Announcing The Winner of The Autumn Writing Contest!!!!

At Last! The Moment we've all been waiting for! The winner of the Inkpen Authoress's Autumn Writing contest is announced!!!! Thank you to each and every one of you girls who entered! I enjoyed so much receiving every entry! As I remember, the prize for winning this contest, is the publishing of your entry on this blog, and in our family newspaper. I read through the entries this afternoon, and though each one was very good, I chose the one entry that to me captured the spirit of the contest, and was in short, the best. Although the choice was hard, I finally decided the winner. Everybody please congratulate Miss Abigail Taylor on her poem "The Changing of the Leaves"! You may read the poem in full below, but first I want to again thank each of the girls who entered this contest! Do you think there should be another contest sometime? Let me know!
~Rachel


"The Changing of the Leaves."

By Miss Abigail Taylor

Splendid colors of every hue

Accentuated by skies of deepest blue

Like carefree laughter of the trees

Is the changing of the leaves

The oaks unfold their acorn crop

Squirrels squirrel-away the ones that drop

They know they have no time for ease

At the changing of the leaves

The white-tailed buck deer seeks a mate

He shakes his head and makes a scrape

With eager eyes the hunter sees

A promise in the changing leaves

The golden sun smiles gentler rays

The land is blessed with cooler days

The farmer welcomes the gypsy breeze

That accompanies the changing leaves

Bittersweet comes the end of summer-long

Like the close of a book or the end of a song

Boys and girls study ABC's

While they'd rather be playing in the leaves

For though flowers of summer are bright and lush

More resplendent still was the Artist's brush

When He uniquely painted fair Autumn's trees

And designed the changing of the leaves.

A New Side of C.S. Lewis

Who doesn't love C.S. Lewis? His Chronicles of Narnia series will never fail to delight and inspire its readers, and I understand his non-fiction books are equally amazing! :) I don't know about you all, but there is nothing I like better than to discover a new side to one of my favorite authors! :) So today while at my aunt's house when Sarah brought over a volume of C.S. Lewis's poetry, I knew I had to take a look! For some reason it had never crossed my mind that anyone who excelled so in prose could turn out such lovely poetry! Some of it, indeed, had a strange meter to it, but I found much of it beautiful! The discovery gave me the sort of feeling I had when I found out that Rachel Field, long one of my favorite poets, was an acclaimed authoress of novels also! :) Here are two of the poems that I found especially thoughtful. Beware though, you will have to put your mind to thinking a bit more with his poetry than if you are reading Robert Louis Stevenson! ;)

"Late Summer"
by C.S. Lewis

I, dusty and bedraggled as I am,
Pestered with wasps and weeds and making jam,
Blowzy and stale, my welcome long outstayed,
Proved false in every promise that I made,
At my beginning I believed, like you,
Something would come of all my green and blue.
Mortals remember, looking on the thing
I am, that I, even I, was once a spring.

Isn't that so bittersweet? Mama said it reminded her of an elderly person! :( The next poem, is addressed to "Andrew Marvell". I hadn't a clue who he was, so I took the liberty of Google-searching him, and found he was a poet in the late 17th century... I suppose he was criticized for writing light verse, as the general taste ran toward heavy, thinking, poetry, but I found the ideas in this poem very well fit my taste in poetry! (excepting the "godlike power" part, of course!) :)

"To Andrew Marvell"
by C.S. Lewis
Marvell, they say your verse is faint
Beside the range of Donne's;
Too clear for them, too free from taint
Of noise, your music runs.

Their sultry minds can ill conceive
How godlike power should dwell
Except where lungs with torment heave
And giant muscles swell.

The better swordsman with a smile
His cool passado gives;
Smooth is the flooding of the Nile
By which all Egypt lives.

Sweetness and strength from regions far
Withdrawn and strange you bring,
And look no stronger than a star
No graver than the spring.

*Passado: a thrust in fencing with one foot advanced
So I hope you enjoyed this rather deeper journey into poetry...this is the sort of thing that real poets write...*goes off to sigh over her own poetry* ;) I think it would be ever so much easier to write poetry for children! *goes off again to read "A Child's Garden of Verses"* ;) -Rachel

Inkpen Poetry Day: Introducing Miss P's China

Sorry today's poem is so late! :) Before you read this poem, I had better do some explaining: You girls doubtless know that I have been greatly influenced by Louisa May Alcott's writing. I can totally identify with the March girls in Little Women- we have six girls, but the older four of us are in a little pocket hemmed in by two boys. Years ago, when reading Little Women, I wished to start up a club like their "Pickwick Society", but as many of you have already heard the story, I won't go into detail. Click Here For More. We named our paper "The Girls' Gazette" (G.G. for short) and decided to have a tea party every Wednesday afternoon. Now, we all chose pen names, and Sarah's is Louisa Joy Popplewell.(Hence the reference below) Mama and Dad have a tradition of buying a tea-set for each one of us girls when we turn 13. Long story, but Sarah did not get her's till shortly before her 16th birthday this summer! :D So I made up this little poem for the occasion. Now, read the poem in peace! :D

"Introducing Miss P's China"
By Rachel H.

China for group of eight;
Cup and bowl and dinner plate
Finally coming much too late;
(A year too late, times three!)

Here we learn the happy truth:
These shall serve our merry youth
And we'll gravely break a tooth
On sweets a year-times-three.

A Benediction now I lay
Upon the porcelain this day,
And hope it's safe to finally say:
"Louisa, pour the tea!"

Autumn Fancies- Anonymous

"Autumn Fancies"
Anonymous

The Maple is a dainty maid
The pet of all the wood
Who lights the dusky forest glade
With scarlet cloak and hood.

