Submitted Lyrics

I have just submitted two of my lyrics for possible publication in an anthology series and I'll be waiting to hear if they deem my work worthy of inclusion. As I mentioned in my first post, this blog is to chronicle my journey on this literary journey. To register my highs and lows. At the moment, I confess that my heart is heavy with self-doubt. I do my best to strive forward doing that which I love- writing- and to cope with other needs that come with life. I know I will succeed in the end, I have no doubt about it, but the beginning can be hard and discouraging. So, now I'll be waiting to see whether these lyrics are accepted (both or just one) and whether the theater picks my play for their upcoming season.
Before I forget, I have started work on my first novel, which is an adaptation of my first play. It is set in Rwanda and is about the possible dangers on one's path of following a dream. Hopefully, we can pick up production again in Atlanta next summer...I know the actors, actresses, and everybody else involved were disappointed with the postponement, but it will come through, I have no doubt.
Well, keep your fingers crossed for me...heck, cross those toes, too, for extra blessing...and send me a little word of encouragement if you visit this site.
I thank you, and wish you all a pleasant night...or morning...or afternoon.

Work in Progress::: Woman

This is a piece inspired by a group on Facebook called Afrikan Poets and Writers for their August 2009 writer series theme; woman. I thought I'd put in my two cents worth and see what you folks think. This is the 1st draft, the rough draft, so I know there are a lot of things to fix. I know of a few but I don't want to influence your suggestions, so...have fun, and let's see how this develops from a diamond in the rough to a polished gem.
Adios, and mucho gracias.

Woman

This work has been removed and will be in a future issue of EXILE CALLING. Subscribe today to continue enjoying new works.

 

As you can tell from this and the other piece I am working on, Joriji's Daughter, I am fascinated by a few themes in my writings. Some of them are the road, the traveler, chance meeting, etc. I am a firm believer in fate, everything happens for a reason and we come to understand this reason the further along we travel along this path of life. With each step, each experience, we learn something new, or something is more clarified. Anyways, can't wait to read the suggestions.
Thanks, again.
Eddie

I need an editor or a peer editor

It's hard to really criticize your own work. Over the past few years, I have become harder (and harsher) critic of my own work; however, I feel I am not objective enough with myself. I have a few friends I send my work to for looking over, but except for one, big bro Les, not many reply with much feedback.
When I finished my first play, I was excited and wanted to share the script with my friends, some of whom were writers, too. I emailed them all a script and waited for feedback. When nothing came back in the next few weeks, I asked them if they had received it and they told me they had, but it's harder to read the script online. So, I printed out copies (not an easy thing since the script was 90 pages long), bound them, and passed them along. How many reviews came in, you ask? Well, besides Les', none...still waiting eight months later.
Since then, I have edited the play myself a few times and I feel it's almost where I want it to be. I have also finished, and submitted to a theater, a 10-minute play that did not get reviewed by someone else before submission. I edited a few time, but due to time constraints (I found out about the call for submission a few days before the deadline) I wasn't able to send it out to friends. I want to thank my buddy Les for taking a look and critiquing it, even though it was after I submitted it.
I am wondering if people would be willing to swap work for peer editing. Is this something many new writers find as a hindrance? I currently live in a small community upstate New York and don't yet know many people here, but thanks to technology, we can do this through e-mail and even talk on the phone about the work.
This is big bro Les, the man who encouraged me to write and introduced The Alchemist to me, a book that has altered my life for the better...Had to share this pic with the world...Thanks for the ongoing support, man...I won't forget...

What's in the works:::Joriji's Daughter

There is a road in Kigali (Rwanda) that I used to use often to and from school. Few roads in Rwanda at the time had names, so I don't know if this one had a name or I might have forgotten it. This particular one was no different from the other dozen or so roads and combination of roads that I could use, but it came to mind a few days ago as I sat contemplating what I could write about next. I figured I'd write about a man meeting the woman of his fantasies. I could put him on the road from somewhere...a market...with a load of something on his head...firewood?Sack of beans?...I settled on the sack of beans.
I don't know yet how long it's going to be, or what the specifics are, or how the ending is, but I'm on page 6 and I don't feel like I'm halfway done. This is my first attempt at prose, and I'm having lots of fun with it. It's flowing out of me in the rhythm of the works we were made to memorize in 3rd and 4th grade in Rwanda. Someday, I hope my works will be read by students, putting them to heart same way I did years ago.
Have you written prose before? What pointers could you give that would help me? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Who Am I and What Am I currently working on?

My name is Eddie and I come from a small country in central Africa with a big, horrendous past. Rwanda is a place of indescribable beauty, where my heart still longs for after all these years outside. It has been 15 years since I crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) and left my beloved motherland behind. At the time, I did not look back, but I know I would go about doing it differently were I to be given another chance. I doubt my 11-year old mind even contemplated the possibility of spending so much time away from the only place it had known. that excitement of crossing into another country did not wear off until a decade later, when my heart, at last, began to long for the dusty roads my feet had trod in those bygone days.
I keep alive the memories by recounting my adventures to my friends and colleagues. I tell of the old mischievous doings, the thrashings I received for a milliard of offenses, and I tell of the stories of joy. Visiting my cousins (a welcomed reprieve from staying home as an only child), my first bike, learning to use a photo camera. I tell them all so I can remember. So I can relieve their thrills and terrors through the reactions they receive. I tell them because without them, I would not be the same person.
Now, I'm here blessed with experience of living in 6 countries and countless communities. I have been high and I have been low. I have laughed much and I have wailed much, but through it all I have had the guidance of a higher power, and, for that, I am grateful.
I currently have finished a full-length play "Where Flies Flock" and a 10-minute play "NoGood, NoWhere." I also have finished and am about to submit a couple of lyrics. As for what I'm working on, my biggest and proudest work is a play about my hero, Thomas Sankara. He is the assassinated president of Burkina Faso who worked to make Africa free and dignified. I am also working on a play about smuggling Africans from Africa to Europe, and a prose about a man falling in love on his way home from the market.
I will keep this up and we will stay in touch...please leave your mark, let me know you dropped by.
Thank you.