THIS WEEK: A Poem Inspired by Virtuality

I have been active in virtual worlds for nearly a decade now.  They are great palettes for creativity, a great way to extend your reach, meet new and different people, play, laugh.  And they have saved my sanity more than once in what has been a pretty challenging ten years.

But like any online experience, there are pitfalls: not everyone is what they seem to be, and not everyone has the same ethical standards. You tend to color the outline of who someone is from your own crayon box, which isn't always relevant to who they really are. Some people are outright frauds - people who are actually role playing without warning you that it is a game to them.

In many ways it is everyday life, distilled and intensified, with a convenient (but not terminal) log out button in the upper right hand corner.  Because while the following poem was inspired by my virtual experiences of the last decade, I have also met people in everyday life who are not what they seem, who play a part, whose ethical standards are not the same ones I hold.  It's just harder to maintain the illusion in the cool, clear air of reality.

The Rules of Roleplay

by Judith Cullen

© 2018

There are always rules,

for any given role play:

specific points for specific play.

These clothes, but not those;

Roles can do this, but not that;

I know her, but never him.

There are always rules

to the way you role play:

Public is always "in play";

back line is for personal,

the private place for real,

for stepping aside.

A NEW YEAR: New Stories

A promise to myself whose fulfilling has begun: write. I begin this still fresh and shiny new year with a brief musing on the nature of gifts.

The Bag

by Judith Cullen

© 2018

It was not really what I had in mind when I asked for a small purse.  For years it has been my habit to carry something clutch-sized, smaller when I could, and have a larger bag in which I carried all the stereotypical what-nots that the "prepared" woman is reputed to have at her fingertips: sewing kit, flashlight, Band-Aids, aspirin, tiny hand tools, battery-operated devices to fold space and time.  You know the litany.  I would carry these supposed accoutrements of womanhood in a larger bag - the small purse inside it -  and when I went into stores and such I would take the purse out and only carry that.  Likewise, if I ventured out and was only going to a single store destination, say the grocery, I would leave the bag at home and only take the purse.  This was my pattern: agile and flexible.  I had worn out decades full of large bags, and small purses, with this modus operandi. 

I needed a new purse.  The current one had been make-do for longer than I intended, and its strap (for wearing bandolier style, my preference) had long since broken.  I never really even liked the color, an unimaginatively dull navy that pretended like it wanted to be a light black.  My larger bag was also showing signs of wear, but it would last a while longer. So, I dared to add the request for a small leather-like purse with a shoulder strap to my Christmas wish list.

PROCTOR ARTSFEST 2017 ~ Art Inspired Stories

Welcome to this year's stories and poems for the Proctor Artsfest Juried Art Show!

This is year four of this project, and this year I shared with the audience at the reading my goals for Art Inspired Stories: to get people to embrace the experiencing of visual art fearlessly so that every time they see a work, they immediately wonder what's beyond the edges, and what they would do one they arrived there.

There are 22 compositions in this year's series.  Fourteen of them were read at the show on Saturday, August 5th. As always, some stories are more poetry, others more prose.  Some are esoteric or philosophical, and some are just plain silly. Some are simply dialogue.  Some stories shouted at me right away, and some whispered that there was an idea there if only I was brave enough to seek it out.

Stories read at the show are denoted with **

**********

Pieces Created for the Proctor ArtsFest 2017

Juried Art Show

 Note: All Stories & Poems are © 2017 by Judith Cullen
Use of any of the photo images on this page without the express permission 
of the individual artists is strictly prohibited

After Election Day **

by Jillian Fried, Acrylic

It all seemed to clear when we marched,

Image copyrighted by the Artist 

issues were sharply contrasted

I understood the difference

between us and them.

It was self-evident when we cheered,

that the platform defined lines

of black and white

between right and wrong.

Now the cheering and the marching is over. 

The pavement is littered with confetti,

deflated balloons, crumpled cardboard

the ardor of citizen patriots.

The clarity of black and white is fading.

Shades of red and blue mixing to gray

infiltrate my sense of right and wrong

and nothing is quite as clear.

Looking with honest eyes, I don't see

opposition, I see my neighbors.

Our fervor was encouraged to embattle,

and now we are supposed to stop.

Today we are a nation.

What were we yesterday?

Blue Poppy **

by Karen Marie Petrillose, Watercolour

Coryphee of fields

Image copyrighted by the Artist 

wind-bent stems sway together

reflecting the sky

Not painted in hot

like your blossoming cousins

flaming red, orange

Stealthy, you trick us

luring with a modest blue

till we are so close

A burst of stamen

vibrant contrast catching us

off guard with brilliance

While you blithely dance

to a sacred melody

Mother earth sings you

THE FOURTH EDITION: Art Inspired Stories at Proctor Arts

This is a project I have been doing for FOUR YEARS.  It started at Proctor ArtsFest and I am so pleased to be returning there on Saturday with a new batch of Art Inspired Stories.

