Memoirous

Bicycling saved my life. I wanted nothing more than to go somewhere. It started early—this obsession to explore. One of my earliest memories is of my father affixing wooden blocks to the pedals of a tricycle so that my feet could reach. I’m sure it was a tricycle passed down, a one-size-fits-all. I eventually out grew the tricycle and into a small two-wheeler with training wheels. I really wanted to be able to ride without the aid of the training wheels. I can actually remember to this day dreaming—or was I scheming, it was perhaps an awake dream—of gravity and the natural puzzle of how a bike, those skinny tires—how does it stay up? It didn’t make sense. Back then the boys my older brother Steve’s age rode Schwinns with turned down handle bars and racing tires. The inventors of the airplane, the Wright brothers, had a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. As a school kid we were taken on field trips to see it. Huffy bikes were manufactured in Dayton. That was another era. Onc...

Those of you who have found this blog--thanks--I have a favor to ask. If you also blog or contribute to a page about writing or for writers (am I leaving anyone out?) please download (tech talk--right click and save image) my ad for 365 Affirmations for the Writer and add it to your widgets (tech talk! for those images that show up on the left or righthand side of your page) with a link to amazon (tech talk! can be embedded) Ad: link to Amazon: http:// tinyurl.com/mw9kmvu   THANKS so much to the world-wide blogosphere.

This week I’ve been talking about glimpses. Actually I just didn’t know what to call a collection of tidbits I’ve been meaning to write about. What are they? I keep a notebook where I might jot down random ideas “for later.” And, that later might end up diminishing the memory or else expanding it. Often I’m like—what in the world or why did I think that was significant? As I render words into flash, short stories, prose poems, there is also this parking lot of lose ends, that place where the snow piles up and is left to dwindle down even in April and May. That’s a glimpse, a start, that later might become a detail in something much longer—or stay exactly what it was—a passing thought. There is a moment, and only a moment, at dusk called the magic hour, when the sky goes golden, and the air is thick with golden light, and the gnats hovering above the golden swaying grasses become glittering golden specks, and the surface of the lake absorbs the sun’s golden rays, when a...

Places I still see newspapers: --left on the commuter train --at Starbuck’s --my parent’s house I naturally reach toward them, drawn in by an old friend. Also I am in the current issue of PMS= Poem, Memoir, Story out of the University of Alabama-Birmingham. It is a journal that celebrates and encourages women’s writing. LOVE IT! Kerry Mad­den is an editor there and she has several really great non-fiction books: Up Close: Harper Lee  "I encourage my students to delve into their own lives to mine for material." Sound familiar?  Check out my story entitled Heartbreak Wall

When people think of memoir they tend to think lifetime events, the biggies. By the time they get around to writing about them their brains have gone into shock, their memories paralyzed with self-doubt, fears of not getting it "right." In FROZEN they sing about letting go. In my book Freeze Frame: How to Write Flash Memoir, I encourage readers to let go and write in the smallest, briefest of glimpses. A moment may not have a beginning, middle or end--often it just is. http://tinyurl.com/p27v4na  In 2015 I am resolving to write more of these glimpses. Even if it is just to pause and smell the roses or observe a sunset or the lighting of a lamp, the flame reflected in a darkened window. Dig below the surface of lethargy and tell yourself, all I have is NOW. http://tinyurl.com/mw9kmvu Lighting the Lamp At the dune shack with the blue door, the light subsides, blue has left the sky, and there is a stillness within the insect-infused dusk, a veil settles, soften...

