The Wordsmith's Forge

This poem came out of the February 18-19 Crowdfunding Creative Jam.  It was inspired by prompts from siege and aura55</lj>.  This is the second poem in the Hart's Farm series set in Sweden, and presents the carpenter's view of the same day as in "Welcome to Hart's Farm."

This microfunded poem is being posted one verse at a time, as donations come in to cover them. The rate is $.50 per line, so $5 will reveal 10 new lines, and so forth. There is a permanent donation button on my profile page, or you can contact me for other arrangements. You can also ask me about the number of lines per verse, if you want to fund a certain number of verses.  

So far sponsors include: aura55</lj>, zianuray</lj>, catsittingstill, janetmiles

FULLY FUNDED
65 lines, Buy It Now = $32.50
Amount donated = $17.50
Verses posted = 5 of 10
Amount remaining to fund fully = $15
Amount needed to fund next verse = $1.50
Amount needed to fund the verse after that = $5

( Collapse )

 Beautiful Ethiopian woman.

Plunge  magazine will present genre literature about queer women.  Visit the Kickstarter page to support this project.
36 BACKERS, $790 PLEDGED OF $2,000 GOAL, 15 DAYS TO GO

These are some posts from the later part of last week, in case you missed them:
From My Prompts
Torn Tongue: Verbs Beginning with "S"
Torn World: Beqash and Barvo
New Hottest Pepper: Trinidad Moruga Scorpion
How to Make Misogynists Shut Up
Mistakes in Alternate History


The Crowdfunding Creative Jam was lively; here is a summary of my writing and responses to my prompts.  In particular, I launched a new poetic series -- the first time this has happened in a Creative Jam -- about an intentional community called Hart's Farm in Sweden.  I also got the first piece of Schrodinger's Heroes  fanfic from someone else, now linked on the menu page.

The bonus Poetry Fishbowl will be tomorrow, February 21, featuring The Steamsmith series.  Because steampunk isn't just for white blokes anymore!


Poetry in Microfunding:
"In the Palms of My Hands" shows a day in the life of Arnvid the carpenter when a new seamstress comes to Hart's Farm, a companion to the first poem "Welcome to Hart's Farm."  It needs $29.50 to complete.  "The Morose Mascot" follows Horace the porcupine as he flees his horrible mistress.  It belongs to The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia, and only needs $14.50 to complete.  Everything that has unpublished epics is eligible to have a new one opened.

Torn World writing update:
Approved as canon: "Squiggles: Excerpts from Nleimen's Journal," (fiction), "Hide Away," "Getting the Goat" "Bitter Herbs" "Red Glass, Green Glass," (poetry).  Back to me for edits: "Seafoam Fashions," (poetry), "Half-Leg," "Northern Game: Bola-Ball," "Dolls in the Empire" (nonfiction). Currently in front of the canon board: "Catch and Release," "Dusting Off the Green Speech," "Doing the Work" (fiction), "Unlicensed Dreams" "The Hearsay Cafe," "The Colors of the Rainbow," "Something Big Is Coming" (poetry), "Wild Herbivores of the North" (nonfiction).  Drafted: "Cutting Cords and Clasping Hands," "Like Ash Before the Wind," "Breaking the Ice," "From Dark to Bright," "Beached Fish," (fiction), "How Skycat Got Her Name" (poetry).  In revision at home: "Water Dance," "When the Wind's Teeth Sing," "The Bones of Need" "Raining Kittens," (fiction).  Currently writing: "Catch of the Day," "Reaching for the Moons" "Winterheart" (fiction), "Fish of the North" (nonfiction).

Awards
Voting is now open for the 2012 Rose & Bay Award which honors crowdfunding excellence in the categories of Art, Fiction, Poetry, Webcomic, Other Project, and Patron.  Please visit the nomination posts to browse projects, and the voting pages to cast your votes.  Full details for this award are on its landing page, and the nomination and voting pages have category details.

Nominations are closed for the 2012 Rhysling Award celebrating speculative poetry.  I'm up for "The Shipwright's Song" in the short category and "The Cathedral of the Michaelangelines" in the long category.


The weather is nice here again, sunny today.  Sparrows are mobbing my suet feeder six or seven at a time, all flapping and pecking at each other.  Daffodils and crocus are well up, and tulips are sprouting.

I'm delighted to announce that rebelsheart has sponsored "Falling Behind the Changing Times," a story that ankewehner wrote based on my prompt:
"A cop who keeps encountering preternatural creatures and incidents that make it harder and harder for him to do things "by the book," which he wants to do."

Here's an interesting article about the huge amount of unpaid work that people do.  If we paid people for maintaining society through household work, then households would have more money to spend on basic needs while still having someone at home  for childcare or home maintenance.  This would pump more money through the economy as those people frequented small businesses such as hairdressers, hobby shops, hardware stores, etc.

Here is a terrific guide to a sharing economy.  Remember, when a current system ceases to work for large numbers of people, they will abandon it in favor of something else that does work.

Here's a wonderful rant about why the political attack on women is wrong. 

Thanks to a donation from zianuray there are three new verses for "In the Palms of My Hands."  Arnvid the carpenter and family wash up for supper.

When the economy is broken, things like this happen. 

If you feel bad about pirating ... consider just sending money directly to the creator:  "Hi, I tried like 10 places to buy your thingie but they were all made of FAIL, so here's $$ for the torrent download I used.  Also I <3 your work."

Here's another round of "I told you so."  When you take money away from people who already don't have enough, as in austerity economics, then it should be no surprise that the economies collapse further.  Economies depend on money moving around.  When government spending is cut, less money moves around. Same when people don't have jobs, and when some people tie up vast amounts of money.

Thanks to another donation, there is a new verse for "In the Palms of My Hands."  Seeing Vendel brings up memories for Arnvid.