Karina's Alphabet Soup #2 - B...Creative

Well folks, here we are with month two of Karina's Alphabet Soup...the letter B. I think the rules are pretty self explanatory, but click here for more).


One would think that with this being MY meme and all, I'd be highly prepared to wow you with my photos and prose. One would be wrong however. Turns out I had a great idea, but can't seem to find any great photos to go along with my great idea.


So, I took to the archives instead, thinking I'd see if any of my "B" photos inspired a bit of prose.


I could write about a Ball game,

Or perhaps about a Boat on the Beach,

I could write about a BlueJay,

Or a puppy Begging for a treat just out of reach,

I could write about a Blue globe, that just knows when,

Or about my Blackberry love affair,

I could even write about a bobble head pen,

Trully, am I getting anywhere?

Maybe I'd write about the Bareness of the trees

Or about a pair of Boots that make me smile,

Seems to me I'm spinning in circles here...

Honestly? It's all a Blur after a while...

Okay, I know I know...kind of lame, but that's all I've got today. You can see more of my prose here in my entry for Pensieve's Poetic License.

In the meantime, if you're participating, which I REALLY hope you are, leave me a comment, with a link to your post, and I'll add your link here:

1. You're first!

Pensieve's Poetic License #11 - English Sonnet - Masked

Please click HERE for Karina's Alphabet Soup.

This months PPL theme is "Masked" and the form is an English Sonnet. To be honest, when I saw the theme and form, I wasn't really sure I'd be playing along. I always hated Shakespearan sonnets because they seemed too damn constricting with the iambic pentameter and all that crap. I think it mostly had to do with the fact that my 9th grade english teacher was evil, and turned me off the form due to her evilness, but there you have it.

Yet, I decided to tackle it anyway, and even managed to stay within the "10 syllable perline" rule. Here's my entry:

Dark Alley

Though I walk on without trepidation
Head held high, as I look you in the eye
Firm steps, so sure of my destination
Never hesitating as I walk by

Though I stand tall, and with my shoulders squared
My strides determined, not afraid at all
Confidence apparent, never look scared
My very presence anything but small

Though I smile widely, grin ear to ear
Give off warmth, welcome, a friendly hello
Make it seem as if I’ve nothing to fear
Inside is the truth that only I know

You frighten me more than words can express
And just walking by? A major success.

Copyright 2008 - Karina

Hmm...for other entries, visit Pensieve's. Also, today is month TWO of Karina's Alphabet Soup, I'd love it if you joined in...please click here to find out more and see my entry for the letter "B".

The NaNoWriMo Experience - Excerpt 1

So, in case you haven't heard, I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year. I say again, because I signed up to do it last year as well. However, after a bit of technical difficulties (as in, a computer crash that cost me 2 weeks of writing time), I never finished.

This year, however, I'm determined to hit that finish line running. So far, so good. Of course, we're only 5 days in. But hey, word count before I even write today is over 7,000 words. Only 43,000 to go. uh....YIKES.

Anyway, I promissed I'd share some excerpts here, so let me tell you a bit about my novel this year. As yet untitled, it is very loosely based on my life. VERY LOOSELY folks, keep that in mind. It is the story of a 30something woman hitting the dating scene after years away, and starting a new career with an eclectic and interesting group of clients. Told in the form of a diary/journal/blog. For now anyway. Her story of all the characters she meets both in her new job, and as she starts dating.

With that...I give you a peak (please note that in keeping with NaNoWriMo's rules and policies, there has been little to no editing as of yet, that comes later):

Monday, April 17th - Day 1 of the Dating Manifesto.

Today I begin my new life. I woke up on Saturday and realized that it had been 9 months, 1 week, 3 days and about 10 hours since my last date. I mean, seriously folks, I could have had a baby in that time. However, since you need to actually have physical contact with the opposite sex in order to create said baby, and a REALLY BAD kiss does not, no matter how you spin it, count, there is no child to show for all that time.

I have, however, in that period of time, managed to shed enough weight that it looks like I might have given birth, and regained my “pre-baby body”, so it hasn’t all been a waste of time.

But here we are. Monday morning, no baby, no baby weight, and no dates.

...

And then I have this fabulous new career as a personal stylist to the stars.

Okay, fine, so technically my clients aren’t exactly stars, but they could be. In their own little worlds, the ones they inhabit inside their heads, they are superstars. And you know what? Even if they aren't famous, they sure as hell are wealthy, and as long as they have the money to pay me outrageous sums to go shopping for them, well, they can believe whatever they want to believe in their little heads.

