Category: poetry

Around the House, Books, Lifelong learning, My Writing, poetry, What I Love, Writing

July 2026 Stats

In July 2026, I wrote 4018 words. Of those words,

  • 223 were for this blog (1 short post),
  • 1207 were for my journal,
  • 777 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 833 were on various social media accounts,
  • 751 were poetry (6 short poems and 2 long),
  • and 450 were in short stories (3 pieces of flash fiction).

This month was chock full of things, like Independence Day and my dad visiting for a solid week, two different days of flash flooding in my area where the power went out and the streets were insane, an online poetry conference with the Poetry Society of Texas, learning how to play Mahjong for the first time and then teaching like three other people my limited knowledge, adopting an orange cat from O’Malley’s Cat Rescue Lounge, preparing for my dad to visit and then he didn’t, keeping one of the other cats from killing the new one, and trying to write poems in new forms I’d never heard of before. There were only 12 days that I didn’t write anything new. I spent nearly all my waking moments this month selecting and revising poems for the Poetry Society of Texas Annual Contest. I had two poems published and got four poems submitted to other places as well. It was a really good month as a working writer.

As for reading, I read parts of:

  • The Virgin Who Ruined Lord Gray by Anna Bradley (e-book; historical romance)
  • Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune (e-book; fantasy)
  • The Hurting Kind by Ada Limon (e-book; poetry)
  • Writing Creativity and Soul by Sue Monk Kidd (e-book; non-fiction)

…and I finished reading:

  • Poetry Society of Texas: Student Award Winners 2025 (trade paperback; poetry)
  • A Sense of Stars by Cade Huie (trade paperback; poetry)
  • Barren Years by Amanda Russell (trade paperback; poetry)
  • The Resistance Knitting Club by Jenny O’Brien (e-book; historical fiction)

So I have finished 49 books so far this year (and read parts of another 12, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.). 

Books, Everywhere But Home, I Am Traveling, My Writing, poetry, Speaking, What I Love, Writing

May 2026 Stats

In May 2026, I wrote 5312 words. Of those words,

  • 607 were for this blog (3 short posts),
  • 410 were non-fiction essays
  • 776 were for my journal,
  • 2439 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 359 were on various social media accounts,
  • 46 were poetry (1 short poem),
  • and 675 were in short stories (3 pieces of flash fiction).

There were only 14 days that I didn’t write anything. As you saw in a my last post, I was super busy this last month. I won’t rehash all of that. My eyes improved a lot, but I was out of town a lot, so I didn’t spend as much time at my desk as I’d like. In the end, I performed 5 poems on stage this month and got one poem and one short story out the door for submitting to literary journals.

As for reading, I read parts of:

  • Attention Seeker by Darcy Michaels (audiobook; memoir)
  • Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune (e-book; fantasy)

…and I finished reading…

  • Imprudence by Gail Carriger (e-book; fantasy)
  • Competence by Gail Carriger (e-book; fantasy)
  • Reticence by Gail Carriger (e-book; fantasy)
  • Romancing the Werewolf by Gail Carriger (e-book; fantasy)
  • How to Marry a Werewolf by Gail Carriger (e-book; fantasy)
  • The Lions of 5th Avenue (e-book; historical fiction)
  • The Little Shop of Found Things (e-book; fantasy)
  • The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (e-book; fantasy)

So I have finished 39 books so far this year (and read parts of another 8, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.). 

Everywhere But Home, Friend Time, Lifelong learning, My Writing, poetry, Speaking, Writing

Speaking While Out & About Last Week

It’s been such a busy week! On Thursday, May 28th, I was one of the named headliners (along with my friends Janet Tyner, Carol Thompson, and Ilenya Marrin) for the Winnsboro Spoken Word Open Mic Night for the Winnsboro Center of the Arts. We drove the hour over to Winnsboro once again and had a grand old time with MC Mike Guinn, JDarrell Kirkley, and others.

(Then I went to my niece’s wedding on Friday, which should have a post of its own.)

