to Sanderson’s writing, and I am enjoying it. I’m about five chapters in, and I expect this to be a quick read because it has a nice pacing to it.

“The Future Is Degrowth” by Schmelzer, Vetter, and Vansintjan. I am reading this for a book club, but I am also deeply invested in what the authors are presenting. I hope to share many, many thoughts on this in the coming weeks. Right now, I am only one chapter in.

Survive & Thrive:

Spring makes me think of food, mainly growing and foraging it. I don’t believe that artists should be starving, and I feel that securing good food for ourselves should be part of our individual creative manifestos.

This week, Mozy and I built four raised garden beds. I scavenged these beds from a local Buy Nothing group. They are the nice deck-style beds that have legs and a shelf beneath them. The gentleman who was giving them away also gave me a can of cedar garden bed oil.

So Mozy and I carefully cleaned, sanded, and re-oiled each board before reassembling the beds on Friday. Our neighbor/landlord offered us a bunch of garden soil he had in his shed, which he is cleaning out, so between that and the compost pile I set up last year, we won’t need soil. We shall have a free garden on the deck, which is protected from the deer.

This means free food. We also take care of the neighbor’s orchard and can pick all the fruit we want. Our yard features a blackberry hedge, and I helped someone divide their raspberries last year in exchange for the excess canes, so we have those to look forward to, as well. There are also blueberries, artichokes, and strawberries that we put in last year, from plants scavenged from a big box store’s composter. I won’t even get into all the herbs I have in pots and growing in the ground.

Last fall, I stuck a few garlic cloves into the ground. Soon I will be harvesting the scapes for stir-fry, then after that I can harvest the bulbs. I noticed nettles poking up in the wet area of the property, which means it’s time to harvest a bunch for soup, pesto, and tea. Bigleaf maple blossoms are also popping, and we use these to make lovely little pancake-like fritters.

I could spend this time on social media, but it is better used outside growing and finding food. Social media doesn’t inspire my creativity, but digging into the dirt and watching a leaf slowly unfurl does. Plus, it ensures we can survive and thrive on our pauper’s budget.

Go forth in hope, Friends!

Tuesday Update – Another Trip Around the Sun

I’ve made another full revolution around the sun! Last Friday, I celebrated my birthday by simply turning another year older. There were also some meals with loved ones, gifts, a bit of beer, and perhaps a few more fun things. These, obviously, were unimportant compared to the arrival of an AARP envelope welcoming me into “being damned old enough to belong to the American Association of Retired Persons.”

HAH! Joke’s on them, I’m a writer and an American citizen, so I will never be able to retire!

Oh. Ugh….

Ah, well, onward and upward! At least the skies have been blue, and temperatures have left the arctic zone (for me, that means it is 60 F outside instead of 45 F). Shorts and beer garden weather, which is why it is my favorite time of year.

Writing Updates

I don’t want to say it was an unproductive week, although looking at my spreadsheet, it appears less productive than past weeks. I have a good reason for that, though.

I’ve mentioned before that I do a timed writing prompt every morning as a warm-up exercise. Well, over the course of several days, my prompt writing began to link together. Not a huge thing, this happens, and often, I get a full-length short story out of the prompt writing.

This was a bit different. I’ve put a novel idea, which I call Ragman, on the back burner to cook a bit until summer break, when I expect to have time to give it the attention it deserves.

Apparently, Ragman is not very patient, though. Three mornings in a row, Ragman kept creeping into my morning warmup with new characters and directions. Things I hadn’t even had on my radar. Does this mean I need to start focusing on Ragman now, while still in the thick of the university season?

Perhaps. Perhaps…

That is not to say I was completely not hitting my goals! I finished revising “Dendrolatry” and have sent it out into the world. Two submissions this week, but planning a few more over the coming weeks as submission windows open at a few places.

I received a rejection for “From Little Mice.” It was a nice rejection, not rude at all, from the journal Hearth Stories. I also received a rejection from Jeopardy for the flash story “Myths of Each Other.” Also, a nice rejection, but I also know the editor personally, so perhaps they felt they had to be nice. I jest! Plus, I have two more stories submitted to that publication (with different editors, though), so they may still accept something.

Published this week is “Is It Capitalism, or the New Feudalism?” over on Medium. (Free read friend link below, share it wide and far!) It’s an exploration of how we can create room for creating and creative thought in the system where we currently find ourselves.

Reading Notes

I finished Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers and have moved on to the second book, Prayer for the Crown Shy. I went into these books knowing I would love them. I love every single thing that Chambers writes, from now until forever. I love how she plays with the idea of gender and speciesism and nonbinary/nondualistic love.

What I didn’t expect was how much I was going to specifically love these two books. They are library books, soon they will be my books because I placed them on order at my local independent bookstore (you know I am not ordering them from some online retailer). I see myself carrying these books in my bag, just so I can read a passage or chapter whenever I am sad, confused, or need some inspiration.

These books are that good. Go read them.

