My Mother Thinks I'm a Good Writer.

Guess What Came in the Mail...

2012-01-18T10:39:00.000-08:00

A check for $150 from Guideposts Magazine for my Promise Pinecone piece! What will I do with this little windfall? This actual money that my typing on the computer magically produced?Well, the long-term-thinking thing to do would be to use it to pay for something else writing-related, like a writing workshop, or save it towards my creative writing masters...But based on the pain in my feet at the

Speechless.

2012-01-03T10:05:00.000-08:00

PictureCredit:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081218122152.htmI had a disturbing confrontation with an acquaintance this summer. As always, when I can't get over my fear or anger over something that has happened, I find it helpful to write a poem about it. Sometimes I have to write several, if something is really upsetting. I probably wrote at least 15 poems and two narrative stories

When Things Finally Happen...

2011-12-08T06:28:00.000-08:00

I have been working at this publishing game for several years now. I have had plenty of failures, and some successes. My successes have until this time been on a fairly small scale with local newspapers, small literary journals and of course, this blog. All told, I've probably made $400 over the past 4 years between the KVSUN and my blog earnings. Not bad. However, any of my attempts to break

The Creative Juices are Still Flowing

2011-11-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a slow year for me for submissions. It feels like many things have happened that have affected my writing. Last year, I was sorting through my grandfather's death, and then a few months later the suicides and upheaval at my school were awful. It seemed like I didn't like very much of anything I was writing, and when you don't like what you're writing...it is hard to get a groove going.

A Halloween Rant: My worst day of the year.

2011-10-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

I hate Halloween. Don't get me wrong, I think cute costumes are awesome and I think Trick-Or-Treating can be a fun community activity. But since I've become a high school teacher, I've started dreading this day. Vampires and zombies don't scare me. I don't like fake blood everywhere, but other than just looking tacky, it doesn't really bother me. But you know what does? When teenagers and

A day in the Life of Sandy Hughes

2011-10-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

My husband introduced me to the book, _A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_ a few years ago. It takes you through the exhausting, life-threatening day of a man living in a Siberian work camp and if you can get through it, it's well worth the read. I felt a little like Ivan today...okay, maybe it's a huge stretch to compare my life to a Siberian work camp, but occasionally it feels just a little

Ladybug, Crazybug: A Dog Post.

2011-10-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

I first met my dog at the Animal Shelter in Southlake. She is a large black labrador with yellow eyes. She lay quietly in her kennel, staring hopefully out the gate. The workers must have had a soft-spot for her, because they pointed her out to me and made a big deal about what a great dog she would be. I liked her quietness and how grateful she looked to be let out of the pen and played with.

Thanks, Los Angeles Review Writing Workshop!

2011-08-07T16:47:00.000-07:00

My Creative Nonfiction writing workshop ended last week. It was only a month long, but I feel that my writing grew a great deal in that time. I wrote about love, marriage, family, death, coming to terms with loss, basically all those BIG topics in life. I struggled to portray my friends and family honestly but kindly. Overall, I am really glad that I took the workshop. Our teacher, Ann Beman,

Flash Floods and Fires and Freaks, Oh My!

2011-07-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: Brandon Muncy at Kvsun.com Sometimes I get the feeling that I am not in Kansas anymore. I was raised in the suburbs where semi-identical houses line up row by row. Everyone had a two-car garage, a little patch of lawn to mow and a small backyard area big enough for a pool and maybe a dog or two. My parent's house in Bakersfield was in a nice little cul-de-sac conveniently located

Unintentional Admission

2011-07-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

"Schools are going to be all run by computers now. It won't be long before everything is on that internet. What will you do instead of teaching?"My mother-in-law and I were driving to exercise class together. We had been discussing my neice's education in the car when she posed this question to me. I was a little taken aback. Linda is not affiliated with education in any way. She doesn't even

Magnum

2011-07-18T16:17:00.000-07:00

The following piece is one I have been working on as part of my nonfiction creative writing workshop through the Los Angeles Review. My white Dodge Shadow was parked at an angle outside the Bakersfield beauty salon. I'd always been a lousy parker. The chipped paint and the black gash on the passenger side made it stand out among the shiny new silver and white cars it shared the lot with. "Are

A Poem Involving my Twin Sister Carolyn and an Adventurous Man.

2011-07-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

The Dream I Had Last Night. I found an adventurous man who fell in love with me on the way to the lobbyafter my twin Carolyn and I had gotten lost at 4 in the morning back on the way from the spa. He helped me find my way past the small chinese woman who was making clay slabs which my Carolyn had refused to stop sticking her hands into and who had given us directions which Carolyn ignored and

Pardon me while I keen.

