Getting Back with Your Muse

Two years ago, my muse and I decided to break up. I'm still not sure whose fault it was. We still got together sometimes and reminisced over a poem or an article in the Starbucks by the JRA Shinjuku station. Maybe, he felt deserted as I wrote letters to my fiance in India and produced numerous cover letters for job applications. I felt like part of me was missing. So, I asked him if we could try to write together again.

There was something I found daunting about starting to write creatively again. My muse and I were out of sync. I had to reflect and realize that I had not been giving my muse the time it needed. I no longer went to the movies alone or read poetry. Writing had become a chore associated with cover letters and resumes. I had stopped nourishing my writer's soul.

I started taking time for myself and my muse. I read books that made me want to write. I watched foreign films on Netflix that made me ponder humanity and cultural norms of other societies. I took my horse out for long rides in the forest alone. I started to claim back the part of myself that had been lost somehow along the way between family deaths, traveling and job hunting.

There are not many regrets in my life, but I do regret not writing the past two years at the volume I used to. There is nothing I can do to get that time back. However, I can share what I did with other writers to find my writing voice again.

1. Read anything that inspires you to write: books, poetry, comics, articles, reviews, music lyrics or even Facebook statuses.

2. Pull out that unfinished novel or poem and start editing it on any page. You might reconnect with the emotion that sparked the words you wrote down sometime in the past.

3. Watch movies that have depth and meaning that makes you think about the human condition and human truths.

4. Commit to a writing project with a friend as you are held accountable for your part. One of my best friends and I started a round-robin novel and use Google Docs to share and update our story file.

5. Travel to places that make your heart soar. The mountains of Vermont always make me want to sit down with pen and paper and write a poem.

6. Spend more time doing activities that move your soul and make you feel blessed to be alive.

7. Talk to other writers about what they are working on. Their enthusiasm can be a reminder of why you used to write.

8. Make a writing goal no matter how small to start off. Have one for everyday so you can get back into the habit of writing everyday.

9. Use your writer's block as a source of inspiration.

10. Take the time every day to write something everyday, no matter how short it might be.

What is something that you did to get back your writing muse when it disappeared? Did you do something to claim back your writing life that took you on a journey?

Book Review: Kings of Colorado

Kings of Colorado
Author: David E. Hilton
Published: Simon & Schuster, 2011
Genre: (Realistic) Fiction
Rating: 5/5

For a couple of years, I kept having an interest in this novel as I walked by it on display at Barnes & Noble. I finally ordered the novel after seeing it for sale on bookoutlet.com to complete my New Year's book order. Kings of Colorado is a of a more tough version of The Outsiders where friends band together to survive against their social enemies.

William Shepard is 13 the night he stabs his father for beating his mother. His punishment? William is sent to the Swope Boys' Reformatory in the Colorado mountains for two years. He will learn who his friends are and who are his enemies. He and his friends will break the horses as the guards break their spirits. In a prison filled with corruption and abuse his friendship with three boys are his only comfort. What is considered  horror will seem like child's play after they learn what Hell is. William will never come out the same boy who entered the ranch. Others who entered will never leave. 

Hilton's writing is an exemplary piece of literary fiction. He imbues every page of this novel with a strong narrative that allows the reader into William's maturing mind. His reactions and those of the other characters drives the story forward with mounting tension towards this novel's climax. Reader's of this novel will feel the characters' emotion evolve in this coming of age novel.

This novel is jarring and will leave you wondering about the emotional scars you have suffered. Perhaps, yours are small compared to what these characters will suffer through as you read.

Letters from Skye

Today I finished reading "Letters from Skye" by Jessica Brockmole for the second time. When I read a book a second time, it means I will read that book several more times throughout my life. This novel holds a special place in my heart because I am living my own modern day life version of the characters' struggle.

David Graham is an American who receives a book of poetry written by an Elspeth Dunn while recuperating the hospital. He sends a letter of admiration that sparks a love story that spans into two World Wars and two generations. Through an epistolary novel Brockmole brings the beauty and pain of falling in love through writing alive.

Nearly two years ago, I received a message on Facebook from a young Indian man asking me how I was going about looking for a job in Japan. He had gotten my email off of JobsinJapan.com and searched for me on Facebook. I replied a few days letter and told him he could send me his resume and cover letter if he wanted me to look at them. We kept emailing letters to each other but never talked on Facebook after that. I knew he had fallen in love with me even though he tried his best to hide it with the words he chose.

Part of me loved him, but I refused to acknowledge it to myself as I left to start a new life in Japan in September of 2012. One of my friends knew I was starting to have feelings for him when I mentioned him several times. After all, I talk about horses not men!

We continued our emails for several months until I forgot to reply to one with my crazy Japan life schedule. Three weeks passed and when I did not hear from him I sent him an email asking why I had written to me.

We started talking on Facebook a bit everyday after that. He told me he loved me and wanted to be with me. I thought, perhaps, he was simply infatuated with me for some reason. Okay, honestly, I thought he was nuts since we hadn't even exchanged photos.

One night I called him and we talked for three hours. The second night I called him and we talked six hours. I've called him everyday since then. We began a relationship and even decided to marry before meeting in person. We started researching how we could be together and I soon realized we were in for a long, hard and convoluted path. To apply for a fiance visa, I would need to meet an income requirement in the USA to apply to sponsor him. So, I decided to leave to Japan to look for work in USA.

It has been one year now and I am still looking for work despite my best efforts. Pankaj has been patient through this whole process. We met in March of this year in India and we got along as if we were kindred spirits meeting after a long separation. He even took me home to meet his family, and he got his mother's approval for the "American girlfriend". The American girlfriend they believed would never come.

But I did. I traveled the 7,649 from Boston to Nagpur to meet him. He kept asking me write again like I used to. Just like how David Graham kept asking his "Sue" to start writing poetry again. This is what I ended up writing.

I never will write letters from Skye Island, but I will send him letters about my horse Skye.