20th of October is the National Day on Writing.
For me writing is a form of therapy…it helps me get all the stuff churning in my mind on paper which is extremely freeing.
fiction
Don’t
Something I wrote in light of current events…
© T. Altman 2017
Holding Out The Branch
Holding out the branch to me
Planted her for me to see
Connection to roots of old
Bound by blood ties he told
Of knowledge, peace and victory
This beautiful bounteous tree
Dedicated to Athena the Wise
Crowned over virgin guise
Hard core and bitter flesh
Just like memories I thresh
An eternal evergreen first track
Turns time and is bruised black
Golden source of the Old World
It sings to me of tragedies unfurled
Yet supplicants my feelings at odds
As it’s a gift of nature from the Gods
© Image and Poem: T. Altman 2017
National Novel Writing Month
The National Novel Writing Month is happening in November.
As per their website:
“National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.”
Free free to add me as a buddy as I have signed up for the first time and would like to be inspired by others participating also:
Digital Writers Festival 2017
The Digital Writing Festival is happening from the end of this month.
The Digital Writers’ Festival takes place online, on their website. Log on and tune in to join the conversation, wherever you are.
For all sessions and workshops check out their website here:
The Taste of You
Compulsively staring at the semi occupied mason jar
Dissecting with critical eyes its lurid contents
Tapping the lettered glass whenever I pass
Occasionally lifting to shake and peer –
Unable to rip away
Heart breaking and bouncing with every vibration
Vinegar water steeped to a furious vermilion
Thirsty for the twist – lift – pop
Take you down
Pervade the depths of me
Quench my thirsty resentment
Sinisterly sinew was the expectation
Smooth Saccharine the surmise
© T. Altman 2017
Write or Die
Created this jpg this morning as the thought has been running around in my head for a while now and its become my personal motto!
(C) T. Altman 2017
What Inspires Me: Quote by Walt Whitman
This quote prefaced in Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass” sings to me….
“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
Poem: Letter to Younger Self
Dear F
Things will change and you will be free.
No more suffocating your inner banshee.
Ignore what they say about your quirks.
No more pretending to hide what irks.
Allow you higher self to shrine through.
Because no one else will do.
Love T
© Image and Text – T. Altman 2017
2017 Reading Challenge
Taken from the Modern Mrs Darcy website I took up the following challenge for 2017 and here is my completed list:
A book you chose for the cover:
A Vocation and a Voice: Stories by Kate Chopin
A book with a reputation for being un-put-down-able:
Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
A book set somewhere you’ve never been but would like to visit:
History of Ancient Egypt by Erik Hornung
A book you’ve already read:
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
A juicy memoir:
Of Ashes and Rivers that Run to the Sea by Marie Munkara
A book about books or reading:
The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1918 by Arthur Quiller-Couch
A book in a genre you usually avoid:
Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descaties
A book you don’t want to admit your dying to read:
The Feminist Manifesto by Mina Loy
A book in the backlist of a new favorite author:
Transformations by Anne Sexton
A book recommended by someone with great taste:
The Yellow Wallpaper; The Wallpaper Replies by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A book you were exited to buy or borrow but haven’t read yet:
Collected Poems: 1969-1999 by John Forbes
A book about a topic or subject you already love:
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
tinaaltman.com 
