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Writing Prompt - Where I'm From

I did a writing mini- workshop this morning and really liked this Mad Libs activity using the poem Where I’m From by George Ella Lyons. Figured I’d share mine here. Original below. You can also check out Lyons’ web page for a massive international project using her poem.

Where I’m From

-      Kenya’s version 

Writing Inspiration: We All Write and Roc Fringe 2018

As part of the Rochester Fringe Festival, I saw a powerful presentation by a group of Black Women Writers in Rochester. It was set up as a glimpse into their writing group process. Each writer presented a couple of pieces with real time responses from the rest of the group (and fellowship shouts of praise from the audience). The plan is for an encore presentation at The Avenue Theatre next Friday. I intend to go and make my 18 year old daughter go, as well.

Some interesting things that were said, that might serve as writing prompts:

About Me, Now

I tend to blog my reviews for books that I liked, rather than those I didn't care much for. I do write something about all books I read on Goodreads. I'm trying to get better about posting reviews on Amazon for small press books, but I lack follow through. Please feel free to contact me through this blog, my Twitter, or my Goodreads account with review requests. My "review policy" is that I read what I want, I review what I want, and I'm going to say what I actually think about the book regardless of who you are. I will say it nicer if I've met you in person, probably, but there are no guarantees. 

Keep reading for more about me, if you dare... MUUAHAHHAA... just kidding. It's not that great. 

Where, Oh Where are My Must Read Vibes?

Each year, rather than choosing a “best of” book list, I put things on a “Must Reads” shelf on goodreads. This is an ongoing list of books that I think are really good and worth recommending to EVERYONE I come across. They don’t have to be published in the current year and can be any genre. 

Of the 119 books I've read so far for 2017, I've only marked 8 of them as #mustreads. Last year there were 22. In 2015, there were 20 including YA and non-YA favorites. I feel like maybe ’17 me is being too stingy or bitter or something. I don't feel like I've read fewer good books, in general. Was I more generous in past years? Am I getting less thrilled by the books that I read or am I not picking books that thrill me as often? 

I also think I have been reading more series, which rarely make it onto the list. I should reconsider that!! 

I did post in June about some favorite YALit for this year. (Excuse the lack of pictures. There was a situation.) So, obviously I've read some good stuff!!

Anyway. Stay tuned for how my final 2017 list ends up. What books would be on your must read recommendation list for 2017.

And I Call Myself a Book Blogger!?

Once again, Hobby 2 has interfered with Hobby 1. This is assuming that books are hobby 1 by default and seniority, because theatre is definitely bucking for the spot light based on time.

Sister Act through the Rochester Association of Performing Arts ran for the first two weekends in March, which means that the last two weeks of February were also a bust for anything resembling a normal life or book- reading and blogging. I didn't even do a February wrap up post! What kind of book blogger am I!?

I did finish a couple of audiobooks during commutes. I thoroughly enjoyed Alan Cumming's memoir, Not My Father's Son, about his adult- self remembering and then coming to terms with the abusive relationship he had with his father when he was a child. I always love when authors read their own books. 

The show was amazing, by the way. Here's some pics for your eyeballs' pleasure:

LET ME OUT OF THIS BOX!!

This post was going to be a review for The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid but then turned into a rant about the quarterly YA box I can’t seem to get rid of.

The Diabolic has been on my shelf for almost a year, I think. I received it in the first Quarterly.Co YA book box, a subscription that replaced the previous YA book box from Book Riot. I was planning to cancel my subscription, anyway, because I prefer to get the stuff in boxes rather than the books in boxes. But when Book Riot announced their subscription was coming to an end anyway, I figured I’d let it ride for the last two and that would be that. But apparently they started a new YA box several months later and signed me up for the new product automatically. Obviously, that is bullshit and I was ENRAGED, but not so enraged that I went through the trouble of cancelling the damn subscription. Because, as usual, figuring out how to get out of things on the internet was much harder than getting in to it in the first place. I just got the 3^rd box, that’s how my efforts went. I’ve attempted to have my password reset a few times and nothing!

