December Daze

Things have gotten hectic this month. Even if you're not a big Christmas person you certainly can't help but get caught up in the rush of others as they proceed to shop, celebrate, and ready themselves for the big day. All this extra buzz and busyness makes things like supermarket parking difficult and appointments for haircuts hard to come by, even in a small country town!

So you'll find me at home making some Christmas cards for family and putting the finishing touches on my 2014 calendar of haiku and photography, which I invited my hubby to be a part of this year. We have six months each and it's pretty cool to have our two styles represented within the pages for our family to enjoy.

Below is my last calendar page for 2013. Click on image to enlarge.

I achieved some big things this year: the biggest of all being completing my first poetry collection and sending it in to the Snapshot Press Book Awards. It will be a long few months yet before I hear anything back about the contest, but it's exciting enough to have fulfilled my goal and the rest is out of my hands for now. 

Another big highlight of my writing year was being part of A New Resonance 8: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press). I still have copies of this for sale, so please get in touch if you'd like one to give as a Christmas gift to yourself or to someone else. Just send me an email.

2013 also included writing tanka sequences with Pamela A. Babusci and Seánan Forbes (a delight); judging the junior section of the NZPS International Haiku Competition (great fun); coming 5th in the open section of the NZPS International Haiku Competition (yay!), and editing a month of dream haiku thanks to The Haiku Foundation's 'Per Diem:Daily Haiku' feature. Hard to believe it's all coming to an end . . .

So, what does 2014 hold? In regards to the writing realm I'm not sure, but stay tuned!

Given an ordinary stone . . .

The New Zealand Poetry Society 2013 Anthology, Given an ordinary stone, edited by Owen Bullock, was launched over the weekend in Wellington. You can order your copy here.

The anthology includes the winning poems from the NZPS International Competitions, including the Haiku Junior Section I judged, as well as other poems and haiku selected by the author from the remaining entries.

This year I won 5th Prize in the Open Haiku Section, judged by Nola Borrell, with:

drifting evensong
pine needles cloistered
in fresh snow

This appears in the book, along with my Commended placing:

full morning moon
cows chew their way
through the fog

I look forward to receiving my copy and reading all the poems from 2013! I'm sure it will be an inspiration. :-)

HAIKU MY PHOTO CHALLENGE - I'm the Judge!

I was very excited to be asked by Christine L. Villa to judge her haiga contest to celebrate National Poetry Month. It will be a blind judging, so even though all entries are appearing on her blog Blossom Rain, I won't be peeking! Instead Chrissi will send me the photo and all the entries (excluding names) after the closing date and I'll be choosing a winner based on which haiku best works with her image. The winner will receive a pack of six postcards with Chrissi's own photos.

Here are the details from Chrissi:

1) On the first day of the contest, I'll be posting my photo. Submit ONLY ONE haiku for the photo and type it on the comments section. The haiku must be the work of the submitting author, unpublished online or in print.
2) Below your haiku, write your full name and email address. If you don't want to post your email address, email me at chrissi731@hotmail(dot)com. I need to be able to email you if you win.
3) Everyone is welcome to comment on any haiku, but please no critiquing. 

4) The judge is Kirsten Cliff. 

5) Contest runs from April 23 through midnight of April 30 (PST).
6) The winner will be announced at 7:00 pm, May 4, 2012 (PST) with the collaborative haiga. If the winner doesn't reply within three days after the day of announcement another poet will be receiving the prize.

7) All rights revert back to the authors after the winner has been announced.

Chrissi says, "This contest is also my way of thanking all the haiku poets whom I've met online. I feel so blessed to find all of you who've been supportive and helpful in my haiku journey. I look forward to seeing you all. Let's all celebrate together and have some fun! :-)"

Here's the link to the post with the photo and all the entries so far: HAIKU MY PHOTO CHALLENGE
Enjoy yourselves! And I'll see you with the announcement of the winner next week :)