My very good friend Bonnie, who is a wonderful writer and blogs over at Learningtobeanewlywed, also is a regular contributor to Ignitum Today a website which posts articles on religion, family life, political issues, and relationships written by and for young Catholics: the JP2 and B16 generations. Recently, the editors at the website announced they were going to look for guest contributors and Bonnie mentioned me to the editors. She wanted me to write about our adoption story. And I did. It was neat to be writing for someone else to publish again. But, I will admit, especially now, I work much better when I have deadlines.
Click here to read my contribution.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
The Pinterest Challenge
I have 11 boards on Pinterest. One of them is just called "Inspiration." It's for all those great pictures of old buildings or cool libraries or interesting faces I come across that might spark a story some day. The problem is, I haven't seriously written anything since before Elijah was born. Now, I'm either too tired or too busy to think about it most of the time.
So, I have set myself a challenge. I'm going to take each one of those pictures either individually or group some of them together and write short stories for them. Just to get my imagination working again. Hopefully, I'll even find time to put them up here.
So, I have set myself a challenge. I'm going to take each one of those pictures either individually or group some of them together and write short stories for them. Just to get my imagination working again. Hopefully, I'll even find time to put them up here.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Opportunity Lost
Do you ever have what seems like a really great idea? You get excited about it, you plan for it and you even make two or three false starts because you're so eager you get started before the moment is right. Then, when the right moment comes...nothing happens. There is something standing between you and your great idea.
I had this happen recently and it totally sucks. Three years ago, when Nathan and I decided we were going to pursue adoption, I went to my little bookcase where I keep my notebooks and pulled out a yellow one. It has a padded cover with a really bright design of flowers and butterflies and is really pretty. "I know what I'll do," I thought. "I'll keep a log of everything we do as we begin the process of adoption. Then when the baby is a little older, I'll give it to them. It'll be a sort of, this is how much Mommy and Daddy love and planned for you." I even wrote the two names we had picked out for the baby on the inside cover...and then crossed them out and wrote new names...Nathan and I go through names like paper towels.
Starting the process took longer than either one of us anticipated. We checked out a couple of agencies we thought would work and they didn't and then we both lost our jobs so the moment was far from right to start planning a family. When we signed the papers with Angel Adoption I came home and started digging around in my nightstand, where I thought I had left the notebook last. It wasn't there. So, I went through the little notebook bookcase. It wasn't there either. I have no idea where it is now and we've started the home study, so it seems like much too late to keep a notebook chronicle of everything we've done. I hate it when stuff like that happens.
I had this happen recently and it totally sucks. Three years ago, when Nathan and I decided we were going to pursue adoption, I went to my little bookcase where I keep my notebooks and pulled out a yellow one. It has a padded cover with a really bright design of flowers and butterflies and is really pretty. "I know what I'll do," I thought. "I'll keep a log of everything we do as we begin the process of adoption. Then when the baby is a little older, I'll give it to them. It'll be a sort of, this is how much Mommy and Daddy love and planned for you." I even wrote the two names we had picked out for the baby on the inside cover...and then crossed them out and wrote new names...Nathan and I go through names like paper towels.
Starting the process took longer than either one of us anticipated. We checked out a couple of agencies we thought would work and they didn't and then we both lost our jobs so the moment was far from right to start planning a family. When we signed the papers with Angel Adoption I came home and started digging around in my nightstand, where I thought I had left the notebook last. It wasn't there. So, I went through the little notebook bookcase. It wasn't there either. I have no idea where it is now and we've started the home study, so it seems like much too late to keep a notebook chronicle of everything we've done. I hate it when stuff like that happens.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
I call it Walden
When we were setting up the office Nathan was convinced we could fit his work desk, his computer desk and my desk all in the room, which is not that big, along with the printers, and file cabinet, bookcase, and garbage can.
I was more pessimistic and volunteered to have my desk upstairs in a corner of our bedroom. At first I didn't like it because it means when we are both on the computer, we are opposite ends of the house.
However, once we got it set up, I absolutely fell in love with it.
The books behind my desk are fantastic, I love being surrounded by books. There is a small bookcase next to my desk that the plant is sitting on that is filled with binders and notebooks that hold the fragments of ideas I've come up with over the years. The red paper in front of the big bookcases is my storyboard.
But I think my favorite part of the set up is the lamp over the desk. It used to hang over my Grandpa's chair in the den at their house.
This little corner of the room is my oasis, I call it Walden. I'm thinking of putting screens up to separate the two side of the room
I was more pessimistic and volunteered to have my desk upstairs in a corner of our bedroom. At first I didn't like it because it means when we are both on the computer, we are opposite ends of the house.
However, once we got it set up, I absolutely fell in love with it.
The books behind my desk are fantastic, I love being surrounded by books. There is a small bookcase next to my desk that the plant is sitting on that is filled with binders and notebooks that hold the fragments of ideas I've come up with over the years. The red paper in front of the big bookcases is my storyboard.
But I think my favorite part of the set up is the lamp over the desk. It used to hang over my Grandpa's chair in the den at their house.
This little corner of the room is my oasis, I call it Walden. I'm thinking of putting screens up to separate the two side of the room
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Feeling rejected
Nathan says this makes me an official author. Everyone else is saying it is a good sign and means I'm on the right track.
It just has me feeling depressed and rejected. I got my very first rejection letter for the book I'm working on.
It came from one of the people I spoke with at the writer's conference. She's the first person I have heard back from and she said she didn't want the book.
Everyone else may see it as a good thing, I just see it as a failure.
