Clarion Write-a-Thon
The biggest mistake my mother made in raising me was teaching me how to read when I was three years old. She wrote down every new word I learned on an index card, then quizzed me on them. When I had collected enough words, I started stringing them together into sentences across the family room floor. My first short story was a twenty-some-odd word run-on sentence. I sulked afterward, complaining that if I just had one more ‘and’ I could finish my story. (She hadn’t taught me punctuation yet. And I still have a penchant for run-on sentences.) She compounded her mistake by getting me involved in summer reading programs at the library. Somewhere in my filing cabinet, I still have an award certificate for having read over 50 books for one of these programs. Read more…
The Artist’s Way
Please consider joining me, and many other creatives, on an Artist’s Way journey beginning June 28th, 2010. The journey is being hosted by Buffy (@azurebreeze) on Wurlwind, Yahoo, and Facebook. Read more…
Foster/Adoption Parenting
original photo, “holding my breath…” by qwrrty on flickr
Parenting isn’t easy — biological or otherwise. If you want easy, buy a goldfish; they’re disposable and you can always get another one. And don’t kid yourself that home-made kids are any easier than foster or adopted kids, or that because they’re home-made they won’t have issues and problems. We all have issues and problems. Nobody makes it out of childhood and into adulthood without any scars, bumps, or bruises. Read more…
Welcome Distractions
Yesterday was one of those days. We paid the plumber to plug in our hot water heater. Don’t ask. We had pre-teen drama in the household. I’ll spare you the details. My husband sprained his ankle. Hopefully it’s no more than a sprain. And to put a cherry on top of it, my youngest got sick at school. So when I got tagged on Kelly Morgan‘s blog, Distracted by the Internet, I was ready to welcome the distraction. Apparently, I’ve been nominated for Lesa’s Bald Faced Liar “Creative Writer” Blog Award. Thank you, Kelly! This was just the kind of distraction I needed after my day yesterday. Read more…
Writing in Shorthand
Do you sabotage your writing by getting mired in details? Does finding the just-right name for a character or struggling with the specifics of a scene keep you from moving forward? These are some of the ways I’ve sabotaged my own writing in the past. If you struggle with this too, try writing in shorthand.
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Lessons in Blogging: K.I.S.S.
Lesson One: I talk too much. That about sums it up. My posts so far tend to go about a thousand words, give or take. The first time I actively tried to write a shorter post, I failed. Aiming for 500 words, I fell short—or would that be long?—at 602. I guess I should be happy that I cut over 200 words from that post.
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Why I’m Not Following You on Twitter
I’ve trashed this post once already, afraid it was too negative. A quick Google search turned up about 96,000,000 pages on the subject though, so I guess I’d better jump on the bandwagon. Why am I not following you? It’s not your personal hygiene—although if I could smell you over the Internet, that would probably be a bad sign. It’s not because you’re not cool enough, smart enough, or important enough either. There are dozens of reasons I might not be following you on Twitter; here are a few:
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Three Life Lessons We Learned from Avatar
Hearing hype about a movie makes me want to see it less. I have never seen Titanic, and intend to keep it that way. I was prepared to never see Avatar either. Except that my husband said he’d like to see it in 3-D IMAX. So, for his birthday treat, I took the whole family to see it last night.
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It’s in the Bag
I grew up on words. My mother taught me how to read by writing each new word down on an index card. Many nights, I would sprawl out on the floor with my box of words and string stories together, composed of a single rambling run-on sentence that would span half of the family room. I distinctly remember saying, on at least one occasion, that I could make a longer story if I just had one more “and.” To this day, I still have a penchant for run-on sentences. The writing bug really hit me in the fourth grade though, when we had an Academic Olympics and I won the gold medal for a story I wrote. As I grew up, I read and wrote voraciously. In high school, my father even threatened to tear up my writing notebooks because I was spending more time writing than doing my homework. Then “real life” crept up on me and I had to put my writing aside so that I could focus on earning enough money to be able to have things like roof over my head, gas in my car, and food on my table. I began to believe that I no longer had time to write.
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Kimberly Gonzalez
reader, writer, freelance copyeditor & proofreader, foster & adoptive mom
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