WEDS ROW80 Check in . . . and possums

Tasmanian Brushtail Possum

One of my characters in Years of Stone carries around a possum. I thought I knew what this small animal looked like, most likely something like a raccoon, though I was uncertain why anyone would want one for a pet.

Then I found there's a big difference between an opossum in North America and a possum in Tasmania.

In Tasmania, the possum is cuddly, somewhat chubby, a nice, long bushy tail; big eyes and cute ears that look almost like a rabbit's ears, though the possum still has those very sharp claws. In fact, the proper name for a Tasmanian possum is Brushtail Possum.

Virginia Opossum (Wikipedia)

In Virginia, the opossum looks feral in comparison with an elongated snout, nice sharp teeth, and a ratlike tail. Who'd want to cuddle with that? So once again, I'm grateful for the  internet and the ability to find comparative information -- even for what appears to be a walk-on appearance!

WEDS ROW80 UPDATE. I'm pretty pleased with this week's WRITING. The writing/revising comes along slowly, and Deidre is less wimpy by the day. I'm not counting words while revising because the process is somewhat sticky. Most days I delete as much as I add. I'm also making steady progress with READING other participants in the Ultimate Blog Challenge and ROW80, and using Facebook and Twitter. Kate Grenville's The Secret River is a sheer delight to read for her descriptive ability and nuances of character and plot. I'm also knocking down 2-3 writing magazines every other day. So far, so good.

The toughest area for me (as with many writers) is MARKETING. One example. With Blogspot, readers can sign up to receive e-mail notification whenever I put up a new post. But these e-mails are invisible to me. Enter MailChimp, a free service (can upgrade for $$$) that allows me to set up a way for readers to sign up for a newsletter. I can then write directly to my readers.

I'm experimenting with this on my travel blog (On the Road Again) to see how it works. Some of the marketing bloggers I've read through the Ultimate Blogging Challenge use something like MailChimp to offer their readers something for free. For writers, that might be a free story or an occasional newsletter or events announcement. If you have experimented with developing such reader lists and/or a follow-up campaign, I'd love to learn how and if this technique worked for you!

But what makes me still smile is that today I walked into my favorite used book store. Here, the owners kindly set aside shelf space for local authors. So after dithering for weeks, I took my book, The Mermaid Quilt & Other Tales, and asked if they would be interested in carrying my book. The response: Perhaps February (they rotate authors). Marketing. One step at a time.

More about Tasmanian Brushtail Possums at the Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service site.
The image of the Tasmanian Brushtail Possum is a screen saver picture from National Geographic.

If you'd like to see what Scheherazade has in common with the Francolin from Tanzania (Africa), check out my latest blog, On the Road Again. As always, may your writing week go well.

October 21: Woman Weaver

Huipil pronounced whee-peel

Young girl weaving huipil, Antigua, Guatemala (2001)

Since the beginning,

I have seen my mother 

weave huipil.

She would set me 

to sorting colorful threads 

while I watched  

mountains and birds take shape

under her fingers. 

The women weavers,

chattering softly in Spanish,

worked around us, 

all leaning on the leather belt

of the backstrap loom.

Only when I was thirteen

Did I begin to understand

What it meant to wear huipil:

I became the center of the universe

as I slowly pulled the huipil over my head

and emerged transformed, a woman,

between heaven and the underworld,

guardian of the past and the future,

keeper of my culture, weaver of huipil.

Huipils are traditional garments designed by men but woven and worn by Mayan women all through MesoAmerica. I took the picture of a young huipil weaver in Antigua, Guatemala, in 2001, while staying there in the summer, a break from teaching. Each village has a slightly different design, but the symbols are generally of nature, fantastic birds and flowers, or geometric mountains and birds. I treasure three huipils of my own to remember this time in Guatemala.

Octpowrimo's poetry prompt today was to write a poem about whether your life would go smoother if you would simply go with the flow -- Weave and flow. Once I read the word 'weave', though, I was lost in memories of Antigua. Read what others have written HERE or on Twitter @octpowrimo   More about huipils here.

Bird Huipil, Lago Atitlan, Guatemala, 2001

ROW80 (Round of Words in 80 Days) UPDATE:  The Quilt Show is over today! Maybe 4,500 attendees and over 600 fabulous quilts. I trashed my feet walking and looking and dreaming about quilting. Worked the Boutique during rush with a high tech cash register. Programs were great! Now I collect survey info and plan for next year.

WRITING: By making the chart, I actually wrote on my wip 4 out of 7 days, and am still holding to a poem a day for Octpowrimo (a poem a day for the month of October). I'm learning that if I write poetry, I don't have so much time for my wip. Must do/will do one critique today for NOVELS-L (else I am banished for the group for not doing two critiques this month).

READING: Slower progress in reading James Scott Bell's Plot & Structure, so I'm downsizing my goal to 2 chapters a week. Still making a steady dent (one magazine a day) in that pile of unread material. Posted a review in Goodreads for Kate Grenville's The Lieutenant, an absolutely engrossing read that's set, of course, in colonial Australia. What I appreciated most is that the conflict was mostly inner and mostly moral, leading me to ask what moral dilemmas my own main characters face and with what commitment. Feeling more comfortable with Twitter and holding to daily reads of what others have written.

MARKETING: Goals met for Marketing this week. In some ways, here I face the biggest challenge (is anyone else a shy writer?). But I'm pursuing a book group reading for January (just picked up my courage and asked! They said yes), and will also start attending an author's monthly lunch in December. I distributed mermaid bookmarks at the quilt show. While on Goodreads, I discovered Mike Lopez left a lovely review of The Mermaid Quilt & Other Tales!  Now time to reset that chart and get to work on the critique!

May your week go well.