A surprise box of books arrived at my door today. Opening it up, I found the box full of copies of the latest issue of Ruah, a poetry journal published in Oakland, CA. by the Dominician School of Philosophy and Theology. The cover caught my eye right away-it’s a painting of musicians on a green background. I want to say jazz musicians, but who knows! I do know that it is absolutely beautiful. The cover art,  “Green Musicians” is by Stephanie Rodriguez. A collection of my poems, Wingward, is in the journal along with the amazing poetry of Scott Cairns.

 As the editor C. J. Renz remarks of this volume, ” Be open to unexpected visitations.” That’s what the best poetry does; it catches us off guard making unexpected tracks into our hearts and minds.

I just got back from a very fine writing conference, Willamette Writers www.willamettewriters.com. One of the highlights of writing conferences is connecting with the many writers attending the sessions. This year I was fortunate to meet Susan Fletcher, another YA fantasy writer. Her latest book, Alphabet of Dreams, will be coming out in the next few weeks. It has an interesting premise–what if you could know someone else’s dreams? Watch for it!

Another interesting session was with mystery writer Hallie Ephron. A few of her tips for writers: Write in scenes. Chapters become the packages in which scenes are grouped. To create forward momentum as the book progresses, you can break in the middle of action. Hallie even color codes her manuscript to help with pacing. To understand how she does this, read her Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel, Writer’s Digest Books. It’s full of helpful information for writers in any fiction genre.