Good News

rainbow on butterhill (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s been a very disheartening week, so it did my spirits good to have a pleasant surprise in my email inbox late last night. I wrote an article early last year and was notified it was accepted. It wasn’t known what issue it would be published in and as time went by, I just assumed it wouldn’t be published.

It was…it finally was and can be found in the May/June issue of Today’s Caregiver magazine! The article is “Making Prescription Refills Easier” on page 28. If you click on the digital magazine and go to the table of contents, then the title of the article can be clicked to go to it easier(if you want to read it… ).

This is an incredibly short post, but will hopefully be posting more again soon. I’ve come across several interesting things over the past few days I’d like to share.

Bent Objects

Reblogged from One Writer's Journey:

There's no doubt in my mind -- we creative types see the world in a slightly different way than "normal people."  The fact that I would even use that phrase, normal people, says something.  That said Terry Border may have a more bent take on life than the rest of us.  He's made his name as the creator of Bent Objects.  

Read more… 45 more words

This is wonderful...not a writer, but a creative minded person like writers are...doing absolutely what makes him happy. It's a wonderful thing to earn a living doing something that brings joy into your life and, at times, into the lives of others. It's something many never achieve or only dream about, but are never quite willing to take the needed risk or leap.

Rule Breaking…

*If you’ve been reading this blog for a bit, you know I’ve been journaling. I’ve always considered my journal my private thoughts and keep it hidden away in ever changing secret spots around the house. Even my journal has been neglected as has this blog of late. Life has been a bit overwhelming. My husband is on hospice and my emotions have been raw,  making me a little bit too on the blunt side. Anyhow, I’m breaking rules today…I’m sharing an entry from my journal and I’m being maybe too personal.*

Tree in the Rain

Written in my journal last night…there’s so much it doesn’t say, but it’s a beginning…

I could leave this page blank again. It’s been so long since I’ve written in this journal, not because I have nothing to say, quite the opposite. I have too many things to say, things too hard, and don’t really know how to put them into words.

I don’t have writer’s block. I have a lack of willingness to confront. Writing tends to make me deal with things head on and it’s painful. Right now all I see is the hot stove and I’m not willing to touch it, or in this case, pick up the pen.

The words of wisdom from the writing world, to “write through the pain” and “writing helps to process things”, do little to urge me on. I want to resist and drag myself kicking and screaming all the way. I’m turning into one of the world’s most productive procrastinators on mostly good days. On bad days, sleep is my only desire.

Keeping my hands busy distracts my mind from thoughts I’d rather not think. My purse is clean and organized for the third time this week. The checking account is more balanced than it’s been in my life. I clean and cook to exhaustion. On the plus side, I’ve learned to excel at making homemade bread and almost every cabinet has been decluttered, cleaned, and organized. All things I do while he sleeps.

Most of my efforts should be creating a cozy haven that home should be, however, my endeavors feel fruitless. When saying goodbye to someone and a life I’ve known for almost a quarter of a century, I’ve yet to discover what to do or the words to say. I continue on the best I can in a facade of normalcy.

Often I look out the windows at the trees or the plants right out the front door. For some reason, I’ve been insistent on growing some kind of garden this year. Originally, the plan was to get the small garden spot tilled, then I thought it impractical. I’ve decided on container gardening out the front door, which can be tended in a few spare moments a day. It’s not the fresh produce I long for I think, but rather an in-front of my face reminder life does go on.

Editing your memoir, showing versus telling

Reblogged from moonbridgebooks:

All writers need an editor. Even editors need editors. Family-only writings can be held to looser standards, but have a few people read over the manuscript to look for typos and improper grammar and anything that does not make sense, is not clear, or is phrased awkwardly. Friends who don’t know your past very well would make good “beta readers.” After all, the great-great-great grandchildren may someday read your book and you want them—strangers—to understand everything you wrote and not stumble over twisted, rambling sentences.

Read more… 677 more words

Thought I'd share a post I ran across last night. Loved that it gave examples of the "show don't tell" type writing which somehow eludes my brain. Sometimes I just need things spelled out a little more concretely for me.

A Caregiver’s Heart

Here’s a poem using some of the words from Wordle 105 over at The Sunday Whirl blog.  Poetry is where my melancholy heart has been drawn to as of late.

