Winding Woods Walk by Ann Horn

November, 2009 November and Nano Pause for Breath Seizing the Season Three for a Feast Site News - Take-A-Write Prompts Tradition Funds for Writers

Dear Cowgirls and Friends,

Once again, this will be going out a little later than I'd hoped. At the last minute (actually almost a week before it started), I decided I would participate in National Novel Writing Month after all, if I could come up with a whole new idea for my bounty-tracker, Feldrea, in time. I want to do an episodic series with her, so that made sense. Well, lo and behold, I put some of those twenty creativity tools from the heart of Holly Lisle's Create A Plot Clinic to work, and came up with a good basic idea so quickly that I was amazed. The writing part is going very well, too, now that NaNo is on — check out my NaNo progress. The line-for-scene card outline, which I also leaned about in the Create a Plot Clinic, is a simple, fluid structure from which to work (which I am doing in Scrivener, under their special NaNo offer). I know some NaNo-ers have joined this list, in addition to my write 'em cowgirls granddaughter, Candace ("cornage" on the Nano boards), who is also doing NaNo (you go girl!), so good luck to all of us crazy enough to add this challenge to our busy lives! Drop me an email and let me know how you did and you'll get kudos in the next Express.

Autumn by Catrin Welz-Stein

Pause for Breath

By the time this is actually going out, life outdoors will definitely be slowing and stripping down to the essentials up on our ridge. The last of the leaves will whirl off, leaving bare trunks and branches for the winter winds to howl through. The evergreens will bow their heads a little, pull in a little, huddled and braced in the slowly deepening cold. Usually November isn't so bad though. Most of the howling waits for December or January. In November, nature in my neck of the woods often gets a little breathing space between the windstorms of earlier autumn and the solid snowstorms or howling snow-gales of true winter. Everything slows to a long pause, nature's deep breath before bringing in the coldest, darkest season of all.

Pause for a breath yourself, sometime before you start getting caught up in winter struggles and the holiday whirl. Make the time. If it's too cold outdoors and there is no peaceful place in your house, drive to a park and sit in your car to write, or find a quiet café at an off-time of day. What did you plant in the seasons of this year? What grew as planned? Did anything fail to flourish? What unexpected riches came sprouting up? What did you harvest? What kind of seeds do you want to plant for your life and your writing next year? Take it for a write.

Seizing the Season

Here are some November words for you:

Morning Reflections by Alison Meyer

bounty   turkey   gratitude   cold   boots   rain   flurry   grandmother   hunter   rugged   deer   gloom   pie   feast   honker   cabin   bare   sleep   corduroy   chop   hunt   wild   cranberry-sauce   cinnamon   axe   tramp   grey   chill   swamp   fade   huddle   mull   visit   ducks   stuffing   fog   squash   downpour   darker   forester   rest

Pick one or two or a few and go for a write. Then think about seasonal complications, because recognizing and including seasonal flows and changes will add depth and reality to your writing. What kinds of things can go wrong in November? Company all on the way to Grandma's for Thanksgiving dinner when Grandma has a medical emergency and has to be rushed to the hospital? An early storm catching people unprepared? Something gone wrong on a hunting trip or mushroom foraging expedition? Find a seasonal complication, add a sprinkle of words, and go for a write.

Three for a Feast Many cultures celebrate the fall harvest with a feast. Thanksgiving is a holiday with strong food traditions for many American families. Lots of people have pumpkin pie for a Thanksgiving dessert, but have you ever tried a pumpkin cobbler? We like it even better than pie (and it keeps better as a refrigerated leftover). I think it's easier than messing around with pastry and vastly better than any commercial pumpkin pie I've ever had. Here's how.

Fall Squash Learning to Fly by Moonlight by Sage Rose

Dessert Ad II by Thomas Wood

Now personally, being of the variety-is-the-spice-of-life persuasion, I like to have more than one dessert at Thanksgiving, and not everyone is fond of pumpkin or squash. Nuts and chocolate are both popular at holiday time, and this fudge brownie pie combines them deliciously, while packing significantly less fat and fuss than your average chocolate nut pie (many nut pie recipes contain up to a half cup of butter in the filling alone!). Not having a crust makes it simpler to prepare as well as healthier, and using cocoa to help deepen the chocolate flavor helps keep the fat down, too. Also take note that if there is no cross-contamination (such as flour from a scoop getting into the sugar, etc.), this is a gluten-free/wheat-free dessert.

