Tag: West Michigan

NaNoWriMo 2023 In Review

John Winkelman

Poe, worn out from being Poe

I am happy to report that, for the eighth time since I first participated in National Novel Writing Month back in 2013, I have reached (and passed) my goal of 50,000 words. So, yay me!

This year I did something new. Instead of working on a novel or collections of short stories, I started a project called “Fifty Flashes and Fragments,” with the goal of writing fifty flash fictions or fragments of stories over the course of the month.

I hit 50,000 words on November 27 with piece 39, and then wrote one more because “Forty Flashes and Fragments” flows better as a project title. About half of the pieces have some merit, and of those, maybe half a dozen are genuinely good.

In service of this project, I created on this website a simple prompt generator which produces, at the click of a button, two subjects, a setting, and a genre. The only rule I set myself was that I had to use the prompt generated. Or rather, what I would NOT do is click the generator until I found a combination of subjects, setting, and genre that I liked. I only broke that rule once, when the generator produced a duplicate of the previous prompt. Random numbers are funny that way.

This method worked wonderfully, and I plan to continue to use the generator (with some modifications of the subject, setting, and genre options) for weekly writing exercises.

For NaNoWriMo 2021 and 2022, I came up with a new method of tracking my writing which focused more on the day-to-day nature of NaNo and less on things like chapters, scenes, and so forth. In those years I created one document for each day of the month, and when I started writing for a new day, even if I was still in the middle of a chapter or scene from the day before, I put that writing in the new document.

Psychologically, this had the benefit of breaking me out of the mindset of “I need to finish this chapter before I go to bed” or “I don’t want to start this chapter/scene/etc. until I have time to complete it in one writing session.” That kind of thinking is, to me, less valuable during the month of November. November is for writing 50,000 words. December is for editing those 50,000 words. Or not.

I feel that my 2023 NaNo project is a natural outgrowth of the method I used in the previous two years, and I recommend it to anyone who feels trapped between the demands of the story they are writing, and the demands of NaNoWriMo.

As always, I want to thank the members of NaNoWriMo Grand Rapids for their help, community, and support.

Here is the complete list of prompts I used for NaNoWriMo 2023.

Index: Subject 1, Subject 2; Setting; Genre

01: Economics, Aliens; Subterranean; Science Fiction
02: Revenge, Empire; Ship; Technothriller
03: Dragons, Evolution; Ship; Biopunk
04: Cyborgs, Possession; Small Town; Mystery
05: Super Powers, Portals; Battlefield; Solarpunk
06: Super Powers, Kaiju; Urban; Adventure
07: Cryptids, Music; Boardroom; Utopian
08: Cyborgs, Portals; Outpost; Literary Fiction
09: Evolution, Economics; Virtual Reality; Steampunk
10: Spiritual Beings, Super Powers; Lost City; Spy
11: Aliens, Cyborgs; Library; Noir
12: Apocalypse, Precursors; Labyrinth; Dystopian
13: Aliens, Dragons; Ruins; Western
14: Addiction, Language; Urban; Literary Fiction
15: Dreams, Espionage; Ocean; Western
16: Empire, Death; Lost City; Adventure
17: Possession, Dragons; Bar; Horror
18: Portals, Dragons; Battlefield; Biopunk
19: Kaiju, Language; Wasteland; Horror
20: Portals, Revenge; Labyrinth; Folk Tale
21: Music, Cyborgs; Ocean; Magic Realism
22: Robots, Revenge; Ship; War
23: Dreams, Fae; Subterranean; Cyberpunk
24: Colonization, Cryptids; Wasteland; Solarpunk
25: Music, Super Powers; Lost City; Steampunk
26: Genius Loci, Reincarnation; Battlefield; Weird Fiction
27: Portals, Espionage; Library; Weird Fiction
28: Revenge, Artificial Intelligence; Wilderness; Solarpunk
29: Language, Spiritual Beings; Space; Noir
30: Super Powers, Cryptids; Ocean; Utopia
31: Portals, Kaiju; Labyrinth; Horror
32: Politics, Dragons; Wasteland; Romance
33: Addiction, Spiritual Beings; Wilderness; Spy
34: Aliens, Music; Ship; Literary Fiction
35: Espionage, Robots; Boardroom; Western
36: Relic, Apocalypse; Space; Science Fiction
37: Fae, Politics; Small Town; Literary Fiction
38: Revenge, Mutants; Academia; Procedural
39: Mutants, Environment; Bordertown; Utopian
40: Portals, Colonization; Wilderness; Utopian