I mean, can you stand it? I get paid to go shopping. I get paid extremely WELL to go shopping in stores I could only DREAM of walking into six months ago.

How did I get to this point? Six months ago I was unemployed and crazily searching the want ads for a real estate position that would pay enough for me to meet my mortgage payments.

And then I have one conversation with a rich lady in a clothing store, about how I think she should try the green dress instead of the black one, because it’ll bring out her skin tone and hello, new career.

Now I work for her and about 8 of her wealthy friends, helping them dress for everything, from a jaunt to the market (as if they would ever shop for themselves) to a Fundraising Gala Dinner Event.

On any given day I’m running around designer boutiques picking out outfits that cost more than my mortgage payments. It all still seems a bit surreal to me, to be honest. I can’t believe people actually get paid to do what I do. I’m making a living (a very good living) doing this? Who knew?

I love my clients though. I mean, for a bunch of spoiled rich wives, they’re a pretty fantastic group with some of the most colorful personalities I’ve ever come across. And they adore me, which makes my job all that much easier.

It was one of my clients, actually, that made me realize that maybe it was time for me to get back out on the dating scene. Jenie, my 70 year old divorce. This woman? Oh man, the stories I could tell you about her. She’s simply amazing and wonderful and inspiring. And she told me last week that she had decided that she’s been single long enough, having gotten divorced about 15 years ago, and was going to join a dating website for seniors. What a hoot.

Copyright 2008 - Karina

That's it, that's all you get today. I have to get back to my actual writing now.

Karina's Alphabet Soup #1 - A is for...

Updated: The letter "A" will remain open until October 31st, at which time, you should begin work on the letter "B", which will go live on November 7th. So you still have time to participate!

See below for links to the participants.

Here we go everyone! The first official helping of Karina's Alphabet Soup. For the rules, please click HERE. If you are participating, please leave a link to your blog in comments below. I realize I promissed a Mr. Linky but uh...that's not going to be happening, so just leave your link in comments, and I promisse to incorporate it into this post Friday when I get home from work, then everyone can visit everyone all weekend long.

This week's letter is the letter A. I'll tell you what, you would think that as the creator of this meme, I would have thought ahead and been more prepared, wouldn't you? Ah, but then you would think wrong!

And I spent the last week looking around and trying to find something, ANYTHING that started with the letter A that I wanted to photograph! The closest I even came was with this:


An American Flag...but, still, I wasn't thrilled with it. And then I remembered something. I took a photo last Friday, actually, I took a bunch of photos last Friday that fit the theme perfectly. Photos of what?




Photos of the audience at the New Kids on the Block concert. (There are more photos and a review here, if you happen to be curious).

And so, that's where I'm going with this. Here's my poem:

In Love with a Myth

He sings the love songs
You want to hear
The melody so sweet
His voice is perfect
The words just right
The intention oh so clear
And you could fall in love
All over again

He’s always had that way
About him
The one you can’t resist
It’s in his walk,
The way he moves
He can just draw you in
And you could fall in love
All over again

He looks your way
And reaches in
To the very depths of you
A look so piercing
A crooked smile
Making you weak in the knees
And you could fall in love
All over again

He makes the promises
He tugs at your heart
He looks you in the eye
Your heart is beating
Your palms are sweating
Your head is spinning
Out of control
And you could fall in love
All over again

But
You have heard all of the songs
You’ve seen those moves before
Those eyes have told you lies
He’ll break your heart
And you’ll be left
With nothing but a soundtrack

The show is over…walk away.

Copyright 2008 - Karina

Okay, that's that...now get to it, post your links! And thank you so much for joining me!!

Here are the participants:

Lissa - Alone

Callista - Active

PBNJM - Apples

BlogJem - Amazing

Karina's Alphabet Soup

In my travels to some of my favorite blogs, I’ve come across so many fantastic memes. Photo memes, poetry memes, and all sorts of other memes. And I’ve had this idea brewing in my head for a few months now, just waiting for the right time to give it a proper send-off. Now’s the time, I think.

I want to combine an idea I’ve seen, with one of my very own. One of my favorite bloggers in the whole wide world (love you lisa) participates in the A-Z Photo Challenge. I love the idea of doing an “alphabet” photo thing, and I’ve wanted to jump on board, but I’m loathe to start something in the middle of anything, so I’d have to wait for the next go-round, or go it on my own from the start.

I opted for the “go it on my own” version, but then I decided it would be a brilliant idea (because I’m such a genius, let’s face it) if I combined my newfound love of photography with my longtime love of poetry and creative writing. See? Genius!

