My Mom Writes

The Big Scare

2011-04-16T23:29:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a pretty regular day. Ran errands in the morning, played with the baby, talked to hubby(he works the evening shift), just another day. That is until I left my husband and baby to head to the bank and pick our other two kids up from school. I was sitting at the bank taking care of some writing business and my phone rang. It was hubby and he said to come home right away, so I immediately started heading that way. You see, hubby is not one to kid around. In fact, he is probably the most serious 30 something I know. Really. Grabbing my things I run out to the jeep and the phone rings again.
"Call an ambulance, something is wrong with my heart."
Oh God. I dialed 911 and headed for the house.He was pacing around when I got there, he looked grey, his hands were clammy. I freaked. We have just finished with some excitement surrounding his being diagnosed with high blood pressure. It took ages for the ambulance to get here. After they came inside, they walked him out the the ambulance while we waited inside...
Luckily I was walking toward the ambulance when it started pulling out the driveway. It was easier for me run through my yard and chase the ambulance down so I could ask the driver where they were taking him.
Some hours(and several tests) later at the hospital, they told us it was only PVC or palpitations.
Phew! I felt relieved. As I am basking in my happiness of my hubby's diagnosis, he is apologizing to everyone for wasting their time and stressing out over the future hospital bills. Me? Well, I'm just glad he's still here to stress about everything. Glad you're feeling better!

Writing Classes- Helpful or Waste of Cash?

2011-02-07T11:02:00.000-05:00

Well, here's to another Monday! I'm getting ready to put together an article I'm writing on a local bluegrass festival, it's due next week. But before I get to work, I have a question for my fellow writers - have you ever taken a writing class? I've been throwing the idea around for awhile now... taking a class about writing fiction.

I've seen these classes offered at such places as Writer's Digest, Media Bistro and Gotham-often with a hefty price tag attached. Which leads me to my next question-is the class worth shelling out all that dough? Will it really help?

I am 20,000 words into my first YA novel(and stuck) and the proud owner of a picture book manuscript which has been rejected twice. It's not the rejection that bothers me(writing for magazines and newspapers, I'm used to it-I know it's part of the gig), it's wondering if taking a class is something I need to try to make my writing better.

So readers, let me know-have you taken a writing class? Did it help or was it a waste of time? What other things do you do(besides writing) to improve your craft?

Sorry for the Interruption...

2011-02-05T21:14:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. It's been a few weeks since I have been able to update. Sorry for the absence, my husband has been sick and other things have required my attention. I have really enjoyed starting this blog and hope you will stick with me for awhile longer. Hopefully, things will be back on track very soon. I'm planning to start posting again tomorrow evening. Thanks for your patience, and once again I'm sorry for the unexplained absence.

Gimme A Beat...

2011-01-15T00:12:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the weekend! Next Friday, I plan to start something new - Freelance Friday - where I hope to offer freelance writing tips, book reviews, helpful links and "don't make the same mistake I did" posts(I have quite a few of those).

But for today, some additional thoughts on creativity and inspiration.

Was there a particular person who influenced your decision to become a writer?

Who inspires you? Maybe it's a writer you read at an early age, maybe your teen or college years or maybe you were inspired by someone new a few weeks ago. Those stories you can't put down, I love those.

Inspiration can come from other places - music, photography, scenes you take in during your day. Music really inspires me, especially when I'm working on my YA novel. I guess for me it's a little easier to plot things out if I've got a beat...

Have a great weekend!

Who or what inspires your writing?

Give Your Creative Process a Boost

2011-01-07T09:57:00.000-05:00

Do other creative endeavors help you with your writing process? Most writers are creative people, not only in their writing but in other facets of their lives as well. For instance, I like to paint. I have done it for years now. I’m not really good at it and I’m sure with the exception of my mother, no one would pay for one of my paintings. Being creative always makes me feel better, and somehow it also helps with my writing.

Self-portrait I painted in college

I think it can be good for writers to explore other creative avenues. For fiction writers it can take the edge off. Focusing your creative energy on something else may help move you past that nasty chapter that won’t come together. A non-fiction writer may happen upon a new idea for a story, or a new twist on an old one. You don’t have to depart from writing completely to give your creative process a boost- maybe you don’t like to paint, draw, take pictures, play music, etc. Try writing something different; try a new genre, a short story, a news article, keep a journal. It never hurts to try something new, you may find something you really like, or at least have fun doing it. Kind of like writing. It doesn't have to be great, but you have to do it.

Like I said, it doesn't have to be great...I painted this one with my dad some years back.

What kinds of things do you do to get the creative juices flowing?

Bring on the New Year!

