What Do You Do?

Aren't we nosey?  People meeting for the first time often ask "What do you do?"  Translated this means, "How do you make a living?"  Or you might be introduced to someone new as, "I'd like you to meet my friend Brenda; she's a librarian and a writer."  In our society, your vocation seems to define you as a person.  I guess we just automatically "profile" those around us, putting people into various categories:  this person is worthy, this person is unworthy.

I know we are not supposed to judge people in this manner, but I think it is just human nature to do so, at least to a small extent.

There are so many catalogs coming to my mailbox every day.  Some are deemed unworthy and go immediately into the trash.  Others end up in a stack for thumbing through later.  Especially during the Christmas season I see many interesting, cute and funny gift items you can order to give your friends and/or relatives who are associated with such professions as:  doctors, nurses, dentists, fire fighters, teachers, policemen, beauticians, secretaries, artists, musicians, lawyers, etc.  Never have I ever seen a single gift item especially designed for a writer or editor.  Why is that?  Are we deemed unworthy?  Of course I know none of us need one more dust catcher to deal with, but still it would be nice to know that we writers are being included in some of those goofy gift items in the catalogs.

Grannie Carol

April Poetry Challenge

I am enjoying the Poetry Challenge again this year. It's great to develop the discipline of working on a new idea each day, even if I sometimes have to post them later. I am also enjoying the companionship of several other writers in the challenge.

You can find the prompts at Poetic Asides, and you can enjoy the poems that are posted by clicking on the comments link under each prompt.

You can read poems from our group or post your own on our new Pens & Pages Poems .

Here is one I wrote about writing, and what has been written:


Silence Overflowing

Papers bound together with a wire
waiting for ink to give them meaning.
Pens are river channels of the mind
leaving marks in layer after layer,
like fossils caught in leaves of slate.

Walls overflow with ideas
sandwiched inside cloth and boards--
fibers smeared with ink.
Little bits of other's lives
touch my mind across the gaps of miles and time.

I speak with silent marks on empty pages,
and listen to pages full of marks that make no sound.



There is one more week to National Poetry Month. Plenty of time to jump in and write a poem if you haven't already.

Copyright and Manuscript Rights

In Tuesday's meeting, I talked about copyright and handed out a sheet of the online resources I got my information from. I thought I would post them here for those that didn't make it to the meeting. Even if you were at the meeting, clicking through these links would be easier than typing in each article's web address. :)

A Novice Writer's Guide to Rights, by Claire E. White

Rights: What They Mean and Why They're Important, by Marg Gilks

Writers' Guide to Permissions, by Lynn Chu

Understanding Rights and Copyright, by Moira Allen

Rights, Rights, Rights: What Do You Own and How Do You Sell It?, by Mary Freeman Rosenblum

On Google Books:

Getting Permission: How to License and Clear Copyrighted Materials, Online and Off
by Attorney Richard Stim