OH MY PANTIES! Yet another panty story

I’ve been dealing with a very annoying little brat lately. 

Everyday I have to fight, cajole, or 
beg her to do her work. I'd like to 
punish her but: 
Will she get more obstinate? 
More Whiny?
More infuriating?

Here's a sample of one of our exchanges:

Little Girl Me:    I HATE IT!!!!!!!

Big Girl Me:        I know you don’t like social media but    
                          you  have to do it.

Little Girl Me:   WHY?

Big Girl Me:       Other authors do it.

Little Girl Me:   Who cares?

Big Girl Me:       I care. And it works. To get reviews, sell 
                         my book.                                      

Little Girl Me:   So why you don’t just get an agent?

Big Girl Me:        I tried. Didn’t happen. Time to self-pub.

Little Girl Me:    So why do I have to suffer?

Big Girl Me:        We’re in this together, remember?

Little Girl Me:    I signed up only for the fun stuff—     
                          writing. Not the dumb boring stuff.

Big Girl Me:       Well it’s time to put your big girl panties 
                         on and just do it. . .otherwise. . .

Little Girl Me:   Otherwise what?

Big Girl Me:       Otherwise I won’t let you have your 
                         favorite ice cream-mint chocolate chip.                                     
                         

Little Girl Me:   I thought you were trying to lose weight?  

Big Girl Me:       What? Are you my conscience now?

Little Girl Me:   Fine! I’ll do it. But I want 4 scoops!

Big Girl Me:       Deal!          

So?

Do you struggle with doing all that must be done to be 

self-published?

Always,

Em-Musing

• 
  

SHOW ME YOUR PANTIES

             

                              It’s 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 June 3 posting of the IWSG are Pat Garcia, J.Q. Rose, and Natalie Aguirre!

June 3 question: Writers have secrets! What are one or two of yours, something readers would never know from your work?

OK, my secret came out of my mother’s underwear drawer.

Now before you go thinking kinky of me...

You should know my mother was an avid reader... 

On the bookshelves in our living room was an eclectic mix: Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Balzac’s Droll Stories, One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, Shelley’sFrankenstein. 

(These books had fantastic illustrations)

Also: Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Tolstoy, DeFoe, Dickens, Robert Frost, Homer, Lewis Carol, and dozens more. 

And on the coffee table were the bestsellers of the early ‘60’s: Hawaii, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Agony and the Ecstasy, plus stacks of Reader’s Digest monthly selections. 

One hot summer day when I was eleven, I was talking with my mom in her bedroom as she ironed my dad’s shirts, and I spotted a paperback book on her bed.

She saw me look and, faster than a cheetah chasing a wildebeest, she snatched that book and stuffed it in her underwear drawer. 

Well, curious, as all kids are,

I went into that drawer the next day, which happened to be Wednesday—her weekly coffee klatch with the neighbor women—and found buried treasure under the underwear! 

The Carpetbaggers 

and... 

Tropic of Cancer.

So you're probably guessing...

That many Wednesdays after that...

When my mother was at the coffee klatch...

I went into her underwear drawer...

And read...

Not just those two paperbacks...
But many more.

Needless to say... 

I got an eye-opening early sex education... 

And... 

I never looked at my parents quite the same way after that.

But to better answer today's question... 

Readers may not know from this blog...
I sometimes write erotic short stories. 
Anyone surprised? 
So?
Whats your dirty little secret?

Well, it doesn’t have to be dirty.

Always,

Em-Musing  

ZONING IN

                 IT'S 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 May 6 posting of the IWSG are  Feather Stone, Beverly Stowe McClure, Mary Aalgaard, Kim Lajevardi and Chemist ken!

Today’s question – Do you have any rituals that you use when you need help getting into the ZONE? Care to share?

 My ritual to get into the writing zone...

Starts at 4:30 a.m....

With Italian roast coffee brewing...

Palo santo incense smoking...

Lemongrass oil in the defuser misting...
And Solfeggio tones playing.

I take several deep sustained breaths and...

**VOILA!**

I’m in my writing “zone”

And it feels like this

However...

If you were to ask me how I get into my editing zone...

That’s a totally different frame of mind... 

Because mentally...

It feels as if I’m being banished into a hut...

In a dense jungle all alone...
And must stay there... 

Until every possible nuance of the manuscript is polished. 

And it feels like this







But now...

If you’re talking about the rewrite zone...

Well......
That feels like I’m being dragged into an abandoned asylum...

And won’t be let out until...well...

However long it takes!

And it feels like this

Thankfully, I've only been there once.
So?
What about you?

What’s your zone?

And how do you get there?

Always,

Em-Musing

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.