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McKenzie Lynn Tozan
"Creative minds are rarely tidy." – John William Gardner

Category: My Writing Challenges

Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

Garden Stems

  I go out into the world, looking for strawberries like the ones from my motherโ€™s garden. They were small and firm, sweet but bitter,…

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Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

Untitled; An Accordion

  Yesterday, I spent the day sleeping away my life. It was peaceful, the blankets all clustered near the back porch door, and all the…

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Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

Collecting Horses

  I want to get back into drawing, the pencil in my hand, the thick charcoal under my nails. I keep collecting spare pieces of…

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Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

Memories

  You should know by now that we canโ€™t go back. Not like this. Not back through the electric fence or past the sheep, dehydrated…

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Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

A Lone Bluebird after a Storm

  A promise of something small—and the skin warms.     August 13, 2014, MLT    

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Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

A Demonstration

  There was no other way to tell you that life was harmful: threw the box into the river, filled with rocks, with you, with…

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Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

A Tribute

  Tears burn yellow, burn wide, in the sun. The small sunflower seeds left over along your collar and in your hair. They are senseless,…

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Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

Sunflowers,

  and concern. There is a vase of the yellow masses in the window. They remain motionless despite the sound of the air cracking, the…

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Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

Dragonflies: A Snapshot

  In the rain, they are too small. The wings, the small holes, the designs, are filled with water. Their bodies glisten. I collected a…

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Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

In Plain Sight

  Left out on the farm, there is the threat to turn cold. The discovery of the skeleton of an opossum on the line between…

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Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

Caterpillar Towns

  Look at the way the body separates; the individual, round skulls—the rotation, the turn, the hum. The brains lift down into the feet, small…

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Blog, My Writing Challenges

Running Behind on Sharing Postcards

  Hi all—Sorry for the lag on posting my daily project for the 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest. I’ve been completing these postcards daily but…

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I Think I Have a Reading Problem.
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#BookLoversofInstagram or Bust (well, #WritersofInstagram, too)

mckenzielynntozan

Warning signs in your living room that you MAY be Warning signs in your living room that you MAY be living with a writer... 

#bookstagram #writersofinstagram #poetsofinstagram #bookreviewer #amreading #amwriting #bookshelf #whatsonmybookshelf #floatingshelf
Does anyone else ever do this? No? Just me? ๐Ÿ˜„ Does anyone else ever do this? 
No? Just me? ๐Ÿ˜„

#amreading #bookstagram #bookloversofinstagram #writersofinstagram
There may be construction going on down the street There may be construction going on down the street, but a lady could get used to this! ๐Ÿ˜Ž
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A big balcony where the kids can play, a place to write, a strong-enough internet connection, and lovely, fall-like weather. ๐Ÿงก 
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I have less than two weeks until my client's book is published, and then I have some of my own work to do that's been put off for FAR TOO LONG (like... querying agents for my debut novel and/or my YA series and/or two poetry chapbooks... ๐Ÿ‘€). 
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#Croatia #WAHM #Croatianwriter #internationalwriter #amwriting #amediting #dreamview #THATwriter #writersofinstagram #poetsofinstagram
Every year in September or early October, I feel t Every year in September or early October, I feel the same call: to go back and reread Annie Dillard's THE WRITING LIFE. (I read this book for the first time in my sophomore year of HIGH SCHOOL to give you an idea of how far back this tradition goes.) But it's become an integral part of my fall, almost like a welcoming home, and most certainly a readying for the winter that I'm never really ready for. 
#amreading #AnnieDillard #TheWritingLife #feelslikehome #memoir #craftwriting #fall #fallvibes #bookloversofinstagram #writersofinstagram #bookstagram #favoritebook #favoriteseason
Reading late tonight, including this incredible po Reading late tonight, including this incredible poem by Cameron Awkward-Rich. Enjoy.
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#MeditationsInAnEmergency #CameronAwkwardRich #amreading #poetry #poetsofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #bookstagram #poetrycommunity #poet
Good morning, friends! To start my day off on the Good morning, friends! To start my day off on the right foot, I'm having coffee and breakfast with my kiddos, and I wanted to share one of my latest successes: my first article with the Digital Nomad Writing Club.
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I am nowhere near 40, but I love articles that work as a bookend for a decade: what you should read to wrap up a decade, what you should read as you're preparing for the next one, etc.
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I also think there are some high quality titles here! What would you include on a list for someone turning 40? 
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LINK in the comments! Thank you for reading! 
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#DigitalNomadWritingClub #digitalnomad #nomad #freelance #freelancelife #momlife #booklist #bookstagram #writersofinstagram #reading #bookrecommendations #whattoreadnext #40 #40thbirthday
Hi friends! I haven't posted (again) in a while, t Hi friends! I haven't posted (again) in a while, thanks mostly to the times we're in... But I at least am here with fun news! 
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I've been working on and off on the first novel in my GIRL TO MOON series, and I've also been writing a series of short stories that I plan to publish as a collection early in the new year. 
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I'm planning to release one of these, "The Duplex," in anticipation of the full collection AND the new year, which follows a mother's grieving of her late husband and her child who has gone missing. But after a series of psychological turns and chilling bumps in the night, she begins to wonder if her child is really missing, and if there was really anyone to grieve at all...
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We all may miss trick-or-treating this year (I know I will), but this story is going to be available to read by the light of your creepy Black Flame Candle on Halloween night, with a few days and "ch-ch-ch-ch" and "ah-ah-ah-ah"s to spare. ๐Ÿ–ค๐ŸŽƒ๐Ÿ“š
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More details coming spooky-soon...
#amwriting #shortstory #horror #psychologicalthriller #TheDuplex #mckenzielynntozan #Amazon #KDP #Halloween #scarystory #spooky
It's finally here! My review of Angela Voras-Hills It's finally here! My review of Angela Voras-Hills' LOUDER BIRDS from Pleiades Press is live at Green Mountains Review. 

If you enjoy stellar, subtle poetry with lyrical and imagistic turns, the dangerous and the creepy, taking chances and the beautiful---then I can't recommend this one highly enough. It's a beautifully-wrought, difficult, and highly memorable collection. It's still on my mind almost daily. 

The LINK to my review is in the first comment! Thank you, GMR, for having me; I can't wait to read more for you soon. 
@green_mountains_review
@vorashillspoet
@pleiadespress
#angelavorashills #LouderBirds #PleiadesPress #Pleiades #greenmountainsreview #bookreview #books #bookloversofinstagram #poetsofinstagram #poetry #amreading
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