Categories
Blogging

New Issue! MANIFEST (zine): Perception

Issue #17, Perception

WHAT ARE YOU SEEING? In today’s world, this question takes on a whole new meaning, doesn’t it? What are we seeing? What is real and what is imagined? How is my subjective response relevant to the collective real and important conversations?

It’s critical, now more than ever, to validate what is real and to identify our selective responses. In this issue of Manifest (zine), you’ll find several images of artwork, each followed by an ekphrastic poem that responds to the art.

The zine is arranged in such a way that you are asked to see the REAL artwork, and then turn the page to read a SUBJECTIVE response. In doing so, hopefully, you’ll come to understand that for every YOU looking at the world one way, there is a ME seeing it completely differently.

Featuring writings by Jen Payne, and artwork reprinted with permission by Jennifer Flint, Lisa Wolkow, Susan Doolittle, Linda Edwards, LeBrie Rich, Collier and Kim Hahn, and Frank X. Tolbert 2; as well as older works by C. Allen Gilbert, Joseph Beuys, and W. E. Hill.

24-page, Full Color 4.75″ square booklet and a curated Spotify playlist. Cost: $8.00.

This issue has been printed and mailed thanks to the generous support of readers. I’m hoping to continue publishing MANIFEST (zine) through 2026, but could use your help. Please click here for more information.


You can pay through PayPal using a PayPal account or any standard credit card. If you prefer the old school approach, please send your check, made payable to Jen Payne, P.O. Box 453, Branford, CT 06405.


Categories
Blogging book review Books

Sleeping with Ghosts by Jen Payne: Blog Tour & Giveaway

I am very excited to participating in my second WOW! Women on Writing Blog Tour! For four weeks in October and November, Sleeping with Ghosts will be featured more than a dozen blogs and websites across the country with book reviews, guest posts, book giveaways, spotlights, and interviews.

It all starts today with an interview on the WOW! Women on Writing blog The Muffin. I hope you’ll follow along!

Categories
Blogging

Random Acts of Writing Turns 13!

Today marks the 13-year anniversary of Random Acts of Writing!

That’s 13 years and 1,900 blog posts about things like poetry, nature, creativity, books, travel, and spirituality,

2,600 images, photographs, original artwork, and vintage art and graphics,

1,700 followers from all over the world including the U.S., United Kingdom, Romania, Canada, Australia, India, Finland, Ireland, South Africa and Belgium,

And more than 35,000 unique visitors who checked out my posts 105,206 times.

While 13 is considered by many to be an unlucky number, in Numerology, “13 is a number of power…When broken down, 13 becomes 1 + 3 = 4. 1 is independence, 3 is creative expression, and 4 is foundation. 13 utilizes all these amazing energies together and intensifies their united essence.”

Thirteen, in dog years, is just an old dog. But in human years, 13 is a milestone year, a time of enormous physical, mental, emotional, and social changes.

It’s the same for Random Acts of Writing, as I often find myself wondering: what am I doing and where the heck is this going? Do I need to change this up? Should I do something different?

In the beginning, there was simply an urge to create. A need. A GOTTA.

And maybe that’s all there needs to be for now in this transitional time, these not-exactly-post-pandemic days, the wild adolescence of this freakin’ 21st century — a need to create, to be creative in the face of everything and anything else?

A space held, like a dancer’s spot point, to keep the world from spinning too fast, for me and for you, my readers. It’s that 1 + 3 = 4 foundation equation. And maybe, that’s enough? I hope.

Happy Anniversary Random Acts of Writing!
Happy Anniversary Followers, Readers, and Friends!
Thank you!


*California Psychics

Categories
Blogging

Random Acts of Writing Turns 12

Twelve pop art Cakes by Wayne Thiebaud to celebrate TWELVE YEARS of blog posts here on Random Acts of Writing. Thank you for your ongoing attention, support, and likes.

“In a time of destruction,” say author Maxine Hong Kingston, “create something: a poem, a parade, a community, a school, a vow, a moral principle; one peaceful moment.”

And so we persist. With love and gratitude,

Jen Payne
March 13, 2022