** Reading, Writing and Dancing! **

While I was sick the past 2 weeks, every single piece of paper, junk mail, bills, magazines, and coupons that arrived in my snail mail, have apparently been busy multiplying! Don't you just hate it when that happens? Oh well, I know what's really important in my life and my priorities are firmly set. Writing comes first! Along with the "actually typing of words on my laptop" kind of writing, I've discovered there are different ways of writing. I love to browse through various "helpful" and "how to" books, some of which I recently picked up at the library. Other times, I'll read something online that really makes me stop and think, Wow! I never thought of that!

* If I wrote today, but deleted most of it, I still wrote!
* If I had zillions of ideas, but only got as far as jotting down notes, I still wrote!
* If I edited some of my writing, I still wrote!

Somewhere, I also read practice saying outloud, "I am a writer."
Say it while sitting in your chair. Say it while walking around the room.
I've chosen to sing it opera-style, while I dance around the room!

Whatever you do today, take care of your self!!

"If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse." - Jim Rohn

** Fun Discoveries on a Tuesday **

First Fun Discovery: I had a really great day! Went to a critique group that meets every Tuesday and I enjoyed it. I already knew most of the members from Saturday Writers, and I'll definitely be going back.

Second Fun Discovery:  Here's another one of my Twilight Zone moments! Just yesterday I wrote about deleting my "writers competition rant" because I didn't want any Bad Karma........Well, today I received my Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop Newsletter, and would you believe they actually printed the following?:

ERMA'S LEFTOVERS?
With the announcement of the writing competition winners comes the realization by other entrants that they are, as 2010 workshop attendee Anna Lefler puts it, "winning-adjacent." What's a writer to do with that oh-so-close submission? Post it, of course, as did Joanie Buettgen, Anna Lefler, and Ann Imig. 

I'm only showing the link to Anna's because I liked her story the best. It is SO Erma!! And her writer friends all felt the same way we did! Remember that popular goofy character a few years ago, Where's Waldo?".....Aren't we all saying, "Where's Erma??!!"

Oh well....to paraphrase what I wrote yesterday......Whatever!!

I'm not sure how the Erma refrigerator thingy works, but it looks like fun! Anyway...go check out Anna's blog and let her know that Becky sent ya!

Happy Writing!

"In two decades I've lost a total of 789 pounds. I should be hanging from a charm bracelet." -- Erma Bombeck

** No Time For Bad Karma **

Since my rant the other day concerning a certain writing competition, I've evolved into a new me. Actually, that's not correct because I haven't become new. I'm continuing on in my usual optimistic, cheerful way of thinking. My criticism was a minor step backwards, but my attitude about life won't allow me to remain so negative.

Therefore, I have deleted that entire post.

Don't Worry!  ♪♫♪   Be Happy! ♪♫♪     Write On!

“Happiness depends more on how life strikes you than on what happens." -- Andy Rooney

** My Muse Is Back **

It was 2 weeks ago today that I felt like I was catching a cold, and it was all downhill from there. But, I am pleased.....no, I am thrilled to announce that I AM BACK!

I feel great and I've been writing like crazy. The best kind of writing....when it just flows, and I'm in The Zone, and hours pass.....Ahhhh....Bliss!

And, because of my newly, rediscovered joy and passion for writing, I probably won't be posting on my blog as often. I may not be reading all my usual favorites as often, either, but you can be sure I'll be thinking of y'all. Please send some good writing vibes my way, to help keep me going!!

"And remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand." -- E.K. Brough

** Tiny Lights: A Journal of Personal Narrative **

 Tiny Lights - The newest Searchlights & Signal Flares are posted. The question for the month was: "Where does your mind go when it wanders?"  I wish more of you would enter something for these! Some months the questions are really a challenge. (You'll find me posted there!) It's an excellent opportunity to submit serious or humorous thoughts and be published online. There is no fee, no word count. You can also post your website, blog, and/or e-mail address. I can confirm that people have found my blog because of this. Below is a portion of the description from Tiny Lights:

"Searchlights & Signal Flares" is an opportunity to support and be supported by a community of writers, to let a flash of your own light be seen and shared. You are invited to respond to the following questions (deadlines in parentheses), and if your answers adhere to the posted guidelines, they will be published on the website-no fuss, muss or editing.

If that isn't enough to wake up those sleeping ideas in your head, here's another area of Tiny Lights you'll want to check out. Flash in the Pan: a Quarterly Posting.


One more thing. Those of you that entered the essay contest last month will be pleased to know the winners are due to be announced April 10th!

"The two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light." -- Jonathan Swift  (The Battle of the Books)

** Tidbits of Upcoming Posts **

I have different topics I'm anxious to write about, but since it's getting late, I'll just share a few words:

* Tiny Lights newest Searchlights & Signal Flares *

* Erma Bombeck Contest *

* Songs on my playlist *

* Next contest coming up in April *

"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning." -- Joseph Priestley

* The Much Anticipated Interview With Judith Ryan Hendricks! *

Following is a question and answer session with Judith Ryan Hendricks, author of four fabulous books, all of which are favorites of mine.  Besides being an amazing writer, Judith is such a warm and generous woman. She donated an autographed, first editon copy of "Bread Alone" for my contest last month. Kathy Matthews was the very excited winner. Thank you Judith for everything!  *Note: After reading the congratulatory comments, I realized I didn't word this correctly. I did not compose these questions! Judith was kind enough to share the questions from a previous library interview. She gave new, up-to-date answers, though. I'm sorry for the confusion. I didn't deliberately try to deceive anyone!