On Saturday, Janet, Carol, and I got up super early, drove to Grapevine, Texas and performed for the Quicksilver Poetry Festival’s Open Mic as well. I don’t have any photos from that yet, but I will share them once I get copies. We had a fabulous time there as well. We got to visit with all our Ft. Worth Poetry Society comrades, hear some wonderful speakers (including the Arkansas Poet Laureate), listen to other wonderful poets, and see Shakespeare Dallas perform for us.

While I’m sad it took me so long to get into there, I really love our Texas poetry community now that I know where to find them. 🙂

Everywhere But Home, Lifelong learning, poetry, What I Love

New Role Incoming – Poetry Society of Texas

I am delighted to announce that I will be serving as Director on the 2026-2027 board of the Poetry Society of Texas. I’ll spend the year shadowing Barbara Blanks, with an eye towards picking up some of her duties in the next couple of years as she moves onward.

Essays, Everywhere But Home, Lifelong learning, poetry, Speaking, What I Love, Writing

Upcoming Speaking Engagement on March 19, 2026 at the Rusk County Poetry Society

I will be speaking to the Rusk County Poetry Society at their March meeting on March 19, 2026 in Henderson, Texas. My topic is “Line Breaks and White Space.” Hope to see y’all there!

Acceptances, Books, Essays, Lifelong learning, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Organizing, poetry, Short Stories, Speaking, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, What I Love, Writing

Full 2025 Writing Stats

I’ve been very bad about tallying up all of last year’s writing, but I think I’m finally done with it.

  • In 2025, I wrote 114,741 words. Of those words,
    • 5559 were for this blog (29 short posts),
    • 3,660 were in 2 essays
    • 26,396 were for my journal,
    • 43,436 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (15 lessons),
    • 15,692 were on various social media accounts,
    • 12,094 were poetry (68 poems – a lifetime record),
    • and 8004 were in short stories (40 pieces of flash fiction).
    • If you tally all those numbers up, I wrote 154 discrete items, not counting social media posts and journal entries because those don’t really get published. (So 154 items in 215 days, which means about 1 item every 1 and a quarter days)
  • There were only 120 days that I didn’t write anything, mostly due to illness, travel, or moving my kids from house to house. So I wrote on 2/3rds of the days of the year, which basically comes down to working on writing 5 days a week and leaving myself weekends for living, if I were the kind of person that followed a schedule like that. I mean, I try, but there were loads of weeks where I missed several weekdays and wrote straight through the weekends.
  • I only submitted about 5 items all year because it was just sooooo much chaos. I had 2 acceptances and the last 3 items are still well within their response timezones (there’s a better word for this, but the phone in the next room keeps ringing and ringing and I cannot think of it). The two acceptances will be published in early to mid 2026.
  • I had 15 speaking engagements last year. The vast majority did not pay, but were for a group that both feeds my soul and lets me practice my topics with them. Two were for free for the library (who I love and who graciously supports two of my writing groups), but I got several paid teaching side gigs out of them, so that about broke even in terms of payment, really.
  • As for reading, I finished 65 books and read parts of another 13, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF because I didn’t like their take on the topic or the writing style or something.

That’s it! One more year as a writer in the books. 🙂

Acceptances, Books, Essays, Lifelong learning, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Organizing, poetry, Short Stories, Speaking, What I Love, Writing

November 2025 Stats

In November, I wrote 16,268 words! Yay! Finally a good writing month after months and months of delays, trips, moving kids, etc. I’m so happy I finally got to sit down and just write. Of those words,

  • 409 were for this blog (2 short posts),
    2777 were for my journal,
  • 1234 were the essay for that anthology I talked about last month,
  • 2426 were answering questions to help make my essay for the anthology, many of which did not end up in the anthology because they were excised from the first draft to make way for words that did not sound like they were answering questions,
  • 0 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (I reused an old one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 1572 were on various social media accounts,
  • 3327 were poetry (16 poems – a new record!!),
  • and 1073 were in short stories (2 pieces of flash fiction).


There were only 12 days that I didn’t write anything, but that’s not bad because I wrote A LOT on the days that I did write. I did host part of Thanksgiving and a board games night at my house this month, as well as building shelves and moving my husband’s entire board game collection from The Living Room to The Library.

Another one of the books I beta read for came out this month, so once again I’m feeling that weird sense of accomplishment about that.