Now, I love book mail and this box subscription usually comes with a couple of books and a couple of bookish items. It’s curated by the author of the featured book. HERE’s THE PROBLEM:

Yes, those are sticky notes stuck into places in the book with notes from the author about inspiration or thoughts or whatever. I’m sure that I am not alone in this torn rollercoaster featuring the primary emotional poles of 1)COOL and 2) HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO READ THIS!? Obviously, I’m not going to take the stickies out of the book. Am I wrong in this? The stickies are now part of the book, amIRight?

So here’s what I did; I borrowed the damn book from the library. Once I read it, it was neat to go back and look at the comments from the author. And, since I liked the book, the book is a neat item to have. But the whole thing has renewed my motivation to cancel this damn subscription.

The other two books I have that will be super cool to own AFTER I read a different copy of the book are: A World without You by Beth Revis and The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles. Both sound great. I may never know.

Two Asides:

I enjoyed The Diabolic. The concept is interesting though the story is fairly predictable. I may be reading too many of this kind of book all at once, though.

I currently have a subscription to the Bookish Box from Appraising Pages and I mostly love it. 

Book Tag: Mary Poppins

Alrighty, the book tweep behind Let’s Book About It created this Mary Poppins book tag. Y’all! MARY FRICKING POPPINS! So, obviously, not only am I doing the tag but I will be incorporating asides from my time as a member of the ensemble in Mary Poppins the Musical that I was in in 2015. That’s right. I do not let the opportunity to talk about a show pass me up… no, siree.

The questions include facts about the book and the movie, BTW. LesGo.

Dominique from Pirates and Pixie Dust: Songs to Accompany Shades of Magic (Guest Post)

Hello, Kenya's friends!

I'm Dominique and you can find me over at Pirates and Pixie Dust when I'm not reading (or tweeting about reading).

Today's post is about music, inspired by Kenya's love for musicals. I'd love to share which songs remind me of the Shades of Magic series by VE Schwab. Though I won't be revealing anything major about the stories, my song choices may be considered spoilery to some, especially if you're planning on reading the stories soon. However, if you have read the books (my favorite reads of 2016!), then I apologize. You'll never hear these two songs the same way again:

As Told by Tina - Why I’m Not Doing the Goodreads Challenge In 2017 (Guest Post)

Hi! My name is Tina and I blog over at As Told By Tina. First, I would like to thank Kenya for having me on her blog today.

Today, I am going to talk to you about why I’m not doing the goodreads challenge for 2017 and how I plan on tracking my reading in 2017.

I’ve thought hard and long about what my goal should be for 2017 when it comes to the goodreads challenge. For the past two years my goal has been 150 and both years I didn’t make it. I was reading really short books in order to attempt to make my goal and most of the time this lead to me being in a reading slump. It also made me feel like a lot of pressure to meet my number. It was taking time away from my family because I was so focused on trying to reach this reading goal I set for myself.

What Role... (Is "Theatre Tag" a Thing?)

This is from a Facebook post that a friend of mine posted. I decided to do it as a blog post so I could add pictures… because, duh! It's pretty self- explanatory. Unfortunately, I don't know any other people who have blogs that are theatre people so I can't tag anyone else, so if you want to do this, Jump in!

Role that was the most fun: Mary Poppins was the most fun show, I think, because the cast had so much fun, together. I played a few ensemble characters in it. Hopefully, no pictures will ever be released with me in that damn striped jacket. Urgh.

 

This Year's Firsts! (NaBloPoMo)

Ok! Final day of NaBloPoMo!! Whooo hooo!!! I’ve decided to make my final post about FIRSTS in honor of the #BHPChat last night. Congrats to BHPChat for the chattaversary!!

Here are the questions and my answers from the chat. HOWEVER!! You can’t understand the fun of twitter chats based on this watered down, dumb regurgitation of the questions!! You gotta get your chat on! There are plenty of bookish chats, though BHPCHats is probably one of the more active ones lately. Check out Emily’s calendar here.

Reviewing Across the Age Range (Discussion and Question)

Here’s the beginning of a post that I will likely come back to sometime with more thoughts and edits, etc. Feel free to comment below.

 *******

I read a range of books. I love middle grade books, YA, and adult fiction. But I find it difficult to rate these books using the same criteria (like a star system) and/ or add different things to my Must Reads list because I really have different expectations for books, pending their audience.

