Kindle unlimited

I spend a great deal of time reading and listening to audiobooks. It is one of my greatest pleasures, moments to myself to mull over words and get lost in stories. With such a whirlwind life, I don’t have a lot of extra reading time but I recently claimed an offer for a two month free trial of Kindle Unlimited. I’ve been using it to borrow quite a few books, many of which are modern and new poets. I haven’t loved everything I’ve read so far but I have been finding quite a few gems that I will be looking to purchase in the future.

This is also a reminder that most of my books are available on kindle unlimited. So if you want to read them but don’t have the money to invest in your own copies yet, check out the trial option of KU and check them out!

-xoxo

Kelsi

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UPDATE!

Hey everyone!

Honestly, I’ve been terrible at keeping up with my blog posts. There’s just been so many new and crazy things with my life! But let’s get you updated on everything.

First, and probably most importantly, I gave birth to my daughter, Harlowe, in late March. She is an absolute joy and the happiest baby I’ve ever met. She’s just starting to figure out what crawling is all about so my world is about to get even crazier, if you can imagine that.

My older daughter, Berkeley, as adjusted amazingly well to no longer being the baby and is thriving in her big sister role. She’s got a big – maybe I should say HUGE—personality, but I’m interested to see how it continues to grow and change.

My older son has adapted well to having another baby in the house and has learned some baby essentials, like feeding, burping, and buckling/unbuckling car seat straps. I’m so proud of him and how much he’s matured over the past few months.

I decided to make the most of my maternity leave and try to get as much writing-related work completed as possible. I’m in a bit of a dry-spell as far as writing poetry is concerned, but I made great strides in my work regardless.

I submitted my third poetry collection Chamomile Dreams to my publisher. I am still waiting on a release date but hope that it will be out before the end of the year. Our current hope is October!

I participated in the Dauphin County Library’s Local Author Festival in April. It’s always a nice time and gives me a chance not only to connect with the public, but also to network and talk to other local authors. This year, I met Mariah Johnson, a young author who just published her first novel, carys. I’m still working on reading it in my spare time but really loving it so far.

My work found homes in several different and new places:

  • Pinnacle, a poetry anthology
  • WeArtFriends International Poetry Tournament 2018 Anthology (I took first place in the tournament too, by the way!)
  • net – featured in June 2019 and will be featured again in December 2019
  • Poetic Velocity
  • The Revolution

I found my way onto the Millersburg Area Art Association’s website and on Poets & Writers (www.pw.org) – and two of my books (Sparrow and Paperback Wings and Patchwork Eyes) made it into the Dauphin County Library System!

I published my first non-fiction work, How I Became a Time Management Magician and How You Can Too! A work that focuses solely on life’s delicate balancing act and optimizing your time to get everything done.

I also digitized my handmade chapbook The Drowning Girl and listed it for sale on Amazon. Don’t worry, you can still get the handmade ones on my Etsy page, QuietHeartArt! You can also find 25 Vibes and of honey & heartbreak. A collaborative poetry collection (with Pamela Swyers, Nicholas Trandahl, and Fiona Summerville) can also be found on Amazon. It’s called Heart of Courage, and it was super affordable as of this posting!

In addition to all of these things, I have continued to work on my current poetry projects – you’ll hear about more soon – and have been working on two children’s books. The first one is currently sitting with a talented young illustrator. The second one is about half written with plans to be translated into four languages.

I’ll have to be better about keeping this page updated. There are always new and exciting things happening with me. For more updates, follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/poetKelsiRose

Kelsi Rose

xoxo

Other anthologies

Another anthology from Swyers Publishing will be released in the Fall of this year. I had the opportunity to submit and participate in it and am excited to say that twelve of my poems will have found a new home here.

 

“The Reminder” was also accepted into an anthology honoring Sor Juana, which is set to release later in 2018.

 

Remember to follow me on Facebook and Instagram!