As for myself, I had one piece accepted for an anthology that will come out early next year (probably around graduation season, I’m guessing, since the topic of my essay was “advice I’d give a teenager who wants to become a volunteer coordinator for a non-profit organization”).


As for reading, I read parts of:

  • Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer(audiobook; non-fiction)
  • West of Yesterday, East of Summer by Paul Monette (e-book; poetry – I finally got it back on Libby!)
    Memory’s Daughters: The Material Culture of Remembrance in Eighteenth-Century America by Susan M. Stabile (hardcover; non-fiction – written by my Women’s Diaries professor at TAMU while I was taking her class)
  • How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy and Sonorous Guide to Verse by Thomas C. Foster (e-book that I have AND trade paperback at my dad’s house; non-fiction)
  • Poetry’s Data: Digital Humanities and the History of Prosody by Meredith Martin (e-book; non-fiction)

…and I finished reading:

  • The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn (audiobook; historical romance)
  • Poetry Magazine Jan/Feb 2025 by Poetry.org (paperback; poetry)
  • Let Loose the Dogs by Maureen Jennings (e-book; historical mystery)
  • The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (e-book; mystery)
  • The Comfort Book by Matt Haig (audiobook; self-help)
  • The Carrying by Ada Limon (e-book; poetry)
  • Stargazy Pie by Victoria Stoddard (e-book; cozy fantasy)

I really am trying to finish most of the unfinished books I started earlier in the year. I have finished 56 books so far this year (and read parts of another 12, again mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).

Everywhere But Home, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, poetry, Speaking, What I Love, Writing

Upcoming Speaking Engagement – ODWG on November 26th, 2025

I’ll be speaking this upcoming Wednesday afternoon at the Tyler Public Library’s Open Door Writing Group. We meet on the 3rd floor of the Tyler Public Library in the Makerspace from 1-3pm. I’ve been asked to talk about “Forms in Poetry” again and I’ve been practicing writing some different forms so I’ll have some contemporary examples for you! I know it’s the day before Thanksgiving, but we’re home this year for it, so I’m taking a chance on others being as excited about poetry as I am. 🙂 Hope some of y’all can make it! 🙂

Acceptances, Books, Essays, I Am Traveling, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Organizing, poetry, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, What I Love, Writing

October 2025 Stats

In October, I wrote 4350 words, which is so little that I could cry. But I was busy! More about that later. Of those words,

  • 320 were for this blog (2 short posts),
  • 667 were for my journal,
  • 0 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (I reused an old one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 1204 were on various social media accounts,
  • 1652 were poetry (9 poems),
  • and 814 were in short stories (4 pieces of flash fiction).


There were only 12 days that I didn’t write anything. I spent 10 days on vacation, traveling to, then staying in North Carolina, and driving home. I used every morning as a little writer’s retreat and wrote a lot while I was there. I’m still having trouble with my shoulders, so I spent several days either at the doctor, at the physical therapist’s office, or off getting X-rays and a couple of MRIs. I do have an essay that I found out about an anthology for on the last day of October that I’m going to start writing this week (but that counts for November). I still didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere.


As for reading, I read parts of:

  • Let Loose the Dogs by Maureen Jennings (e-book; historical mystery – I’m having trouble getting this book again through Libby, hence taking a break from it)
  • The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn (audiobook; historical romance)
  • Stargazy Pie by Victoria Goddard (e-book; cozy fantasy)
  • The Man with Two Left Feet (e-book; I’m not sure the genre)

…and I finished reading:

  • The Honey Witch by Sydney Shields (trade paperback; cozy fantasy)


So I have finished 49 books so far this year (and read parts of another 18, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).

Everywhere But Home, Lifelong learning, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, poetry, Speaking, What I Love, Writing

Upcoming Speaking Engagement at ODWG this Wednesday, September 24th, 2025

As requested by one of our lovely writers, I’ll be talking about “White Space and Line Breaks” at the Open Door Writing Group this Wednesday from 1-3pm at the Tyler Public Library in the 3rd floor Makerspace. Looking forward to seeing y’all then! #writingcommunity #writinglesson #poetry #whitespace #linebreaks