November Nigh

John Winkelman

New Books for the Week of October 23, 2022

November is nigh. It is not quite here, but it looms, casting the shadow of NaNoWriMo backward in time from a couple of days in the future.

This was another excellent week for new arrivals at the Library of Winkelman Abbey.

The first three are publications from Lakeshore Literary, a new-ish local literary concern which grew, in a sense, out of the demise of Caffeinated Press. Owner Jason Gillikin has done a stellar job in launching this new company, and I was happy to support them by purchasing their anthology Surface Reflections, as well as issues one and two of The Lakeshore Review.

Next up is Cormac McCarthy‘s eagerly-anticipated new book, The Passenger, which I picked up from local wunderkind bookstore Books & Mortar.

Next up is the Fall 2022 edition of Peninsula Poets, from the Poetry Society of Michigan. This is probably the only subscription I will continue into the new year.

And next is a long awaited reward from a Kickstarter run by Neil Clarke at Clarkesworld Magazine: A Summer Beyond Your Reach, a collection of short fiction from Chinese author Xia Jia. This project has suffered some significant slings and arrows, including COVID, difficulties coordinating between persons in the USA and China, one of the principles of the project suffering some serious health problems, and ongoing supply chain disruptions. It was originally scheduled to be published in November of 2019, and given the events of the past few years it is a small miracle that the book made it to print at all. But it is here now, and it is absolutely beautiful, and everyone involved should be proud of the accomplishment.

In reading news, I took a break from periodicals to dive into some of the recent book acquisitions, including Marissa Lingen‘s collection of short stories Monstrous Bonds, and the new collection of Jim Harrison’s nonfiction, The Search for the Genuine. Now I’m back at the magazines again, with the recent issue of Poetry in front of me, and possibly one more issue of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet before the end of the month, which happens at, er, midnight tomorrow.

In writing news, I am about as ready as possible for NaNoWriMo, and counting the hours until November 1.

I had an interesting writer experience a couple of days ago. I was eating lunch at work and reading the new issue of  Poetry, when I read a line in Troy Osaki‘s poem “Despedida for the Last Despedida,” and a short story suddenly appeared in my head, set in the world I assembled for the previous two NaNoWriMo stories, fully plotted and partially written. Being at work, I didn’t have time to do more than write down a couple of evocative lines in my journal which will, hopefully, serve to keep the story in my memory long enough to put together a first draft.

This experience is a good reminder that while we should “read well”, as Karen Lord advised her audience at ConFusion 2015, we should also read broadly, as inspiration can come from anywhere, and ideas can be triggered by anything.

Who Let All This Poetry In Here?

John Winkelman

Reading Material for the Week of April 10, 2022

This past Thursday I had the wonderful experience of attending a poetry reading for the first time in well over two years. The event was hosted by local indie bookstore Books and Mortar. West Michigan poets Colleen Alles and Kristin Brace read from their most recent collections.

The reading was wonderful! I had previously purchased Brace’s book Toward the Wild Abundance, and picked up Alles’ After the 8-Ball (pictured above, with Poe) at the event, and both poets graciously signed their books and, as the audience was small, we spent some time after the event talking about reading and writing and life during the COVID years.

I have known Kristin for several years, from her tenure at the Grand Rapids Creative Youth Center as well as the weekly open studio graciously hosted in years past by Jack and Julie Ridl.