As good as heart can wish (Photo credit: harold.lloyd)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Losing my resilience
Like a spring
Wound a bit much
Harder to bounce back
Feeling out of touch
Hanging onto promises
With thread bare hope
Searching for shelter
Needing a way to cope
Seeking some solace
Against this torrential rain
A life flowing too fast
Yet remaining
Too much the same
A caregiver’s heart
Travels a difficult road
Trying to prevent
Burnout and overload
Must endure till the end
Many are the pieces
To this heavy load
Tasks breed like rabbits
Sleep is interrupted again
Unable to dream
There are days with no end
Yet consider all of this
Time well spent
Compassion and love
Worth much more
Than mountains of gold
To comfort another
Offer a hand to hold
To stay the course
And reach our goal
There is many a thing
Helpful to be remembered
Not often enough told
Always grasp for hope
So big for four small letters
Take care of yourself
Or how can you give to others
Keep singing your heart’s song
Don’t let it fly away
Life’s a whirlwind dance
Take part at every chance
There will be an after
This journey will end
Time will yet reveal
Now is in moments
Feelings much too real

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Poetry of the Heart

Here’s a poem I wrote using words from
Wordle 104 over at The Sunday Whirl blog :

Far Away Shore

So often I get close to the shore
Yet it’s never quite within reach
So much is beyond my control
Surpassing my threshold of grief
Swallowed in an ocean of tears
Tainted with whispers of fears
Tears retreat to a hesitant flow
Yet still I keep sinking far below
There is a shift in the currents
Turning from sorrow to apathy
Becoming skeptical of this life
Losing more of the inner me
Fleeing heart’s pain for relief
Burying emotions hidden deep
Take a sigh and try to unwind
Search the waters for meaning
Remnants of the long faded past
Drifting afloat in ocean’s embrace
Pleading emotions to resurface
Pain preferred to hollow peace
Anything to replace the nothing
Confrontation rather than fleeing
To taste again the salt of my tears
To escape the ocean’s grasp
Shores of hope I may one day reach
Joy revealed before I breathe my last

Ocean Waves

Short Note

A pet peeve for some folks are posting apologies on a blog for not blogging, so sorry if you’re in that group. This is sooo that kind of post. I just wanted to write a short note to say “I’m sorry”….sick again, so there will be no new blog posts for a few days till I get recovered. Temporarily, I will be sipping lots of cups of hot herbal tea and curling up with a good book. Reading’s still comforting even if you have to lie down to do it. The only writing will probably be me whining in my journal; unless some fairy size muse flies through the air, sprinkles magic glittery dust on my head, and causes an instant spurt of creative energy(I can wish can’t I?…ha, ha).

Fairy – “Take the Fair Face of Woman”, by Sophie Gengembre Anderson. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

A Book Lover’s Dream

©Illumination Photographics by Selena Lynn Bullock

Spring is in the air and thoughts of love. Well, I’m in love with reading. It’s not a bad thing and many well seasoned writers point out if you’re going to write, you need to read. Read far and wide, not just your writing genre. You can pick up on many good and bad things in reading, which will help you with your writing. Another bit of sound advice, which I need to take, don’t read so much about how to write, just WRITE.

My daughter has found she has a natural affinity for grammar and writing in her college English class. I don’t think it has much to do with any special curriculum used during her years as a homeschooler. I attribute it more to her being raised in a reading filled environment. Books have always been around our home, many childhood trips to libraries and bookstores, bedtimes filled with stories read aloud, and encouraging her to read books of her own choosing.

We’re both still voracious readers, just have very different tastes in books. I love going to the library and stocking up on books. Caregiving responsibilities have increased, so I hadn’t been in a while. I finally got to go(clapping hands and smiling big) and it was great…I think my enthusiasm may have scared the young librarian at the desk. I told my sister it was as good as chocolate or s-e-x.

I checked out a big stack of books I’ve been wanting to get my hands on, as well as a few Mother Earth magazines. I was one HAPPY woman. I won’t bore you with all my books, some are just random ones I have an interest in like gardening and crochet.

Two were writing books : How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead by Ariel Gore(I don’t want to be famous, but it looked interesting on the flip through. I’ve enjoyed the humor the author uses throughout.) and On Writing : A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King(Love this…though be forewarned he is blunt and there is a bit of cursing if you’re on the prim & proper side. It’d be one of those times to not throw the baby out with the bath water as the saying goes…he offers a lot of good advice). The funny thing is this is the only book by Stephen King I’ve ever read…I don’t do scary.

Two other books were just for my reading enjoyment and have been on my “To Read” list a while. One is Interpreter of Maladies, which is a book of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri. The other was Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. I’m enjoying both of these, but have seen in places first hand examples of how too much detail can slow a story down. There are places with just the right amount of description, which make it easy to picture the story in my mind.

On a side note…if libraries make your heart soar, here’s a link with pictures of incredible libraries.

Related articles

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Simplicity for Writing’s Sake

(Last week I was sick with a very sore throat…only felt like curling up with a good book and doing bare essentials. My voice is back, still trying to kick my writing back into gear. Figured I’d do a post for starters.)

