Friday, August 30, 2019

Celebrate the Small Things-August 30, 2019


It's Friday! Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain! I am her co-host.

I'm celebrating the fact that this is going to be a three day weekend. Who doesn't love that? I know the kids are excited for it. We don't have any solid plans, but we'll see what the weekend brings.

The boys are doing well in school so far. They look forward to going every day, at least. They've also been riding their bikes to and from school since we live close. They've been enjoying that bit of independence.

Lastly, I'd like to celebrate games. My husband and I had a great time playing a trivia game the other night. I've also spent some time playing word games this week. It's fun, and it's also good for your brain. Sounds like a win-win scenario to me!

What would you like to celebrate?

Friday, August 23, 2019

Celebrate the Small Things-August 23, 2019


It's Friday! Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain! I am her co-host.

First of all, I'm celebrating my boys being back in school! They're both excited about a new school year. Jude is excited because they're going to be doing a lot of geography this year, and he's obsessed with maps. Lyle is looking forward to learning cursive.

I'm also celebrating that fact that I finished and submitted a flash fiction piece to a magazine this week. It doesn't honestly matter whether it gets accepted or not. It's been so long since I submitted something that it felt good to go through that process again.

Finally, I'd like to celebrate the fact that Daisy is growing like a weed. Yes, I need to go shopping for new clothes for her since she's outgrown almost everything she has right now, but that's okay. Picking out cute baby clothes can be fun.

What would you like to celebrate?

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

WEP August Challenge: Red Wheelbarrow



It's time for another WEP/IWSG Challenge! This month the theme is Red Wheelbarrow.

My piece this month is short. It's also true. This theme hit me harder than expected since both of my parents are gone now. Still, it felt cathartic to write it.



Fragments of Childhood

Patches of rust covered the red wheelbarrow, betraying its age and hinting at the amount of use it had seen in those years. The wooden handles threatened to leave you with splinters in your palms if you weren’t careful.

That old wheelbarrow carried many things. It transported logs to and from the woodpile in the backyard. It carried gardening tools and plants in the springtime. The dirt dug into my knees and got under my fingernails as I helped my parents plant peas, onions, tomatoes, and various other things. We pulled weeds. Then, when we were finished, we piled the dirt-caked gardening tools back into the wheelbarrow so they could be cleaned and put back into the garage.

I can’t even begin to count all the things that wheelbarrow carried over the years. I can recall my favorite thing, though. After the work was done, I’d beg my dad to let me ride in the wheelbarrow. “Please!” I begged. “Just for a little bit.”

My dad almost always gave in and let me take a short ride around the yard. He pushed the wheelbarrow while my mom watched me throw my arms up in the air. The setting summer sun illuminated the grass, casting long shadows between the trees. It all seemed so magical. Surreal.

That rusty red wheelbarrow carried lots of things, all of them fragments of my childhood.

It’s long gone now.

Word Count: 235
FCA

Friday, August 16, 2019

Celebrate the Small Things-August 16, 2019


It's Friday! Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain! I am her co-host.

This post is coming late, and I'm sorry for that. A lot has been going on, but better late than never, right?

The first thing I'm celebrating is that my boys start school next week. They're both excited to see their friends again on a regular basis and to learn new things. As much as I love them, I'm also looking forward to having them out of the house for a few hours a day.

Daisy is now three months old! She's been so interactive lately. I love it when she smiles and laughs. She's growing so fast I can hardly believe it.

Finally, the next Write...Edit...Publish Challenge is happening next week from the 21st to the 23rd! You can find details here!


What would you like to celebrate?

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

The Insecure Writer's Support Group: August 2019



It's the first Wednesday of the month, and that means it's time to convene another meeting of The Insecure Writer's Support Group. Our leader Alex J. Cavanaugh has rounded up another excellent batch of co-hosts for this month: Renee Scattergood, Sadira Stone, Jacqui Murray, Tamara Narayan, and me!

Be sure to check out the IWSG website for lots of great writing resources!

It's been a crazy month for me, so not much has happened as far as writing is concerned. A few of you already know that my dad passed away last month. That's why I haven't been blogging the last couple of weeks. I'm glad to be back, though. It feels good to be doing something normal again.

And now for this month's optional question: Has your writing ever taken you by surprise? For example, a positive and belated response to a submission you'd forgotten about or an ending you never saw coming?

The life of a writer can be filled with surprises. Story ideas tend to take me by surprise. Sometimes those ideas go to the back burner for awhile because you're not sure what to do with them. Then all of the sudden, something happens and that old idea finds a new life and begs to be made into a reality. That's how my short story "Felix Was Here" came to be. When I saw the prompt for the first IWSG anthology, an old idea came back to me, and I couldn't let it go. It definitely surprised me, and I'm glad I followed through with that idea. However, I was even more surprised when I found out that I won the anthology contest and that I'd get to see my little story in print.

Has your writing ever taken you by surprise?