Great loves of our life. Depending on the person, there can be many great loves or only a few to maybe only having just one. For me, my first great love is for my Heavenly Father in heaven. It is through Him all things are possible. My next great love is for my husband, Keith. In my childhood there were many kinds of abuse that happened to me and as a result this shaped who I am today, or at least partly shaped. I don't have the greatest self-esteem. I have issues with letting go of … [Read more...]
Day 106: Odd Notes #acfw
In life we all have our times where we will either jot down a quick note or store something away in the corners of our minds for later use. As writers I think it's even more important to write down those sudden thoughts that come to us. It's in those thoughts that the true magic of our writing comes out. Our hidden story ideas that get written on the page. I still remember the day about three months after Mari died where I had all these thoughts floating around in my head needing to be … [Read more...]
Day 104: Writing Your Own Front Yard #acfw
Think about this for a moment. When we write or talk about things do we use our past experiences during those times or do we just guess and hope what we say makes sense to others. Personally, I think our best writing comes from the things we have personally experienced. I'm not saying that those who haven't experience something they've written about is good. What I do mean is when we write from things that have happened in our past, we're able to put part of ourselves into what we write. There … [Read more...]
Reflecting back over the A to Z Challenge #AtoZchallenge #acfw
This year is the first time I did the A to Z Challenge on this site. However, I did do it last year on my daughter's dedication site (mommysangelinheaven.com) and fell in love with doing it. So this year I decided to really up the ante, so to speak, and do the challenge on both this site as well as my daughter's site. It wasn't easy and I even was late a couple of times with posting, but I was able to write on every letter and get them posted on both sites. Yea!!!! The topic I chose to write … [Read more...]
Y is for Young #AtoZchallenge #acfw
When people hear that I've had a child who passed away when she was 8 1/2 years old, they almost always say something like, "She was so young." And she was, but I'm always amazed at just how much someone so young has touched so many people's lives. This morning I called Todd Hochberg to ask for permission to put some of the photographs from my daughter's last day in the memoir I've written about what happened and he said yes. When he gave me the photographs he asked if he could have permission … [Read more...]
X is for eXceptional #AtoZchallenge
When I think of exceptional I think of Mari, and I could talk about everything I think that is exceptional about Mari but I think I've done that already this month. However, as many of you know I've been writing a memoir about what happened with our daughter and how we lost her. In the story I'm including some very special pictures that were taken by a very special man who has a big heart. His name is Todd Hochberg. He is a professional photographer who gives of his time to those parents who … [Read more...]
W is for Women’s Fiction #AtoZchallenge #acfw
Picture this. You take a woman who is an avid reader of romance. She loves both historical and contemporary. With or without suspense. She's been reading it since the time she was about thirteen. So what kind of book do you think she would probably write? I bet you'd logically said romance. However, since today's letter is W and the topic is women's fiction, it must be women's fiction, and that writer would be me. From the time I first read a teen romance I fell in love with the heroine and … [Read more...]
Q is for Query #atozchallenge
The dreaded query letter. No one wants to write this yet it is a very important part of the writing process. I wanted to get a specific definition for a query so I thought what better way to find it than by doing a Google search and here is what I found: "A query letter is a formal letter sent to magazine editors, literary agents and sometimes publishing houses or companies. Writers write query letters to propose writing ideas." A query is basically your first step in the door. That all … [Read more...]
Q is for Quilt #atozchallenge
Mari and her quilts. She was a little girl who loved her blankets and especially those that were quilts. When she was small, maybe two or three, she fell in love with this quilt that had been handmade by her great-grandmother. She love this quilt so much it was literally falling apart. I felt so bad because Keith's mom wanted to protect it but Mari loved it so much it had become very well-worn. When she was about four I made her a purple, pink, gray and black check quilt. I sewed it on the … [Read more...]
N is for Novel
The novel. It's been around for not only years but centuries. It's a place where we can lose ourselves as we read what's been written on the page. We can go off on adventures or fall in love with a prince. We can go to a place only the imagination can make up or a place we've never been before. Novels can be both historical or contemporary. They can teach us things or simply be a nice escape from reality. They can be light and just a fun read or they can be go deep delving into emotions that … [Read more...]
