Inspiration Box

  On the wall in my writing studio is a shadow box that I created a little while back. I filled it with trinkets that I had been collecting for some time that are a reflection of some of my interests.  I also included several inspirational sayings.  When visiting an author friend's home today I saw that she had a shadow box just like mine, only filled with different items.  This project was so much fun and another creative way to express myself.

There are all kinds of words inside my inspiration box including imagine, imaginative, imagery, create, dream, inspire, hope, wish, become and inside the real blank book in one of the cubbies it says "Believe".  A clay pot is also inscribed with Isaiah 64:8 which says, "Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter;  we are all the work of your hand."  You'll find the rest of the sayings below.
The photos open large so you can see the detail.

 

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.” ~ William Arthur Ward

"And we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the glory of the Lord, all grow from glory to glory as we are turned into the image that we reflect" ~ 2 Corinthians 3:18

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." ~  J.K. Rowling

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies with in us." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It's never too late to be what you might have been." ~  George Eliot

"Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul.  Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.” ~ Pamela Vaull Starr

   

Art, graphic design, and photography help fuel my creativity.  What ways of creative expression help inspire your writing?

To Write or Not to Write

This weekened I've been a busy little bee with my writing.  I finished an article for the local paper special edition 5 days before deadline.  How'd I do that?  I thought the deadline was sooner.  Felt so good to have it in early!

I went on the Barbour Books website as they have new publishing projects posted from time to time.  This one is Heavenly Humor for the Cat Lover’s Soul the deadline is tomorrow, Nov. 2nd.  They require two 500 word devotionals.  Can I do it?  Yes!  I'm excited about this one and hope they'll accept my submission.

I learned at Seekerville about the RWA Silicon Valley's Gotcha! Contest.  Unpubbed writers send in their  first 15 pages of their romance manuscript. 4 entries in each category, inspirational included, will be reviewed by a Harlequin editor.  Problem.  Deadline is Nov. 4th.  I'm still debating if this is even feasible.  Last time I had a chance to enter a first 15 page Audience with an Agent contest  I determined it was cutting it too close and it just wasn't fitting in.  I decided to wait until their next one next year.  Same goes for the Launching a Star Contest at Spacecoast Authors of Romance (RWA)   in September.  It just wasn't going to happen this year.

The more I learn about these opportunities I am naturally drawn to them, but it isn't always realistic.   That also goes for NaNoWriMo.  I've never participated and can't do it this November either since I have a lot of website work going on, three interviews (I'm one of them and two I'm hosting), and some book reviews to get done.   I'm trying to not create a crisis over my writing and take it in stride.  I never realized that writing would require so much discernment. And a lot of prayer.

How do you decide when to get involved in a writing project or not?  How do you feel about contests?

Can You Read This?

Today I'm working on an article for a special edition in our local newspaper about adult literacy.  I work 15 hours per week (plus) for Literacy Volunteers, a local non-profit affiliate of ProLiteracy America.  I'm also a tutor and a tutor trainer.  This will be my 4th publication in Local Voices on the topic of adult literacy.  I could go on forever it seems about the merits of helping create a more literate society.  In my community alone, one in seven are functionally illiterate.  I just can't even imagine not being able to read or write, especially in this day and age.  How I have taken it for granted.  Now raising an awareness for adult literacy has become a passion of mine.

Now on my 4th article, it becomes a challenge for me to write about the same topic in new and creative ways.  Yet, this time I realized I already had some fodder for the article, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel.  We are currently engaged in an awareness campaign so I decided to write about that and feature the volunteer who has worked with our organization for almost 2 decades.  What dedication!  She has tutored nearly 20 adults during that time. Not everyone is cut out to be a tutor, but there are many ways to get involved.  If each one can do something to help others know about this modern day plight perhaps we will find someday we all live in a more literate society.  Imagine the difference that could make.

(Click to view larger image - Literacy Unlocks the Treasure)

To learn more about the impact of adult literacy visit ProLiteracy.

My Literacy Articles:
Literacy Volunteers - Waterville's Best Kept Secret
Literacy is Good for the Economy

What cause is important to you?  Do you write about it?

Haunted

I find myself being haunted by my writing.  Try as I might to put it down at times, it forever beckons me. Meriam-Webster defines haunting not only "to visit or inhabit as a ghost and to have a disquieting or harmful effect on", but "to visit often, to continually seek the company of, to recur constantly and spontaneously".

Just when I was trying to cut back and readjust some of my activities, some new projects came in -  non-writing related.  I'm busy with some website work which is a good earning opportunity and I'm thankful for it.  Although my writing had to be temporarily cutback, it is not cut off.  That would be impossible. Those stories are forever floating around in my head and you just never know when some little tid bit will come to mind.  I make sure I jot these down for later insertion.  Paper and pen are with me everywhere I go. 

Sometimes I'm at the store, other times driving, or trying to get to sleep. I can't remember when it happened, but this week I named a character.  It just came to me out of the blue and it was so profound for me.  I had struggled over the name months ago and then there it was.  And there is more to the name than the name itself.  The name truly defines the character.  Saint.  Actually, it's his last name.  Saint is the prefix to his surname and folks have taken to calling him "Saint" for short.  He is conflicted over this, insisting that he aint no saint, yet strives to live up to the calling. He is full of contradictions. I got so excited that I wanted to return to the story right away, but alas, no time.

I remain haunted.


Are you haunted by your writing?  Tell me.