Writing

NPM 2025 (Edge)

/ Janna Hill / Leave a comment

I can hardly believe that I first shared Edge by Sylvia Plath in April 2013.

It seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago at the same time.

I honestly enjoyed revisiting the discussion and dissection of Edge and poor Sylvia Plath. You should give it a read.

Meanwhile I present to you…

Edge by Sylvia Plath 1963

The woman is perfected.
Her dead 

Body wears the smile of accomplishment,

The illusion of a Greek necessity

Flows in the scrolls of her toga,
Her bare

Feet seem to be saying:
We have come so far, it is over.

Each dead child coiled, a white serpent,
One at each little

Pitcher of milk, now empty.
She has folded

Them back into her body as petals
Of a rose close when the garden

Stiffens and odors bleed
From the sweet, deep throats of the night flower.

The moon has nothing to be sad about,
Staring from her hood of bone.

She is used to this sort of thing.
Her blacks crackle and drag.

Sylvia Plath Hughes with her second child, son Nicholas.

NPM 2025 (Why Poetry)

/ Janna Hill / Leave a comment

Welcome to April. Welcome to NPM (National Poetry Month) and welcome to my home.

Well, my blog home. Feel free to hang out, have a drink & peruse the smorgasbord.

Heck, feel free to shoot me a line and/or a link to your favorite poem or poet. Old or new- I love `em all.

I don’t know if I should feel bad that I’m a week behind in getting started with NPM.

Shoot I run behind on a lot of things in my old age.

And since being electrocuted a year and a half ago… well I ain’t been quite right.

I’m laughing at myself a little. Not because of electrocuting myself but because I use it as an excuse sometimes.

The truth is I have never been quite right. 🤣

Anywho, I digress.

As I was saying, it is National Poetry Month. To kick it off I’ll share a tiny poem and the cover reveal for Getting Me Back.

The new cover has only updated on the ebook. We’re running into delays on the print.

New cover reveal. Ta-da!

Why Poetry?

Because It hurts deeper, tastes sweeter, laughs louder, and lets me know I’m alive.

Happy New Life (Spring is Here)

/ Janna Hill / Leave a comment

I like to believe…

I like to believe that the spring equinox marks the actual New Year. It just makes more sense with all of the new life and new activities going on in nature.

I believe we can find the same newness within ourselves if we let nature guide us.

So cheers 🥂!! Here’s to new life, new growth, and a happy HaPpY new year.

P. S. Speaking of new … I have new book covers in the works. I’m kinda looking forward to these new creations.

The Epiphany

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The epiphany has passed –

now gone are the 12 days of Christmas.

The winter sun is setting low; his colors scattered like coals of fire across the western sky. 

Our souls are satiated and hopeful of the things to come and so we sleep.

And we sleep. 

And we sleep. 

I was just pondering, a thing which I do often these days, while enjoying a glorious Texas sunset and these words came to me.

I think it is the first creative thing I’ve written in… well I don’t know how long.

And now, while sharing this with you all, the vexing lines of William Butler Yeats come to mind.

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

More to ponder no doubt.

Beach or Mountains?

/ Janna Hill / Leave a comment

Beach or mountains? Which do you prefer? Why?

My question was initially, why do I have to choose?

I enjoy the elements of both environments.

The beach is the earth’s womb; it heals and soothes and renews my soul.

The mountains are full of many wonders and challenges and they get me closer to the stars.

If I have to choose, well…

Can I choose a place where the mountains are so close they almost kiss the beach?

Of course I can—that makes for a beautiful vacation.

Regretfully though, there is no place such as that in my home country and I don’t frequently stray too far from US soil.

So if I must choose beach or mountains for my home…

I choose the forest.

This Heat – Lawd! (Tuesday’s Tell All)

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We humans get impulsive and short tempered when we get hot, literally and figuratively.

Science says when the body overheats, it needs to spend energy to cool itself down, that response can come from the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that helps people self-regulate.

That explains why people are more impulsive and less likely to think before acting.

I’m not sure if that’s what happened to Savannah Dawn and her mom, but something made them snap.

Amazon Paperback.Ebook/Audiobook

“Mama had worked up such a sweat the glue melted leaving her eyelashes dangling at an odd angle to her lids. She tried to dislodge them but after a few failed puffs, she snatched them from her face without blinking. They landed like two dead caterpillars at my feet. I quietly picked them up and stowed them in my pocket.”

Excerpt From
Savannah Dawn (Unconsecrated Visions)
Janna Hill
This material may be protected by copyright.

Flash Fiction (Saturday Shenanigans)

/ Janna Hill

In line with yesterday’s post, The Art of the Short Story, I’m sure this 40 second video would be considered #FlashFiction. And no, I did not do a word count. This is just a little ridiculousness. 😉

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The Art of the Short Story (Friday’s free for All)

/ Janna Hill

I was going through an old notebook earlier this week and came across notes from a presentation I made a few years ago.

You don’t realize how much time has slipped by until you come across little things like a card, or an old electric bill you forgot to pay or, in this case, some silly old notes.

I intended to publish them yesterday as a Throwback Thursday but the day was gone before I knew it and BOOM, it was Friday.

I’m posting them here in snapshots because if I typed these few pages out this post wouldn’t make it to you until August… of next year.

The Handout

The SurveysFlash Fiction Word Count & Classifications

AIW press also graciously lent me material to use in presentation. I don’t have a snapshot but here’s a link to the article.

Happy Friday Y’all and here’s to stories of all shapes and sizes. 🍻

Tuesdays Tell-All (The Devil Did Not Make Me Do It)

/ Janna Hill / 1 Comment

Being devilish does not always come easy because I am by nature a peace loving individual. Seriously! I really am.

But avenging evil …

That sh*t is second nature.

I think the settling of scores is what made writing Savannah Dawn so much fun; that and the fact that Savannah Dawn is an odd ball who seems to have one foot grounded here on earth and the other in some unseen realm and I can relate to that. Either way I take full responsibility, the devil did not make me do it.

Here is a little snippet leading up to that dish best served cold. Have a read while I polish my horns.

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We saw Mama’s fella, Mr. Cartwright at the Piggly Wiggly the other day and I stared right at him. Under usual circumstances, we ain’t allowed to look at him much less speak but I looked him straight in the eyes. I nearly peed my pants when I saw they were the same gold-flecked eyeballs that made me have nightmares after Papa died.  I called him an adulterating son of Satan and Mama grabbed me by the nape of my neck. Before he could put his jaw back in place she made a quick apology and dragged me to the car, saying the same sixteen words over and over, “I cannot believe you Savannah Dawn! I have never been so embarrassed in all my life!” 

That wasn’t true. Mama had been plenty embarrassed before. Maybe if the whole town knew the truth about Grandma, how she laid out on the bathroom floor in a stinking mess… maybe my remark wouldn’t have been so humiliating.

Maybe if she knew what Mr. Cartwright had done she would be madder at him than she was at me – so I told her.

By the way Kelly Mack does a great job narrating and the audio version is available at iTunes, Amazon & Audible.

It’s Harvest Time …

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…And time to gather your copy of Feast or Famine (The Sharecropper’s Son)

The original cover–a photo of the real sharecropper. Preview compliments of Amazon.
The new/current cover. Click this lovely cover and get a copy at your favorite e-book retailer.
Thank you to my husband and the Hill family for sharing their history and graciously allowing me artistic liberties.

XoXo