Nice cup of tea and writing

What’s the most important thing a writer needs to do?…WRITE! This can get difficult when so many things get in the way. Any writer can probably list a zillion things which keep them from writing, we’re bombarded with distractions and interruptions on a daily basis. This is LIFE! Many writers will claim, because of all this it’s hard to find time to write.

Now, no one start throwing wads of balled up paper at me…I have TIME…I have time in excess! My problems are procrastinating and getting my head in the right spot.  I’ve become even a more full time caregiver to my spouse. He sleeps many hours a day, due to his health problems, so there’s plenty of uninterrupted writing time. I’m even one of those writers with a job allowing me time to write, though I don’t work many days a month.

The trouble is I feel so overwhelmed at times, it feels as if I’d need a backhoe to start digging my way out. After doing, what I guess you could call some soul searching, I think I’ve happened upon a solution of sorts. I’ve decided I need to start simplifying. It’ll be slow go, but it will feel like I’m getting somewhere and help me to clear my head, so I can write more productively.

I’m not giving up blogging, I’m too attached, but I am trying to reduce some of the other clutter in my life. It’s a reevaluation of sorts. These are some of the steps I’m going to take in an attempt to simplify life :

• Unsubscribe from email newsletters no longer applicable or useful in my life(example-no longer homeschool, but still get homeschool newsletters)
• Unfollow some blogs I’m just not so interested in or find helpful
• Limit time spent on facebook—considering taking a facebook break for a few days as well as unfriending a few groups and people that post so much it’s overwhelming to sort through
• Limit time spent on pinterest—this is a stress reducer for me—usually good with my time, just need to continue
• Try not to have internet up if writing on computer unless : 1. need for reference–sometimes use Dictionary.com to look up words I’m not sure about; or 2. to listen to my favorite YouTube playlist while I write–Soothing Music

I’m going to head to the kitchen for a hot cup of herbal tea, hit the play button on my favorite music CD, and sit at the kitchen table writing with pen and paper.  Have you thought of ways you can free up your mind and your life, so you can write or write more effectively? Happy writing…

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Current Reads

Morante with Alberto Moravia at Capri in the 1940s. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Be forewarned, this is an unusually long post, but I thought I’d share my thoughts on a couple of books. Hey, writers have to read! I’m reading two books currently, Woman of Rome : A Life of Elsa Morante by Lily Tuck and Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald. Both are really close to being finished and I’ll have to pick something new to read soon.

Fall on Your Knees is a novel and by far the most interesting of the two, albeit a bit odd. It’s a book about several generations of a family in Canada, mainly the lives of the sisters in the family. It’s a sad novel marked by tragedy upon tragedy, beginning with a thirteen year old bride. I know it’s fiction, but it is revealing about human nature…the sacrifices some are willing to make and the coldness of others.

I can’t say I really liked the book, but the author did do an amazing job writing a intensely detailed novel with a complicated plot. It’s a bit dark for my tastes and deals with some rather uncomfortable subjects including abuse.  It has some really not nice characters in it and it’s hard to get to attached to some characters, because as soon as you do, they up and die. I’m more of a lighthearted, let’s not condemn people to death kind of person.

Oh well, I’ll finish it and I can say it’s definitely something different than I’ve read in a while. It was one of those that sounded intriguing by what was written on the back cover, so I had to give it a try. It has held my interest and made me want to keep picking it up, so I can see what will happen next to the characters. It’s a page turner.

Woman of Rome is a biography about the Italian writer Elsa Morante, born 1912 and died 1985. She wrote novels and poetry, which are discussed in the book in detail. It’s taking a while for me to make my way through this book. She was an interesting writer and seems she was not afraid to voice her thoughts, often at the expense of the feelings of others, but had a rather dysfunctional family during childhood and a tragic love life.

She seems to have had a very free life for a woman. She traveled often, had a complicated marriage, and had numerous love affairs. She loved Mozart and cats. She dressed how she wanted. She was a reader and underlined favorite passages in books. She wrote her thoughts in a diary at times. She had passionate discussions with those in her life and was generous. Despite all of this, it still seems as if she was disillusioned and unhappy with life.

I think it’s taking me so long to read this book, because there is so much information. It is well researched by the author, but I get lost in many of the details about the other people that were parts of Elsa Morante’s life. There is mention of many writers, film makers, and artists in the book; which I am unfamiliar with and makes for a disconnect. I will continue to muddle my way through and finish the book regardless. This has been a very slooow page turner.

If you have a book you’ve enjoyed I’m open to suggestions and if you need a few suggestions I have a board I started on pinterest of books on my “To Read” list you may want to check out.

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