I’m Starting writers/reading Group on June 4th

This post started out as a series of harsh but honest reflections about being a writer on WordPress. I held nothing back in my jeremiad and honed in on the high school clique mentality that seems to infest a lot of writing groups and blogs. I had my lady and some other people read this damning testimony, before I hit the send the button.  My testimony was  so gangsta it hurt. I was reminded that while it’s not my intention I shouldn’t put myself in the position to burn bridges or paint myself in a light that does me no good. Finally I decided to delete this damning record. Instead I am starting a Writer’s/Reader’s blog on http://www.wordpress.com. The site is already up and I am currently adding the bells and whistles. I thought I would talk about this new venture before I send out invitations because it will be a bit atypical.

I’m not gonna lie to you

I love the arts and in particular literature.  For many years books were my only friends and companion. I was blessed to have some great teachers who while grounding me in the classics, exposed me to such a diverse array of authors. When I wrote for them, they really gave me a lot of room to fail and grow and develop my own voice.  They instilled in me that writing as well as reading was a craft  that had to be honed over a formative period of time.

To that end I started writing with the intention to be a writer for a longtime. During that time I experiment I tried, I failed I took breaks from writing, etc But I never let my eyes off the prize. I want to share the love and enthusiasm I have for writing and reading good books with others. I also want to share the  lessons I have learned through the many rejection letters and my experiences thus far with those who

1. Love and actively read literature
2. Love writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays or memoirs, etc. (Doesnt matter what you write)
3. Don’t care about likes re-blogs, tweets, or overall high school clique-ish behaviors
4. Want to continue improving
5. Want to be published in magazines and journals etc
6. Don’t want to sell anything to anyone etc.

I would like the site to be the seat of discussion, analysis and most importantly the enjoyment of literature. I would like this to be actually very interaction based and dynamic. As for the writing group that is up in the air. If you are interested let me know.

So What’s it Gonna Be ?

Lemme know what you think. The Spoonful of Suga will always be here. This is something new and different.

Sharing some Good News All Around Today

Hey

I have some good news to Share figure might as well share it with you my readers

I’m Uncle MrMaryMuthaFuckingPoppins

Really late and tired in the hospital, can you see the greys coming through

My Home Girl Marj

…. didnt suffer at all from the Typhoon Haiyan that devastated the Phillipines and came out with two posts this weekend. I feel very relieved and was glad she and her family were unaffected but sad that there was so much devastation on the country and yet, in ours we are still debating whether climate change exists or not. Marj is a dear friend and I will be commemorating our friendship and her being safe with Tequila.

I paid off a Huge Debt

This is a person victory for me. I paid off the largest non student loan debt I have !!! By this time next year if all continues to go well Ill be on steady ground finally after 5 years of incredible strife.

Today is my Two Year anniversary on WordPress

and this is my 1201 post. Im surprised I am still at it to be honest

________

I thought I would share. It’s back to work for me!  I hope you are having a good day. Thank you all for reading and if anyone is in NYC this weekend I will be off leash lemme know !

Related articles

• On Blogging & Friendship || Waiting to Hear from A Friend in the Phillipines (aspoonfulofsuga.wordpress.com)
• Typhoon Yolanda hits the Phillipines (jshsee20.wordpress.com)
• Experts Say Phillipine Typhoon was Man and Nature (theepochtimes.com)
• Memories of Haiti stimulated by recent events in the Phillipines (questioninggod.net)
• Philippine corruption magnifies effects of typhoon (news.yahoo.com)
• Corruption in the Philippines Diverting Typhoon Yolanda Aid (theepochtimes.com)

MrMary on Blogging: My Five Inspired Blogging Quotes to Reinvigorate You

While we all may blog for different reasons I don’t think it’s presumptuous to say that we love freedom of expression. At some point in your blogging history you may realize that you aren’t as free as you once thought.

