My son had a preschool friend with  a huge vocabulary that didn’t fit in her little mouth. Sometimes to get past that, she used her own versions of words. Instead of “announcements,”  she said “a-pounce-ments.”

“I haf a apouncement about my bithday party!”

It’s been a few years now, but I secretly hope she still uses “apouncements” sometimes.

Opportunity is supposed to knock. Sometimes, though, it feels more like a little chance that hangs out on the lawn, waves to passersby, maybe sends a few texts…So instead of waiting for it to knock, we have to pounce on it before it wanders off to get a Slurpee or something.

Having material ready for those opportunities is half the battle. I got a  jolt of energy from Margaret’s  interview with Joan Hamilton. Joan’s someone who can make moments into opportunities; it’s worth reading the interview if you’re in need of inspiration.

In our poll a few weeks ago, the most frequently mentioned creative goal  for the summer was to write/paint/act/film/ more. Summer prompts and practices abound. I’ve been using some of Poetic Bloomings’ Life’s a Beach prompts – it’s only day 12, and there are already so many great things to write about. I also think I mentioned one of my  fave annual writing events is coming up, the August Postcard Poem Festival; it’s a freeing, connecting experience that helps me create a lot of new writing. And Poets and Writers’ Weekly fiction and poetry prompts – really thoughtful and you can go through archives to find extras.

Lastly, a couple of a-pounce-ments from inourbooks. If you were one of the young authors in the Brighter Light contest, keep an eye on your mail the next few weeks 🙂 And if you contributed to the Brighter Light Summer Prompt challenge, I haven’t made a final decision because I pretty much like every poem that came in, but I’ll be contacting you-all before next Wednesday. And next Wednesday, we’ll have an interview with author Barbara Vaughan, whose first novel was just released this week by Black Opal Press, on how she made it happen.

And now, I’m going to listen to my own advice and write ~ Ina