I met Colleen back at the end of 2019, when we published one of her poems in the last issue of The 3288 Review. Shortly thereafter, Grand Rapids Public Library put in an order for the entire run of the journal, all 12 issues. As luck would have it, at the time she was an employee of the GRPL, so when word got out that Caffeinated Press was shutting its doors, they decided to add our publication to their archives. It was the largest single sale ever for Caffeinated Press, and also one of the last. So it goes.

In reading news, I am still working my way through my unread issues of Poetry Magazine. I have finished 10 of them, and might make it through another 10 by the end of the month, though I will likely take a break after the issue I am currently reading (July/August 2019) to read After the 8-Ball.

In writing news, I am keeping up my pace of a new poem every day for National Poetry Month. This years the words are coming easier than they did last year or the years before, both because there is a little less of *gestures at everything* and because I have had two more years of practice both reading and writing poetry.

November 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Books I Read in November 2021

This month was almost wholly devoted to writing for NaNoWriMo, so I only read a few short stories, all of them in the single book which I completed for the month: Dreams of Stars and Lies, a collection of short fiction written by West Michigan author Jean Davis. I made more progress on David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years, but I think it will be a few more weeks before I am finished with that one.

Books

  1. Davis, Jean, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.26)

Short Prose

  1. Davis, Jean, “Battery”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.24)
  2. Davis, Jean, “Devolution”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.24)
  3. Davis, Jean, “Legacy”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.24)
  4. Davis, Jean, “Mrs. Gilroy”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.24)
  5. Davis, Jean, “Sipper”, Dreams of Stars and Lies (2021.11.26)

Books From Near and Far and In Between

John Winkelman

It was another quiet week here in the library at Winkelman Abbey, which is good, considering that, as far as I can tell, I own about a thousand more books than I have actually read. Per Umberto Eco’s antilibrary, I don’t actually consider this to be a problem.

On the left is the newest book published by our very own Caffeinated Press: Trust, the first book in Jean Davis‘s new trilogy The Narvan. Davis is one of the brightest literary lights here in West Michigan. She is a consummate professional, a dedicated booster and supporter of the West Michigan writing scene, and a superb writer.

In the middle is Elemental, a collection of nonfiction writing by Michigan writers, published as part of the Made in Michigan Writers Series of Wayne State University Press. This was an impulse buy of sorts; I noticed it on the WSU Press website when I pre-ordered Jack Ridl’s Saint Peter and the Goldfinch, and added it to my order on a whim. It’s on the top of my stack of to-read books, starting in May.

On the right is Bright by Duanwad Pimwana, the most recent delivery from my subscription to Two Lines Press. I’m looking forward to this one in particular because, as near as I can tell, this is the first book in my collection from a Thai author.

In reading news, I continue to burn through my collection of poetry. Since my last post I have read When the Moon Knows You’re Wandering by Ruth Ellen Kocher, and The Somnambulist by Lara Mimosa Montes. I admit I had a hard time getting into the Kocher poems, and finally gave up about halfway through the book. This is not a slight on the quality of the poetry; the type of poetry she writes was simply not where my head was when I was trying to read it.

The Somnambulist, on the other hand, was great! It can be read either as a long poem broken into fever-dream fragments, or a many short poems assembled into a barbed narrative. Had I the time I could easily have read it in one session.

I would also like to give a shout out here to the publisher of The Somnambulist, Horse Less Press, a Grand Rapids outfit which is currently on indefinite hiatus from publishing. They turn out some top-notch work — full length poetry collections and hand-stitched chapbooks. Being part of a publishing house myself I understand the need for breaks from the work routine, and hope they find the mental and emotional energy to resume work. The world needs what they have to offer.

In the evenings as I drift off to sleep I am still working my way through Laurus, and it continues to be a remarkable book. I suspect I will revisit this one again and again in the years to come.