Spillin' It to the Page

Huzzah and hoo-raaah, ladies and gentlemen! Lend me your eyes and dig this:

I have become a published author, it seems. An essay of mine has landed on The Good Men Project, an online idea-based, social platform and media company. I have been following them almost from their start on the web, and I finally overcame inertia and fear to submit to them something I wrote.

They liked it. They decided to run it. This makes me glad.

The essay I submitted is a revised version of a post I did here on Irish Gumbo, in the summer of 2012. The idea never really left my head, so I polished, updated and tweaked, and there it went! If you would so kind as to pay us a visit, show us all some love at Salaryman in the Mist: Finding Self-worth in the New Great Depression. I would honored if you did, and thank you for keeping me inspired to write!

Yeah, Okay, So I Need A Little Assistance With This

Happy Wednesday, dear readers!  I know this is Hump Day for many, but I'd like to beg ask of you all a favor.

A penny for your thoughts?  A nickel, perhaps, what with inflation and all?

I recently received in the good old snail mail, a flier for a writing competition wherein they are looking for short stories of 1,500 words or less.  Being a man of many words (written, at least) I have been toying with the idea of submitting an entry.  Safe as milk, right?  Should be no problem.

Well, here's where you come in.  See, I have a big blind spot, often, for my own stuff.  Sometimes I can read the same piece over and over again and still not quite get why others might find it interesting, scintillating or otherwise worthy of comment.  Or editorial consideration, for that matter.  So if I may, can I get a little sugar from you all?

If there is a story or piece of mine that you can recommend, one that you really enjoyed, doesn't have to be recent, please tell me which one.  I'm of a mind to maybe give this competition a go, take it on a lark, as it were.  I haven't done it in a while, and I feel the need to flex a little and maybe join the party.

Or...wait, maybe this is even better...

You can certainly recommend a significant piece I've already done OR you can send me a writing prompt and maybe I'll just write a fresh piece around that, for the competition.  How about that?

So if you don't mind, and you have a moment to throw a coin or two into my mental cup, drop me a line in the comments.  I welcome the feedback, and it could be just the ticket to freshen up my brain space!

The deadline for entry is November 15th, so I reckon I can take ideas from now until the end of September.  That, too, is a milestone, and probably a good cutoff point because at this rate I am very close to having posted an entry to this blog every day for one full year.   I hadn't intended to do that, but somehow fell into it.  I'd like to see if I can carry it off, at which point I'll probably take a hiatus to recharge.  But I don't think I'll stop writing altogether, so the short story idea could be the sabbatical I need.

Thank you all again for your readership and attention.  I look forward to hearing some interesting things!

The Secret Life of Vinegar

Hey, everyone!

Recall if you will my post of Tuesday in which I expressed some uneasiness and dismay of the appearance of certain...old-fashioned..."feminine hygiene" products in the sidebar ads on my email.  Well, we can all rest easy now, folks, as I discovered the missing link.

It was buried in an older email, at the bottom of a 'conversation', from a friend.  The friend in question had used the phrase 'douche bag'* in the conversation, so naturally, which word did the all-mighty G.oo.gle decide to glom onto when tricking up the ads?  The D word, of course.

So there you have it.  Mystery solved!  Now I can go back to eating my fries, shudder-free!

I Interrupt This Poetry Slam To Say...

...that gosh and begorrah, it seems that the Google Blogger Team's "Blogs of Note" page has gone and selected...

...Irish Gumbo...

...as the Blog of Note for June 7th, 2011.  Click on the link just to see, and to browse some other good things out there.

How about that?  Irish Gumbo: It's not just a blog, it's a digital Post-It!

(Poetry slam continues tomorrow)

I Interrupt This Poetry Slam...

...to say I am sorry for my lack of grace lately.  I've been weathering some storms all month, and I've been slipping further behind in my reading and my responding to many of the wonderful comments and correspondence I have received.

It may not seem like it to many of you who read Irish Gumbo regularly, but it is true.  I have been lacking in time and energy to stay current as I like to do.

Hopefully, the seas will calm soon and the headwinds die down.  I'm counting on it to keep my grip on the tiller.  Until then, I want to thank everyone who has been reading my work.  I enjoy hearing from you, but even if you don't comment I am very grateful for everyone's eyes on this here palimpsest dedicated to the noise in my head.

Thank you all, so very much.  The poetry slam will resume tomorrow.

Peace,
IG

Irish Gumbo's Handy Breakfast Tips: Edition the First

I know we all need a little eye opener in the mornings many days, but here's a little tip for you:

When sprinkling a favorite spice on one's breakfast cereal and bananas, make sure that spice is cinnamon and not cayenne pepper.  Otherwise, that may be more 'zing' than one is looking for to jump start the day.

Just sayin'.

