Drops of Inspira

           Hello!  As I was considering ideas for this month's prompt, the word "flourish" kept coming to mind. There are so many different ways that you can use this word so it should be interesting seeing what you come up with! Here is the prompt: Hope this prompt is able to generate some of your own creativity, whatever that may look like.  Here is my response: If you are viewing this on a mobile device, I apologize as the print may come out a little too small. You should be able to view it by clicking the graphic. I will be back this weekend to show you the Summer Reading graphic I made. I'm excited to get back into something resembling the challenges I used to partake in when I was a kid. Until next time... Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry

           Hello, friends! Just wanted to pop in and let you all know that I am alive. I had to disappear for family and health reasons, but I'm back. Currently, letting my ideas percolate as things come back to life.  Some things I have planned for this month are: Poetry 15th My annual Audiobook Appreciation Month post A summer reading challenge Writing has taken a dive lately, mostly due to mental health reasons, but I'm hoping to get back into it this month. Besides blogging, I'm hoping to tackle more drafting for my novel Sirens of Fate,  which is currently in its 5th draft. This 5th draft has been rough because after getting results back from Developmental Editing, I realized that I needed to strip many ideas of the story away and take it back down to almost the first draft. There are a ton of changes, but the skeleton of the draft and many of the character arcs will stay the same. I am excited to tackle it and make the story stronger. To sta...

  *Slides in* Phew! I'm sorry. This was supposed to be out last week, but I got really sick so when I tried to sit down to write this, I almost passed out and had to call it quits. So here we are. The last part of  Christine Smith's  fabulous Know the Novel  link-up. As per usual, I am still finishing the actual draft, but what I did complete was a blast. So, let's get to the questions: Know the Novel Part 3: Words Written Question 1: How did writing this novel go all around? A: Overall, I'd say it went rather well. Yes, there were times it fought me, but on the whole, writing Drop  was a blast!  Question 2: Did it turn out like you expected or completely different? And how do you feel about the outcome? A: Honestly, does anything I write turn out like I expected? No. Absolutely not. My characters have no respect for my outline and love to do whatever they please, but honestly, this story is turning out better than I ever expected. Question 3: What aspect o...

  Hello! Welcome to the last Poetry 15th of 2021! I've been thinking about the prompt for this month, and the word that came to mind was glitter. Why did I choose this prompt? I'm not exactly sure, but I love glitter. Yes, it gets everywhere and sticks to everything, but it is shiny. So, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make something creative, be it poem or picture or something else, based off of this prompt.  Happy creating! Here is my response: Next week I will be back with the last bit of the Know Your Novel link-up. Until then.... -Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry

  Hello! This month is the second round of Camp NaNoWriMo where writers from around the world get together in person or online and set a goal to write more words on a project they are working on. That being said, the push to produce more means more hours at the keyboard, more hours sitting and staring at a screen or at the very least, at your paper or whatever you use to write. So today, I wanted to write about a few ways that writers can use to write and keep healthy. 1. Good Posture and Ergonomics Posture affects everything from your breathing to your mood to headaches and joint problems. Take it from someone who was yelled at most of her life to "keep your back straight! Sit up! Shoulders back!" You know the drill. This applies to so many other areas besides writing (piano, a desk job, etc.), but I want to specifically address writers here.  Get a comfortable chair that supports your posture. Typically, you should be sitting with your shoulders back, back straight (not slo...

  Hello! It's been an eventful month for me. It's the middle of my semester at college and everything seems to be piling up, conspiring together to stifle any creative juices so it's been a struggle to pull anything together.  With that being said, here is this month's prompt: In the middle of the semester, this sense of "betweenness" is a heavy feeling. I feel like I'm on the border of two very important events, but I'm not sure exactly what they are. It's not school. That is accounted for. Whatever this is, this feeling of being between things is very prominent.  My response to this prompt is a bit of poetry I actually wrote a month ago while thinking about the meeting of sand and shore. It's fictional, but the feeling of betweenness is very real, a feeling of belonging to two different worlds.                        (If you are on mobile, you might have to click  to enlarge it.)      ...

