IN MY WORLD

              It’s time for the 

INSECURE WRITER’S SUPPORT GROUP BLOG DAY

                                

The first Wednesday of each month, members of IWSG announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share insight or a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional.

IWSG was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh and is a forum of writers who gather to talk about writing and the writer's life. 

The awesome co-hosts for the April 1 posting of the IWSG  Diane Burton, JH Moncrieff, Anna @ Emaginette, Karen @ Reprobate Typewriter, Erika Beebe,and Lisa Buie-Collard!

April 1 question: – The IWSG’s focus is on our writers. Each month, from all over the globe, we are a united group sharing our insecurities, our troubles and our pain. So, in this time when our world is in crisis with the covid-19 pandemic our optional question this month is: how are things in your world?

One of the great things about being a writer...

Is that we can live anywhere we want to...
In our heads...
Building fantastic worlds! 

It’s why I am never bored...

I can spend hours just thinking, and thinking…and thinking.

So when Covid-19 happened...
I created my own reality...

Of course... 

I know what’s going on in the outside world... 

I’d have to have my head stuck in a rock not to...

And, of course I do what’s necessary.

But what’s not necessary...

Is allowing myself to think the worst and getting scared. 

At this time of my life...

I have lived through: 
- The polio outbreak and being scared of puddles, pools, and paralysis.

And then there was The Cuban missile crisis: with weekly drills crouching under school desks, and actually riding by and seeing the missles at the Nike Air Force base in Farmingdale, Long Island and wondering... 

I saw Nike missiles like these just four miles from my home on Long Island.

 if the Russians were not only going to bomb us, but also invade our shores in submarines.


And later  all the flu viruses throughout the years: Swine, Bird, all the H?N? virus strains, and all the other corona virus strains. 
Hmm? If there's a  Convid-19, there had to have been or still is 1-18, no?

Back in 1969 when I had my first child, no one could visit me in the hospital or at home for weeks because of the Hong Kong flu. Scary and sad. 

So?

Am I concerned with this new strain? Yes. 

Am I scared? No! 

I will deal with the truth  however and whenever it hits.
I also have a whole lot of Christian faith.

So? What about you and your world? How are you coping?

LETS ALL STAY SAFE!!!

Em-Musing

P.S. If you want a pertinent read that'll make you go, hmmmm? try Dan Brown's INFERNO. 

UP IN SMOKE

It's

INSECURE WRITER’S SUPPORT GROUP 

BLOG DAY

                                                               

The first Wednesday of each month, members of IWSG announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post.These questions may prompt you to share insight or a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional.  

IWSG was founded  by Alex J. Cavanaugh and is a forum of writers who gather together to talk about writing and the writer's life. 

The awesome co-hosts for the March 4 posting of the IWSG are Jacqui Murray, Lisa Buie-Collard, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and Shannon Lawrence!

March 4 question – Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories?

Well...

Now that you’re asking...

I, and the women in my family...

DO have a tradition...

Cigar smoking!

Every time some or all of us get together...

We’ll break out the cigars and have a smoke.

And...

In one of my novels I used this tradition in a scene... 
With my protagonist and her sisters and cousins...

Getting together and smoking cigars.

Now back to me and my cigar tradition...
 I haven't included all the photos for this tradition... 
(it would have been way too many)

But here are a few ...

Notice: some of the younger gals weren’t so fond of the cigars...

But eventually they came around.

And next year...

When my oldest granddaughter turns 18...

It’ll be her turn to light up and take a puff.

And you?

Do you have any traditions or customs that made it into one of your stories? 

Always,
Em-Musing

P.S.

While on a trip to Cuba a few years back, I met a woman on the street enjoying her cigar.

BTW Cohiba cigars are the best.  

I DO BELIEVE

IT'S TIME FOR THE

INSECURE WRITER’S SUPPORT GROUP BLOG DAY

The first Wednesday of each month, members of IWSG announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share insight or a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. IWSG was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh and is a forum of writers who gather to talk about writing and the writer's life.The awesome co-hosts for the February 5 posting of IWSG are:  Lee Lowery, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Jennifer Hawes, Cathrina Constantine, and Tyrean Martinson!

February 5 question – Has a single photo or work of art every inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?

I have posted before...

About things that scared me while growing up...

Like watching Bela Lugosi in Dracula on TV.

Many nights with my head under the covers.....
I believed Dracula was going to morph into a bat...

Fly in my bedroom window...

And turn me into a vampire...
So I kept my window open just a few inches in the summer.

My dad would always come in and open it wide...

“No, daddy,” I’d squeal, “don’t open the window all the way.”

“But it’s too hot in here.”

“But I’m afraid a bird will fly in.”

(Yeah, I wasn’t thinking bird, I was thinking bat)

Reluctantly he’d close it.

But bats and vampires...

Weren’t the only things that scared me.

My parents had quite an interesting  library...

And even before I could read...
I’d peruse the illustrations in those books...

Like Milton’s Paradise Lost

And Dante’s Inferno

Both book illustrations influenced my first book, Azael’s Lot that included angels, fallen angels, and demons

But there’s one illustration... 
In Eugene Field's Poems of Childhood...

That even today gives me the shivers...

It's "Seein' Things at Night"...
Illustrated by Maxfield Parrish.

And why you ask...
Does it still give me the shivers?
Because ghosts...
Are in my “Realms of Possibilities”

Of things that do go bump and boo in the night. 

And you?

Did an illustration or photo ever influence you?

Always,

Em-Musing