What happens when a neighborhood begins to die because a major business closes down and jobs move away? Economically squeezed the citizens of Pig Park decide to take their destiny into their own hands. Masi and her family operate a bakery that has fallen on hard times. Both she and her parents need to be revitalized. By using traditional and contemporary tools, whatever is at hand, they set out on an entrepreneurial enterprise, to build a mysterious La Gran Pirámide. But is it a scam or a scheme? Will the people of Pig Park be able to overcome their sense of despair and blight?  Pig Park is the story of a community coming together and how a group of kids help to save their neighborhood. Come to find out the main ingredient in turning around a failing bakery and neighborhood is hope and faith in themselves. Pig Park Claudia Guadalupe Martinez Cinco Puntos Press and at Amazon 254 pages

And . . . she’s back! Over the holidays I had a head cold and two weeks off to do nothing but blow my nose and read up in the bed. Except I could find NOTHING that held my attention. I tried to self-diagnose if it was because of the Dayquil or my clogged sinuses—yet I told myself I read with my eyes and not my nose. I started 5 books and couldn’t get past the first 50 pages of each. I also worried if perhaps culture ie the Internet had impacted my attention span—was I no longer capable of reading 3 or 4 paragraphs strung together without closing a book and turning on my Kindle? Finally, I wondered if perhaps I was getting too old for fiction. Would I end up like several old people I once knew dozing off in the middle of a page, or succumbing entirely to non-fiction because of the ability to skip massive uninteresting sections and still feel like you’ve “read” a whole book. Imagine my delight then when I started reading We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by...

Negative 25 Negative 25 means zipping up my coat that binds my thighs together, making it hard to walk. Negative 25 means wearing long johns all the time, making quick changes in hot rooms impossible. Negative 25 means giving myself permission to snack frequently, making my thighs even bulkier. Negative 25 means wrapping a scarf around my face, making my breath sweat and the clammy scarf stick to my cheeks. Negative 25 means my eyelashes icicle over because my eyes cannot stop watering. Negative 25 means the windows at the gym frost  and you have to rub at them with your mittened hand to see if the bus is coming. Negative 25 means taping plastic to the windows and then watching it bulge and balloon out like a monster trying to get inside. Negative 25 means sitting under a pile of blankets and still freezing. 365 Affirmations for the Writer is on SALE . Starting 1/7 - 1/10 it will be 51% off at Amazon

Okay, maybe we shouldn't talk about windchill in Chicago. Let's talk about something much better. 365 Affirmations for the Writer is on SALE . Starting 1/7 - 1/10 it will be 51% off at Amazon Here's a bit of what you will find: January 4 Outlines—Yes or No I’m one of those writers who tends to be really good at making outlines and sticking to them. I’m very good at doing that, but I don’t like it. It sort of takes a lot of the fun out. ― Neil Gaiman, winner of both the Newbery and Carnegie Medals, and many other awards too numerous to list, from and interview by Chris Bolton, Powells.com, August, 2005 January 5 Outlines—Yes or No A lot of new writers assume you have to know the where the story is going and that it flows out as molten gold. But really, sometimes you think you are going to one place, but then you decide that is dumb idea. Then you go somewhere else and it is a worse idea. But then you switch again and you might have a beautiful ac...

On the last and final day of 2014 I received via e-mail THREE rejections, one from an agent whom I waited 4 months to hear back from (reading a full) and the other two from literary mags (reading short story). Ready to say goodbye to 2014--HELLO 2015. Also so ready to be affirmed--how about you? Go to: Amazon and to download free app to read on any device CLICK HERE

Here is another FREE SAMPLE from 365 Affirmations for the Writer where I have paired an affirmation, writer's tip, or writer's quote with a prompt or suggestion to improve your own writing or--most importantly--to free your imagination: January 5 Outlines—Yes or No A lot of new writers assume you have to know where the story is going and that it flows out as molten gold. But really, sometimes you think you are going to one place, but then you decide that is dumb idea. Then you go somewhere else and it is a worse idea. But then you switch again and you might have a beautiful accident. ― Patrick Rothfuss, writer of epic fantasy, namely The Wise Man’s Fear Do you use an outline or go by instinct? Mindmapping is one such way to free associate. Rather than work consecutively or following a certain set of logic, mindmapping allows you to start with one idea and link it to another, even if there is no obvious connection. Some work with words and images, dra...