BRAINY ACK!!!

It’s the Monthly Blog Hop for the Insecure Writers Support Group founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. 

The first Wednesday of every month, an optional question is announced that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or even a story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post. Remember, the question optional. 

          The awesome co-hosts for the July 2 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass,  Natalie Aguirre, Cathrina Constantine, and Louise Barbour!

                                   

    July 2 question - Is there a genre you haven't tried writing in yet that you really want to   try? If so, do you plan on trying it?

I can't think of one genre I really, really want to write...

But I can think of one that I really, really don't want to write...

Literary fiction.

You know when the authors love to write ...

Loooooonnng sentences...

Using intricate prose, non-conventional structures...

Artistic liberties, and other means to lengthen paragraphs...

Until that paragraph takes up a whole page...

The kind of writing I need a shot of tequila to get me through...

Unlike commercial fiction when a cup of coffee or a beer will do.

I don’t know about other readers...

But my mind wanders after 15 seconds...

So when I'm halfway down the page...

I’m wondering, “why is this scene taking so long?”

And just so you know...

I’m not a literary fiction snob...

(are you sure?)

Because I have read literary fiction. 

(when?) 

But hey...

It's just my take.

So?

What about you?

Which do you prefer:Literary fiction? Commercial fiction? Or both?

And what new genre would like to write in that you haven’t so far?

Always,

Em-Musing

MANY. MANY YEARS AGO

 

It’s the Monthly Blog Hop for the Insecure Writers Support Group founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. 

The first Wednesday of every month, an optional question is announced that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or even a story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post. Remember, the question optional. Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

                                   Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

The awesome co-hosts for the June 4 posting of the IWSG are PJ Colando, Pat Garcia, Kim Lajevardi, Melisa Maygrove, and Jean Davis!

JUNE 4 QUESTION — What were some books that impacted you as a child or a young adult?

It was many and many a year ago

In a kingdom by the sea

That a maiden there lived 

Whom you may know

As the writer Caron Leigh

Obviously this ditty is à la Poe's poem, Annabel Lee ...

And the maiden of course is me, Leigh Caron.

My kingdom as a kid was Long Island...

And the sea? The Atlantic. 

Back then, my mother was an avid reader...

Our living room boasted two large built-in bookcases...

Filled with "illustrated" editions of the ‘classics’...

Dickens, Hawthorn, Homer, Chaucer, Tolstoy and more.

The illustrations in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein creeped me out. 

But it was Poe’s poems and stories that grabbed my fascination... 

And I started writing poetry at the age of 10.

Below is my first poem. aged 10 

 

            

THE NIGHTMARE OF THE OLD WINDMILL 

 

Through a field and o’er a hill,

There I found an old windmill.

 

Deserted of course, I went inside,

Thirty feet long and twenty feet wide.

 

Would make a good hideout, don't you think?

A candle for light and a basin for a sink?

 

Out of the mill and down the hill,

Through the field I race.

Into the house and into my room,

With such a goodly pace.

 

To tell my pets, to tell my dolls,

On my bedroom shelf,

 

To tell my friends, Maggie and Joe,

And of course to tell myself.

 

Through the field and up the hill,

And into the old windmill,

 

There I find in the window

A head upon the sill.

 

It's coming closer and closer to me,

Above the head my mother I see.

 

Out of the mill and down the hill

Through the field I fall.

 

Now I hear the breakfast call.

 

The morning sun fell on my bed,

When I think of the dream, I dread.

 

Through the field and over the hill,

The nightmare of the old windmill.

 

My sister Christine was a sophomore in high school then... 

And she entered it in a school contest under her name...

My mother, bless her heart, was complicit... 

She added punctuation and corrected spelling errors. 

My first reaction was to be mad at my sister for stealing it...

But hey! It won first place!

And that's when I knew... 

I wanted to be a writer when I grew up.

So?

What books impacted you as a child or young adult?

Always, 

Em-Musing

 It’s the Monthly Blog Hop for the Insecure Writers Support Group founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. 

The first Wednesday of every month, an optional question is announced that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or even a story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post. Remember, the question optional. 

 OurTwitter handle is @The IWSG and hashtag is #IWSG

Let's rock the neurotic writing world

The awesome hosts today are: Feather Stone, Janet Alcorn, Rebecca Douglass,Jemima Pett , and Pat Garcia!

Question for May 7. Some common fears writers share are: rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer? How do you manage them?

 

 

Marketing!

If your an agented author...

Or if you have a publisher...

Some of the marketing will be done for you. 

And sometimes... 

They’ll do a good portion of it.

But it also falls on the author to do their part... 

Even if you’ve written one hellava book...

If you don’t market it well...

Your sales will suffer.

Some years ago...

I worked in an Advertising & Marketing agency 

I enjoyed planning campaigns...

And I did it well—for clients.

But now...

Doing it for myself

With all the social media platforms out there...

Marketing shouldn’t be so daunting...

Yet....

