Category Archives: Blog Post SJ Powers

Your Writing Mind: An exercise

Posted on by

 

Do you need inspiration to write? Here are some ideas.

Write a short story, poem, a blog or novel using these:

  • A person who will do whatever it takes;
  • An eavesdropper;
  • A snob;
  • A person who will do what it takes;
  • The first day of school;
  • The third day without sleep

Here’s another idea. To get to the point where you’re writing without your editorial mind, lay some paper in front of you with a pen or pencil. Don’t open your computer. You’ll want to just write with one of your hands.

Then put your left hand behind your back. The left hand (or right hand if you are a lefty) is your editor for this exercise. You don’t want you editor to rise while your writing. You just want to keep writing without lifting your pen or pencil, even if the result isn’t anything you’d want to share.

Look around you for a moment. Then start writing.

This exercise opens your writing mind. And what you write may not come to anything, but at least you’re writing. Do this daily and eventually something will click and before you know it, you’ve gotten a poem, short story, etc.

If any of these ideas work for you, let me know.

#

 

Sue Powers has had many stories published in zines and magazines. She is also a recipient of a fellowship prize from the Illinois Arts Council in Prose and two of her stories were nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Our Heat and its Various Complications

Posted on by

 

 

7:30 a.m.

The boiler conked out a few days after we moved in. So now I’m sitting on a heating pad while I write this because it’s 34 degrees outside but inside it feels like 20. I’m wearing many layers, and it still feels like 20 degrees.

The Skokie Valley Air Control will be here in about twenty minutes to get the heat going. The President of our Board says it should take around 3 and 1/2 more hours before we get heat. We’ll also get two radiators to replace one that’s not working and the other that simply wasn’t there.

8:20 a.m.

The men are here to install our two refurbished radiators. Meanwhile, our cat Scoutie, is hissing. The men are moving our dining room furniture while I tried to nail just one picture into our plaster walls. Seems like we’ll need to drill into the wall first.

I see the men are staring at the dining room radiator. Now I hear them discussing where to put the old radiator and how to get it out of our condo. There’s a lot of discussion going on now about how to get the radiator off the floor and where to put it.

8:50 a.m.

The old radiator is on a big dolly as they wheel it out the back door. The back door is open now and the cold air is coming in. Better turn up my heating pad.

Now the new radiator is installed. But the floorboard next and beneath it needs work.

Our New Dining Room Radiator

As I move into the living room, I see the old radiator cover is still there. I’m sure they will remove it once they get the old radiator on their trunk.

Now I’m musing why we moved in this weather. Buy this condo “talked” to us. It’s got large dark molding, wood floors, a few curved archways, two large closets and large bedrooms. So large we now need more furniture!

9:15 a.m.

The back door is now open as they bring in a new radiator. It’s a reconditioned aluminum radiator.

Now that the old radiator is out, I decided to sweep the dirt away. But it’s not dirt. In fact the molding behind the radiator is ruined and floor beneath is gray, likely from the heat. Somehow, we’ll have to fix this.

9:30 a.m.

Got a call about the delivery of our new appliances. Seems they still had the date of delivery set for this week. So I had to push back the date to January 17th, two weeks after our new kitchen floor will be in.

This causes a new wrinkle. I’ve let the man who is going to install the floor know about this date. He says, “We can see how it goes. Let’s leave it alone for now.”

10:00 a.m.

Since this is an old building, there’s a metal plate in the wall in our living room. Around it are holes in the wall. So the wife of the President of the Board brought in a guy to take out the plate and fix the wall.

Metal Plate in the Wall

The problem is he can’t take out the plate without leaving a gaping hole in our large, brown floorboard. However, he said he will find some kind of solution even though we’ll still have the metal plate.

10:15 a.m.

I was about to drive to the store. But Air Control truck is blocking the garage. Guess I’ll wait.

10:30 a.m.

We’ve been promised we’ll have heat soon.

1:30 p.m. We have heat!

New Boiler!