It just has me feeling depressed and rejected. I got my very first rejection letter for the book I'm working on.
It came from one of the people I spoke with at the writer's conference. She's the first person I have heard back from and she said she didn't want the book.
Everyone else may see it as a good thing, I just see it as a failure.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Love is Murder
This past Thursday night, I came home from work fairly certain I wouldn't be able to eat anything until the Love Is Murder Conference was over. Fortunately, Nathan encouraged me to eat and I did have dinner.
However, I was still so nervous about having to pitch to agents that when I bumped into two ladies from my writer's conference in the hallway just before my pitch, I asked them to let me practice with them. They were great and listened to me stumble my way through the pitch and offered wonderful advice and told me I'd do fine.
My first pitch was to a small publishing company and though they said they didn't want to see the book, they did say it sounded like a good story and something they would read, just not something they published. My second pitch didn't go well at all, except that the agent told me to shorten my pitch and make it punchier.
The third agent I talked to (who was later described to me as the toughest person in the room) could tell I was nervous and was very patient and helped me with the pitch and then said the book sounded fantastic and she wanted to see the whole thing! That helped a lot.
I went back the next day with a shorter pitch and more confidence. I pitched to everyone else in the room (I think there were 9 or 10 agents or publishing houses there) and all but one said they wanted to see some of it.
I really hope this yields at least one offer. It was really nice that by the time I was done I had my pitch memorized and people were interested.
I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without all of you. My friends and family gave me so much support and encouragement that you are the reason I went in the first place. I also owe a debt to my writer's group, who also provided a great deal of support and encouragement, even at the conference itself.
Lastly and most hilariously, in the conference room next to ours while we were there, was the national Reenactor Fest. Every time I stepped out into the hall there were people in costume. All kinds of costumes from Vietnam all the way back to Classical Greece. It was fantastic!! I have always wanted to be a reenactor. While Love is Murder was having its awards banquet, the reenactors in the next room were listening to a bagpipe corps. It was funny.
However, I was still so nervous about having to pitch to agents that when I bumped into two ladies from my writer's conference in the hallway just before my pitch, I asked them to let me practice with them. They were great and listened to me stumble my way through the pitch and offered wonderful advice and told me I'd do fine.
My first pitch was to a small publishing company and though they said they didn't want to see the book, they did say it sounded like a good story and something they would read, just not something they published. My second pitch didn't go well at all, except that the agent told me to shorten my pitch and make it punchier.
The third agent I talked to (who was later described to me as the toughest person in the room) could tell I was nervous and was very patient and helped me with the pitch and then said the book sounded fantastic and she wanted to see the whole thing! That helped a lot.
I went back the next day with a shorter pitch and more confidence. I pitched to everyone else in the room (I think there were 9 or 10 agents or publishing houses there) and all but one said they wanted to see some of it.
I really hope this yields at least one offer. It was really nice that by the time I was done I had my pitch memorized and people were interested.
I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without all of you. My friends and family gave me so much support and encouragement that you are the reason I went in the first place. I also owe a debt to my writer's group, who also provided a great deal of support and encouragement, even at the conference itself.
Lastly and most hilariously, in the conference room next to ours while we were there, was the national Reenactor Fest. Every time I stepped out into the hall there were people in costume. All kinds of costumes from Vietnam all the way back to Classical Greece. It was fantastic!! I have always wanted to be a reenactor. While Love is Murder was having its awards banquet, the reenactors in the next room were listening to a bagpipe corps. It was funny.
Friday, January 30, 2009
One week
Only one week stands between me and something I've been looking forward to and dreading at the same time.
I belong to a writer's group called "Southland Scribes" in Orland Park and since my book is mostly finished, my group-mates encouraged me to sign up for this year's Love Is Murder Conference in Chicago. It's a meeting for mystery/thriller writers.
They have a pitch session, which is the primary reason I'm going. I go in and pitch my book to as many editors and publishers as I want. I have three minutes with each company or editor and I have to give them a brief synopsis of the book and how I plan to market it. It has to be memorized. Now that I only have a week left, I'm very frightened. I have great confidence in my ability as a writer, but after laboring over the same story with the same characters and plot for the last four and a half years, my confidence in the book is fading.
I want a change, I want to write something new. But I'll never be able to do it peacefully until I know the book is finished and waiting for publication. I have a brief outline of what I'll say to these publishers and editors, but I'm not definite about it yet and my stomach clenches every time I think about it.
I belong to a writer's group called "Southland Scribes" in Orland Park and since my book is mostly finished, my group-mates encouraged me to sign up for this year's Love Is Murder Conference in Chicago. It's a meeting for mystery/thriller writers.
They have a pitch session, which is the primary reason I'm going. I go in and pitch my book to as many editors and publishers as I want. I have three minutes with each company or editor and I have to give them a brief synopsis of the book and how I plan to market it. It has to be memorized. Now that I only have a week left, I'm very frightened. I have great confidence in my ability as a writer, but after laboring over the same story with the same characters and plot for the last four and a half years, my confidence in the book is fading.
I want a change, I want to write something new. But I'll never be able to do it peacefully until I know the book is finished and waiting for publication. I have a brief outline of what I'll say to these publishers and editors, but I'm not definite about it yet and my stomach clenches every time I think about it.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Registered
February sixth to eighth is the Love Is Murder writer's conference in Chicago. It is the very first writing conference I will be attending. I just registered for it today. I'm a little nervous, it means I have to have the book in top shape by then and I still have a ways to go with it. But I'm part of a very supportive and honest writer's group who have helped me immensely and are the ones who encouraged me to attend the conference.
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