I also finished Laura Goode’s Pitch Craft. Another excellent book, for different reasons, obviously. Goode does an excellent job breaking down the state of the writing and publishing world as it is right now. Most of the craft books I find on the publishing industry are woefully out of date or have put all of the eggs into the self-publishing basket. Pitch Craft is both up to date and it is an engaging read. I rarely read books like this cover to cover, but I did this one. It’s another one that I am adding to my reference) bookshelf.

The sun is still shining. If you are familiar with the PNW in April, you are also aware that this may change at any moment, and it will once again be cold and rainy. Thus, I am going to find a beer garden to sit in so I can soak up the sun, people-watch, and get back to the business of writing.

As always, go forth in hope, Friends!

Tuesday Update – Submissions, Personal Myths, and Routine Adjustments

Currently I am sitting at a desk on the 5th floor of Wilson Library. The sky is blue — FINALLY! — and the sun is making the ripples on the bay sparkle and gleam.

It’s a beautiful March day. It is also a day that I am in flux.

Like most humanesque creatures, I take comfort in my silly habits and routines. I can be quite curmudgeonly about them, and breaking them against my will can lead to a toddler-level tantrum (at least internally…).

So why do I persist in changing my routines every three months? For those in the know, it is because I decided to return to university at the ripe young age of 49. So every three months my schedule changes and I must adapt.

It’s gotten easier, fortunately. I take the down time between quarters to formulate a new routine and then I implement it in baby steps during the two weeks off. But then, I decide to try something new. This quarter the new thing is to schedule all of my classes on two days, Tuesday and Thursday. That gives me five days of freedom to work on my writing, earn a bit of the devil’s kale (not marijuana, but money), and to enjoy my life a bit.

It also means that on two days each week I leave my house at 8:30 am, walk a mile to the bus stop, go to classes all day, then get back to the bus stop at 6:30 … where I then walk the mile home.

Wish me luck in surviving this experiment!

Project Updates:

I completed, and properly formatted, a couple of microfiction pieces. They are each around 550 words and complete stories in themselves, although both could also be expanded if I ever feel the urge.

The first is “Dog Bowl Eulogy,” which has nothing to do with bowls and the dogs only make a guest appearance, as in the main character Shirley is terrified she is going to be eaten by dogs.

The second is “Minstrel Cramps,” which as the name implies was much fun to write and will hopefully be more fun to read!

Both will begin their submission odysseys later this week. I’ll update as the rejections, ahem, I mean acceptances begin pouring in!

A bit of noodling on the “Ragman” project, but that’s it. I won’t be working on it in earnest until summer break.

I’ve also began editing and revising a longer short story, with the working-but-probably-final title of “Dendrolatry,” which simply means Tree Idolatry or Tree Worship. It’s at about 5,000 words right now, pre-revision, and I expect it is more likely to pack on a couple thousand more by the time I am done with it.

The interesting thing about this story is that it began with a prompt writing exercise. My initial prompt was simply “What if the trees had eyes?” I wrote about 1,000 words on that little prompt, and I had more words but no more time so I ended it with a new prompt for the following day.

That prompt was “what are the trees looking at?” Still, more words at the end of the exercise, so I followed it up with another prompt on day 3. “Why are the trees looking at me?”

I continued in this vein for several days before I finally reached an ending of sorts. Quite lovely of an ending, really! Some parts I rushed through, which is why I know I will be adding more words.

Now, what have I published this week? Not much. Nothing, actually. I did send out 5 submissions yesterday, but I didn’t hear anything back other than a few emails stating my submission was received.

I also published a new essay over on Medium, free-read Friend link below:

Are the Myths You Tell Yourself Hurting You?

Reading Notes:

I haven’t finished a book this week, so I will simply share what I am reading right now:

Pitchcraft by Laura Goode — lots of good information, so far! I’ll give a more detailed review once I finish it.

Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers. I’m about halfway through this short book. I love everything Chambers has ever written, and so far I love this one, too. Chambers is the best hopecore, solar punk sci-fi writer on the planet, I swear!

Moments in Living:

Life has been pleasantly chill this past week. Wonderfully chill, even. I met with friends nearly everyday last week to make up for the fact that I dropped off the planet during winter quarter. We didn’t do any hiking or geocaching, which are the usual weekend activities, and instead stuck close to home where we read, played games, and simply relaxed.

Oh, and we enjoyed the sunshine on Monday with a pint at our favorite beer garden. Good times!

Nothing exciting, but sometimes that is the best way.

Until next time,

Jenny Wren Harrington

Why I Write In Analog

There is power in writing slowly

Hardwired by generations of ancestors who worked their sweat into the soil before the break of dawn, I set about my morning tasks under a still-dark sky. Unlike those that came before me, I do not work the cold ground or tend to warm beasts. No, my hands brush across smooth paper and encase the comfort of my warm pen.

It begins with three cups of coffee and then I switch to Irish breakfast tea. The steam powers my hand as it moves across the page. The blank page is my fertile field. The pen, my spade. The day has begun.

I write in analog.

No laptop. Not even a typewriter.

Continue reading on Medium for free…