Among the pile of mail stuffed into our mailbox was a book I ordered before we left.  “A Writer’s Book of Days” by Judy Reeves.  The cover describes it as “A Spirited Companion & Lively Muse for the Writing Life”  The book is filled with prompts for every day of the year plus encouragement, inspiration and much more.  My plan is to post the prompts each day here which hopefully will not violate any copyright issues and maybe encourage others to purchase the book and possibly join me on this little sidetrip.  I don’t know that I will post my results here every day though I am committed to writing SOMETHING in my journal everyday even if it is something small.  I have no plan to start a participation site or take anything away from the ones I currently participate in.  That said, if you want to play you are welcome to comment or drop me an email at deedeekm at sign gmail dot com.  Most likely if you decide to play I will already be reading your work anyway.

The prompt for today, July 12 fascinated me so here it is:

“Throw away the lights, the definitions and say of what you see in the dark.”  Wallace Stevens (a modernist poet that I had never heard of.  See I’m learning something already!)

I have been letting things slide this summer, not counting the vacation – the slippage had begun before that. This is my public challenge to myself to put the ass in the chair and write.

The How to use this book section tells you to use the prompt in a line or as a jumping off place, turn it around – whatever you want.  Just turn off the internal editor (mine is a pure bitch).  Maybe you could turn on the lights and come out of the dark.  I’m going to visit some friends blogs and do some reading and then see where this prompt takes me.

It is good to be home.