MWLM Blog

A mother, a reader, a writer

Well, I admit it.  I've started re-reading books.

As a busy mom, I don't have the luxury of endless hours of reading, curled up on the couch with a glass of wine or a cup of cocoa.  [Pause for brief moment to sigh and remember those good old days.]  I barely have enough time at the library to look for a new book to read, let a lone sit down and read it.  And then if it's not one I care for, I've just wasted precious time!

But I'm also a reader, which means that even with my limited time, I crave the written word.  I long for those times when I get so wrapped up in a book that the rest of the world dissolves into a misty fog, when you suddenly look up from the pages with tear-stained eyes only to see that hours have passed and that you've missed at least one thing on your to-do list.

And finally, I'm also a writer so I not only crave the written word, but I require it.  We all know that one of the best writing practices is to read.

So as a writer who needs to read, a reader that wants to read, and a mother who has little time to read, what does one do?

For me, I've started diving into my bookshelf, reading old favorites.  Some of them aren't so spectacular the second time around, others have stood the test of time.  One in particular, "Scratching the Woodchuck" by local Amish author David Kline (an exceptionally nice man) is currently making it's second debut on my nightstand.  It's a wonderful collection of nature essays that I adore.  The mother in me can appreciate the kindess between a farmer and his land...again.  The reader in me loves to get whisked away to his acres to learn about the blinking of fireflies...again.  The writer in me wishes I could capture the simple spirit the way the author does...again.

So, with a few minutes here and there, I'll read. 

And hopefully with a few minutes here and there, I'll write.

Karrie McAllister, webmaster & graphic design
www.KarrieMcAllister.com
www.outdoormama.blogspot.com

Overdue for Laughter?

For a great diversion, especially as we moms approach the much needed day off on Mother’s Day (do we really get the day off?), I highly recommend a book any reader would enjoy from cover to cover. Check out Inn Keeping with Mr. Fawlty: The Confessions of an Hotelier, by Andy Hageman.  

This book of “confessions” is a hilarious take on the services an hotelier provides to his or her clients, all with a sincere intention to please; it focuses on the most entertaining aspects of the most difficult people. But the hilarious side comes into play by the major faux pas committed by the obnoxious guests that the author has encountered and dealt with over the years. Even if a reader is unfamiliar with the British characters of Basil Fawlty and Prunella Scales, from the Fawlty Towers series, the humor still rides high. It’s a quick, witty read that can put life into perspective, particularly for those of us who don’t aim to please thousands of guests on a regular basis.

It’s good to be reminded that our families, no matter how large, are still quite manageable in comparison!

~Sue Donckels, Managing Editor for Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine,  forever on a quest for humor.

Some Books That Should Be At The Top of Your List

Don't have anything to read these days? Try these:

Healthy Child, Healthy World: Creating A Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, Christopher Gavigan
This won't be out till April, but grab a copy as soon as it becomes available, or reserve one! It is indispensable for anyone who wants to be a little Greener. See what's being said about it at MotherTalk this week.

Liar's Diary, Patry Francis
This book was phenomenal! Highly recommended!

Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, Jennifer Block
This is a 'painful' book to read, but so necessary!

Kris Underwood

Writer's Resource Editor

Writing In The Mountains

Children's Poet Laureate

Jack Prelutsky is the first poet laureate for children.  He has published several books and visits schools, talking to kids about poetry.  This past week the girls' school had its Spring book fair, and I noticed Prelutsky's book, My Parents Think I'm Sleeping.  I wanted the book, and I gave my oldest daughter extra money to buy it.  It wasn't going to come out of her book allowance.

She got the money and bought the book.  Then she and her sister picked on mom for getting an I can read book.

Hey, I said, It's a level 3, reading alone.  Yes I'm proud to say I'm 34 years old and reading alone!

Okay I read the poems to my girls, but they didn't have to help with any of the words.

For more information on the Children's Poet Laureate:  Children's poetry

This blog post brought to you by: Veronica Hosking, Poetry Editor and a proud independent reader.

Book Clubs

Poetry magazine will send out free magazines to celebrate National Poetry Month (April).  Here are the details for anyone who believes her book club would be interested.

Celebrate National Poetry Month

You supply the readers, we'll supply the poems!

A limited number of free copies of the April 2008 Translation Issue of Poetry will be given to discussion groups that request them by Feb. 20. You'll be able to consider the thought provoking commentary and poems—or simply read them aloud. All we ask in return is that you send us a brief account of your discussion.

Requests for free issues must be received by Feb. 20. Include your name, the number of copies you need, and a street address for shipping. (PO boxes will not be accepted.) Only one address per reading group please. Due to the cost of shipping and handling, each group is limited to ten free copies. Additional copies are available for $1.75. Issues will ship late-March.