-xoxo
K

June update

I will be published again at Eskimo Pie (eskimopie.net) and in another All Poetry anthology: Fractured Poetics. I also had the honor of being included in a four-person anthology with Swyers Publishing, along with Nicholas Trandahl, Fiona Summerville, and Pamela Swyers. While most of my anthologies only have a couple poems, Heart of Courage has upwards of 60 individual pieces from myself and is clearly a collection you need for your book case.

 

-xoxo

Whirlwind

Have you ever had one of those weeks where your head is spinning– you’ve got so much to do and your constantly juggling your responsibilities and your commitments? That’s the type of week I had last week. And amid the flurry of all the thoughts that were racing along in my head- I continued to be bombarded with lines from a poetry project that I hadn’t known I needed to write. Of course, when I have no time, that is precisely when the need to write arises.

For now, this newest of projects is confined to sticky notes and scraps of paper until I have the chance to organize them and see what is missing, what needs fixed, and then I will start finalizing it. It’s a touchy subject so I am not sure how far I want to go with it, if at all. We’ll have to see how it turns out.

-xoxo

 

May update

The only thing on the agenda for May is the official release of “The Drowning Girl.” Again, each has hand-sewn binding and hand-painted gouache covers. Each piece is one of a kind. After release, “The Drowning Girl” will be available on my Etsy shop– stay tuned for a link!

 

 

-xoxo
K

Reading

Have you been reading a lot? I certainly have. And while it isn’t my first choice of literature, I’m certainly gaining a lot of insight into the world.

As you know, I’m currently pursuing Bachelor’s Degrees at Columbia College for English Literature and Psychology. For this second half of the semester, I am only taking literature classes so it is a ton of reading. One of the best things about literature classes though is that you read things that you might not get the chance to read otherwise.

For me, it was the book “Passing” by Nella Larsen. It was published in 1929 and since it’s so old (but perhaps so relevant!) it can be found on in the archives at: https://archive.org/details/passing00lars This allows you to read a scanned copy or download a pdf of the book. The Internet Archive contains, per their records, 279B web pages, 11M books and texts, 4M audio recordings, 4M videos and images and 100,000 software programs.

I also chose to write one of my final papers on the correlations between The Color Purple and Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Since I have so many novels to read in such a short amount of time (my semesters are only 8 weeks) I haven’t had the chance to dig in to the two books currently sleeping on my desk. At the end of the semester, I hope to dive in to Dear Daughter from Elizabeth Little and On Writing from Stephen King.

 

Until next time~

 

-K

Having a community is the best way to improve your arts

A question that was posed at the Library’s author discussion panel asked if I was involved in any kind of poetry community. Julia Mallory probably said it best when she pointed out that community is an empowering and important part of the arts community– I couldn’t agree more.

Because of my busy schedule (between college, work, kids, writing, photography, and breathing) I just don’t have the time I’d like to get to the weekly poetry meetings in Harrisburg city. So unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) I utilize online poetry communities to improve my skills and gain feedback. I can be found hanging out at DarkPoetry.org, AllPoetry.com, and ink-circus.net. Each has a plethora of skilled, thoughtful, and wonderful writers. You won’t be disappointed.

If you’re in the area, Nate Gadsden’s Writer’s Wordshop is a great place to share, meet writers, and gain your confidence. They usually meet on the first, second, and fourth Friday of the month at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. You can keep up with what they’re doing at:

https://www.facebook.com/NathanielGadsdensWritersWordshop/

Similarly, a vibrant group of writers also meets on every Thursday in the same location under the Almost Uptown Poetry Cartel.

https://www.midtownscholar.com/calendar/2017/5/18/almost-uptown-poetry-cartel

Can’t find the address? The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is located at 1302 North Third Street, Harrisburg, PA 17102.

 

-xoxo

Tip

 

Are you participating in National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)? I sure am! I haven’t lost my inspiration yet, but if you do, check out Tumblr, Twitter, or Instagram for some prompts to help you gain focus again.

 

-xoxo