Update from my voice class

My good friend, Julie, pointed out that since my last post -- the haircut post -- my hair has probably grown out.

So, that's what's wrong with it.....

I have a great excuse for not being up-to-date. I'm taking the amazing Barbara Samuel's voice class online with most of my writing group. The exercises and the epiphanies and the comments and the commenting are all taking alot of time. It's time I don't really have but which I gladly give anyway. I'm learning so much about myself and my friends. My writing will benefit greatly from it.

I only wrote 11 pages last week. This week -- zero. But what are Saturday and Sunday for?

It isn't just the voice class. The day job has been busy, busy, busy. I hope it will slow down soon.

However, I want to share an excerpt of something I wrote and something Barbara said about it.

It's about one of my favorite places. Here goes:

When it rains, I open all the French doors along the back of my house to let in the breeze off the rain, to let in the scent of its freshness. I stand on the porch and watch the dark clouds roll in with ominous majesty. I see lightening dance and hear thunder roll and watch as the wave of falling water moves toward me across the lake. Big, hard drops roar across the lake bouncing like a thousand marbles off the glassy water, each making their own little splash. The dragon flies sweep up out of the grasses to find a tall stalk of weed to alight upon and spread their wings – dozens of them, holding on for dear life in the wind. The Annihingas swoop and dive into the water as it boils with the relentless pounding of the rain. The opposite side of the lake becomes obscure as the wall of water impedes the view of it. The grass and trees and lily pads seem to assume a Technicolor appearance, their greens accentuated against the gray-blue of the sky.

Here's what Barbara said about it:

The whole thing has a feeling of really good women's fiction, the connection point between emotion and nature and a woman. Lyric detail.

I'm still reeling over the visual of those dragonflies. That's what happens when you tap into things you madly, madly love--the writing is fantastic and natural.

Ok, um, Barbara -- that Barbara with the beautiful lyrical voice -- said I (me!) have lyric detail. Lyric detail!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And that it feels like really good women's fiction.

(Ok -- that part's scary. I hadn't really thought "women's fiction" before. But... well, I guess I had sort of. But I was saving it for when I became a really good writer. No time like the present, huh?)

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