I Know You Want One

My Daughter She Done Told Me: A Clarification

Oh, my.  I am behind, dear readers, on my reading and my writin'.  Due to a flood of work and school and personal commitments, I haven't been able to keep up with the world beyond my shoulders.  I haven't been able to respond as promptly to the many wonderful comments I have received on the Gumbo recently, and I want everyone to know I'm very grateful for the kind words and some cool links that folks have been leaving for me.  If I haven't gotten back to some of you, it's only because I'm swimming upstream as fast as I can, but life is like drinking from a fire hose sometimes.  Whew.

One thing I did want to clarify, from yesterday's post.  I see now that I may have inadvertently created some concern amongst some folks, based on the passages referencing bottles and pills.  Please know that the post had its roots in the temptation to reach for such things, and trying to come to terms with it.  I  generally avoid self-medication, I've seen the terrible consequences, and even though some might disagree, I am smart enough to stay away from such things.  They aren't much of a short-term strategy, and they sure as hell don't qualify as a long-term solution.

Besides, a daughter's gifts give me all the reason in the world to treat myself right, something I remind myself of almost every day.

And now, apropos of nothing, just because I feel it, I leave you with the following video, "Father's Son" by Fistful of Mercy.  Clap your hands and give me some testimony!

I Got (Indie) Ink on My Fingers!

Good morning, one and all!  And isn't it a fine morning?  I am so pleased to announce that I have been honored once again with a feature on Indie Ink!  Today they are posting my poem "Kudzu", and I would be tickled pink if you would visit and drop some comment luv on it.  Please do browse the posts while you are there, some mighty fine stuff to be found.  And let them know what you think!

Indie Ink

C'est bon, c'est tout!

Pleased to Meet You, Won't You Guess My Name?

Assignment, Part Deux:

Continuing along with the them of yesterday's post, on the class assignment I am working on,  I am (was) supposed to write a post introducing my blog and myself.  Welllll...I am pleased to recall that I had already done something (or several such somethings) already right here on Irish Gumbo.

But it never hurts to have a refresher, does it?

To wit, I dug up some previous posts of mine in which I explained or attempted to explain a little bit about myself.  So if one is so inclined as to dive into the mental Loch Ness that is the brain of Irish Gumbo, please go for a linky drive on the following bloggy backroads:

Irish Gumbo, Explained

Portrait of Irish Gumbo As a Punk Rocker

Dudes Who Lunch, Or What I Learned About My Animal Nature

So if you are interested, the above can hopefully offer some insights into This Person Who Blogs.  Or at the very least, you can point and laugh at the dork who writes this stuff!

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This is one of the things about blogging I find fascinating:  this recursiveness, the ability to metablog, to figuratively step through the looking glass.  Dr. Wesch was right in some ways...nothing for it but to dive in!

My First Slip

Today was a weird-letter day.  Not a red-letter or regular letter.  Just weird.  Well, maybe what I really mean is slightly unsettling, rather than full-bore, freakout kind of weird.  It started with my alarm clock, which I actually slept to this morning.  That is pretty strange.  But then it was just a washed out, dislocated 'two-feet-to-the-side-of-myself' feeling, all day.

The weather was no help.  It started out weakly sunny, and then the sky sort of...congealed...is the only way I could think of it.  Congealed into lumpy clouds, and the air started to turn into thin syrup.  I was hoping it would get cooler without the sun, but the grayer the sky, the warmer the temperature.  Not blazing hot but enough combined with the humidity to lay on some lassitude.

Then the rains came.  Not cloudbursts, torrents or gully washers.  The rain was just enough to require the wipers on continuous.  And to bring out the inner moron in two-thirds of the driving public.  A simple errand was simple no longer; it only took longer.

When I arrived home,  I felt bleahhhh.  I also swore all the birds in my immediate vicinity were staring at me.  This wasn't helped when one of the first songs I heard after turning on the tunes tonight was re:stacks by Bon Iver, and there is a lyric in there involving a crow that really threw me off my feed.

Okay, I hear the sighs, I see the eyerolls...why is he telling us all this?  Simply this:

Today I received my first official rejection e-mail (letter) for a piece I submitted earlier this summer.  Now that isn't earth-shattering news, especially to anyone who writes for their daily bread, or is trying to write for the bread.  I have been advised to expect it, to not take it personally, to keep it at hand at least know that someone took the time to respond.

I know all that...but, still...combined with the events of the day, it did put me a little further in the weeds.

Nothing a little music therapy and an attitude adjustment couldn't help.  The e-mail did indicate that I had made it to the final round of consideration, and the final decisions were not easy due to the wealth of good material that had been submitted.  I was also forbidden to be discouraged (thank you, cher Angie!) and that I should submit more, including poetry.  That was pretty nifty!

I also took a tip from my writer/editor friend Rich (who writes stories and a novel and even a play, and also writes cool stuff HERE), who mentioned he has been printing out his rejection letters and wallpapering his office.  So that is what I did.  I printed out the letter and will hang it up where I can see it from wherever I am writing at the moment.  Gotta start somewhere...

