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.  

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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.

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.

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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.

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)

 

Enemies of the Art Part 3---F.E.A.R.

Reblogged from Kristen Lamb's Blog:

Fear is always a part of life. We all feel it to one degree or another. Trying to live a life without fear is dangerous. Why? Because there are only two types of people who never feel fear---sociopaths and drugged people. Sociopaths lack empathy and normal human emotions. They don't feel fear, but they don't really feel love, joy, happiness or anything else.

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I try not to reblog too often, but I read such an incredible post about FEAR over at Kristen Lamb's Blog just a few moments ago. It was so great I thought I'd share it. I think many times in life, fear holds us back, not just in writing, but in fully living life. There are some thoughts in the post about thinking about fear differently. One thing I really liked was the acronym for F.E.A.R., which she says is False Evidence Appearing Real. Truth is one of the major things that drive my writing as I'm tired of it being lost in the false illusions of life, which merely hide it. I need to hang onto the things I know are real and quit letting the other things weigh me down. Life is far too short for negativity. :)

Still Here…

Hi, I’m still here and have plans to continue blogging. So much for 2013 goals. Life has just hit a wee bit of a bump in the proverbial road. Trying to sort some things out. My husband’s health had not been doing well last week, then he fell Friday before this past one. He had a compression fracture in his spine. It would’ve been quite enough to handle, but things started to get worse.

We went back to the ER the next day, Saturday, and he was admitted to the hospital. It was a combination of multiple things including dehydration, pneumonia, exacerbation of COPD, and heart issues as well. Everything since the fall has happened so fast. Thankfully he was discharged late Tuesday.

There is truly no place like home, but now there are new issues we are having to figure out. He’s on oxygen for the first time ever. Home health is sending a nurse and physical therapy out a couple of times a week for a while. Hopefully things will improve, but for now things are a little crazy around here.

I’ve been so tired, I haven’t done much writing. I did write in my journal last night and it felt sooo good. Needed to unload a bit. Life will start settling into it’s own rhythm soon and I’ll start writing more. For now, would so love to have just maybe  a couple of hours undisturbed sleep.

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The Writing Life

Reblogged from Content By Dawn:

• 

~Find a job you love and you'll never work another day in your life.  Confucius~

Although most of my blog posts center around how to write better and creating quality content, sometimes I like to share how much fun it is to get paid to do my job as a writer.

I'm a contributing writer for the cultural magazine Piney Woods Live…

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I try not to reblog much, but loved this post. There is a lot to be said for being happy at what you do for a living. I think it's something not enough people do and they just spend vast amounts of their life merely existing. Paying the bills is important, but it shouldn't be the end all be all. Sometimes we've got to remember how to dream and try to follow our passions. :)

Thoughts

I’ve been in a poetic mood as of late, so thought I would try my hand at The Sunday Whirl wordle 85 prompt. Here’s the poem I wrote :

Forlorn thoughts
Rampaging in her head
Felt wilted as a flower
Body draped across the bed
Small spark in her heart
Sign love wasn’t dead
Spirit longing to find
Lost dreams and hope
Long left far behind
Thoughts she shouldn’t think
Swirled round in her head
Longings of desire
Serenading her soul
Tempting with false allure
A desperate affair to unfold
Crossing of forbidden lines
For a facade of comfort
Embraced in another’s arms
Tears slid down her face
Thoughts are just thoughts
She should put them in their place
Erase them without a trace
Like sands blown by the wind
Maybe another time, another place

Love Love Love (Photo credit: Gregory Jordan)

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Hi! Just taking a short break from cooking, I wanted to tell you…”I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving”.  Life will always be full of challenges.  It’s good to slow down and count our blessings.  I don’t succeed everyday, but I have been trying to make an effort to practice thankfulness in my life.  There are so many things to be thankful for and maybe if more people focused on being thankful for even the small things in life, then there would be less complaining and more happiness in the world.

Pumpkins, photographed in Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Memoir Bits

Writing journal (Photo credit: avrdreamer)

Just a short little post tonight, but had a couple of things about memoirs I thought were worth sharing. The first is a cartoon I thought was a very apt description at how readers, including myself, pick out memoirs to read : Roz Chast’s Memoir Spectrum.  There are some memoirs, though they may be well written and interesting to some, which I will never read unless nothing else was available(like on an island with one book).  I have to flip through a book a little and be able to connect to it on some level.

The second thing I discovered tonight was Scoop.it from a posting on facebook.  I haven’t had much of a chance to play with it, but the little I did, it looks like another social media thing much like Pinterest.  I was really excited, because the links posted on facebook to Scoop.it were on Memoir Writing.  There was oodles of information on memoir.  I had to contain myself as I can get a little click happy.  I’m usually pretty good, but it can be a struggle to make sure I do not overdo my time with social media.

Well, I have to work tomorrow at my paying job, so I’d best be cutting it short and get off the computer.  I’m going to go write a little.  I’ve been in a poetry mood lately, but am beginning to write another memoir as well.  Memoir is truly one of my favorite forms of writing.  I think everyone should write their stories, even if it is for yourself or to pass on to a family member one day.

Related articles

• Memoir Labyrinth – Write Through Series – Number 1 (wordscomeezine.wordpress.com)
• Memoir Writing (or Artistically Telling Your Story) (shelleywidhalm.wordpress.com)

Broken Hearts & Loss…

Just writing a very short blog post.  One I’m not even sure if I really should.  I try to separate certain private parts of my life from the public domain of blogging, but blogging has also given me such a sense of community that it’s part of my life.  I’m very thankful for those I’ve met online, bloggers whose blogs I follow and readers of my blogs, even though we’ve never met in person.  Because of these reasons, I’m sharing a bit of my heart tonight.

It’s been an incredibly difficult week.  My sweet daughter had a miscarriage.  Per the ultrasound, she probably actually lost the baby at about 11 weeks, but it did not come till this week.  It would have been her first.  My daughter, at her 18 years, may have been young and the baby may not have had the ideal situation to start; but the baby was very wanted and very loved from the beginning.

There’s a lot of sadness in our hearts right now and trying to understand, so we’re just taking it easy.  She’s recovering and we’re all working on healing.  I guess that’s really all I wanted to say.  I just needed to say something.  I usually write quite often and find comfort in writing, but my heart hasn’t made it that far yet.  This is the closest it’s come and the first I’ve written in days, but it’s a start.

Here is a poem my daughter found, which she found comfort in and shared with me :  My Angel Baby