For books written for younger audiences, I expect a fun story and likable characters. I don’t really care if there are a few plot holes and sometimes I don’t even care if the writing seems a little less polished.

However, as the anticipated audience gets older, I expect more from the book…

 Does anyone else find it hard to group books together and/or rate them similarly based on your different expectations of the book?

 

Where I Am Right Now Instead of Writing a Real Blog Post

Attending the Rochester LGBT Giving Circle tonight on behalf of Rochester Association ofPerforming Arts. Tiny food. Great company (my table- mates were board members from The Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival) and an honor to accept grant to support RAPA’s production of The Wild Party next summer!

 

 

Related Posts:

My Heartbreak, Today.

The unread books I had to return to the library. Booooo!!

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Sometimes Your Opinions Are Wrong. (NaBloPoMo)

Dispair! Horror! Woes!!

I missed posting yesterday and have thusly and therefore forgone perfection for NaBloPoMo.  But alas, one must put on one’s big girls panties and soldier on.

I hear there’s been an election result that might actually throw humanity back into the stone ages. So, on the plus side, at least I’m not responsible for that, right?

Which brings me to my rare blog rant. I don’t use this blog for non-book rants very often (although see here for a word related one and check this one out about mental illness in books).

This rant is about opinions and ideas.

In grade school, elementary school teachers often tell children that opinions are things that can’t be wrong, can’t be proven. They say that all opinions are valid and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. This is a safe thing to do with elementary school children because they don’t really know anything at all, AND because what they are fighting over is whether strawberry ice cream is better than chocolate ice cream. It is, by the way. So, then as children we put the words "I think" in front of things so we can say "that's my opinion, all opinions are valid!" in order to win an argument.

What teachers really mean is not that all opinions are valid, but that usually, people should be allowed to have their own PREFERENCES. Unless they have made a pact with Satan and think that avocados are edible. They clearly are not.

However! As humans get older, they are actually supposed to learn things. With this increased knowledge and ability to reason, their opinions start to be informed by actual facts and information. And because of access to information and the amount of time different people spend gathering that information, some people’s opinions are actually better formed than other peoples. This is why we go to doctors when there is a weird pain in our chests. Because when they say “I think it might be your heart” it means something different than when your 20 year old high at 2pm nephew says it.

Ok. What does this have to do with anything, you wonder? Well. Multiple things.

We know a lot about humanity and how people interact with one another. We know a shit ton about the different systems that people are in and how these systems (education, family, political, legal, justice, etc.) impact people both individually as well as on a grand scale. We know about global warming, police brutality, and gender as a social construct.

For a random person to say “I DON’T THINK” in front of “THERE IS GLOBAL WARMING” doesn’t make that a valid opinion. It makes that person wrong. For an environmental expert to say it, it might mean that they have a different way of looking at the data, but that they are an expert suggests that they actually know what that data is. You, as a regular person with regular people knowledge of land, sea, air and fracking, can still think that, but your opinion is not as valid as other people who actually know the science.

If you say “I THINK BLACK PEOPLE ARE INCARCERATED MORE THAN OTHER RACES BECAUSE THEY ARE BIOLOGICALLY PREDISPOSED TO BE MORE CRIMINAL,” you are wrong. It’s actually counter to the data we have on people across races from biological, social, psychological, and even justice systems. You can still think that, but your opinion is probably not based in the facts. It’s also racist but that’s a whole other thing to rant about.

To say “I THINK THAT SPANKING CHILDREN WITH WHIPS IS UNLIKELY TO CAUSE THEM PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE LATER IN LIFE” is wrong. You can still beat your kids (likely illegally in most states). But your understanding of the data is wrong. You might have been beaten as a child and turned out fine. That doesn't actually change what we know about the increased risk of problems associated with spanking.

And finally, you can say that you think “words are just words” and that it “doesn’t matter what people say” and that “representation doesn’t matter” and that “my feelings are the most important thing to consider in making a decision” but those things are just not supported by the actual evidence or the state of the world. I know this whole thing flies in the face of your early childhood thinking. But, I bet you can also think of times when you looked back on an opinion you held, after getting new information or trying something out, and thought "wow, I was wrong about that." At least, I hope you have. That's the shit I'm talking about!

Feel free to drop your thoughts and feelings below.