 

Our Boiler Situation

Posted on by

It all began with our inspector who didn’t note or put in his report that the boiler in our building is old and ready to conk out. In other words, he didn’t estimate the lifespan of our boiler.

The average lifespan of a boiler is 10 to 15 years. But our boiler is older than that. In fact, it’s 20 years old! The inspector should have noted this, and of course he didn’t. Which means he’s culpable for at least part, if not all, of our cost of a new boiler.

Additionally, we had to call the Skokie Air Control people because the radiator in our dining room isn’t working. He found out it has a huge hole in it, another thing our inspector didn’t see or put in his report. Also there’s no radiator in the master bedroom. The Air Control guy said the previous owner must have stolen it. I believe it just wasn’t working and the previous owner had it taken out.

Now we have buy two new radiators and pay a portion of the new boiler. The President of our Board is doing everything he can to get us a new boiler and by next week we should have one. However, for the length of the time it’s being put in – a full day – we’ll have no heat. So we’ve had to buy a new heater.

Meanwhile, we’ve contacted our lawyer to get compensation from our inspector. This means we have to supply him with the cost of the new boiler, the radiators and the new heater we need to buy so we can recourse from the inspector.

On the plus side, we still have heat but it’s sporadic. Plus our new boiler will use less gas and less water. This is a great benefit to the building and our association fees.

If there are any other complications with our boiler – old or new – I’ll keep you posted.

Signing off now…..

Sue Powers

Cheap Moisturizers for Women AND Men

Posted on by

sjpowers's avatarsue powers

Why pay big bucks for a moisturizer when you can use Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Vit E Oil, Vaseline and any variety of cheap moisturizers you have in your house or can get at any store such as Aldi, Walmart, etc.

I use a Vitamin E cream I get at Walmart. It comes with two jars for under five dollars and I’m not allergic to it. If you have dry skin, you can (and probably should) wash your face in any of these products.

And while we’re speaking of faces, stay out of the sun to avoid wrinkles or skin cancer. One should also use a good suntan lotion such the one my dermatologist recommends: Eucerin Daily Protection. He recommends it because it contains zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. One can also wear a hat or carry an umbrella to avoid the sun as I’ve seen Carrie do on

View original post 38 more words

Cheap Moisturizers for Women AND Men

Posted on by

Why pay big bucks for a moisturizer when you can use Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Vit E Oil, Vaseline and any variety of cheap moisturizers you have in your house or can get at any store such as Aldi, Walmart, etc.

I use a Vitamin E cream I get at Walmart. It comes with two jars for under five dollars and I’m not allergic to it. If you have dry skin, you can (and probably should) wash your face in any of these products.

And while we’re speaking of faces, stay out of the sun to avoid wrinkles or skin cancer. One should also use a good suntan lotion such the one my dermatologist recommends: Eucerin Daily Protection. He recommends it because it contains zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. One can also wear a hat or carry an umbrella to avoid the sun as I’ve seen Carrie do on Sex and the City.

Men should moisturize their faces too, and use Eucerin Daily Protection on their faces and balding heads. I’ve noticed that men often look older than women of the same age. Perhaps it’s their wrinkles….

Here’s Where I’m At

Posted on by

 

 woman writing 

I’ve stopped writing the mystery. It wasn’t working so I’ve taken a break. I was going to take a Private Investigation course so that I could get inside the head of a P.I., but I chickened out. Well not exactly chickened out. I will take it. But something happened that made me stop and work on each story in my collection.

I’ve been shopping my book around for years – since 2009! I’ve made many edits since then and recently my collection made it into the 2nd round of judging and finished in the top 10% in the New Millennium Writing Sunshot Awards. I’d say that was pretty darn good! They didn’t do Honorable Mentions, but if they had, my story collection, A Surprising Measure of Subliminal Sadness, would have been on the list.

So that’s where I’m at, working on my stories. Wish me luck –I’m going to need it!

Going for the Jugular

Posted on by

I once had a writing student tell me she wrote for ½ hour straight and when she was done, her writing scared the hell out of her!