The elm a lovely lady is
In shimmering robes of gold
That catch the sunlight when she moves
And glisten, fold on fold.

The sumac is a Gypsy Queen
Who flaunts in crimson dressed,
And wild along the roadside runs,
Red blossoms at her breast.

And towering tall above the trees
Wrapped in his purple cloak,
A monarch in his splendor
Is the proud, and princely oak.

*Sigh* I've always loved this poem, and by the time I was about 10, I had it memorized. The sight of a brilliantly colored tree never fails to bring this little poem to mind, and I even absentmindedly made up a tune to sing it to...a very lame tune, but I was only 10 years old! :) Hope you enjoy it! :) DON'T FORGET!!!! ONLY 6 DAYS LEFT TO ENTER THE AUTUMN WRITING CONTEST!!!! SEE BUTTON ON SIDEBAR FOR DETAILS!!!! = D

Is Simple Best After All?

Have you ever received a piece of information just a teensy bit too late? That happened to me recently! I have been reading "Revision and Self-editing: Techiniques for transforming your first draft into a finished novel" by James Scott Bell. Recently I sent my manuscript to a publisher, only to withdraw it due to some of the company's policies that I didn't agree with. But I am not sure that I quite understood just how unfinished my novel was. A friend introduced me over the web to a wonderful blessing: a young lady named Claire who has since been acting as a sort of editor for my book. She has opened my eyes to the fact that I have problems with telling my story instead of showing it. I laughed aloud one time at one of her comment blocks; she said something like: "You are telling the reader instead of showing them. This is a technique popular in classic novels like David Copperfield, Anne of Green Gables, etc." because you know, it's true! That is the great majority of what I read, and so naturally my writing conforms itself toward that ideal. The problem? The writing world has changed since then, and readers do want you to show them the scene rather than tell it is many words. :) But back to the book I've been reading. I had always assumed (and Mama with me) that when writing dialog, it was profitable, and better writing to use alternative words for "said". Therefore, my dialog is peppered with "retorted", "answered", "stated", etc. I avoided little generic "said", that gloriously all-purpose word out of fear for it's very usefulness! But here is a passage in the aforementioned book that struck my eye:
"An attribution tells the reader who is speaking. Almost always, the simple said should be your default setting. Some writers, under the erroneous impression that said isn't creative enough, will strain to find ways not to use it. This is a mistake. Said is almost invisible to the reader but for its primary use as a tag to tell us who is speaking. It does its work and stays out of the way."

Wow. This perfectly describes my writing! :) *blush* But you know, this is what writing is about. This is why reading is profitable. This is why scribbling is my passion! :) There is always something to be learned that you have not heard. So please listen. I wonder if the things I write now will seem as immature, and...awful as the things I wrote as a 12 year old. Back then, I thought them prime literature! ;) Now...I laugh ruefully, still remembering how I cherished those stories and poems. Doesn't it then stand to reason that what we think is a masterpiece in creation now, will be viewed in rather a different light 10 years hence? Therefore, do learn new techniques...until I met Claire, I had never heard of show vs. tell. She recommends joining a writing critique group, (which I have yet to do) because, as the old saying goes: "Two heads are better than one!" and others catch mistakes or flaws in our writing that may be blind spots. If I have learned one thing through-out my small writing experience, it is that you must view criticism not as a thing to be offended at and avoid, but...merely an opportunity to refine your craft, and make your story a thing to be proud of in 10 or 12 years! Hope you enjoyed this tip from "Revision and Self-editing" by James Scott Bell! It was definitely worth the purchase! :)
-Rachel

"Qualities For A Grandma"

“Qualities for a Grandma”

By Rachel Heffington

I wrote here some things, quite a lot,

A grandma should be, and what she should not.

She should always be squishy, like bread in a pan,

She should drive an old Buick and never a van.

She should talk about flowers and intr’esting things

And hum when she’s happy `cause grandmas don’t sing.

She should have quite a store of things in a tin

That are good to eat- she’ll have wrinkly skin.

She should have a broad lap that makes a good seat,

And a grandma should never go `round in bare feet!

She should call you an angel and sometimes a dear,

And when you get hurt she’ll always be here.

And when you come vis’ting, she’ll sure be at home,

Because tisn’t often that grandmas should roam!

She’ll make you feel cozy, like toes by a fire,

And her clothes always smell like they’re fresh from the drier,

She should have a soft chin and nice padded knees—

I know this is right for Grandmamma has these!

Various and Sundries!

Greeting Fellow Writers! I have been gone all week at Daughters of Destiny, so do forgive the lack of posting! I promise to come up with something good to post on here soon! We just jumped back into life running so I'm super busy! But here are some things to hold you till next post...

1. Thanks to my new follower! We are getting a nice, cozy, community over here at last! :)
2. How on earth can any person on earth have time to do NaNaWriMo? (I just finally found out what it was!)
3. DON'T FORGET THAT THERE ARE ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT TILL THE DEADLINE FOR THE AUTUMN WRITING CONTEST!!!! PLEASE ENTER IF YOU CAN! JUST CLICK ON THE SIDEBAR PICTURE!!!!! :) Thanks to Abigail, Miss Petunia, and Nela for entering!!! :)
4. Anyone read any good classics recently? Any to recommend?
5. One last thing: Please leave a comment answering these four simple questions:

A. What do I need more of: interesting posts, my writing, or tips?
B. Of my writing, what would you like to see more of: poetry, stories, short pieces of any sort?
C. If I had any other contests or blog parties, would you enter?
D. What made you decide to follow my blog?

Okay! I'll be rather sad if some people don't comment, because than I'd know for sure that you all were sick and tired of this blog! :( I cherish each and every one of you girls, so please keep reading! :) Love, Rachel