After some time you’ll get an audience. You wont get to know, usually, the majority of your followers personally but they still can weigh heavily on your self-expression. Do you cater to your readers and only talk about the topical stuff they’d like you to talk about or do you talk about whatever you feel called to talk about whether everyone likes it or not? Who do you aim to please first: yourself or your audience. Well for me, my audience and I are kinda sorta married for better or worse and being how great marriage is going these days, I might as well please myself.

I’m being a bit cheeky. The truth is that you define your relationship to your audience in a very indirect roundabout way. You write about a particular topic –> it get likes —> So you write more about it.  But that gets boring.  I thought I would write something for your for when that time comes where you need a change to reclaim some of that freedom for yourself. Here are my 4/24 inspiring thought based on some Jack Kerouac quotes I was mulling over recently for something I am writing.  I have adapted them to blogging.

 My Four Blogging Observation I will Share with you now

Write in recollection and amazement for yourself.

There is a giant gulf between how others see you the blogger as a person and how you see yourself. It is impossible for the complexity that is the hallmark of the human existence to be carried over through the screen and it’s not your responsibility to do so. Writing opens up you up to live deeper, it is existential KY jelly

“a sociable smile is nothing but a mouth full of teeth”

Presentation rules so much more over content. If you attempt to talk about something in a way that people are not familiar with you and your work will be shunned. You are only free to express things people want you to express to make them feel good and better about themselves. I have found this in every form of media. Sometimes I feel that in certain cases a like can serve as this sociable smile

Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.

Posts on Sex, Cats, Flatulence in public, Cronuts, Celebrity news do infinitely better than posts on class warfare, sexism , racism and environmental crises. This is not to decry fun or distractions  however I noticed a strong trend of keeping one’s head in the sand about things, and not dealing with them until they become completely unavoidable.

“If critics say your work stinks it’s because they want it to stink and they can make it stink by scaring you into conformity with their comfortable little standards. Standards so low that they can no longer be considered “dangerous” but set in place in their compartmental understandings.”

Talking about current events/topics dear to you is a double-edged sword  especially if you are writer more than a blogger. Sometimes a piece or post, no matter how many times you rewrite comes out a certain way. The Catcher in the Rye was a controversial book. “Salinger had a lot of nerve to publish it in 1951, given its amount of profanity, sexual scenes, general subversive nature, and lots and lots of smoking and drinking.” This book is now considered a classic. Not many other books took to talked about the complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation among young adults. There were many detractors of this work and it was banned in many places.

ok thats it

peace

Thank You Everyone For the Bday Love

if you have noticed, I share a lot my thought and reflections on things happening in the world around me. I do not share equally things that happen interiorly. The sincere expression of human emotion is to me the most transcendental and  transformative of things.  To express sincere emotion is to place one’s self in a place of vulnerability and for me that is not something I do unless I get to know someone.

Monday August 5th, I turned 32, and I feel like I have lived many lives in one  which has its merits I must say. I don’t give a shit that I have some wrinkles and grey hairs. I don’t wanna hold on to my youth. I have some things I want to do with my life before it’s over and be on my way  and I find the idea of dying doesnt bother me as much as the idea of physical suffering does.

What really got me this birthday, was the happy bday wishes I got from some of you on Facebook or on twitter in particular my friend Marj from the blog http://justmarj.wordpress.com sent me. Between bouts of epic debauchery and fornication I would get happy bdays messages and it was nice to spread out the love both figuratively and literally that day. My friend Marj dedicated a whole post to my bday which means a lot. This is one of things she said

This friend of mine has been with me here for almost a year now. He’s been like a younger brother to me and I’m sure he considers me like an elder sister. We kind of made a pact in the not so distant past we’re gonna be pals for as long as we can. Well, I’m counting on that.  I guess part of the reason why my camaraderie with him has been, so far, my most successful and the longest one is because we do not take each other so seriously. Sometimes we are there for each other, sometimes we’re not, but the connection stays anyway. The exchange between us has always been lighthearted – not much expectation as what usual friends hold. Nonetheless, we respect each other and try to be sensitive towards what either of us might be going through. Also one of the most intelligent WordPress writers I’ve ever met, this dear friend of mine has recently moved to his new home in New Jersey with his long-time lady. I’m happy for them and wish them quite well.

