Nicci Carrera

May 7, 2015 Nicci Photography, Writing

Stormy skies and a writing contest

I love thunderstorms.

We really don’t get many in my neck of the woods, so they are extra special when they happen.

A new writing contest has been launched on Poetry Sans Frontieres with some great prizes. The contest is free to enter and only requires a max of 500 words for poetry and 1,000 for flash fiction.

You have to write something that responds to this prompt, which I think is a really fun one, so I’m posting it here:

Prompt:

There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that led swiftly before him through the moonlight. He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time. He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars and over the face of dead matter that did not move.

~The Call of the Wild, Jack London~

May 4, 2015 Nicci Photography

Rancho San Antonio

I decided I like how these came out of the camera. I couldn’t think of anything to do in Photoshop that might make them better.

Rancho San Antonio is a big park in Cupertino that really showcases the Golden State’s typical landscape.

The park is so well-maintained with lots of flat places to walk, wide pathways, and well-marked hiking trails.

May 3, 2015 Nicci Photography

A turkey and a farmhouse

Here are two more photos from Rancho San Antonio.

I am practicing what I’m learning in my Photoshop class. I think the turkey may be a bit “overdone.” But fortunately not in the way that he would really hate! Photoshop cooking doesn’t hurt the bird at all.

I’m happy with my little farmhouse.

When can I move in?

April 29, 2015April 29, 2015 Nicci Writing craft

An ancient oak and a note about writing

Today I have been reading a new book about writing called Write Your Novel From The Middle: A New Approach for Plotters, Pantsers and Everyone in Between, by James Scott Bell. I gobbled it up during my writing session and the book is helping me with the sequel to Love Caters All. Write Your Novel From the Middle forced me to answer some questions about the characters that really helped. The book includes a slightly different take on the three-part story structure. I really love it so far!

I didn’t get out for a walk today because I hurt my back again yesterday working in the yard. It was feeling better, and I was overly ambitious, trying to pull a four-foot tall palm tree out by the fronds while my husband was crow-barring the roots. Well, tugging on an immovable object with all your strength is not a good idea when you are getting over a strained muscle in your back. I’m a slow learner, but I think I now understand that yard work is hard on the body, and I have to be careful! No worries, though, it’s getting better fast and I’ve learned my lesson.

Yesterday, before my ill-advised yard work, we took a walk at a beautiful park called Rancho San Antonio. I was an annoying walking companion because I kept stopping to take pictures, but at least I told the other two to continue without me, and I would catch up.

This oak tree is one of my favorites.