#FlightoftheRoadRunner – Diane Carmony

It has been a beautiful winter in the Coachella Valley with fiery sunrises and sunsets, rainbows and snow-capped mountains. As much as the summers here are generally brutal, this winter seems to be trying to compensate in terms of stunning, seemingly miraculous vistas.

I have not been working on my book so far in 2024 and I’m missing it! So today I took a fresh look at a new chapter I was working on at the end of 2023. I was planning to add this chapter as the new opening to the book. But today, when I looked at it with fresh eyes, it didn’t feel right at all. So now I’m going back to the previous version of Flight of the Roadrunner and am getting back to work. Finally!

What I have been doing these past few weeks is participating in the Stafford Challenge — a group mission to write one poem a day for a year. It has been a very interesting and inspiring enterprise and I’m going to keep doing this. I’m also determined to send out more writing this year and to aim to do more freelancing. All ahead …

My word for 2024 is “shine” and I’m trying … like a feeble little star… to send out my energy … 🙂

Manzanita

After a long, hot and miserable summer here in the Coachella Valley, September has brought such welcome change. We started the month in Manzanita, Oregon, one of my favorite places in the world. It’s quiet and gentle and has the most beautiful beach with ocean waves that sparkle in the morning light. And wildlife — pelicans, deer, sea gulls, Steller’s jays, squirrels etc etc. Just so wonderful!

This year the poetry marathon was on Sept. 2 so my experience doing the half-marathon was much impacted by the natural world around me and by the fact that I was turning 60 that Monday. I managed to scrape by (totally, just barely) and finish 12 poems in 12 hours. I have to say that the poetry marathon/half-marathon is the best experience I’ve ever had as a writer because there is so much adrenaline and creative energy and so much camaraderie from the other poets who are from all over the world. It’s an amazing event.

Also in the past few months, I’ve reached out for and received a lot of feedback on my mystery novel, Flight of the Roadrunner. And I took a class from writers.com in plotting that, quite frankly, I wish I’d taken years ago. In some ways, the feedback and better understanding about structure has been daunting but I think I’ve found a way forward that balances what I’ve learned with my original intent for the novel. Hopefully I will continue to move forward. I’d really like to finish!

Here in the desert, we are still dealing with major impacts from Tropical Storm Hilary in August. So much mud and sand was swept through the valley because the desert cannot absorb that much rain so quickly. There are still people who have lost their homes and roads that are impassible. And the air quality has been terrible. Finally in the past few days, the dust seems to have settled some. It has been a huge boost in morale but it is all cautionary for the years ahead as climate change continues to bring in more powerful storms …