Surprised By September! IWSG Also

So working full time has messed with my schedule. I totally thought next week was the first Wednesday in September, not today! Once again I have done no writing, same as August. However, I'm crocheting every day and that gives me a semblance of having "done" something worthwhile (making things for friends and family is so much fun!). My job is worthwhile I know. But I do that for others, not for myself. Anyone who works with children has a worthwhile job. Writing was fun and worthwhile in the beginning, for me. When it turned into a way to "earn money" and be a "real" writer, I began to hate it (the marketing really). So, now, since I've taken a break from writing, I am returning to thoughts of my current work in progress and listening to where the story/characters want to take me. This is the part of writing I LOVE. So, hopefully soon, I will be able to indulge in continuing my writer's journey. I wish you all well on your own writing journeys and, meanwhile, we are happy to have our dream retaining wall terraces going in so I can plant more! Happy end of Summer everyone!

RAIN Semi-Finalist! August IWSG

Happy August Everyone. I have been working full time this summer and not at home, so have done no writing to speak of . Imagine sad face here.

However, before summer began I submitted my latest release the novel “Rain” in a contest and heard back yesterday that I am a semi-finalist! I don’t want to get too excited, but it is wonderful news to receive and I wanted to share it with you! So, I’m breathing deep slow breaths and keeping my fingers crossed. Thank you to those who have hung in with me and read my stories. I appreciate you so very much.

And as I am not at home right now and will be on the road tomorrow, I’m writing this on my phone, which is terribly difficult, so I’m sorry it’s not a great looking post. I’ll be visiting blogs later this week, and will put up the link to IWSG as well. Please visit our co-hosts and thank them! I can’t figure out how to add them here yet, so will do so when I get home.

Have a great end to your summer! I’ll be back here in September!

 

OMG It's June #2 IWSG

 

Okay, so I missed last month completely. First time I've done that in a long time. I guess I will forgive myself, especially since I remembered this month, a little late, yes, but as Alex said, I remembered!

I haven't been writing. It's harder to forgive myself for not writing. But I have been in my garden creating new stories there, with plants. I think of my WIP and know I will get back to it soon, but in the meantime I must play in the dirt. I must arrange my beds and make sure I do whatever I need to for my plants to thrive, and make their own stories. This is necessary for my sanity right now. I have gone back to work in a "day" job, and will work most of the summer, to make up for last year when I couldn't work (outside the home). Last year I wrote and hit my goal of getting my novel "Rain" out before Christmas. I am very happy about that. So, until I take up the proverbial pen, my spade will be my quill, and I will smile each time I look to my garden/yard and see what I have helped nature to create. I wish all of you a happy summer, one where we can get OUT and literally breathe again. See you in July!

Please visit our IWSG co-hosts this month and thank them for being there for us all, 

J Lenni Dorner, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, Lee Lowery, Rachna Chhabria!

Enjoy my flowers. They are the stories I am telling right now!

OMG June Already!! IWSG

 I missed last month altogether!!! Horrors!!! Now I am late this month, but, I will post a better post later today as I am at my “day” job for training. Please come back and I’ll have something actually worth reading for you! 

April Pulling Back The Curtain On Winter IWSG

IWSG

What more can we ask of April than the beauty we are beginning to see? We have pink trees, white trees, yellow daffodils, purple/white/yellow crocus's, and new green is shading everything. Lovely. Now children can play outside with gleeful abandon and teachers can get a much needed boost from watching and listening to their laughter, well at least most of the time. Another year is beginning with Covid, yet, if everyone will behave, we might actually have more of a "normal" life either by summer or (please) at least by fall. I feel hope again. Since I had my second vaccine (Pfizer) a mantel of fear has lifted from my burdened shoulders. Seriously. I don't really care if someone doesn't "believe" in Covid or the necessity of the vaccine or masks. What I care about is the burden on me is gone. I cried when my parents were vaccinated and I realized I had been SO worried about them dying from Covid. Yes, I know their time will come, as will mine, but at least not yet, not from this. I don't have much to convey on the writing front at the moment. Next month I will!

Please visit our wonderful co-hosts this month and thank them!

PK Hrezo, Pat Garcia, SE White, Lisa Buie Collard, Diane Burton!

IWSG optional monthly question is: 

Are you a risk taker when writing? Do you try something radical, different in style/POV/etc. or add controversial topics to your work?

I see this as two questions and both I would answer yes. I feel I risk whenever I put something in a book someone might read and ask themselves, "Did that happen to this author? Is this a "memoir moment?" and so feel I am a risk taker. I imagine Oprah (yes, dream big, right?!), posing the question, "What made you write about this? Has it happened to you personally?"

The second part of the question is risking to a point but perhaps not as much as someone else might. I have a novel in mind that I have not written yet because for me it would be huge to put it out for other people to read. So I will wait and see what happens. In my novels I've written about abuse, murder, greed, love, killing sadness, lies that break families apart, all things that can be considered risky depending on how you deal with them.

Happy Easter! Happy spring! Enjoy today, it's the only one you have right NOW!