Wow, that's two desserts, so I'd better give you a good idea for veggies to balance that out! You don't even need a recipe for what we call Aunt Fran's Salad (that's who I learned about it from). Just generate a bowl of bite-size pieces of raw cauliflower and broccoli, whatever seems like enough for your crowd. Mix in some sliced green onions, and if you want to make it pretty you can dice some raw or roasted sweet red pepper to add, too. Then just toss it with some ranch style dressing (we like the kind made from the dry mix) and let it blend in the fridge for at least an hour or two before serving. You can add additional seasonings if you want, but it will be good even if you don't. It's a great, easy-to-serve raw salad to go with Thanksgiving dinner, and broccoli and cauliflower are both very good for you. This is also a very popular dish at holiday potlucks, a light and attractive counterpoint to some of the richer holiday foods. The same veggie mix is also delicious in a creamy sweet-sour type coleslaw dressing, with or without bacon pieces added.

Site News

The Write 'em Cowgirls website continues to develop, albeit slowly. I really am (amidst noveling, solar work, housework, caregiving, doing this newsletter, etc.) trying to get that Writers' Links page finished so Josh can get it up, and some other pages, too, but meanwhile, those of you who enjoy regular freewriting practice should check out my new line of Sharon's Deluxe Take-a-Write Prompts. They are a real bargain, at two dollars (US) for a downloadable pdf sheet of 24 prompts (five dollars for a set of three different sheets). Download, print, and cut on the dotted lines, and you'll be ready to take 24 writes without even taking the trouble to think up a prompt. Proceeds will help support the site and me and my family through these perilous times. If you have freewriting friends or know educators in search of ideas for prompts for creative writing classes or units, please tell them about Sharon's Deluxe Take-a-Write Prompts and send them the url (please do not just send them the files if you buy them, as they are copyrighted). Freewriting practice will help you develop a strong, authentic voice, and these simple, handy prompts make it easy.

Wild Turkey by Alison Meyer

Tradition

Holidays are a time when family and cultural traditions are handed down, generation to generation, sometimes changing a bit with the times but with roots that reach deep. Are there young people in your life to whom you pass on holiday traditions? Which ones do you enjoy passing on the most? Which do you most hope will carry on into the distant future? Which do you think can change a bit to suit the times without losing their essential heart? Which do you think you could do without? Take it for a write. Or if you'd rather take it to fiction, do a story about passing on (or not, or altering…) of holiday traditions.

Funds for Writers

Some of you may already know about the terrific resource website, Funds for Writers, but those who don't and who are interested in freelance writing should definitely check this one out. There is a wealth of information about good-paying markets, contests, grants for writers, and more. Sign up for the free, shorter newsletters or pay for a subscription to the longer ones if you like; the choice is yours. There are plenty of free resources and opportunities on this site to make it well worth checking out, even if your budget is too tight for a paid subscription at present. C. Hope Clark has done a beautiful job with this resource, so it's no wonder that it made the Writer's Digest 2009 "101 Best Websites for Writers" list. Check it out.

Happy Thanksgiving by Luca Bimbi

I hope you all have happy Thanksgivings, with things to be grateful for. I'll be grateful if this newsletter is off and on its way to you all by then! Be well and write on, especially all the NaNo crazies. Your vision is depending on you.

Best Regards,

Sharon

P.S. Creativity kudos go out this month to that enchantress of time, Diana Gabaldon. An Echo in the Bone is a gorgeous title, and it's a marvelous tale full of rich characters who make me care, in a glorious balance of heartwarming and swashbuckling. I love the creativity with which Ms. Gabaldon manages a coherent novel out of four storylines (with subplots, etc.) in two timeline branches two hundred years apart, and on two sides of a great ocean to boot. I have loved all the "Outlander" books, and this one is no exception. Well written, well edited, creative, and as always a terrific job of evoking the senses to make the story richer. Go Ms. Gabaldon! If I lived closer, I'd send you over suppers so you could spend more time working on the next one. It will be very hard to wait for what-happens-next this time!