In the Tacoma area?  Join me at this year's Juried Art Show for another installment of micro-fiction and poems inspired by works of visual art, in the relaxed AC cool of the Mason UMC Parlor:

Proctor ArtsFest Juried Art Show - Art Inspired Stories

Mason United Methodist Church

2710 North Madison

Saturday, August 5th at 11:30am

Check out the stories from previous shows:
Read all of the 2016 stories from Proctor ArtsFest HERE
Read all of the 2015 stories from Peninsula Art Leagues 13th annual Open Show HERE
Read all of the 2015 stories from Proctor ArtsFest HERE
Read all of the 2014 stories from Proctor ArtsFest HERE

The entire series of stories and poems from this year's Proctor ArtsFest Juried Art Show will be posted here at Noon, Sunday, August 6th

ALL CONFERENCE - There's Always a First Time

It is difficult to imagine that it has been publishing for over four years and finally just made it to my first conference as an author.  It wasn't big, but it was completely delightful and utterly inspiring.

The Pacific Northwest Association of Church Librarians hosts a conference annually, in rotation, at each of its chapters throughout Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. I was honored to be invited, and as an author participated both with a table in the vendor area, and in the "Author Shuffle" component of the Saturday morning proceedings (how much CAN you say about your work, effectively in four minutes?).

So, I sold book, spake about my work, and BONUS - I met some fantastic people including other authors.  Sixteen authors there and no overlap of genre, seriously.  It was a diverse crowd.  I am excited to continue some of these nascent friendships: the photography and poetry of Jackie Gannan (the first new person to befriend me from her adjacent table), the powerful and effervescent Jamicka Edwards.

In the Author Shuffle I was honored to be in a group with the inspiring Sister Laura Swan, the amazing Lisa McMinn (who brought THE MOST delicious Blackberries from her home farm!), the adorable and charming Eleanor Corey, and Kate Breslin who has the most exhilarating smile!

So what could I do to represent myself in this august company, as a writer? I decided to play to my strengths and tell a story. I got up especially early on Saturday and penned 400 new words, as there was a time limit, which are the blueprint for a slightly longer work.  Several people commented enthusiastically on my storytelling style, and asked where the story I presented had been published so they could get a copy.  I am taking that as an imperative.

In the Beginning

by Judith Cullen

© 2017

Way back, when the world was brand new, when the God had formed the heavens and the earth, brought forth all the plants and animals, created the depths of the ocean and the great extremities of the mountain peaks, God sat back, looking at his final work - Humanity - and considered it. 

ETERNITY'S TEST is now available on Amazon!

NOW Available on Amazon for Kindle! CLICK HERE

What started out as a simple request from a colleague turned out to be an incredible journey.  I had the spark of an idea immediately when Eleseren Brianna (aka Donna Kantaris) invited me to write a companion piece to her own short story, written in support of an installation of 2D and 3D virtual art, "The Curio."

She specifically ask me to do a story from the perspective of the colossal stone and metal "Enkeli" figure that she had created and spun a story about. "Enkeli" is the Finnish word for angel.  How does and angel end up in the wilderness, as the one in Eles' story does?  And what could that mean?  Research, followed by several weeks of brooding contemplation amidst the turmoil that was last fall's U.S. presidential campaign followed, and in the aftermath this story came flowing out like an emotional imperative.

After letting it steep and revise, it still has that imperative feel about it, which lead to me deciding to publish it as a stand alone story, instead of tucking it into another collection.  It deserves its own focus.

Not everyone likes ir reads Kindle, I understand that.  but I am offering a special deal for folks on my mailing list, so if you are brave enough to READ MY NEWSLETTER announcement of this release, you can take advantage of the deal offered my subscribers!

If you enjoy it, don't forget to leave a review of Eternity's Test on Amazon.  Every little bit helps!

Coming in July and August - several event appearances, and more short stories.

COMING THIS MONTH: "Eternity's Test" for Kindle

With all the things going on in the world, and in my life these days, I have decided to release December's story of a near fallen angel and the lessons he learns encased in stone and metal in the wilderness over millennia.  It seems like just the right thing to do.

So, keep an eye out for ETERNITY'S TEST to be released this month in Kindle only through Amazon as a stand-alone piece of short fiction.  The time has come: be ready!

For those of you who read the original last year, you may remember that this story was inspired by a virtual world sculpture by Eleseren Brianna (Donna Kantaris).  She also write a story about "The Curio" in which some 19th Century vacationers come upon its compelling presence deep in the Scandinavian wilderness.  Her story was very much one of observation and supposition, done in the format of a 19th C diary.  She asked me to consider creating a story from the sculpture's point of view.  And that, as we say, is that!

More coming, so stay tuned!

"The Curio" by Eleseren Brianna, created in Second Life