March Is Marching On Without Me On IWSG So On To April!

 

IWSG

I had planned to post last week for IWSG, but somehow I didn't. So I'm posting this week (for April evidently!). Life has taken off in such a good way (mostly), that I would forget my head if it weren't permanently attached. This is good and bad. Because I'm not writing it's bad. Because life is so full right now it's good. I am reading like I haven't read since before Covid. I've read over 18 books in the last two months which feels amazing. I also feel it is the beginning of loving writing again. 

I am working on fixing some issues in my family, going to therapy and this is good. I can still learn. I love that part of "issues". Yes it can be painful, but the joy that comes from fixing the issues is not to be underestimated. The work is greatly appreciated and makes me feel like a better human being, not to mention mother and wife.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Wednesday last week during the usual posting time, and I hope you continue to have a wonderful spring. 

Please visit the wonderful co-hosts for April...

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

I also went to Puerto Rico and it was fabulous!!!

With my sister and my sister from another mother! Loved Puerto Rico with Cat and Alma!

Puerto Rico

Swimming with sea turtles!! With a disposable camera so not great quality photos... But still!

April Is Host To The A-to-Z Blogging Challenge!

IWSG WEBSITE

Although I'm not participating in the A to Z Challenge this year, I still want to give a shout out to those who are and wish them good luck and interesting blog posts to read!

A to Z Challenge

I've done the challenge quite a few times. It is a real challenge, but so fun and there are so many blogs that participate in all kinds of areas, not just writing blogs. This year, so far, there are 232 blogs signed up. 

The sign-up will close on April 9th, so if you want to participate, get on over there and sign up at

 A to Z Challenge!

A lot of us here on IWSG also post there. This is how I found it years ago. I love the idea behind it and the man who started it, Arlee Bird, has put heart and soul into it much as our Fearless Ninja has at IWSG.

As long as you're running around blogs, please make sure to visit our wonderful co-hosts and thank them for their dedication to IWSG, Jemima Pett, Nancy Gideon, and Natalie Aguirre!

April 5 question - Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now and how is it working out for you? If you're at the start of the journey, what are your goals?

Yes, I remember writing my first novel! I wanted to make a living at it. That has not happened for me and it killed my love of writing for quite awhile. I'm hoping that will change this year. I want to love to write again. I want to create and meet new characters. I want to LOVE the words again.

So, that's what I'm working on this year...

Pretty images from our daughter's wedding...!

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

Fluttering February & IWSG

 

Good day to everyone! February, a time for love and madness, and, Black History (and my mother's birthday!). Weather is funky. Some look forward to celebrating with their special other, some rant because they don't have one. This month, leaning into spring, is one that feels like an "in between" month in the whole of the year. It's still winter, but we are teased at times with blue skies, then plunged back into gray. And we're all waiting for the cold to warm and the buds to begin showing their green promises of spring. And the ground hog doesn't help at all! Black History Month gives more meaning to February for me and I enjoy learning from all the resources that now abound about that missing part of this country's heritage.

Since I'm on break from writing, I've been concentrating on my other work with children (in before/after school programs with the YWCA) and find these little precious beings filling my soul. I am blessed to be appreciated by them, that they feel safe with me and my colleagues. Living on the edge of, well, fear-unrest-nervousness about Covid, we have to make sacrifices every day for their safety and ours and they do, too. I hate it for them, but am also glad because they still get to come to school. They still get this time to catch up on what they missed the years before. They are learning again to socialize and be a part of something bigger than themselves: their community. So far we haven't had to close any programs! Our parents are being wonderful and understanding and trusting us to help care for their children when they need us to do so. I feel like this work is helping me grow as a person (and it helps give me my "Kiddy " fix since my only grandchild lives in France!)

I wanted to share this and Black History Month with you, because I'm so very, very, VERY tired of "bad" news all the time. I can't stand to listen to most of it anymore because it's so off balance of "real" life. I DO read CNN's "Good News" newsletter every weekend and smile every time. It is so nice to read something positive and to see how many really beautiful/wonderful/gentle/loving people there are in the world. I count all of you IWSG'ers among them. You make me feel special and a part of something really good and much bigger than myself. I thank you for that and for being who you are.

The IWSG question of the month is: Is there someone who influenced or supported you that perhaps isn't around anymore? Anyone you miss?

Yes. My father. My Dad was a writer and great reader all my life. I've already mentioned on a different post here how, when we were kids our father had us write short one page stories for our allowance. He would then read them with us and correct our spelling or whatever. When I decided to listen to my soul and write, he was my greatest supporter (my mom too!) and he encouraged me, not only to write, but gave me the facts of how hard it would be. I miss him more than words can convey.

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

Joylene Nowell Butler, Jacqui Murray, Sandra Cox,Lee Lowery!

So, I hope February, BLACK HISTORY MONTH, is not just an "in between" month for you and that you find something precious and positive in it this year. Happy February!

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!