Inter-action

You know how people hyphenate inside a single word to make a point about the word itself? Like how Mastin Kipp uses Uni-verse and chiropractors say dis-ease and it’s super corny and hokey? Yeah, I just did that.

This morning I was thinking about all the people I inter-act with (last one, I promise) and how thankful I am for their uniqueness.

It started with my three cute kids - well, it started before that when my alarm went off and my handsome hubby mumbled, "Morning, babe," as he rolled over - back to the interaction with my three kids (well one of them isn’t really “mine” but I am borrowing her for a year) and getting them out the door for school by 7:05. This is not easy. I sing, I tap on the wall, I bring peace offerings of juice with me, I cajole and wheedle and outright beg.

Then on to the gym – I interact with the receptionist there who types in my membership number because I have no idea where my card is; the people who make room for me on machines. The weird dodging dance we do to get to the same free weights and then the “No you go ahead,” “No you go ahead” gesturing, that we do, since we both have headphones on.

(On a totally unrelated matter – I dream of making a documentary that let’s you hear what everyone is listening to at the gym. My theory is that the middle aged mom is listening to blistering rap and the gangsta guy with the house arrest ankle bracelet is listening to Deepak Chopra. Anyway, back to interacting.)

Now I’m off to my kids’ school to do a little presentation on Sweden for their Norse segment. I will interact with the long-suffering receptionist who accepts my excuses for my kids’ absences; the worth-her-weight-in-gold World History teacher who has spent her own salary on a Swedish feast from IKEA for her students today; and the darling 7^th graders who aren’t children anymore but not grown up either.

(Somewhere in the car-time I have today, I hope to get a little conversation in with my sister - we talked yesterday and need more interaction today. That never gets old. She means the world to me.)

Then I’ll head to Salt Lake (after changing out of my Swedish national dress of course) to interview for a job – who will I interact with there? – and then I’ll pop into the Department of Health to grab the brochures about how physical activity can alleviate arthritis pain as part of my role in the media campaign for the arthritis program. I’ll distribute these to different sites in Rose Park, and if last time I made these visits was any indication, I will interact with kind and earnest people more than willing to make the flyers available for their clients and patients.

And then I’ll hurry home in rush hour (OK that was slightly facetious) to broil the flank steak I marinated this morning thanks to Jen-Fit – whose interaction has blessed me with hundreds of healthy recipes to nourish my family.

I’ll admit, I’m already longing for the interaction at the end of the day when we are sitting on the front patio, graced by the shade of the willow’s long reaching branches, having dinner together and talking about everyone’s day. 

An Event to Remember

I must tell you of an amazing event that has recently occurred.

It is a day that I’ve yearned for since I got serious about writing about two years ago. On the nights when my teacher chewed me up, spat me out, stomped on me and told me to try again for next week, I reminded myself that this was for my benefit. This was how I was going to get published.

And I did. I am officially a published author!

The short story is called 'ordinary' and it's on Amazon as an ebook at an extremely low price of 99 cents.



If you don't have a kindle don't worry. I don't have a kindle either. There's a free app that Amazon gives you along with 3 Free books. All because you downloaded the app from them. How nice of them.

I think the most amazing part of being e-published is that you can get the ebook in countries all over the world. England, Germany, Canada - Hello. I am amazed at how the internet helps opens doors for aspiring authors to succeed.

Now that I’ve gotten published I am learning all about how it happens and how I get to help my publisher. I want to help but I never saw firsthand, until now, how much an author need to do in promoting and marketing their work.

Thanks to social media we can make friends globally, go on blog tours and make our name a brand on the internet.

When my teacher first told me about this, I have to admit it was a bit daunting. I was averaging an hour or two on the internet a week before I understood what I needed to do. Now, I’m on the internet about an hour a day to make sure I’m keeping up on all the sites.

Some might ask if it’s worth it. This is additional time on top of the writing that you do to be on the internet reaching out to people. Crafting responses and finding every niche you can find to let people know about your work.

Well, my answer is simple. If you don’t dream about this and truly want to be published – you won’t like it. For the rest of us who do dream to be published, it’s just another step in our journey. Another aspect of our future-full-time job as a writer to take care of.

My next goal is to get published again, and again and again.

And my ultimate goal – is that my writing becomes my full-time job. That is a dream I work at to make it come true.

Taming the Devil --Fail--

You know it very well. That voice in your head. No, I’m not referring to the shoulder angel.

I’m talking about the shoulder devil.

My shoulder devil has been working overtime to discourage me from reaching the end of my first draft. I’m sure you’re completely familiar with your own mean voice so I won’t go through a play by play of it’s dialogue.

That would be “boring.”

What isn’t boring is the new tactic my shoulder devil came up with and I fell victim of. Apparently, when my shoulder devil is on a roll, he finds it necessary to inflict torture on others. Now, I’m not a torture inflicting person. So in order for the little devil to convince me it took baby steps.

He whispered an irrational urge to shave things.

He distracted my thoughts with the sound of a clipper’s motor humming (inaudible to anyone else). And I could feel the weight of the clippers in my hand. It became absolutely necessary that I halt all activity I was involved in; put the world on pause for some shaving.

It started out innocently enough. My two year old had a gorgeously shaggy head:

But as I swept up the curls, I noticed the urge was not satisfied. The dog came sniffing around and instead of getting frustrated with his wagging tail causing chaos on my sweeping effort, I was maddened by the tuft of hair on the top of his head that had curdled into a matted nest.

