Category: Writing

  • Festival of faith & writing conference

    Festival of Faith & Writing conference

    https://www.calvin.edu/academic/engl/festival/conference/schedule.php

     Day #1:

    • Facebook Revolution: How writers can use social media to build their relationships (great panel discussion!) 
    • Reading by David and Diane Munson from their new book, “Hero’s Ransom” 
    • The Art of Bloodletting: Translating Suffering to the shared page (made me contemplate a future writing of mine that needs to get out there)
    •  What “Some” editors want “Some” Writers to know
    • Wally Lamb, There but for the grace of God: what my writing has taught me about sin, redemption, and the complexity of the Crime-and-Punishment Equation

    I’m excited to begin Day #2 of the conference held at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Yesterday, I handed my book proposal (my ‘baby’) to two potential editors I met with during the conference. God is in control of that now. I plan to talk with a couple more editors today.

    It was great seeing old friends and connecting with new ones. Today, a bit worn and slightly overwhelmed, I need to prepare body and mind for Day #2. There sure is a LOT of walking to be done – I went from all the way east of campus, across the pedestrian bridge, all the way west, and back again a couple of times. Whew!

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  • Festival of Faith & Writing conference

    I’m gearing up for the Festival of Faith & Writing 3-day conference held right here in Grand Rapids, Michigan at Calvin College. This conference is held every other year, and I’m excited about the line-up. However, there are so many speakers and workshops to choose from…how can I know which is the right one? 

    https://www.calvin.edu/academic/engl/festival/conference/schedule.php

    I want to attend them all fearing I’ll miss something if I do not. But, it is not possible to attend them all – I must choose one from each time category spot.

    Featured speakers: David and Diane Munson, Wally Lamb, Ed Dobson, Eugene Peterson (wrote  translation, “The Message”), Rhoda Janzen, Kate DiCamillo (“The Tale of Despereaux”), Luci Shaw, and many more!

    An author-friend suggested I go through the list and circle the ones that sound interesting to me & where I am right now in my writing journey. This will give me a tentative game plan. However, if at the last minute, another topic/speaker arises, I should be flexible and possibly go with that one. Once she did that very same thing–had her game plan all mapped out, and at the last minute, another topic piqued her interest. She went with it, and it turned out to be the best workshop ever!

    I like that plan. Be flexible and let go and let God lead!

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  • Want a taste of what my day was like? Here goes:

    Yesterday is over, and this is a new day. Want a taste of what my day was like? Here goes:

    •  Early rise to drop of unwanted free-trial cookbook at Post Office – I’ll be early for class this time
    • Upon leaving P.O., realize I’d forgot something at home
    • Drive back home to pick up the forgotten item
    • Back on freeway – drive to Women’s Bible study class at Calvary Church
    • Rats! Now I’m 10 minutes late for class
    • Great sharing and learning time in Ephesians 4 and Romans12, verses 1 & 2 – don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold – be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
    • Lunch with the gals at Applebee’s
    • Drive downtown in preparation for yearly mammogram
    • Am early for appointment, so I wait and catch up on the latest local women’s magazine. I affirm what I’d heard from the editor, they now use on-staff writers predominately. Free-lance writer has M.D. behind her name. Note: probably not an option this go-around unless I achieve “M.D.” behind my name. Not on my “to-do” list this year.
    • Check in at Women’s Health Center, fill out paperwork for mammogram, a.k.a. boob crusher, cruncher, smoosher as Angie says–you choose a name to fill in the blanks.
    • Re-do picture – seems an added flap of skin masked what she desired to see on the screen. So, the smoosher is applied again on each side. Comment from operator: “That’s okay; don’t see too many skinny grandmas.” Well, I’ll give her that one – I’m not skinny. But then she added, “After all, the grandkids want a smooshy grandmother!” Okay, enough small talk, get on with it lady –then, I’ll outta here!
    • Quick walk to the end of the block to see a condo sign for sale – the day is perfectly sunny and WARM – we’re talking 70 degrees in Michigan on the 16th of March! Circle back to my Jeep and off to the mall – don’t really want to be INDOORS, but duty calls.
    • Stop at an anchor store to spend a gift card, and pick up two pairs of black trouser socks for my birthday daughter born on St. Patrick’s Day—my Green Baby (I know what you’re thinking? But,  sock’s aren’t very exciting, but she’d asked specifically for them for Christmas)
    • Tried to smile at people in the mall as an experiment. It works! Everyone I smiled at, smiled back at me. Note: have to try that more often. However, from what I learned from a friend, it might not work in Abu Dhabi—they scowl at lot!
    • Body Shop – to hunt for her (and my) favorite body butter: “Satsuma.” – Yum! Bonus: it was on sale, 2 for 1 special!
    • Biggest redeeming value of mall trip: FOUND the gift we really wanted to give to Amanda – in the most unlikely store on the Way Out of the mall. Other retailers said it couldn’t be found! PTL!
    • Back home again – critique another writer’s work in prep for tonight’s writers’ group
    • Hubby – comes home, notices the warm beauty of the day and suggests we take the motorcycle for a spin. How can I resist?
    • Our glorious “spin” ends up at Wendy’s for supper – back home to drop me off, then he heads downtown for his photography class
    • One look in the mirror –talk about a flat hairdo, so I attempt to resurrect my hairdo recently created by Helmet – there’s not much hope there, so I head out to Grandville Biggby’s coffee shop for our bi-monthly writers’ group. This evening’s topic: creating that all-elusive book proposal
    • First mistake of the evening: ordering a Mocha-Mocha skinny. I sort of feel obligated to order something because they are gracious enough to allow us to use their facilities for two hours. I go up to the very-young barista at the counter: “I want that Mocha drink that makes you skinny.” His response, “Sorry, lady but it doesn’t make you skinny; it’s just called the Mocha-Mocha skinny.” Well, dummy, I knew that! I was just making a joke, can’t these young people take a joke? Guess I shouldn’t quit my day job and pursue comedy.
    • Meeting went great – received lots of good feedback on my book proposal – now I know I still have a ways to go before my March 20 on-line submission for Festival of Faith and Writing conference at Calvin in April.
    • Second mistake of the evening: refilling my coffee cup with more coffee (it was de-caff, mind you). Thought I’d be safe, after all, a couple of the guys refilled their cups, what harm could it do?
    • I found out very quickly and clearly just what harm it could do – at least in my body! But, it tasted oh so good.
    • Drove home – made a quick phone call to my niece to determine what time she needed me to baby-sit her 16-month old child on Friday. 7:00 am!!  I’m to be at her place at 7:00 am – yikes! What was I thinking?? Email to a friend to set up luncheon meeting after I baby-sit.
    • Ahhhhh!!  Bed at last! Quick check of the news and weather, and I’m off to never-never land. Well, or so I thought! I remember checking the bedside clock at least six times…12:30, 2:00, 3:10, 4:26 a.m. – guess that last cup of coffee was not such a hot idea after all! Think I learned my lesson: I should stick with water with lemon!
    • I believe it was about 5:00 am when I finally drifted, only to hear Steve’s alarm go off about 6:15 a.m. So, I’m up and at it. Do ya think my brain will track so I can get some more mileage out of my fingers on the keyboard to improve my book proposal and mediations? I must admit—I do have my doubts!  Pray for me!!

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  • Another “aha” moment!

     

          I just love it when I’m reading along in a book and spot a passage I can use it my current writings! I call that “aha” moment a God-thing!  

         This very same thing just happened on the way home from Minnesota to Michigan (no, I wasn’t driving at the time!) I cannot read long in the car without Dramamine, so I quickly read a chapter in my current book, Buyology-Truth and lies about why we buy, by Martin Lindstrom. On page 3, he states, “I’ll admit, the notice of a science that can peer into the human mind gives a lot of people the willies, when most of us hear “brain scan,” our imaginations slither into paranoia…”

         Since I’m writing mediations regarding my journey before, during, and after brain scans, tumor, and brain surgery, this seemed an appropriate inclusion.