  Hello! I have a question for you. When you think of February, what colors come to mind? Red? White? Pink? Maybe gray? What about blue?   For me, the color blue, has always represented friendship and going deeper. Since this month is International Friendship Month , I chose my favorite color for this month's prompt. (Well, technically, my favorite color is cerulean, but that is a shade of blue.) Here is the prompt: As always, please feel free to use the prompt to generate your own creativity. It doesn't have to be a poem. The prompt is mainly to get your creative juices flowing again. Here is my response: This is it for this month, but I'll be back, Lord willing, next month for some posts about Spring. Until then... -Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry

Hello! It's the last full month of summer and the season has come in a blast of heat with the temperatures being in the upper 90s more often than not.  I wrote my response to the poetry prompt earlier than usual this month to get a jump on things.   I'll admit that it was hard for me to come up with an idea for both the prompt and the poem this month. I was coming up blank, but a few conversations that I've been a part of online and that I've taken part in via email have been the real inspiration behind this. Here is the prompt for this month (and yes, I know. It's unusual.): There's something about doing things by candlelight that turns on a different part of my brain. The part that told stories to my little brother during blackouts when the power went out. The part that tried to draw by the light of a shiny, green candle.  If you're having a hard time being creative, try doing it in a different environment. Or turn off the lights and do it by candlelight. ...

Hello! This month I wanted to discuss something that I normally don't talk about: books! Okay, so I'm joking. But only halfway! My favorite genre to read in is fantasy, especially lesser known fantasy, but way back when I was a wee thing, I didn't have access to the internet which has broadened my reading field.  I grew up on classics and read them for school. One of my goals for this year is to revisit some of them and read some new ones.  Today, I want to share with you some classics I've read that have inspired my WIPs (Works-in-Progress). These aren't arranged in order from most inspiring to least. They're just numbered for my sake (because I like order and that sort of thing). Classic #1: Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle My entire childhood I had a friend who would badger me to read this book, but it wasn't until I was an adult and in desperate need of reading material that I took him seriously and checked out this massive book from my local l...

Today marks one entire year since I first launched Poetry 15th on this blog, so it's my 1st Poetrversary. Yay!  I remember being very uncertain when I first started this. It's scary to put yourself out into the wide world. Especially for this introvert, but it's been rewarding. Little by little I'm letting go of fear and letting these paper-thin wings take flight. What is Poetry 15th? For those who are new to this thing, every fifteenth of the month, at roughly 2:30 PST, I drop a poetry prompt and a corresponding poem on this blog. Whether you use the prompt, it's up to you. You can use it to make your own poem or inspire some other creative endeavor.  Here is the prompt for this month: There you have it. Now I'll confess, I don't particularly enjoy the ocean. Too many unknowns hiding down in the depths, but I do like being there, walking on the beach, collecting shells, occasionally boating and dipping my toes in the surf. The ocean is powerful and awe-insp...

Because of Audiobook Appreciation Month , I'm making June all about sound. I realized that I wrote a poem about the loss of sound a couple of years ago after I had an injury that damaged my hearing for a month (fun times *grimace*), but I didn't have any poems about sound in general.  If you'd like to use the above prompt for your own creative endeavors, please feel free to do so. Here is my poem about sound, particularly the sounds I hear in my neighborhood in the morning. Random question: Do you collect sounds?  What do I mean by this? I collect sounds in my memory. There's this bird that I've heard every spring since I was five. When I hear its song, that means spring has arrived. There's a certain rhythm of burning wood. One rhythm means wildfire, and one means wood-burning stove fire. There's a sound that the ocean makes at night. I know it's the same during the day, but to me, it's different. Sometimes, when the wind is blowing hard through the...

Happy December everyone! Just finished November with the craziness of NaNoWriMo and Thanksgiving, but now I'm gearing up for Christmas! I'm so excited! Christmas is pretty big at my house and we definitely love putting up all the decorations and the tree.     For the most part, we don't have "White Christmas" because it rarely snows this time of the year. Still, you never know. This year might be one of the odd ones.                                                   I'm hoping to get some snow this year for Christmas, (maybe you are too!) and so with that in mind, this month's poetry prompt is: So, I thought I'd do a broader subject. Instead of just "snow", I'd extend it to all things wintry. So, Christmas, snow, candy, presents, long lines of people, time with family... Whatever is winter to you.   If you'd like to use ...