Skip to content
  • About
  • Connect
  • Publications
    • Bylines
    • Viral and Trending News
    • Book Reviews
    • Poetry
    • Past Readings & Events
  • Blog
    • Achievements
    • My Poems
    • Craft
    • Writing Challenges
    • Literary Scene
    • Book Strategy
    • Reading
  • Poem of the Day
    • Poem of the Day
    • Favorite Fiction Friday
    • Saturday Spotlight
    • How to Submit
  • Reviews & Interviews
    • Poetry
    • Lyric Essays
    • Fiction
    • Non-Fiction
    • Shorts
    • YA Lit
    • Parenting
    • Theory
    • Film & TV Shows
    • Music
  • Newsletter
McKenzie Lynn Tozan
"Creative minds are rarely tidy." – John William Gardner

Tag: Daily Poems

Blog, My Writing Challenges

“Failing” in the August 2014 Poetry Postcard Challenge: My Writing Process

  The rules of a Writing Challenge are never all that difficult: “Do [this] for [a certain number of days], and hold yourself accountable.” “If…

Share
Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

Anticipating Her Arrival

  I have asked my husband, What do you think she will look like? He frowns, and I know there is no answer. Not right…

Share
Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

Due Date

  The act is violent, the tearing open, the skin. I imagine bird claws, the talons, a wind breaking open between two buildings. The mouth,…

Share
Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

I Am Running Out of Poems.

  And then I look to the fall trees, and I wonder if they ever think, “I am running out of leaves.” They probably do,…

Share
Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

Searching Tide Pools for Shore Crabs

  Crab is such an ugly word—the hard k, its suddenness. I’m steeped in these small pools, or perched on the surrounding rocks and sand,…

Share
Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

Garden Stems

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

Share
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…

Share
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…

Share
Blog, My Poems, My Writing Challenges

Memories

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

Share
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    

Share
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…

Share
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,…

Share

Posts navigation

← Older posts
Connect with Me!
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Goodreads
Subscribe!

Join 2,088 other subscribers

Donate

Thank you for supporting the love of books, writing, and literary news! This will help me give more time to what I share here.

I Think I Have a Reading Problem.
Follow Me on Twitter!My Tweets
#BookLoversofInstagram or Bust (well, #WritersofInstagram, too)

mckenzielynntozan

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! 😎
.
A big balcony where the kids can play, a place to write, a strong-enough internet connection, and lovely, fall-like weather. 🧡 
.
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... 👀). 
.
#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.
. 
#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.
.
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.
. 
I also think there are some high quality titles here! What would you include on a list for someone turning 40? 
.
LINK in the comments! Thank you for reading! 
.
#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! 
.
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. 
. 
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...
.
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. 🖤🎃📚
.
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
Hi friends! I'm so happy to share with you that I' Hi friends! I'm so happy to share with you that I'll be celebrating my 10th anniversary with my wonderful husband tomorrow. 
❤
10 years, 6 moves, 5 years of school, almost 3 children, countless books read, and SO many memories later, we're happily going strong. 
❤
All my love to my husband today, our big day tomorrow, our anniversary adventure this weekend with our kiddos, and forever. 
❤
Happy 10th Anniversary, my love! 
*cheers*clink*živjeli*
#wedding #anniversary #10yearanniversary #love #memories
"The circle grows larger as the onlookers in the s "The circle grows larger as the onlookers in the stands shift out of their seats and the cheerleaders assemble and the girls from tryouts finally take a hint. As they slip Eric onto a gurney and keep him there on the ground to check his vitals, some realize the show is over. Emily appears and brushes my hair out of my face, her bright green eyes blazing with the love and concern I know so well, and she takes my hand and pulls me away."
.
"As more of us move out of the crowd and drift out into the galaxy of a field, now mulling with sounds of confusion and distress, there is a visible break in the circle, and I see him:"
.
"Sam is kneeling at Eric’s side, touching his knee, and he stares at me with a cold intensity as if he knows something. As if he were blaming me for a secret I’d never known."
GIRL LOST: 8100 words
#amwriting #GirltoMoonSeries #GirlLost #YA #Supernatural #Fiction #WIP #novel #bookseries #writersofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #bookstagram
Load More... Follow on Instagram
Nikko Portfolio WordPress Theme