And so was borne Karina’s Alphabet Soup, a monthly meme allowing you to express your creativity in not just ONE, but TWO very fun ways. Starting with the letter “A” each month we will move through the alphabet, and with camera’s in hand, head out and photograph any and everything we can find to fit that month’s letter. Then, armed with our very own, individual photographic inspiration, we will use our photos to guide us on a writing extravaganza. You can use one photo, and from that, draw your inspiration for a haiku, or use 10 photos and write a short story. Use 5 for a story or 12 for a poem, it really has no limits, knows no bounds. The rules are simple and flexible. The fun is in the ability to stretch first your physical eye, to see the letter of choice all around you, and then your inner eye, to see the magic your muse can create with what you come home with.

Then, on the 1st Friday of each month, I will post my own entry, and a Mr. Linky, so you can post your links back to your own entries on here. That’s it. You will then have a full month to work on next month’s entry.

Let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll set up a mailing list so that I can send out reminders one week prior to the posting date.

Oh yes, and I know there are some of you grumbling because you either A) don’t take photos or B) don’t write poetry/fiction, but would still like to play along. FINE, this is how flexible I am with the rules, if you don’t take photos, take a gander over at flickr or some other photo hosting site and do a search for photos based on just the LETTER assigned, find a photo or ten that inspire(s) you, and write from those (just be sure to credit the photo(s) appropriately). If you don’t write, but want to take on the photo assignment portion of the project, do so, and then just give us a few words about where the photo(s) took place, what they inspire in you, or whatever else looking at those photos make you feel.

See? EASY…

Oh, right, also, if you could grab the badge and include in your posts and post it on your sidebar (pretty please?), taht would be great!

I realize I need to figure out how to work out the html code so you can do it the easy way, so if anyone out there can help me with that, I would appreciate it..... THANKS!

The rules, in bullet form:

· Get letter assignment; leave comment that you’re participating, preferably with email addy, so I can send you reminder.
· Take photo(s) of things beginning with said letter
· Write something creative using photo(s) as inspiration
· Return here on 4th Monday of month
· Link back using Mr. Linky

Got it? Good. Let’s get to it, you assignment this month is the letter “A”…get to it. We’ll see you here on the October 3rd. Yes, you only get one week for the letter A..get cracking!!

Go forth, be creative.

Pensieve's Poetic License #10- Autumn Cinquain

This month's theme for PPL is Autumn, and the form is a Cinquain. You can get all the details at Pensieve's by clicking the button above. I just realized this morning it was TODAY so I quickly threw the following two together...one's much more "pleasant" than the other...

The first:

Death
barren, empty
Falling, dropping, flying
The leaves make their exit

Ending

And the nicer one:

Colors
Oranges, reds
Changing, coloring, enhancing
God paints us a beautiful picture
Autumn

Copyright 2008 - Karina

Thanks for dropping in, and before you go, won't you PLEASE read this post, I'm starting a new meme myself - Poetry AND Photography all rolled into one and I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE it if you'd help me launch it. Pretty please??

Pensieve's Poetic License - Back to School

It seems that the only time I ever post here at Creative Karina lately is when I do Pensieve's Poetic License, so I'm really glad Robin is still hosting these things...otherwise, my poor little blog here would feel even more neglected.

I'm posting this from work (shh don't tell), so I don't have my PPL button, so I'm just going to tell you to head on over to Robin's to find out more about it.

This month's theme is "Back to School", and Robin gave us a break and told us to use whatever poetic form we wanted to. So, I fell back on my old standby, which is "no format at all". I just sort of let the pen do the talking, and see where it takes me. This month, it did something I don't usually do, and asked me to rhyme all the way through. Well, who am I to argue with the muse?

Here's mine:

A Situation

The butterflies doing an African tribal dance
In her belly
Were the only sign of her trepidation
With a new outfit, new shoes, new backpack
She stepped through the door
Ready to end her vacation
It was a new year, things would be different
Here
She was going to be part of a new population
New town, new friends, new high school
A brand new her
And endless summer preparation
She quelled the butterflies, took a deep breath
Marveled
At the incredible sensation
New beginnings, new opportunities, new life
Saying goodbye
To her old reputation
One foot, then the next, and she walked to her seat
There!
She had reached her first destination
New hopes, new dreams, new challenges
A sigh of relief
This was truly cause for celebration.

Copyright 2008 - Karina

Thanks for stopping in, be sure to go visit Robin for other participants.