I can't take them all on the plane! Ruthie's dream of becoming a successful screenwriter captivated me. This is Jennifer's tenth book and I've loved her writing since her debut with 'Good in Bed'. Continue reading

When you post something on any type of social media you never know who might read it or where it might end up. In April I shared this review on Hungry for Life and I was contacted in May by Jennifer an Assistant Senior Managing Editor at Artful Blogging asking if they might quote part of my post in their upcoming autumn issue. Heck yeah! I BIG shout out to Honoré for sending me a copy when she heard my bookstore didn't carry it! Continue reading

I'm not on the ballot but still thrilled at the nominations, thank you my friends! The AssitU community is an incredible resource for support, encouragement, and knoweldgeable insightful answers.I am honored to be a member! Continue reading

When I began my weight loss journey I never envisioned myself as a Weight Watchers employee. I was focused on me and it never occurred to me that my leaders and receptionist had once walked in my shoes. I began as a substitute receptionist at the end of 2009 and I was thrilled to be able to give back to others ready to step boldly into health and fitness. Working on a team was good for me; adapting to working for a coorporation was challenging after being an entrprenuer for more than the past decade. The passionate people I work... Continue reading

The prompt for this poem was to show sadness... A patina of dust dulls the lace of my shawl and fringe of my mob-cap. My bare feet poke out from faded yellow hand sewn cotton. Where are my shoes! Doesn’t she think how cold my feet must be? No—she doesn’t. I stare and see her pass by my line of sight. Let’s play, I cry. Her grown up ears no longer register the pitch of my voice. She walks by. Tears well in my moss green eyes. I long to blink and let them trail a streak of grime down... Continue reading

A week before my forty-eighth birthday I removed my rose colored glasses and looked myself in the eye. My upbeat and positive attitudes are a natural extension of the way I see the world and choose to live my life. Most of the time. I met my reflection in the mirror with a sigh. My journey to self-love would not have been possible without a conscious effort to release negative habits of self-sabotage or beating up on myself. Yet, as I squinted at myself in the glare of the overhead bathroom light I admitted that some of those old habits... Continue reading

If you've been following my writing prompts I've written from the perspective of a bird, a cloud, and a snake. Then I wrote about my neighborhood—a lesson in seeing. This next prompt encorporated all my pieces and seemed daunting at first. We were to choose one word from our neighborhood piece and write from 3 perspectives: bird, cloud, snake. The word I chose was 'dandelions' and the form of a poem surprised me but it literally wrote itself: Nature Returns The weeds are tightly condensed like a New York City block. Overhead the Raven watches intently, wings stretched but still.... Continue reading

I was pleased with the bird, cloud, snake prompts even though at first glance I didn't see how I could write them. Writing them expanded me as much as my view. The next writing prompt was to walk our neighborhood (a quarter mile radius) and capture what we see. I resisted for weeks. Eventually I got over it by writing about my resistance: My quarter mile circle expands way beyond our neighborhood. I am glad. I do not wish to lace my sneakers and walk the aged asphalt roads littered with dark patched potholes like a carcinoma on freckled skin.... Continue reading

It's all about perspective: I am a snake below the bird and cloud... The sharp ‘krak’ from that bird’s brazen beak startles me from my doze. I am sunning the entire spectacular length of my faceted body on a grey shale boulder. Glorious heat from the yellow eye bakes my ropey form into a writhing bundle of bliss. I am whole here, satiated. The sun completes me. I inch the coils of my body in an incremental slide; dry glowing scales embracing themselves entwined in constant touch and motion. Narcissssssist? Oh yessssss. I stare at my serpentine self and swell... Continue reading

Jenn shared Amy’s post (scroll down to Richmond) about Patti’s daughter Tess. I liked A Dress for Tess on Facebook and images of this small child having the courage to put on a dress to face the unknown besieged me. Tess is a wise, wise soul. I have procrastinated, resisted, and ranted about rewriting the ending to my screenplay. Enough! Tess knew you see. All I needed was to put on a dress and sit down and write. Dear Reader, what will you tackle once you slide into a dress? Continue reading

If you read Krak this writing prompt came next: I am a cloud watching the bird... Bodiless I watch the dark creature alight and soar. She is noisy where I am silent. I wonder about her form and curiously study her actions—how her wings allow her to swim through the air. How the flick of a wingtip turns her body. How perfectly designed she is. What must it feel like to be created from hollow bone and feather? Does she look at me and wonder about my incorporeal form? I feel other beings emotions more clearly than I see them—we... Continue reading

During the past decade and a half I have grown emotionally and spiritually in ways I never would have foreseen. An inextricable foundation for this blossoming has been practicing extreme self care. I shifted from a place of believing that taking care of myself was selfish and silly to a life affirming empowering practice of giving to me as a reflection of how deeply I love and approve of myself. The chasm I crossed was huge, Grand Canyonish. And so the summer days leading up to my birthday were planned around being unplugged from my purple 'puter, filled with family... Continue reading