Send requests to readinggroup@poetrymagazine.org or:

Poetry Reading Group
444 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1850
Chicago, Illinois 60611-4034

Veronica Hosking
Poetry Editor

Read Across America Day

Save the Date: NEA's Read Across America Day Is March 3, 2008!

Read Across America Day is just a couple months away so don't delay because from Seussville to Who-ville and Oh, those many places in between, the Cat in the Hat will help put reading on the map! 

Sponsored by the National Education Association, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. and more than 50 national partnering organizations, this year's Read Across America celebrations are expected to attract more than 45 million readers in nearly every home, school, and community. Here's a small sampling of the celebrations to come from coast-to-coast:

* Super Bowl Read-Ins. Kicking off Read Across America season, NFL players will trade in their football helmets for reading hats and huddle with local schoolchildren in Phoenix, host city of Super Bowl XLII, on Wednesday, January 30.

* Cat-a-Van Tours. Revving up their engines, three Cat-a-Vans will hit the road to bring the gift of reading to public schools in need. The tours will kick off their multi-state legs in Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas on February 29, in signature Seuss style. Covering more than 1,200 miles, the Cat-a-Vans will tour throughout Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin from March 3 through March 7. The Cat-a-Vans will provide an estimated 12,000 books and thousands of dollars in cash grants to public schools and their libraries through a generous donation from NEA's Books Across America. 

* Read Across Capitol Hill. From a national proclamation announcing March 3 as National Read Across America Day to members of Congress hosting read-ins in their hometown districts, elected officials will get in on the Seuss excitement.

* Read Across Spring Training. Major league baseball players will show they got game when Cat-a-Vans travel throughout Florida in early March for "Read Across Spring Training,” designed to bring reading fun to ballparks for local children by hosting special read-ins.

More events and information are available online at www.nea.org/readacross. Please mark NEA's Read Across America Day on your calendar because, "You're never too old, too wacky, too wild to pick up a book and read with a child!” 

# # #

The National Education Association is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing 3.2 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers.

For more information, contact Staci Maiers, NEA Public Relations, (202) 822-7823, smaiers@nea.org

~Sue Donckels, Managing Editor for Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine

Writing.

Anne Lamott really pisses me off. In fact, when I saw her Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year in the parenting section a couple years ago at the Harvard COOP, I actually gave the book the finger. Such was my resentment at some writer journaling in public about motherhood, like I could. Or, like I should.

It must be trite, it must be drivel, it must be painfully common. How presumptuous to think she had something unique and fascinating to say about parenting.

The fact that my resentment blossomed and exploded with physical force (the middle finger jammed up at the softcover book) didn't elude me. I recognize jealousy. I recognize fear: Afraid. Really, really afraid. Here was this dream and someone else was living it and how could I possibly ever do it if other people already are. I only want the path less traveled on; I won't be a sheep or a lemming.

So it required great bravery on my part last week to pick up the book, purchase it, and open the cover to read. I finished it in 36 hours which says a lot as a parent of a 4 year old.

That weekend as I read, I began feeling rumblings in my body. Discomfort. A loosening of my glue.

I turned to the wisest person I know. I turned to this four year old who has spent her life facing her fears and asked, "Sweetie? There's something I really, really want to do but I'm scared to do it. But I want to do it, but I'm scared. What should I do? How can I do this thing? How do you do it when you feel this way?"

Very seriously and with several long long seconds of contemplation, she looked at me with those ocean-deep eyes and gave me the answer. "Mommy, I listen to what my body is telling me. I might need to give myself more time with my Mommy first, but when my body tells me I'm ready, I just do it."

Later that day, lying on my back finishing up the Lamott book I spilled empathetic laughter every few minutes. With my four year old audience demanding it, I read the funniest portions out loud (meatball-like poops rolling away, slapping an infant for fear it wasn't just sleep overcoming him but rather a seizure). Most items made Maya giggle, too.

Years ago (1996 to be exact), I began writing a weekly column and posting it online. This was before I knew the term "blogging," and certainly the activity of blogging hadn't reached the masses. My self-imposed deadlines kicked my ass, really. I took them so seriously. I remember many a Wednesday evening sweating and twisted at the computer screen researching "What in the hell is going on with the Hutu and the Tutsis?" Or simply commenting on my latest self-revelation that I somehow imagined might interest someone.

For the past year, I've known an intense magnetic pull bringing me back to writing personal essays. I left them when I became suddenly embarrassed at how self-obsessed I knew I seemed to some.