It it's overwhelming...

And I feel like a big cry baby. 

I don’t want to do it!

I'd rather write! 

But then...

does baby want a shot of tequila?

My adult self kicks in and reminds me...

Marketing is the key to success... 

With any product or service...

So put your big girl panties on...

And just do it!

So?

What are your fears?

 

Always,

Em-Musing

 

 

SCOR!!!

If it crawls…

It dies!

That’s my motto for anything I see on my floor.

I knew when I moved into a jungle setting…

That critters of all types would be around…

But even after hiring a professional exterminator…

Some varmints prefer the odds of living with the Loca Gringa!

You’d think word would get out in jungleland that…

I kill scorpions with a butcher knife.

Bwah hah hah!

Like the big black one I saw this morning…

That was sashaying down my hallway… 

Did it have no respect?

And I’ll admit…

I thought about sweeping it outside…

But feared that I’d miss, and the six-inch-long

beast would run and hide somewhere in my house.

So…

Dun, dun, dunnnnnn….

I ran, got the butcher knife and…

WHACK!

Trust me, I never miss a kill.

And if you ask me…

Scorpions are either stupid or blind...

Because unlike the spiders…

Who see me coming and scurry away.

Scorpions just sit there until…

Dun, dun dunnnnnn…

WHACK!

Bwah ha ha!

So?

Are you a great hunter of beasts that enter in your house?

And what kind of beasts?

 

Always, 

Em-Musing

WRITER INTERUPTUS

If you’re a writer

There’s a condition that only writers get

Every writer! 

No matter where you live

No matter who you are

Every writer gets this condition

Including me. 

For years I’ve tried to get rid of it

But no luck

It’s called

WRITER INTERUPTUS.

I know you know what I’m talking about

You sit down to write when:

The phone rings, your pet wants to eat or needs to go out,

You have errands to do, another episode of Netlix beckons, taking a nap sounds like heaven, your stomach growls, you're staving, (there’s only so many bowls of cereal one can eat), 

your mind can’t stay focused, you need to pay some bills, your family needs you, etc., etc., etc.

So for years,

I kept getting up earlier and earlier 

Now I’m up at 4:30 a.m. 

But even then I get

WRITER INTERUPTUS

I read once that J.K. Rowlings would go to the Balmoral hotel in Edinburgh to write

I soooo get that

Because when you're at a hotel, and you have the will power 

To turn off your phone and not turn on the TV

There'll be no

WRITER INTERUPTUS

Only room service.

So?

Do you suffer from WRITER INTERUPTUS?

What interrupts you?

And what's your cure?

 

Always,

Em-Musing

TO FRIENDS

 

Lost a dear friend yesterday...

Thirty years of laughter, tears, and confidences shared...

Plus all the other ups, downs, and upside downs of life.

Time may heal all wounds...

But time doesn’t make mourning a death easier on the heart.

When I lost my sister, my soul mate, years ago...

This saying came to me

I don’t want to down the gauntlet of emotions 

to get to the other side of sorrow.

Will miss you, Maryann...my dear friend 

If there are martinis on the other side… 

Salud!

 

Always,

Em-Musing

 

 

 

SEA SAW

It’s the Monthly Blog Hop for the Insecure Writers Support Group founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. 

The first Wednesday of every month, an optional question is announced that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or even a story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post.  Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is                                           #IWSG.  Let’s rock the neurotic writing world

                The awesome co-hosts for the April 2 posting of the IWSG are Jennifer Lane, L Diane Wolfe, Jenni Enzor, and  Natalie Aguirre! 

 

April 2 question:  What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with, or have a beer/glass of wine with?  Remember, the question is optional. 

 

You’re asking me to go to Fantasy Land?

Okay, I’ll play.

When I looked at DC's &  Marvel's list of superheroes...

Which, by the way, there are lots and LOTS of them.

It was fins down for...

AQUAMAN!

Ummm, but not this version from 1941.  

 

Not this one either from  1989 

Mmmm this one!

I’m guessing we’d be underwater together a lot (yes!)

So he would have to figure out a way for me to breath underwater.

Mouth to mouth would be lovely... 

But I don’t think we’d get very far.

I’d love to have him take me down... 

To the depths of the deep blue... 

And see the lost continent of Atlantis...

And other civilizations that have been lost to the sea.

I’d want to see sunken pirate ships (no bones please)...

And deep-sea creatures... 

Not seen except with vessels like the Triton.

And I wouldn’t want any conflicts...

Because what if he lost a battle?

(I know that'd be impossible) 

But if did happen...

I’d be down under water by myself...

And who knows what would happen to me?

But maybe...just maybe...

I'd develop a super power of my own and save myself...

And I'd become—AQUAWRITER... 

And write about all the glory and mysteries of the sea.

Don't laugh. It's my fantasy and, in it, it could happen.

So...

What about you? 

Which fantasy character do you choose to do something with?

And what are you doing?

Always, 

Em-Musing