The Pen of a Ready Writer

In only 8 days, we will find out the topic for the next Rooglewood contest!!! I will be participating in the cover reveal so... Stay tuned!!!

     Forty-six.  That's how many hours I had just gone without sleep in the past two days.  I was surprised I was still standing.      Two births, back to back, had the team exhausted.  Now we were done -- free to go home as soon as we put clean sheets on the bed. Ruth, with her blonde hair and modest, white headcovering stood across from me, helping me spread the sheet over the bed.  Tiana, with her fun "hey, you know, whatever it is, I can take it" attitude, was beside me, stuffing pillows into fresh cases.      Conversation, naturally drifted to the two things most on all of our minds: food and sleep.      "I get very angry at everybody when I haven't eaten," Ruth closes her eyes into little fake-angry slits and pretends to glare at imaginary figures.      "Oh, yeah, I'm totally like that, too," Tiana confirms, smacking a bit of fluff into submission with one de...

    On June 1st, the Rooglewood Contest will be announced.  I am definitely looking forward to this!     These past 5 months have been so full for me that I haven't had time to fret over how slow time passes or to work much on story ideas.  But the contest has been there, lingering around the back of my mind, adding a little bit of excitement to daily life.      Today, I had a little bit of time to work on a story.  I have an idea for Little Red Riding Hood and another for The Little Mermaid.  Today, I worked on the Little Mermaid story.       My Little Mermaid story is about the other woman -- the one the prince was falling in love with instead of the Little Mermaid.  You see, the Little Mermaid rescued the prince from a shipwreck, carried him across the sea, and floated him into the shallows.  But there was a woman on the shore who saw him and helped to nurs...

      Her gnarled fingers shook as she tapped the photograph.  "I remember this day!"  The wrinkles around her eyes deepened with pleasure and she patted her mouth with an unsteady hand.       "This little girl?  That was you?" The investigating high-schooler leaned forward, her curly brown hair falling over her shoulder in eagerness, though her voice was gentle and patient.  "You were adorable.  I'm surprised the soldiers didn't pick you up and take you home with them!"  A little bit of teasing crept into her voice.       "I think they almost did."  The old woman chuckled.  Then her face grew serious.  "My mama..." She stroked the edge of the photo.  "...my mama was so frightened.  But she was so afraid of EVERYTHING.  She was afraid when Hitler came to power.  She was afraid when the Nazi's invaded.  She was afraid when the laws s...

       I think it is kind of interesting the way a blog morphs over the course of it's existence.  Do you ever look back over your blog and remember the way you felt when you first started writing it?  Maybe it's just me, because I attach memories to things.  But I pull up my early, early blog posts and I remember how excited and apprehensive I was -- so full of ideas and plans for what my blog would become and at the same time nervous that it wouldn't succeed or that it would fall into the category of "boring" for all my readers.  And there's more emotions that I remember -- ones that I haven't really learned to put into words yet.      Why am I reminiscing today?  Because today, for me, is actually May 3rd, 2016.  That's right -- 2016.  This is another one of my time traveler letters.  I write a post and then arrange for it to be published a year later.  You should try it -- it's kind of a fun ex...