The Wordsmith's Forge

 ... named after Sauron.  I bet people are already writing it into stories.

Zowie!  The fishbowl ticker is at $482!  That's a new record already.  I love you all so very much.

If the tally reaches $500 by tonight, I'll post an extra piece of bonus material.  I have a 1200-word essay on "Meals in Nether-England" that I wrote after "Putting the Past on a Pedestal," due to a conversation with technoshaman and some research about the timing and terminology of meals in historic-England.  It includes a general description of the common meals, plus some observations about Maryam's household in particular.

This poem came out of the November 6, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by prompts from thesilentpoet and Anthony & Shirley Barrette.  It has been sponsored by thesilentpoet.  You can read more about Eleanor Roosevelt online.

Eleanor Roosevelt observed that

A woman is like a tea bag --
you can't tell how strong she is
until you put her in hot water.

She understood
what it was to boil inside,
knew the shrill warning
of the steam-whistle.

She advocated for civil rights,
pushed the New Deal,
and argued over how best
to enhance the status of working women.

She was cool as ceramic,
subtle as ceylon.

She demonstrated
service without submission.

Above all, Eleanor Roosevelt
reminded everyone that
no matter how annoying the whistle,
you do not seal up the safety valve
and then put the teakettle on the stove

unless you want something to explode.

 primeideal has posted another poem, "All Politics Is Local."  It crosses Schrodinger's Heroes with @MayorEmanuel.  Politics and science mix ... strangely.

So far there's only one person posting on poetree for the Serial Poetry challenge.  Entries need to be in before midnight on Saturday.  I'd really like to get multiple participants.  Remember that serial poems don't necessarily need to be long; you can do a sonnet cycle or even a haiku chain.

thesilentpoet has written a poem, "Hal's Nightmare," following the thread of her earlier one "Lior's Dream."  These are crossovers between Schrodinger's Heroes  and 64-squared.

Today being a lovely day, I finished my fall planting -- a handful of salmon daffodils, and a potted sedum I've had on the patio all summer.

The free epic poll is closed.  I'll post "Listening to God" shortly.  I also have someone interested in opening "The Demon in the Bottle" for microfunding.

No new donations, but you've still got a few hours if you want to chip in something and hopefully put the tally over $500 to get the bonus material.

EDIT: We made it!  *glee*  The ticker is at $502.  I'll post the bonus material after I finish the donor perk-post.  

This poem came out of the July 3, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by a prompt from kelkyag.  It has been selected by the audience in a poll as the free epic for the November 6, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl.

This poem begins the series The Arc of Joan, which takes place in nether-Earth a long time prior to The Steamsmith, and lays some of the background the later time.  Because Jeanne d'Arc is a peasant, the appearance of alchemical motifs will be smaller, especially at the beginning; because she's a saint, the spiritual aspects will be larger; and the gender studies balance about the same given her penchant for crossdressing.  This series also documents one of the major points of divergence between nether-Earth and historic-Earth, so follow along reading about historic Joan of Arc if you want to watch for the differences.

You can now find The Arc of Joan series on my Serial Poetry page.

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The November 6, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl made the stretch goal of $500.  W00T!  You are all awesome.  Have some bonus material for The Steamsmith.

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