2011-07-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it. I posted my first writing assignment for my writing workshop which I have been greatly enjoying. I spent all weekend thinking about what to write. I wrote my piece on Monday, let it rest for a few days and then revised it and posted it today. If you hear a high pitched keening coming from the Lake Isabella area, it's me succumbing to writing anxiety. Now here is the part of the

A New Writing Adventure

2011-07-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

Starting this week, I get to take a one-month online writing workshop hosted by the Los Angeles Review. The class is on the subject of nonfiction creative writing. I have had a lot of fun writing humorous nonfiction to be published in the newspaper or on this blog, so I am excited to see where this class will take me in the world of nonfiction writing. I hope my writing is not too hyperbolic. I

My Princess

2011-06-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

If I were to write a fairy-tale, my princess would be able to handle sleeping on rocks, much less a pea. If my princess slept a little fitfully her first night in the castle because of some pea-sized lump in her mattress, she certainly wouldn’t embarrass her hosts by mentioning it. My princess wouldn’t need to be rescued- She’d be smart enough not to get abducted in the first place. My princess

Poem: Leaving Me Behind

2011-05-10T06:49:00.001-07:00

Grandfather, how could you become so smallWhen I need you to be big? You were so tall when I was a child. And I was safe with you. Grandmother, how could you become so angryWhen I need you to be joyful? You used to laugh when I was a child, And I was safe with you. Father, how could you get so sickWhen I need you to be healthy? You were so strong when I was a child, And I was safe with you. When

2011-05-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

The Past Adventures of Idiot Woman: Dating Disasters Part 2This is the last half of a story that began with "The Past Adventures of Idiot Woman: Dating Disasters." I've told this story for the past few weeks to family members and friends when I mentioned that I was blogging about it.My wonderful sister-in-law Meghan, who I love dearly is married to my brother who I also love dearly, and is

The Past Adventures of Idiot Woman: Dating Disasters

2011-04-29T05:03:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago, I wrote the post, "Can Stripping in your Car Lead to True Love?" about the night I met my now-husband Anthony at the Yule, a Christmas Banquet held by my college (California Baptist University) every year.I met him during my sophomore year. What I haven't told you about yet was my date for the Yule msy freshman year.I don't quite remember how I met Isaac. I think he was in the

Trailer Life: Anthony versus the Poop Monster

2011-04-25T05:39:00.000-07:00

In the life of a trailer dweller, few phrases inspire more fear than the utterance, "the toilet tank is full."With those words comes blame and recrimination. "Did you put enough water down the tank, Sandy?" "I always put enough water down the tank, Anthony - maybe you didn't!" And after a few more rounds of the blame cycle, my husband will volunteer, like a true hero. "Fine. I'll deal with it." "

"You Want us to Live Where?"

2011-04-18T18:00:00.001-07:00

My husband Anthony and I had just come back from a visit to his parent's place. They have about 15 acres of land. It is a nice property with one small residence, an above ground pool, an orchard, a large vegetable garden, a grape arbor, a flower garden, and rocks and weeds. A lot of rocks and weeds. It was my husband's dream that someday...when his parents built a larger home on the property,

Pork Chop Promises

2011-04-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

I took the pork chops out of the freezer this morning and set them on a plate in the refrigerator. This may sound insignificant...but it's not. Taking frozen meat out of the freezer is a promise to yourself. It's a promise that sometime in the next 2 or 3 days...you will return to the meat and actually spend time preparing and cooking it before it spoils. Meat is expensive. Our pork chops came

You Can't Take it With You

2011-04-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

There is a scene in the play, "You Can't Take it With You," where Grandpa Vanderhof gets visited by an IRS agent because he hasn't paid his taxes. Ever. When the IRS agent asks him why, the grandfather just replies that he doesn't ever see tax money going anywhere useful and he throws the responsibility back on the agent to explain what they need all that money for. The IRS agent mutters

Hope is a thing with feathers

2011-04-05T06:31:00.000-07:00

I went outside yesterday morning and breathed in the fresh spring air. For the first time in a while the future seemed bright. Is it that the play I'm directing is almost over? Is it that the yearbook is almost completed? Could it be that I finally got enough sleep? Or is it just spring?

Harper Lee for President- Revisited

2011-03-29T06:08:00.000-07:00

I had an unprecedented amount of traffic on my blog this month. So much traffic, in fact, that I began wondering what on earth I had written or done that made so many people visit my blog. A little on-line sleuthing soon delivered some answers. It turns out that President Obama recently presented Harper Lee with a special award for her book _To Kill a Mockingbird_. Apparently "Harper Lee

Hello Mother, hello Father, I’m a new teacher at Kern Valley...

2011-03-22T11:39:00.001-07:00

I found this in some old computer files. I wrote it during my first year of teaching and forgot all about it. It's a spoof on, "Camp Grenada," by Allan Sherman. Hello Mother, hello Father, I’m a new teacher at Kern ValleySchool requires a lot of trainingAnd they say we'll all teach well when they’re explainingBut I was teaching and lecturing When I noticed they weren’t listeningthey were talking