Looking ahead to the next year, I see positive things in store for this website. As I noted the other day, there are great changes in the works for the poetry section which will only continue as I get more comfortable with how I want people to use the site. My next step is to truly devote a portion of every day to writing these stories. I do have two complete and the other three are in the works.
I went back and read my very first blog post from June 18th of last year the other day and was amazed at how far this blog has come in the 13+ months since. I certainly had grand ideas that I would be making posts every day (take a look at the “archives” for April, May, and June of this year to see how well that went) and that I would have a book of five short stories published by now. In terms of those original goals, I have fallen short, but I have found a passion for maintaining this website and blog and hope that I have made an impact on your life in a positive way.
Looking ahead to the next year, I see positive things in store for this website. As I noted the other day, there are great changes in the works for the poetry section which will only continue as I get more comfortable with how I want people to use the site. My next step is to truly devote a portion of every day to writing these stories. I do have two complete and the other three are in the works.
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Photo Credit: jtkunley via sxc.hu
In updating the poetry page earlier this week, I realized that there was one I had never posted on the blog or if I did, I just forgot about it. Either way, here is your chance to read “Blue” on the blog! Blue Under sky of purest blue I wait for the blue in my life To disappear Under night darkened by thoughts Of happier times past I see the snow begin to glow The moon peaks through clouds And turns to an ocean Sparkling waves winking back at me I let my mind wander Out onto those breakers and hope For better things to come Wake to the bellowing Alarm in my face, neon numbers Flashing their violet hue Morning paper hits the door And I see today will be no better Raindrop-37 degrees
Photo Credit: Merlijn Enserink via sxc.hu
I spent some time the other day redesigning the Poetry section of the website. There are a few new features:
I do also want to add a “next” and “previous” link to each poem page so that you can cycle through them all in order if you want. If there are any other features that would enhance your reading of this poetry, please let me know and I will certainly try to incorporate them.
Photo Credit: torepaul via sxc.hu
Regular visitors to the site may have noticed a new look to some of the pages. I decided that the blue text on a blue background was getting a little tired so I changed it up last week. My hope is that this will make the site a little easier to read and let people be more engaged with it. I also put up a new image for the page headers throughout the site earlier this week. I had been using a picture that I had taken myself at the ocean last year, but felt that I needed to get something “mountainous” at the top of the page given the name of the site. Many thanks to torepaul on sxc.hu for the use of the image of a true Norwegian mountain at the top of the page. Maybe someday I can get a picture of “the” outer mountain that indirectly lends its name to the site, but until then, at least I have a mountain in the same country.
My grandfather's book on Amazon.com
I have known for a long time that there was a history of writing in my family. My father worked as an editor for a law publishing company for many years. His father was a published author in Norway with many books to his name. I was doing some Wikipedia searches for my post yesterday I stumbled upon a citation in the Wikipedia article about the Tromsø airport (of all things) that referenced one of the books that my grandfather published. I searched the name Ytreberg and actually came up with 9 Wikipedia articles that reference something written by Nils A. Ytreberg. Hopefully I can add to the published legacy of the Ytrebergs in the near future. I realized over the weekend, that some people who visit this site might not know the history of the name Outermountain so here’s a little explanation. Outermountain comes from my own last name. As it was described by my father, ytre translates to “outer” in Norwegian while berg means “mountain.” I played around a little on Google Translate and did manage to get it to agree with me but wanted to make it a “small mountain” which I’m fine with. Anyway, the story goes that my father’s great grandfather had a farm on the west coast of Norway near Skodje. The farm happened to be situated on the side of a mountain which was one of two peaks in the area. The mountain in question was the outermost of the two (I assume this was the one closer to the ocean) and thus the family took the name of the land where they lived as their surname. When it came time to name my website, I could think of no better name than that which my family used long ago. It’s somewhat fitting that they took the name of the land that they worked long ago, and I transposed that name into a literal translation for work that I am doing today. In the words of the great Paul Harvey, “now you know the rest of the story.” Thank you to my father for setting the record straight about where Outermountain TRULY came from.
Photo Credit: Candice Courtney via sxc.hu
I've posted several poems that I wrote several years ago (Age, Crossing, and The Violinist) on the site in the last year as well as some that I have written more recently (The Dane, Crosstown, and At The Mailbox). One of the things that I always struggle with is when to declare the poem “done.” It was hard when I had to write poems for class and submit them for my classmates to review by a certain time. The muse doesn't always come at the right times and it’s often especially difficult to find her when you’re on a deadline. I posted over the weekend about writing contests and I think that is a better forum for me personally to get my poetry writing in. Yes there is a deadline, but if I don’t get something done on time, I’m not going to get a bad grade. I can still use something I've written for a contest here on the website even if I don’t get it submitted to the contest on time. I also find that I usually don’t change things much in a poem after I've written it down for the first time. A word here or there maybe, but the overall message of the poem came out the first time. Is my poetry the best ever? Absolutely not. I have no grandiose ideas like that. But I do hope that it’s readable, enjoyable, and might even make you think about the world around you in a slightly different way. I know most of them have made me think a bit differently when I wrote them.
Photo Credit: shishmaref via sxc.hu
I mentioned the other day entering a poetry contest on LinkedIn last month. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but the results are in and I was selected for second place in the contest!! Below is the poem that I submitted and which will be published in their yearly anthology. So without further ado, I give you "Bang!" Bang! The sound echoed through the empty hollows of the ancient barn no longer absorbed by the giant bales made into castles, and caves, and places to store uncountable treasure. A lone chicken raised her head to see what disturbed her slumber and seeing nothing lightly tucked her head back under her wing. Joey crossed the barn to retrieve the ball, wandering out into the world in a vain attempt to catch his imagination. I recently started entering a monthly writing contest that I found in a group on LinkedIn. I totally stumbled on the page by accident when I first signed up for the networking site a few months ago and didn't even realize what I had joined until the middle of last month. I penned a short poem for the June Poetry Contest that I will be posting here this week once the winners are announced_. I don’t have any delusions that I will win anything, but like they always say about the lottery, you can’t win unless you enter. Fortunately, unlike the lottery, the chances of winning here are much better and I honestly consider just the extra push to get me to write something beautiful to be winning enough. That being said, I started thinking about other possibilities for writing contests and did come across a few online. Writer’s Digest has a bunch of different contests broken down by genre including poetry, science fiction, young adult, and romance. There is a website called WritersViews.com that has a listing of FREE writing contests for this year and next and Poets & Writers has a few contests available as well. The contest that I entered last month (and plan on continuing to enter as long as I can find the right inspiration) is a subgroup under the Aspiring Writers Group on LinkedIn. There is a monthly short story contest and a poetry contest which run for roughly 15 days each so as not to overlap with each other. Each one offers a short prompt and from there you’re pretty much free to go where you please. I would love to see your words up there soon!
Photo Credit: Jan Willem Geertsma via sxc. hu
Lost in my not making regular posts over the last month or so was the fact that the website has surpassed 17500 page views. While not as fast as some of the other recent milestones, I’m still proud of this since I had very little expectations when I first started the blog and website a little over a year ago. I’m not nearly as far along in my story collection as I had hoped to be. I had grand visions of being a fully published author within six months. That hasn't happened, but I have high hopes for still getting the book published. Thank you to all who have supported me so far and will continue to do so in the future. |
AuthorMy blog is here to give updates on my writing projects and occasionally post new poems or story excerpts. Archives
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