I've found the courage to begin reading these kinds of things again, Anna Quindlen, Barbara Kingsolver, (and of course that beastly and fabulous Anne Lamott), most recently. In their words I've found not only camaraderie but also inspiration. Much of why I drink their words with such abandon are the feelings I get of a Shared Experience. As I approach my own writing, I feel a permission to address the day-to-day.

Each essayist has a unique voice and experience, no matter how common the theme. Knowing I can say "what's already been said" and have it still be new and unique simply because it comes from me frees me from the sheep and lemmings fear. Any path I choose will be less traveled because the path belongs to me.

I'm falling apart from the inside out. I'm unhinged, unglued, and frighteningly free floating. My writing days return like a herd of buffalo. Knowing I seem just fine, perhaps a little tired, but as if I'm a functioning member of our simple world, well, that's just craziness at it's strangest. How these feelings can be mauling my insides while I stroll through the pumpkin field with my darling daughter and my dreamy husband? I know it's all because the writing is coming.

I know it because my body says I'm ready.


Heather Denkmire is a freelance writer and small business owner living near Portland, Maine with her daughter (Maya) and partner (Josh). She invites you to visit and read her regular "personal essay column."

BEA/Writer's Digest Books Writers Conference in NYC

The fifth annual BEA/Writer's Digest Books Writers Conference will be held on Wednesday, May 30 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York.

The all-day event, which takes place prior to the BookExpo America trade show, offers information sessions and workshops on the business and craft of writing. The keynote speaker is best-selling author Jodi Picoult. Breakout sessions on writing novels, screenwriting, humor, young adult, poetry, short story and magazine writing, featuring Don Maass, Christina Katz, John Warner, Sharlene Martin and more! Will Schwalbe, senior v-p and editor in chief of Hyperion and Judy Hottensen, v-p and publisher of Miramax Books will also be speaking. Plus, the editors of Writer's Digest Book, Writer's Digest magazine and Writer's Market!

You'll also have the opportunity to pitch your book idea and get instant feedback from the largest collection of agents of any conference in our famous PITCH SLAM SESSION!

The registration fee is $199, which includes a 6 month subscription to WritersMarket.com.

For more information, visit

www.writersdigest.com/bea. Registration is at www.bookexpoamerica.com

.

See you there!

Single Moms: Let Your Voices Be Heard!

As Oprah Winfrey has often said, parenting is the most difficult and important job in the world -- even more so for single mothers, who single-handedly face all the usual parenting challenges, plus a whole set of unique ones. While being a single mom can be tough at times, it also brings many joys and rewards, and the positive aspects and outcomes of single motherhood often go unrecognized.

The editor of the bestselling Cup of Comfort (Adams Media) book series is (desperately) seeking personal stories for publication in an anthology for and about single mothers. We want slice-of-life stories that read like good fiction and both entertain and move readers. Any topic and any "voice" goes, as long as the author tells an authentic and compelling story. Stories can be humorous or poignant or both, and must be original, positive, and based on real people and actual events.

* Deadline: March 20, 2007

* Story Length: 1000-2000 words

* $500 grand prize; $100 for each other story published in book

* Simultaneous submissions accepted

* Authors may submit multiple stories

* The title page of each submission must include the author's full name, mailing address, phone number, and email address

* Submit by email or mail

EMAIL: Copy and paste the story into the body of the email; no attachments. One story per email. Send to wordsinger@aol.com

MAIL: Send a printed copy of the story (no CDs or disks) and an SASE to: Colleen Sell, Cup of Comfort, P.O. Box 1539, Cottage Grove, Oregon 97424, USA

We look forward to hearing from you!

The "Write" Accessories

It's snowing today. I love, love, love newly fallen snow. It reminds me that life is full of fresh, new possibilities and opportunities. It truly is one of my favorite little pleasures in life. It also reminds me of a blank piece of paper - full of possibilities but very cold if you lack the "write" accessories. Adapting to the changing seasons of the literary world is imperative to cultivating an environment that inspires your imagination and enriches your life. Here a few of my "write" accessories that work from winter, summer, spring and fall:

1. Writers read. Writers read everything from the Sunday Post to the Scarlet Letter. Being well-read lends itself to being well-written. It also keeps you on top of today's fast forward climate.

2. Writers write what they know. Sure, we all like to dabble in the unknown, but most writers pen topics that pique their passion. Their enthusiasm carries through to the reader.

3. Writers support. While the literary industry is extremely competitive and a little (okay, a lot) cut-throat, good writers provide support to each other through both challenges and triumphs.

4. Writers write everyday. From a letter to Aunt Alice, a short paragraph in a journal to a chapter in a new novel, writers keep the stream of creativity flowing by writing everyday.

And, with that thought, I've done my bit of writing for the day. I'm off to build a snowman.

Stay warm~

Julie Watson Smith