Start where you are, Patti said to us in VerbTribe. Here I am halfway through the year approaching my forty-eighth birthday and I am beginning to write again. I wrote through March on my screenplay and slapped on a to-be-continued ending and pronounced it done. My fellow WriteNiters sagely called me on it and said they wanted an ending with oomph not fizzle. I have been in a funk since the end of April feeling overwhelmed, uninspired, and resistant to writing—of any kind. My journal lies unopened on my bedside shelf; my blog languishes from my absence. My resistance has... Continue reading

On Day 36 in March I opened my Verb Tribe daily prompt to read the directions 'write a love letter to yourself'. Instant resistance. I do love myself, a million times more than I did a few decades ago, but I wasn't ready to commit it to paper. I balked for a few days. Then there was a moment of clarity, my heart shifted and said, do this. The rest of the prompt instructed us to seal letter, address it to ourselves, and give it to a friend to mail it within the next six weeks and not say when... Continue reading

I began blogging in 2005 as a team of bloggers sharing our journeys as Virtual Assistants and building, launching, and running our own businesses from home. Blogging was new to me but I quickly learned how to write with the intention of starting a conversation, sharing authentically, and seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. In 2009 I took the leap and created this blog to share my weight loss journey, writing, creative endeavors, and well…my life. Artful Blogging introduced me to a community of kindred souls seeking connection for their art, passion for living their dreams, and real people striving... Continue reading

As a teenager I lost myself for weeks in the Four Lands created by Terry Brooks in the Original Sword of Shannara trilogy. I ached to create a world of good versus evil populated with unexpected heroes and dark hooded villains. I learned to write by reading—fantasy books engaged my imagination and allowed me to sprout dragon wings. As an adult when our daughter was born I even chose her name from the third book in the Shannara series; Brin (a headstrong princess disguised as a peasant boy) and Leah (a magical city). My passion for fantasy has not ebbed... Continue reading

I was intrigued by the quote on the cover of the book: “See we love each other. We just don’t happen to like each other very much.” My half-sister is eleven years older than I and so I grew up as an only child yearning for a sister. Siblings and birth order are fascinating to me—my husband is one of nine! I was a loner as a kid and books were my whole entire world. These three sisters and their parents relate through books so much so that their dad speaks to them primarily in Shakespeare quotes even sends this... Continue reading

This book rocked my world, kicked me in the butt, eradicated my excuses, and was the ultimate wake-up call for me to sit down and do my creative work. Must, must read. 'Nuff said. Continue reading

Day 19 of Verb Tribe we were asked to choose a childhood photo and look at it and then write, Who was I then? I have always loved this photo of me and mom but I've only looked at 'her' for clues to what she was thinking, what that hidden smile meant, how she's holding me. The photo says 1967 making me three but I look younger. I thought this photo would trigger loss and sadness but I feel only joy and love looking at it now. Here are a few excerpts from my bag: "On my God! I was... Continue reading

Day 6 our Verb Tribe prompt was to describe a banana and write it on the banana peel! Then we wrote on our bags how writing was like peeling a banana. This was one of my FAVS—it had great appeal! I loooooooved writing on my banana! I am aware I want to bring that same sense of excitement, wonder, adventure to every page. To laugh out loud and say, that's so crazy—where's my banana! I had NO idea what to write on my bag so I started here: So the HUGE aha for me was 'how to peel a banana... Continue reading

Day 37 of VerbTribe asked us, What commitments will you make to yourself about writing? Create a list of three commitments (no more) that you will make to yourself. I commit to showing up daily to the page. I commit to opening my heart allowing it to flow. I commit to seeing more, looking three times, popping open my third eye and sense of wonder. I commit to letting go fully and standing with arms wide open ready to receive. I commit to embracing every ending as the new beginning it is reborn as. I commit to living gratefully for... Continue reading

Day 14 of Verb Tribe we were invited to write our daily prompt, ten minutes on a paper bag, with our nondominant hand. I met this invitation with full resistance which looked like closing the prompt and doing everything else but write with my left hand. Eventually I came full circle and returned to the prompt and to the page, or bag. Here's what I shared after the prompt: Oh resistance! Huge crooked letters...and then an in rushing of sadness...this is how mom wrote at the end...oh how this frustrated her...I wrote through the sadness and struggle until the end... Continue reading

On Day 30 of Verb Tribe, this was our prompt: Gather up all your writing from this class--all those paper bags, all that filler paper. Take a photo of everything you have done. And then burn everything. Writing is process, not product. I couldn't do it. I'm a keeper. I rationalized that I wanted to make a piece of art out of them. Reality: I was attached to outcome and product. My proof. I took photos of every page. I made blog posts out of several of my favorites. Then yesterday, weeks after this prompt, I shared this with my... Continue reading