1. While your first novel, Bread Alone, stands on its own as a story, it also has at its heart, the world of food, preparation, sustenance and eating. What made you add this element to the novel? What function does food play in your writing?

Food serves multiple functions in my stories. First of all, it’s a touchstone for my characters, which is how I feel about food in my own life. So many of my memories seem to be linked to a particular meal or dish or food experience. I guess that’s why I can never remember where I put my sunglasses, but I have perfect recall about the carrot cake I shared with my mom in a little café in LaConner, WA twenty years ago. Second, food is a metaphor for love, for sharing, in many cases for work, and even for life itself. Since I love to cook and eat, alone as well as with friends and family, it’s inconceivable to me that I might write a story that doesn’t include food in some way.

2. Your female characters possess a certain “edginess.” They’ve been cheated on, given up for adoption, left pregnant, work long hours and multiple jobs for low pay, they have been divorced, yet none of them seem bitter and they remain vulnerable to love. Is that a deliberate choice you make to characterize? Do your narrators echo your own worldview? Do you think it’s possible for a writer to distance herself from her main character, or do the boundaries blur?

Bitterness is an interesting trait—destructive and closed, which doesn’t make for much reader sympathy. However, characters like Avery James in Isabel’s Daughter and Sunny Cooper in The Laws of Harmony take on bitterness as a protective coloration. In reality they’re not so much bitter as wary. On the other hand, it’s often more interesting when a character acts differently than her true self.


I have to distance myself from my main character because in the service of the story they have to make a lot of choices that I wouldn’t make. However, I feel strongly that every one of my characters shares at least one of my traits. I love the way Milan Kundera (Unbearable Lightness of Being) says it: “The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities.”

3. What steps take place between your first full draft, your rewrite and the published book?

Well…after I finish the first draft I take my husband out to dinner to celebrate. In the middle of dinner, I say…we’ve got to go home; I just thought of something I left out of chapter 2 that could change the entire outcome of the story. Next I give the manuscript to one of my good writer friends and she reads it and says. I really love this. I say, but what? She says, But nothing. I really love it. I say, what should I change? She says Nothing. I really love it. I go over the pages three more times trying to figure out what she’s not telling me. Then I send it to my agent, who tells me what my writer friend would not. I rewrite the novel and send it back to my agent. She calls me and says, I think C---really likes it. She’ll let us know when she gets back from the holidays.


I sweat out Christmas and New Year’s, going over the ms three more times. After the holidays the editor calls. She says, I love this book. I say, Thanks. That’s great. She says, I just need you to change the ending so that the boyfriend doesn’t die. We discuss certain changes. I make some, but not all. It goes to the copy editor. I proof read the galleys. They send me cover art. I hate it. I call my editor. She makes them re-do the cover art so it doesn’t look like the character is fifteen years old and about to commit suicide. In order to maintain my sanity I start on the next book. And suddenly one day a package arrives in the mail…my Advance Reader Copy! I’m so happy I take my husband out to dinner to celebrate. During dessert I say, oh, God, why did I make that change in Chapter 2?

4. How has moving to New Mexico affected your writing?

The only real difference between writing here and writing in L.A. is that I seem to have more time. Santa Fe is so compact I can be anywhere in town within 15 minutes. Also life is a bit simpler. I don’t expend as much energy just on the details of daily life.

5. In The Laws of Harmony, your story begins about the sudden loss of love when Sunny’s boyfriend is killed, but the story ends up being about a different kind of love altogether. How do you see this book by comparison to your earlier work? Are you changing territory, widening your narratives? Or does each book suggest its own particular context and story while you write it?

Yes to all of the above. Each book definitely has its own trajectory and each one changes you. You are not the same person at the end as you were when you started. The story in The Laws of Harmony went its own way at the end—not at all what I originally planned—and it also changed me as a writer, definitely broadened my perspective. It was like once I finished, I sat back in my chair and said, Well. Where did that come from? I don’t think I look at stories in quite the same way any more.

6. Are you superstitious when writing a book? Do you keep the story close to your chest while you’re generating, or do you feel free to talk about it?

I absolutely believe that it’s best not to talk too much about what I’m working on. First of all everything changes during the course of the writing and you could be talking about a storyline that ends up on the cutting room floor. Also, I think if you talk about something while you’re in the process of creating it, then a lot of the creativity just dissipates, and the story’s energy gets spent on talking about it instead of writing it.

7. How has publishing four novels changed your life?

Now when I meet someone at a party and they ask what I do, I have something to tell them.


“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” -- Ashley Smith

** I Know It's Thursday.....But What Month Is It? **

I have so much I want to write about. So many different topics. AND, I have Judith Ryan Hendricks' Question & Answer Session to post. Plus, I have so much to catch up on in my other life...you know, those annoying duties such as going through the mail, paying bills, putting away clean clothes & towels, filing all the junk I kept stacking on the floor in my office, while telling myself I'd feel so much better tomorrow, but tomorrow never came.....

Well, a funny thing happened while I was writing this post. I decided to complain about a couple of things that really bothered me, even though I knew that wasn't my usual style, not the real me. After typing away and writing for what seemed like an endless amount of time, I "saved" my work, while I decided which quote to post at the end. When I came back to this, the only part that was "saved" was the above first paragraph, and one line of the new paragraph...."I have a couple of things I want to complain about."

I think I just experienced serendipity! I wrote it. I got it out of my system. 'Nuff said!

"The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose." -- Anonymous