July IWSG

 

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/

Good day to you all! Sorry to those of you who got to this post before I did! I am on the other side of the world and in my traveling forgot what day it was! I beg pardon.

I am back in a country that I first went to exactly 50 years ago. New Zealand. Long before LOTR made it a “destination”, it has been a place I hold dear in my heart, not only because it’s a beautiful country to be in, but because it is also where I began to become who I am. When you are 14 years old and go to the other side of the planet far from anyone you know (except for literally one person, and even that was not a close relationship  at the time), it changes everything. I wrote in my journal here. I discovered a new friend that is still my friend now, and I grew out of myself, which is a feat when you’re only 14, to discover a love of travel and counting on myself to make it through fear and not always being in control. 

This place is precious to me. It gave me back a true appreciation of my parents and of family, and that chosen family comes in many forms, if one is lucky. So here’s a toast to the challenges life gives us and how we learn to deal with those challenges. Here’s to writing those memories down, to being grateful that we wrote and can go back to re-meet that younger, more innocent/naive, and brave person we used to be. 

Below are the lovely co-hosts this month for the IWSG! Please go by and thank them for being there for us this July!

Doing this on my iPad is making it a bit difficult to post properly, sorry! At least I got it all here! 

https://www.rebecca-douglass.com/

https://i-love-space.com/

http://www.patgarciaandeverythingmustchange.com/

https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com/

http://www.literaryrambles.com/

(Also, for the question of the month, which is about what writing  software you use, I use word. Tried Scrivner but guess the learning curve was more than I wanted to invest in. With word I can just write and not worry about anything but putting the words down.)

Here are some photos of this beautiful island…

My June Bug

IMPORTANT (TO ME) JUNE BIRTHDAY

June is the month of my daughter's birth. She, of course, changed my life with her entrance into the world, as did my son. I love them both so very much; I'm so happy to have had the chance to be a mother, to them, and to my other son, my "step-son". How did that come about? One "step" away? Perhaps. All I know is the heart loves who it loves, and my heart is filled with these three. 

My daughter is, for me, more than a child of mine. She is always teaching me to reach for new levels in not only being a mother, but becoming a friend. As a parent, friendship is difficult to cultivate with your child because it's hard not to see all the stages of their lives and judge accordingly. Yet, this year especially, I have learned that I can move into a friendship with my daughter that doesn't take the place of being her mother, but allows us to move into a new place of trust and acknowledgement of her as an adult and me being less judgy. I started going to a therapist in my role as a mother of adult children, to help in this transition because I love my kids so very much and realized I was having a hard time moving beyond being their mother. It isn't that they don't "need" me anymore that way. It's more about learning that I am more than a mother to them and to myself. I want to "be" in their lives, but don't need it the way I thought I did. Basing my worth on them and how they "turned out." I like when they want to call me, or see me. Yet my whole being is not based solely on them and their existence and what they do or don't do. Taking a step away and seeing them as separate from myself has been scary, and healing, and exciting. Old dogs can learn new tricks! 

Happy birthday my lovely young woman. I literally love all of you!

My lovely one and all of her selves! 

JUNE! Already! IWSG Posting

 

IWSG WEBSITE

I am happy! Amidst preparing for travel, amidst life and it's good and bad challenges, I have made time to write! I'm coming back into it gently, trying not to judge and enjoy the feeling of what I have inside me and on "paper". Whew, I am thankful for finding again a love of the story. Writing is not an easy trek and can be so incredibly frustrating. Yet the high when the writing comes is like nectar, making the drinker want to taste more. So this post will be short because I want to go write other things. I just wanted to share this with those who understand. Sometimes something happens and something clicks and a burden is lifted. This happened to me. Thank you H.C. for being that something.

Courtesy of BBC

The awesome co-hosts for the June 5 posting of the IWSG are 

Liza at Middle Passages, Shannon Lawrence, Melissa Maygrove, and Olga Godim!

PLEASE GO VISIT AND THANK THEM FOR CO-HOSTING THIS MONTH!

May’s Surprises & IWSG

 

Have you ever tried VR (virtual reality) goggles? Have you ever flown a drone? I was lucky enough yesterday to try both…and both are mind bending. I started with the drone, here in the Blue Ridge mountains near Asheville, so you understand it’s already gorgeous. Flying the drone was the closest I’ve come to flying with both feet on the ground. If you are a writer, have you ever had that feeling of “liftoff “ when your characters take the story into their own hands and you do all you can to keep up? That is what flying the drone felt like. Freedom with the illusion of control. 

Using the VR goggles was even more mind bending because even though it’s supposed to be virtual reality, it’s somehow more encompassing than real reality because in real life you move your self, your body, within the real world. In VR, the world moves around you and you have to fit your self, your body,  into that moving world. So much like writing where you are aware of every single word and how it carries the story, or doesn’t. You have to make things fit and you have to change even the settings if the story doesn’t flow any number of times. Flying with your feet on the ground. 

I recommend trying both and see how it bends your mind and makes you think differently about your body, your place in the world, and, how you build your stories. 

Insecure Writers Support Group https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

Here are our co-hosts this month! Please go by and thank them for being so supportive of all of us!!

https://www.victoriamarielees.com/

http://kimlajevardi.com/

https://nancygideon.blogspot.com/

http://cathrinaconstantine.blogspot.com/

Sorry about the format this month! Working from my IPad and don’t have a mouse! And, somehow this didn’t post yesterday when I set the time! Grrrr.

Happy May everyone!

Flowers from my garden to yours.

The Blue Ridge Mountains 

Me VR-ing!!!

April Showering Me With Kindness & ISWG

 

IWSG

Our "X" Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG

Please visit our co-hosts this lovely month of April: 

Janet Alcorn, T. Powell Coltrin, Natalie Aguirre, AND  Pat Garcia!

I'm starting out my post this month with the IWSG information because I love how important it is for me to be a part of this blogging community. I don't post as much as I should, but I love being here and how it keeps me humble, and keeps me tuned in to the "writing internet crowd." And even though I've been sent to the back of the line twice (!), I'm still hanging in here. My answer to this month's question is...

How long have I been blogging (Or Twitter, Instagram or Facebook)? What do I like about it and what has changed? 

I've been blogging since at least 2011. SOOOOO much has changed since I started and I find it a mixed bag. I gave up on Wordpress, because it wasn't the right fit for my brain. If I had someone else blogging for me I'd us it, but it was too much of a pain back then and I haven't tried it again in a very long time. I'm no longer on X/Twitter at all. I just can't do it. Instagram and FB are where I usually spend my time when doing social media. Even they are getting on my nerves. Not so much FB because I really keep up there with the special people in my life that I can't see every day. I pay no attention to anything else. Instagram never lets me just see the people I follow. If it did that, however, I'd be on it toooo much so maybe that's a good thing! Once I get back into marketing my novels I'll do a lot more on those platforms, and possibly TicToc but for now, I'm happy doing what I'm doing. How about you?

We recently got our little furbaby groomed for the first time. Not just bathed, but a whole new haircut and he looks like a new dog! Never seen him this way before and I like it. I liked the way he was with his long hair as well, but it was getting to be a real mess to deal with. What do you think? Like the new cut? The old? I like them both!

I have decided to enter one of my unpublished (but edited professionally) novels in a contest. Wish me luck? I'm very nervous about this because it's the first in a trilogy and if it doesn't go well...? I'm terrified!

Before...

After! We didn't want his face changed much, so I think she did a good job.