Writing can be scary. It can be painful. It can be a lot of things, and good writing can be all of these things. I think because writing is about letting go and going for the jugular – a thing that fiction writers do over and over again, revealing their secret, unfinished business.

Which brings me to wonder? Have you ever written about something you never told anyone before? You know – where you wrote straight through, not stopping to edit, just letting go and going for the jugular?

Try it, and see if you get scared!

Is This My Year?

Posted on by

Something tells me this maybe my year my book gets published. I have a book of linked stories called A Surprising Measure of Subliminal Sadness, and I have a feeling in my gut and in my bones this is its year. If not this year, oh well, maybe next year. But the idea that this is the year it’s going to be published is keeping me going because frankly, I’ve just lost a year.

My birthday is in July. But recently my daughter Carrie pointed out that I’m actually not the age I thought I was – I’m actually a year older! A shock? You bet! I lost a whole year! And these days, being in my sixties, that’s pretty major. It feels like I actually lost a whole year, and who can afford to lose a whole year of one’s life?

So this has to be the year my book gets published. I’ve been writing stories since I could put pen to paper. And long ago, my first creative writing teacher used to say I had Potential! Potential! Since then I received a fellowship in Prose from the Illinois Art Council, and some of the stories in this book have been published – one actually won first prize. But here I am, now rapidly approaching my seventies and still, no book.

I understand that I have to be tenacious and keep submitting, but frankly I’m pretty sick of doing that to hear nothing for years on end. Yes actual years that my book is still being “considered” and still no word from the publisher(s). (Yes, it’s alright and quite common to multiple submit.)

But recently I received an invitation to submit my book from the publishers where my story 13 Rules won first prize. Now how often does one get an invitation like that? Never. So of course I submitted.

So while I may have lost a year, maybe this is my book’s year. Fingers crossed and all that….

Hey, anyone have a good luck charm I could borrow?

How Organizing Can Help When You Can’t Give Up Your Stuff

Posted on by

Source: How Organizing Can Help When You Can’t Give Up Your Stuff

Practice, practice!

Posted on by

Red reading small 2

After many drafts, I can finally say I’ve written a mystery book and it’s done. Done, but I dumped it. Hang in with me. I’ll tell you why.

I’ve been a short story writer since the day I could write. Then I suddenly found I had the time to try something longer. Having always wanted to write a mystery, I decided why not write one? I’ve the got time, I’ve got writing skills, what could wrong?

Well just about everything. The first draft was terrible. I forgot to follow the rules of a mystery where one clue leads to another. But the narrator had a voice that some in my writing group actually liked. Good omen, I thought.

So for the following next drafts, I concentrated on the rules of mystery writing, but the narrator’s voice got lost. It was dull, flat, uninteresting. Even I thought so.

Despite my best efforts, the following draft did not improve all that much. I began to feel mystery writing was simply not my genre.

So during a break from it to gain some perspective, I decided not to let my writing group read the final draft. I mean, really: How many times could I ask them to read the same thing over again? I wished to remain in the group, not bore them to death. But they said they were invested in it. So I had to give in and let them read my last draft.

The feedback was this: Neither the characters nor the plot were interesting enough to keep readers reading! Needless to say, they were right. That clinched it. Into the garbage it went. (Not really – I just set it aside.)

So I bought a book on how to write a mystery. Read it cover to cover. And now that I’ve gotten the hang of it and know my characters better, I’m thinking I may start writing a new mystery.

And that’s where I’m at now. It really does take practice to perfect one’s craft if you want to write something worthwhile. So I’m plugging along. Learning the mystery writing craft, i.e. perfecting my plot, my pacing, my characters.

Wish me luck. I get the feeling I’m going to need it.

*

S.J. Powers (aka Sue Powers) has a dazzling array of publishing credits and she’s also won a few awards, such an Illinois Arts Council fellowship in Prose.. Despite some very nice rejections, she is still searching for a publisher for her collection of stories, A Surprising Measure of Subliminal Sadness. 

She lives in a Chicago suburb with her partner, two cats, one bird and a snake (the snake is on loan) and can be reached at firegut@sbcglobal.net.