I read.  I write.  I write and read.  With much prompting from two supportive writing groups, I finally began to send out entries.

Last year, 2012, I began to read my work at open mics.  Finally, by November, I cast away some of the blue butterflies that caught in my throat.  And I sent out to submissions that seemed to call for what I wrote.

I was delighted when I was accepted to the Whatcom WRITES! call for submissions on the subject of “loyalty.”  I’ve never written about loyalty, was my first thought.  Then I cruised through my poems.  Of course I had.  I sent one in.

Today’s Bellingham Herald had this announcement in TakeFive:

WHATCOM WRITES! WINNERS TO READ AT VILLAGE BOOKS
Winners of the Whatcom WRITES! Contest, a part of the recent countywide What READS! program, will share their entries at a free event at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 3rd at Village Books, 1200 11th Street. 

The contest theme this year was “loyalties.” Among the readers are Robin Barker, Tim Pilgrim, Susan J. Erickson, Nicole Olivers, Betty Scott, C.J. Cj Prince and Heather Williams.
Bellingham Herald 2.28.13

So, if you’re around, stop by Village Books on Sunday.  A chapbook has been published with the entries.  I am eager to see it.  

Tomorrow I will facilitate my monthly writing group, First Friday Writers.  That’s the secret.  Just to keep writing.  Editing comes but first we must write.

Two Poems — by Susan J. Erickson.

Do enjoy these two poems by Sue Erickson that appear in The Museum of Americana.  I am honored to be in a writing group with Sue!!!

Insider Scoop: 2013 Chuckanut Writers Conference.

I lived with Ruby for a while–over there on 14th and Lafayette on Capitol Hill in Denver.  Ruby was stunning.  She stopped people in the street with her graceful curves and ease of demeanor.

Ruby was a six foot boa constrictor.  I fell in love with her at first sight.  I was in a show that called for a snake.  Not a single slithering being showed up for auditions.  The snake was to be my stage partner.  So I went in search of a well trained snake.

My previous snake, a bull snake named Phaedro, was left in my care when my son’s interests went elsewhere.  Phaedro and I lived in a no-pets apartment complex.  When Phaedro escaped, I could hardly call management and ask for help in retrieving him.  I wished him well.

You’d think a snake would be easy to find in a city as big as Denver.  I kept looking and finally found Ruby lounging behind glass in a pet shop out in Lakewood.  I was in an unsettled phase of my life and hardly able to consider buying her loveliness.  So, I bartered.  Ruby would be the star of the show (she was) and we would give the pet shop a full page ad in the program.  Deal.

I wondered if it would be a problem that Ruby had never performed before.  I had to make sure she was comfortable around people.  I stopped jogging and took up walking…walking with a six foot boa around my neck as I wandered down Colfax and along Broadway.  Now as beautiful as she was, she did not charm everyone.  Ten year old girls screamed and ran away from me.  But the boys, oh, the boys, any age, came to her like magic.  She never flinched or flashed a tongue.  She was totally accepting of their adoration.

Ruby was with me for some time before the performance.  She got hungry.  I can’t remember for sure what tasty morsel I finally procured.  Phaedro ate live mice from the science lab at the college.  They were no longer doing those experiments.  I went to a pet shop.  They were out of mice and hamsters.  I think Ruby ate a guinea pig.  OMG, she had this huge bulge in her slinky body.  She did not want to be touched during digestion…which went on for days.  I was afraid she’d bomb on opening night. 

Fortunately she completed the process by showtime.  I hung in a half moon forty feet over the stage with Ruby curled contentedly in my lap.  We made quite an entrance when the moon was lowered to the stage.

What memories does the Year of the Snake bring for you?

January 2013 Open Mic at Village Books.