It had to go.

So it did. But by this time I was a little tired, so, unfortunatley, that’s all that went:

It should have ended right then. I should have internalized the pitiful pooch’s pouty profile and said, It’s time to stop. But the cat decided to prance her way across the kitchen floor then, clumps of her once long, now matted hair bobbing by.

I don’t brush cats. But apparently I shave them.

Animal cruelty, you say? Well. Put me in front of a hand selected jury of self-respecting writers, and I assure you my insanity plea will grant me a free pass.

J

Cookie Book

I haven't blogged for awhile. I was busy baking cookies! In fact, you need to read that word like Sesame Street's Cookie Monster would... Cook..i..e...s!!!! Yes, you have to add the explanation marks -- all of them. I made so many cookies (again with the emphasis) that I lost count. My head was swimming. But, the final results were amazing!

Not since my daughter's wedding (we served cookies) have I had so many tiny confections all in one place. My kitchen looked like a bakery -- maybe even better. The cookbook itself has all of my favorite cookie recipes -- some brand new inventions and other's have been around longer than I have. This is not just a collection of recipes from various sources but most of them are ones I have created.

I was asked if this book will be available in any other forms than on e'readers since they didn't want to buy a Kindle just for this cheap little ole' book. The simple answer is yes -- eventually. But in the meantime, I was not aware of this until this last year, but you can download a program (free, by the way) from Amazon called Kindle PC. You can then buy all the handheld books and put them on your PC or Mac. This is a real advantage for a cookbook. It comes in color and the photos make your mouth water... seriously... look at the one below.  Was I right?

Check out this cookie bookie and really.... $2.99???? It's a steal at twice the price! Share in all my tips and family secrets. If nothing else, buy it for Caleb... he really worked hard on this book. But, I promise, you will not be disappointed.

Trauma in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone, West Africa is a beautiful country, but living there is not easy.  Two thirds of adults cannot read or write.  77 out of 1,000 babies die before their first birthday.  2,000 of every 100,000 women bearing children die in childbirth.  Life expectancy at birth is approximately 56 years.  The country suffers from outbreaks of yellow fever, cholera, lassa fever, meningitis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS is a serious problem.  Access to clean water can be difficult and in the capital of Free Town, the taps often run dry.  Poisonous snakes such as the green Mamba and poisonous insects such as scorpions and spiders are common.

So, when I received an assignment to travel to Sierra Leone, I did so with mixed emotions.  When I flew into Free Town and discovered that I had to take a boat from the airport to the city, I was surprised.  The beach looked like a tropical paradise.  However, the infrastructure of much of the country has not yet been rebuilt, following a brutal eleven-year civil war which ended less than a decade ago.

As I prepared for bed the first night in my “luxury” hotel, I was grateful to pull the mosquito netting around me, but noticed the netting had a conspicuous hole.  I fixed the hole temporarily with a bit of gaffer’s tape.

The next day we spent filming.  Our workday was long.  It was hot and humid.  I don’t drink enough water.  Eventually, however, I needed to use a bathroom.  When I entered the bathroom it seemed relatively clean.

However, when I reached down to raise the toilet seat, a large spider darted out from under the seat and sat on the lid of the toilet. 

I don’t like spiders!

I leaped away from the toilet. I could see the spider breathing.  Its eyes were watching me, challenging me.  My heart was racing.  I knew there were many ways to die in Sierra Leone, but I hadn’t expected to die in a bathroom.

The spider was staring at me.  I stared back.  I wasn’t about to reveal my private parts with that spider watching.  I blinked first.  It won.  I guess I didn’t have to go that bad.

You Can't Call It Winning If There Never Was A Fight

So glad I realized today is May 1st, or you would have missed me again! Tragedy avoided, I know.

I want to share my favorite excerpts from my favorite author, Ann Patchett. This comes from The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life . Sorry, this a Kindle short, so there are no page numbers.

"Only a few of us are going to be willing to break our own hearts by trading in the living beauty of imagination for the stark disappointment of words. This is why we type a line or two and then hit the delete button or crumple up the page. Certainly that was not what I meant to say! That does not represent what I see. Maybe I should try again another time. Maybe the muse has stepped out back for a smoke. Maybe I have writer’s block. Maybe I’m an idiot and was never meant to write at all.”

There are times when I want to let that frustration with writing equal proof that I’m just not cut out for it. The blank pages, and the gross mechanical words dare me to quit. But everytime I face that stand off, I know that this is less about my ability or even desire to write, and more about my ability to see myself through something difficult.

I want to quit because it’s hard. Not because I'm incapable.

And it’s the no-nonsense, honest glimpses from authors I trust that help me believe, yes, it’s SUPPOSED to be hard. The frustration is in fact proof that I am in love with my story, and I am striving to do it justice.

“It turns out that the distance from head to hand, from wafting butterfly to entomological specimen, is achieved through regular, disciplined practice…Had I been assigned a different sort of teacher, one who suggested we keep an ear cocked for the muse instead of hoisting a pick, I don’t think I would have gotten very far.”

“Why is it that we understand that playing the cello will require work but we relegate writing to the magic of inspiration?”

She goes on and on--A great short read if you need encouragement to endure the latest wrestle with your writing :)