2010-12-31T23:46:00.001-05:00

It's 11:01-do you know where you are? Just kidding. Almost time...just under an hour and we will ring in 2011. I have to say I'm a little excited about the new year. See, I have decided this is the year I take the bull by the horns and push forward with this whole writing career thing. Yep, no more of this fancy pant-sing around- I'm taking it to the next level. I will no longer look sheepishly down at my feet and whisper "I'm a writer" when someone asks me what I do.

To prove this newfound dedication to my craft, I will give you a brief rundown of my writing day. I sent out two queries, updated my list of story ideas, updated my blogs, updated twitter and Facebook, wrote an article and worked on my ebook. Not much you say? Well, for me between wrangling my three year old, entertaining his older brother and keeping up with my teenager-that's a pretty productive day.

So I welcome this new year. I'm going to try my best to write every day and learn everything I can from those in my writer community. But most of all I'm going to push forward and keep writing because writing,that's what I do. Happy New Year!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Umm, Who Ordered the Blizzard?

2010-12-16T12:07:00.001-05:00

Well good readers-I am so far behind and this last cold snap, it is not helping to ease the pain. Mounds of the beautiful white stuff is falling outside our window as we celebrate snow day #2(out of three-thank you Gov. Strickland-I'm glad I'll be spending my summer vacation at home so the kids can make up the extra snow days!) Tomorrow was to be the kids last day of school, but I don't think we'll be going then either considering the fact I cannot even tell there is a road in front of our house.

This ill-timed snowfall has produced much tension among the ranks here at our house. My daughter's cell phone stopped working yesterday-which means she cannot communicate with the outside world(her friends). She was counting on a trip to AT&T today to get a replacement-but we cannot get out of the driveway. This makes her...well..unhappy."There's nothing in this house to do!" Back in my day(80's), I told her, we read books and played board games on snow days. There were no cell phones, computers, Xbox360's or Wii...wow, what is she complaining about? My son is bummed because no school means no "Santa's Workshop"( the PTO's way of collecting coin from parents by way of .50 items sold for $1.50) and if he's out tomorrow, it means no Christmas party, which I just realized I forgot to buy cookies for. Did I mention I was in the running for mother of the year? Yes, the cabin fever is running a little high this afternoon-and no snow plow in sight! At least the little guy is happy, give him a jelly sandwich and he's good to go.

Hopefully everyone will calm down soon and enjoy their day off school. I have a food article to write and then maybe we'll make some holiday cookies...yeah who am I kidding-arming this motley bunch with cooking utensils and icing today would probably be a recipe for disaster. The gingerbread man won't be the only one who runs away!

Newspaper Days

2010-12-07T00:03:00.000-05:00

Well, since I obviously cannot outlast my three-year-old and his insatiable desire for jelly sandwiches this evening, I guess I'll go ahead and get to work. I cannot understand how such a tiny little person can inhale all that jelly but at least he's eating something other than those goldfish things. My other son wanted to help me work on a food article this evening, but he fell asleep during the divas match of WWE Monday Night Raw. Since he will be turning 8 in a few weeks I'm sure that won't be happening much longer.

Today I was (procrastinating) cleaning out my writing area and I found an old book my mom had bought for me about writing newspaper articles. It made me think about how I got my start-professionally-and about those first few clips. I remember going to the interview with my fancy portfolio full of papers I had written in college. I didn't have any real clips-except that little paragraph I had published about what I was thankful for when I was in fifth grade. Somehow, I didn't think presenting that would be a good idea. Believe it or not, I was later offered a job at that paper as a staff reporter.

My first story was about a "pajama day" at a local school-my daughter's to be exact. At least I knew enough not to interview her.It took me 2 hours to write that little ditty. Yep, I was greener than Kermit the Frog. Months later I was sent to our county fair where I lost my high heel in the muddy track around the grandstand, but I had a great time interviewing all those little 4-H kids with their animals. I interviewed all kinds on interesting people, heard amazing stories(some I couldn't print) and did some cool stuff. Oh yeah, and there was the time the photographer and I spent an entire day at the local Harley Davidson waiting for that Matthew McConaughey guy to show up on some charity ride. He didn't make it, but we had one hell of a good lunch that day! Later, I would move on to a short stint as the news editor of a weekly newspaper writing a column where I worked at various places for the day. I made pizza, pumped gas and milked cows at a dairy farm. Looking back those first forays into journalism weren't so bad. It was a good time. Sometimes I kind of miss it.

We Are Not Alone...