Una pequeña petición, por favor:  Another reason I am blathering all this is because my little writing boat is stuck on a sandbar.  I'm flailing away with the oars and just can't get going.  I have an idea for another in my Henry David line of stories, but it refuses to gel, it won't show its face...and it's making me anxious.  So with that in mind, meine Lieblinge, can you spare a brother a story idea?  Anything, anything at all?  A topic?  Even a sentence fragment?  Maybe that could be the spark that lights my fire, and burns off the funk.  And funk-free gumbo is good for us all!

The Turning of the Spit

Is it hot in here, or is it just me? Ow, Ow, OW!

A Gumbo Public Service Announcement for everyone: I am about to get roasted! Former ambulance man and current bon vivant Eddie Bluelights at Clouds and Silvery Linings has cajoled me into lashing myself to the spit for his Sunday Roast feature. I fully give Eddie his props, because you know how difficult (if not impossible) it is to put gumbo on a stick...but he did, so there I will be! 

Please set your reminders, the Roast goes on the fire this Saturday, June 12th at 10 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, which I believe is 6 a.m. Eastern time in the US. I think. Ah, Google it...time befuddles me, often.

This is a real treat for me, because have you seen the list of past Roastees? Some fine company, indeed. I was delighted and honored to be asked, and I hope you can drop in for some roasted gumbo!

In other news, it hit me today that my previous post HERE was my 400th post. How in the world did that happen? Whew!

"You aren't going to admit that for the first time in your life, you committed a purely human, emotional act?"*

YouTube made today's status report so easy. Just in case anyone was wondering...

*A Gumbo high-five for whoever guesses where this quote came from, and by whom.

Monday Sunshine: Evening Rumination

Crickets serenade.

Cradling my weary jawbones,

zephyr caresses. 

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To all: I think this may be the last post for a while. I need a break, take a rest and catch my breath. I'll be here, just quieter than I have been for quite some time now.

'This Is A Public Service Announcement....with guitarrr!'*

Well, okay, maybe not a guitar, but while you are here, do us a favor, luv, and check this out:

Angie Ledbetter a.k.a. Gumbo Writer, and Kat Magendie, the lurvely ladies behind the Rose & Thorn literary journal, are having an open house on October 15th, in celebration of their new (and hard worked) renovations of the aforementioned journal! It's open house time!

Now, I don't know about you, but when lovely Southern belles** extend a gracious invitation, I find it very difficult to turn it down. So please, tomorrow, click on the link above, see the new digs and tell them I sent you. I'm sure they would love to have you over. Plenty of appetizers and an open bar, I've heard!


*Know what  that is from? Do ya? Huh? Do ya?
**I confess; I suppose I'm just a sucker for lovely belles of any geographic persuasion. Sigh.

Sunday Contest: Caption That Stupid Picture, Fourth Edition

Holy crap, do you smell that? (sniff, sniff)

Could it be?

Yes, yes, it is! Looky there! Why it's the return of the STUPID PICTURE CAPTION CONTEST! Can I get a woot?!

Okay, maybe I didn't need that kind of woot...eeep...and that is not the picture I want you folks to caption for me. This is the one:

Scenes from a nature walk. Beer cans in their natural habitat...

It has been about seven months, seven months! since the last contest, can you believe that? I'm flabbergasted! How can that be?

...uh, mainly because I'm lazy, sometimes. Sheesh. So, a refresher for the rules is in order. Wait, rules? Did I say rules? Whaaa....? Really, all you need to do is leave your caption in the comments, I'll let them pile up for a few days and then, like compost, I'll turn them over when they are ready. Whoever can make me bellylaugh, snort, spittake or otherwise guffaw will be the winner. Prize is the respect and adulation of the Blogspot Chorale Society. And maybe a badge, if I can get off my duff and make one up.

Start casting them lines, people, there's fish to catch!

And, Charmaine? You can stop wagging that finger at me now...your wish is my command (grin).

Special thanks to MySpaceAntics.com for the woot pic. I'm going to wash my eyeballs, now.

The Invitation Arrived Early!

YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE: Ladies and gentlemen, I had been honored by a request to guest post later this week. The lovely, multi-talented and energetic renaissance woman who is Chef E has asked me to step in while she is on vacation. Chef, writer, teacher, author of six (six!) blogs, she has a lot of irons in the fire and enthusiasm to burn. I was flattered, and a little intimidated to be honest, when she asked me to guest on cookAppeal. She is persuasive, though, and I did get to write about one of my favorite things: FOOD.

I was scheduled to post up on Friday, July 19th. HOWEVER, due to an unexpected glitch, Chef E needed to fill a post slot TOMORROW, so she asked if she could pencil me in. Of course, I said yes. So, dear readers, please set your alarms, mark your calendars, make a note to visit me tomorrow over at cookAppeal! And while you are there, check out her blog, drop some comment luv and come hungry...so good, ya hurt yourself!