Feeling Pride In My Writing- and a gift for you

Modesty is Esteemed in Our Culture

But a little self-promotion sometimes marches to the top of the list of personal characteristics. I am so proud and happy to have my story, “My Mother’s Beauty,” as part of the 2018 anthology from Story Circle Network’s, Real Women Write: Sharing Our Stories, Sharing Our Lives – coming in January.

I’ve submitted many, many articles, stories and manuscripts over the last twenty years to agents, publishers, journals, online sites. Many rejected, some accepted, some published. Some got really nice reviews.

The Gift

So why is this one a bit different? “My Mother’s Beauty” about my mom is a love story. My relationship with my mother was often conflicted (You too? Are you nodding your head in agreement?). But in the last decade of her life I was given the gift of being close to her, both geographically and emotionally. Almost daily in the last five years of her life, we sat and talked, laughed, sometimes argued, and cried together. Mostly we built a kind of partnership of mother/daughter that I never, ever expected to experience. A gift. So my pride comes for being able to say, with confidence, to other mothers and daughters, “Don’t turn away. It can happen.”

My sense of accomplishment in my personal writing comes from sitting down again and again at my laptop and writing, editing, revising, and submitting my work. It’s easy to get busy with “stuff”- daily responsibilities and sometimes activities that can pose as responsibilities chipping away at more and more of my creative time. At least once a week I sit. I write. I name it, date it and sometimes file it away. And then, maybe the next day, maybe a few days later, I sit again and open my writing files. And something stirs. “Pick me. Choose me to fix today.”

My pride also comes from believing that Story Circle Network saw something of the possibility of love being shared in my story and accepted it for their anthology. I am in the company of  scores of women who share their lives in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

A Gift for Three Readers

I’ve ordered extra copies and have three to give away. First three people who contact me with your name and where to send it. Click here, I’ll send you a free copy. Look for it in January 2019. I’ll also let you know when it’s on the way.

“Since 1997, the Story Circle Network, a non-profit exclusively for women writers, has provided learning/writing opportunities in memoir, reminiscence, journaling, fiction, poetry, family stories, kitchen table stories, writing-as-healing, writing for personal growth and spiritual development, poetry, and other areas. We teach general writing skills, organization, and critical editing, as well as technical skills in book design and development, online marketing, blogging, and other Internet-related activities.” –Story Circle Network website Click on SCN if you are interested in joining.