Marj and I chit chat whenever we have the time which is an amazing feat as there is a 12 hour time difference between our respective places. We talk lightheartedly sometime seriously and this has been one of my proudest accomplishments: to talk to someone sincerely.  She tells me not to drink so much at times, and I tell her not to work so much and to drink some, and it works. I am always happy to see her online when I do. This is one gift that blogging has brought. I do not like too much attention on me, maybe its my best intimation of piety. Marj has said an awful lot of nice things about me and written a poem.

I don’t know what else to say so here is a video,  My connection at best is quite shitty so bear with my blogging pace and getting back to your comments

ASpoonfulOfSuga receives the WordPress Family Award and nominates 22 bloggers

Shaun from http://prayingforoneday.wordpress.com has been kind enough to nominate me for this award.  This is a very interesting  award. Look at what Shaun had to say.

This is an award for everyone who is part of the “Word Press Family” I started  this award on MARCH 4th 2013 on the basis that the WordPress family has taken me in, and showed me love and a caring side only WordPress can. The way people take a second to be nice, to answer a question and not make things a competition amazes me here. I know I have been given many awards, but I wanted to leave my own legacy on here by creating my own award, as many have done before. This represents “Family” we never meet, but are there for us as family. It is my honour to start this award. Thank you, Shaun @ http://prayingforoneday.wordpress.com/

Family is something dear to me that I don’t have. I am not very close to my own, and outside the blood ties and the responsibility there isn’t a relation and this has been the cause of a lot of sadness on my part. Aside from my pets and my lady I generally feel alone a lot of the time. So for someone to  consider me as part of a family it is very touching even if it is online.  When I started ASPoonful I just wanted to talk aloud and be heard by someone other than myself. I share things about myself, I share what’s on my mind, I tell dirty jokes, I talk about what I am drinking, and there have been a few bloggers who have responded in turn with a lot of kindness which was a soothing balm on the tough times I have been went through behind the scenes. So with that said I would like to nominate them:

Marj http://justmarj.wordpress.com
SueZ lostnchina.wordpress.com
The Lady  ladylovelyblogger.wordpress.com
Daan van den Bergh daanvandenbergh.com
Lady Hasty from HastyWords http://hastywords.wordpress.com
TarnZs tarnishedsophia.wordpress.com
Jen Feverwood thinkspeaktryst.wordpress.com
Ms. SummerSoltice  summersolsticemusings.wordpress.com
Jim C jimcolv.wordpress.com
TJ tjlubrano.com
Meeka: acflory.wordpress.com
JenNTonic: sipsofjenandtonic.com
B : baileymikell.com
Sista : sistasertraline.wordpress.com
Leela: 30says.wordpress.com
Katalina: http://followyournose.org/

I would also like to nominate a string of new subscribers and commenters. They feel like new family not only in the fact that they havent asked me to borrow money or help them carry something heavy. They have left lovely comments and I really felt engaged through their comments!!!!!!!!!!

Dr Rex:  hrexach.wordpress.com
Andrew: andrewpegoda.com
Caroline:  carlystruthoflife.wordpress.com
AngryManSpeaks: angrymanspeaks.wordpress.com
miso808 http://miso808.wordpress.com/
Australia’s Finest: http://girlseule.wordpress.com/
Ms Jiggly: thejigglybits.com
Caleb: ushypocrisy.com
Ms Cheeks : cheekydiva.wordpress.com

Final Note:

I do not have any internet in my new place, I have to post by phone which is impossible. I have been sending out many pre written posts that have been in my draft box. I haven’t been posting as much as I would have liked, and its been really hard to comment so please forgive I will get to you all I promise!!! Mean time Cheers, these beers and shots of whiskey tonight will be for you