The Heat Did Not Wait For August

 

 IWSG

So, today's post is a bit different, and yet pertains to all artists of any medium and their struggles. I recently read the actress Viola Davis' memoir "Finding Me." She dives right in and gives raw, passionate, desperate descriptions of the life she has led. I felt uncomfortable in the first few chapters, but each time I thought to put the book down, I picked it back up and did what she wanted me to do. I dived in and swam right along with her. Her story is of course courageous, loving, and again, raw. Her life is not sugar coated and her story all the more touching for her honesty. What amazed and inspired me was this painful honesty and her true, deep modesty. She inspires the true meaning of freedom and the responsibility for that freedom, hard-earned and well deserved. She was born into the same country I was, but her story is vastly different from mine. She took responsibility at an early age to be the best that she could be in a world that stood against her. She also presents a lesson to me as a writer that goes very well with the question of the month in August. "...do you try to be original, or do you write what readers want to read?" Viola Davis' story is this question: Do you be original or give what you think your audience wants? "Finding Me," her answer to that question, is a compassionate, sharp, no nonsense read.

  

August 3 question: When you set out to write a story, do you try to be original or do you try to give readers what (you think) they want?

I start out writing what I want to write. Once I get the first draft down and am revising, I often change things that little voices in my head (and not the ones I should be listening to, as in, my characters) tell me will make readers like it better. Then I have to go back and weed some of those nasties out and go for what my characters tell me they want/need to do as best I can. This little balancing game drives me mad. Reading Viola's story has made me re-think what I'm going to do next...

Please visit our IWSG co-hosts this month and thank them for helping out!

Loni Townsend, https://www.lonitownsend.com/

Lee Lowery, http://leelowery.com

Tara Tyler, http://taratylertalks.blogspot.com/

And Me!

July IWSG And I’m Still In France

 

Sooo, this happened. I contracted covid the last week of our trip, which means I didn’t go home. My husband did because his visa ran out and he didn’t get Covid. I’ll be here another 10 days and I must say, if one needs to be in quarantine there are worse places to be! My parents-in-law are amazingly wonderful and caring and they have nursed me back to health (with us following ALL Guidelines for their safety) with thoughtfulness and kindness. I am happy to report after 13 days of dealing with the symptoms I tested negative yesterday. I am still not up to speed, but knowing I’m no longer a danger to my beloved “beau-parents” is a huge relief. I hate to think how sick I might have been had I not been vaccinated, because this has been a long haul and I’m not yet my usual self. Experiencing this has not been fun and I hope that anyone else who has had it or has it now had or has had a mild case. 

See? Worse places to be. I hope all of you have a safe and enjoyable summer…

IWSG Question of the month: if you could live in a book world which one would it be?

PERN Anne McCaffery’s  world of dragons. I have been waiting soooo long for a movie to be made, but so far nothing has happened. If I were rich, I would produce a film and hire her son to write the screenplay. If you like sci-if/fantasy, PERN is a world worth visiting.

Speaking of visiting, please visit our IWSG co-hosts today and thank them for their care of us!

https://jlennidorner.blogspot.com/ https://janetalcorn.com/ http://www.pjcolando.com/ https://jennienzor.blogspot.com/ and http://dianeburton.blogspot.com/ 

Also, writing this on my IPad, so not great at fixing links. 

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/

June in France! IWSG

IWSG WEBSITE

Our lovely IWSG co-hosts this fine month of June are...
SE White, Cathrina Constantine, Natalie Aguire, Joylene Nowell Butler, Jacqui Murray!

Please go visit their sites and thank them for keeping us going this month!

I am writing this from the other side of the ocean from home, again! I am so very happy to be here, back in France with more folks that I love and cherish. Not to mention the landscapes! I hope you are having as wonderful summer as I am. This will be short for this month but I wish you all the best!

Hello May! Hello IWSG!

IWSG WEBSITE

Hearts are resilient even if fragile. 

Love brings joy over-filling and grief over fills as well. 

Time, such an ethereal yet solid concept can't be manipulated no matter how much one wishes it could. 

May brings color and life back from monochrome winter, soothing souls.

Longing sits down and watches, knowing its turn will come again, soon enough. It is patient.

MAY 4 IWSG Question: It's the best of times; it's the worst of times. What are your writer highs (the good times) and writer lows (the crappy times)?

Having the characters speak and let me know what they want is a great high.

Having no love while working is a very sad low.

The IWSG co-hosts blessing us this month are:

Kim Elliott ,Melissa Maygrove ,Chemist Ken Lee Lowery Nancy Gideon!

Please drop by their sites and thank them!

Happy Spring

Saddest April Ever and IWSG

 

IWSG WEBSITE

I missed yesterday because we had to let go of our little furry bundle of love, Boney, and I couldn't handle anything. The loss is overwhelming. The grief is there, then gone, then back again. No way to control it. No way to make sense of it. No clarity. Just empty space. A hole. My eyes hurt. My heart is so broken I don't know how to fix it yet. I "know" time will help. But right now nothing does. I try to tell myself that people in Ukraine have it sooooo much worse than I do. But I relate to their grief and loss even more than I did before. My pain is real. Not to be diminished by others also in pain. This is what I tell myself. Nothing helps. I took off work this morning but will go back this afternoon. I will be brave. I will do what I must. I will not be able to not think of Boney, so I will let the tears come as they will and do the best that I can.

Bonaparte (Boney) May 15, 2012 - April 6, 2022

INSECURE WRITERS SUPPORT GROUP

Please go and visit those awesome co-hosts who have volunteered for April!

 Joylene Nowell Butler, Jemima Pett, Patricia Josephine, 

Louise - Fundy Blue, and Kim Lajevardi!