2010-12-05T00:24:00.000-05:00

No, I didn't see any alien lifeforms on my snow-covered roof this evening...they probably wouldn't dig my neighborhood anyway..not a really happening place. Anyways...These last couple of weeks I have noticed a few things about my writing: 1.) there's more of it 2.) it's getting done more frequently, and 3.)I'm feeling less of that burning, red-faced, embarrassed feeling when some jerk says"So,what is it that you do again..write stuff? Well what are you working on now?"
Sadly, I don't personally know any authors in my area so when people would ask me when my book was published or told me I couldn't really call myself a writer until you could buy my book at the bookstore, it would make me question my chosen career path. These ideas were really starting to get to me, I even thought about quitting for good(I'm not sure how that would've worked out, this is all I've wanted to do since I was five).
That is, until I discovered something amazing...there are others out there.
I visit the Writer's Digest site at least twice a week, have for some time. But a short time ago I decided to check out the writing community. I joined, made a profile page and joined a couple of groups consisting of writing professionals of all types-aspiring authors to novelists. It's amazing! I've learned so much already and it's been fun. So to my fellow group members I would like to say thanks, and to any other aspiring writers out there who feel like they're hanging out in literary land by themselves I offer this advice-connect with other writers, join some groups and get out there. It will do wonders for your writing-and maybe even your sanity.

A Passion for Writing

2010-12-01T10:37:00.000-05:00

Last night after my son finished his homework, he informed me he wanted to write a story. Well, needless to say I am always excited when one of my children shows any interest in writing, so I grabbed him some paper, a pencil and told him to let me know if he needed any help. But this wasn't any story he was working on, he wanted to write a mystery.

To prepare himself for writing this story, he wanted me to help him solve a mystery. Some nefarious individual had made short work of the giant bookshelf in his room and scattered Thomas the Tank Engine books all over the floor. We looked at the clues, the tiny perpetrator had left a calling card- a tiny plastic engine had been left behind. Hmm...After reviewing his notes, my son concluded the guilty party was no other than his three year old brother. I have to say, I kind of saw this coming, the little guy is a known Thomas fanatic.

My son was ready. He spent the next hour or so jotting down his masterpiece-only stopping to ask me how to spell something. He then stapled it together and starting reading it to me. I thought it was pretty good! He didn't. Then he started editing. He poured over his story making changes until it came out "perfect". I understood, I've been there. Walking over to the computer where I was working on my own book, he informed me that since he had finished his mystery novel in just one day, he would be happy to help me finish mine after school today. He couldn't wait to take his story to school this morning to share with his class, even though he admitted being a little nervous.

I think that's why we do it-writing I mean. It's that passion for writing, the writing process, it keeps us going. It's what we love(even though sometimes we swear we hate it), and why we love to share our work with others(even though it makes us a little nervous too). I'm really glad my son got to experience that feeling-being passionate about something he created. I think that's pretty awesome.

So much to be thankful for...

2010-11-27T22:31:00.000-05:00

While rocking my youngest son to sleep this evening, I took a moment in the unusual quiet to think about all the reasons I have to be thankful this year. Thanksgiving was wonderful, as the family converged upon our tiny house to enjoy dinner- we all had a great time. It has been a big year for our family. My father has been cancer free for a year. Our youngest, after surgery this past March, can hear well and is learning how to talk now with the help of a brilliant therapist-hearing "I Love You" for the first time, now that's a blessing. Our middle son enjoyed a great soccer season and is really growing into a fine young man, and our oldest enjoyed her first homecoming dance and has just recently had her braces removed. Exciting times I tell you! We are a creative bunch at our house, it's usually a zoo, but it's nice to have those quiet times to reflect on how fortunate we are.
I'm also thankful our Internet has been restored after our family dog(i.e. my husbands beloved pet) had seen fit to chew through the cable wire outside(twice) during this Thanksgiving weekend. Now that the cooking and cleaning are out of the way(yes, I do clean the house more than once a year), I can get back to the business of writing. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

18,000 words and counting

2010-11-22T22:48:00.000-05:00

The idea came to me a little over a year ago. I was in the parking lot of my daughter's orthodontist when a random thought smacked me in the back of the head and just exploded into this book I had to write. It couldn't wait. I had heard of this happening before but it had never happened to me. A journalist by trade, I had always secretly wished I could think of some great idea that would blossom into a work of fiction. But I had come to the conclusion I was just meant to write nonfiction-those ideas usually come pretty easy to me. This particular idea however reared its head on the eve of NaNoWriMo(that's National Novel Writing Month for you non-WriMos). The object of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days-it was a challenge I had just accepted.
So November 1 off I went with a great idea for a thriller and absolutely no idea about writing fiction. I plunked those keys like crazy trying to keep up with the others in my region. Sometimes the words came easy, other times I wanted to throw the computer out the window. I tried...but sadly I was not a winner last year, I didn't leave NaNoWriMo with a 50,000 word novel. I didn't leave empty-handed either. I'm still hard at work on the book I started last year. I know, 18,000 words in a year is nothing to brag about-but its a start...and I'm working towards an ending.