Spring has arrived in the Dayton area, at last. We had 30 degree temperatures on Monday, but then, by Wednesday it was in the high 60's. No humidity to speak of. Cool and sunny today. Had a chance to rewrite the first chapter of my book. sometimes, when the story starts to unfold, it takes a different direction from when it started, and the whole genre of the work changes, like mine did from fantasy to a coming-of-age story. You don't always know at the beginning that it's going to go that way. Anyone who writes anything book length already  knows this. The title started as one thing, then changed to another, then another, until  the book was complete and then it became something entirely different. It needed to reflect what the story was about, and those other working titles didn't do that. Every story goes through a process, and develops its approach as the tale unfolds, that is if it's any good, and worth reading. And I intend to finish this rewrite, and get it published so anyone who wants to can read it and judge its merits for themselves. Have been keeping busy singing karaoke 2 or 3 times a week at various local venues, competed at a poetry slam this week also, but didn't win. Have only been slamming for a short time, and have still to develop a winning formula. Get to write a new piece every week for the open mike reads every Tuesday. It keeps me on my toes, and keeps my writing fresh to discipline myself to write something new for each read. We get people from as far away as Michigan, Illinois, and even St. Louis on occasion to be the featured poet of the evening. Started a new venue on Friday nights at another location, with music, poetry, and other diversions. Dayton is now the proud host to poetry venues every night of the week. Pretty awesome for little old Dayton. Some larger cities don't even have that going on like we do here. If any poets out there are going to be in the area, and would like to stop in, or even feature, contact Lincoln Schreiber at daytonpoetryslam@yahoo.com/groups. He'll give you more info, and maybe I'll see you there. I'm called Rashid. Everyone in it for any length of time uses a poet name as their moniker. It's a blast coming up with one. Mine is Richard in Arabic, or as close as English can come to it. It's from Haroun al Rashid, an 18th century Arab poet, whose works were translated into English by Sir Richard Burton, a well-known explorer and adventurer of that day, who spent several years roaming around the Ottoman Empire, and had many friends among the locals. Slams are awesome. You never know what you might hear at one. It's definitely a unique experience everyone should try at least once. All out of time. Gotta go. Enjoy yourselves this Spring, and take that trip you've been puting off. You'll be glad you did. Bye!