Mari's zest for life made you want to follow her lead. Have you ever wanted to feel complete freedom? No worries. No deadlines. No bills. Just complete and utter freedom. I think of freedom and Mari's picture comes to mind. She had an unmatched zest for life that I don't think I've seen in other people. She really didn't care what people thought of her as she always did as she pleased. Whether it was creating Lake Mari in the bathroom sink as the waterfall hit the floor or take a permanent … [Read more...]
Day 83: Retyping the Best
This is an interesting concept. Have you ever thought about taking one of your very favorite books and retyping it out? That's right, the entire thing. Nope? Well, I hadn't either until I read about today's phrase. Here is a small excerpt from the book: "When Donald Ray Pollock turned forty-five, he decided he wanted to do something different with his life; he was going to learn how to write. He began by retyping stories by writers he liked —John Cheever, Richard Yates, and Ernest … [Read more...]
Y is for yummy
Boy did Mari think her food was yummy. I swear I think we asked ourselves one too many times if Mari wore her food more than she ate it. It would be all over her face, in her hair, all over her clothes, and below her highchair all over the floor. You might be thinking, "Highchair?" Yes, Mari still sat in her highchair and actually preferred sitting there. When it was time to eat she would actually climb herself in, but that's a different story. Back to Mari's food. Mari thought something … [Read more...]
Day 82: Finding a Genre
I'm a romance nut. I started off reading teen romances by the time I was 13 or 14 years old. I eventually graduated to he adult romances. The ones I like the most are historical romances set in the UK somewhere, but mostly in London. I also like to read historical romances set in the US. Once in a while I will read a contemporary romance. The point is, I love my romance books. So, when I had my first book idea pop into my head I was sure that I'd be writing a romance. I began to write my … [Read more...]
Taxes, Oh What Fun
I meant to get this written back on April 15 but with the move to Alaska things have been a little bit busy. Almost two years ago my husband and I took full legal guardianship of our niece Athena and our nephew Trevin. Trevin came to us on July 17, 2011 and Athena came on August 2, 2011. And guess when the cut off time for being able to claim them on our taxes? That right, June 30, 2011. My brother was fine with us claiming them because we spent a lot of money to not only get them here with … [Read more...]
Day 81: Writing on Water
You might be asking yourself, "What in the heck is she talking about?" Well, here is a quote from the book that I think speaks volumes: "Annie Dillard in an interview once ranted that computers can create huge mushrooming paragraphs. Sometimes with these computer keys I feel like I’m doodling on a piano or writing on water. It’s too easy to revise, to slash and burn without letting the writing cool, or even worse, to blither on and on into lethal mushroom clouds of words." When I read that … [Read more...]
X is for eXtraordinary
Mari was and will always be remembered for her eXtraordinary personality. I know that technically eXtraordinary doesn't start with an X but not a single word in the dictionary I found could be used to describe Mari. So I decided to be creative like we used to do on road trips when I was a kid. We'd play the alphabet game and because it was next to impossible to find words that started with an X so we were allowed to use a license plate if it had one or if the second letter, like eXit, could … [Read more...]
Day 80: The Strip Club
I like to think of this as more of the strip club of our life. When we write we are opening ourselves to others. We tend to put a part of ourselves, no matter how big or small, into our writing. In order to be good we have to be willing to strip down some of those internal layers so we can write what needs to be written and not just what we want to write. Think about that for a moment. In order to do that we have to leave ourselves partially vulnerable as we write. Not everyone can do this. … [Read more...]
W is for Walk
I swear Mari thought to herself, "Why walk when you can run," Sometimes I forget how much Mari was constantly on the run. She'd be watching TV and she'd run around while flapping her arms in excitement. Or reading a book and running around while she did it. Or playing with some toy that could make as much noise as possible and run around excited by the noise. It just didn't take much for her to run as you could see the freedom it gave her. So the next time you are feeling a little blue, try … [Read more...]
Starting Our Cross-Country Trip Heading to Alaska
It's hard to believe that we have officially moved out of our townhome, cleared housing, made the drive to our first stop in the Chicago area where we are visiting family for the next week. It almost seems like yesterday when Keith came home from work and told me he was offered a guidance counselor position at the MEPS in Anchorage, Alaska. He asked if I wanted to go there and I said absolutely. He got his orders on September 18 and then the move came up and now our stuff is on its way to Alaska … [Read more...]