     

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  • Elegy for the Personal Letter

    Elegy for the Personal Letter
    by Allison Joseph

    I miss the rumpled corners of correspondence,
    the ink blots and crossouts that show
    someone lives on the other end, a person
    whose hands make errors, leave traces.
    I miss fine stationary, its raised elegant
    lettering prominent on creamy shades of ivory
    or pearl grey. I even miss hasty notes
    on notebook paper, edges
    ragged as their scribbled messages—
    can’t much write now—thinking of you.
    When letters come now, they are formatted
    by some distant computer, addressed
    to Occupant or To the family living at—
    meager greetings at best,
    salutations made by committee.
    Among the glossy catalogs
    and one time only offers
    the bills and invoices,
    letters arrive so rarely now that I drop
    all other mail to the floor when
    an envelope arrives and the handwriting
    is actual handwriting, the return address
    somewhere I can locate on any map.
    So seldom is it that letters come
    That I stop everything else
    to identify the scrawl that has come this far—
    the twist and the whirl of the letters,
    the loops of the numerals. I open’
    those envelopes first, forgetting
    the claim of any other mail,
    hoping for news I could not read
    in any other way but this.

    Taken from the Writer’s Almanac

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  • Elmo found…

    Elmo found…

    My red furry, talking Elmo was found, but the source of the words, “I feel great!”  still remains a mystery. I still have no clue as to where the voice came from, but Elmo sits exactly in the same spot as I last remember on our 3-season porch (he has no fear of the cold – he’s clothed in fur.)

    The mystery of the sound source remains a mystery!

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  • The Case of Mysterious Elmo

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    While sitting at my desk, I hear this familiar voice, “I feel great!” coming from nowhere. Glad he does today, but where is the voice coming from? I recognize the source of the sound coming from my Elmo stuffed character, but I am in my office. Elmo normally resides on the porch and comes out only when we have little people visits.

    So how did he travel to my office, and where is Elmo? Maybe he was strategically placed here to remind me to think positive thoughts today, and my work will be light and go smoothly. Upon diligent search in the cracks and crevices of my office, I still come up empty handed!

    Where, oh where, is my red furry Elmo? The mystery will have to remain unsolved—for now—there’s work to be done on my book proposal!

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  • Author of Winnie-the-Pooh born this day

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    “It’s the birthday of the man who wrote, “It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like ‘What about lunch?’” That’s the children’s writer A.A. Milne, (books by this author) born in London (1882)…

    Milne got married and had a son, a boy named Christopher Robin. And one day in 1923, he was feeling bored at a party, and he wrote a poem for kids, which he published in Punch with a few others…

    A couple of years later, Milne wrote a book about Christopher Robin’s stuffed animals, and E.H. Shepard did the illustrations again. And that book was Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), which was immediately successful. In the next two years, he published another book of children’s poems, Now We Are Six (1927), and then The House at Pooh Corner (1928). And after that, most people didn’t take him seriously as a writer for adults anymore.

    He said: “Ideas may drift into other minds, but they do not drift my way. I have to go and fetch them. I know no work manual or mental to equal the appalling heart-breaking anguish of fetching an idea from nowhere.”

    Taken from the Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

    https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

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  • Writers Group wrap-up

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    Last evening our West Michigan Fellowship of Christian Writers (WMFCW) group listened to a wrap-up session from a panel from American Christian Writers (ACW). What an inspiration! Included were so many tips to encourage and assist us along the path of being a writer.

     One tip in particular struck me:

    “Don’t get so involved in the work of the LORD that you’re not involved with the LORD of the work.”

     My prayer for us:

    “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” – (1 Corinthians 10:31)

     https://www.meetup.com/wm-fcwriters/

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  • Solomon’s Prayer

    Having trouble saying, “Enough is enough” when it comes to editing my fiction short story for the writer’s contest.  I need that discerning heart…

    “Give your servant a discerning heart.” – 1 Kings 3:9a

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