Hello.
I am listening to Hadley practice Coldplay’s, “Viva La Vida” on the piano while I write. This is the first week she’s practiced it, but she plays the beginning well, and it reminds me of the year it was popular. Or, at least the time I heard the song all the time. I was pregnant with Harper, and so my recollection is of Chris Martin singing about how he used to rule the world while Hadley and I drove to the park. Or, at 5am when I drove to Starbucks to pick up a coffee because our coffee grinder would wake Hadley up (and also because I wanted to get out of the house, for just a little bit, by myself). The song played on the way home from my 20 week OB/GYN appointment. The one where I took the glucose test. The one I dressed in my best maternity outfit, and did my hair for. The one where there nurse said, “Callie, this isn’t Happy Hour,” as I sat happily sipping a drink the likes of a melted orange popsicle as though it were a margarita. “This isn’t supposed to be fun. Chug it!” the nurse said.
It played on the nights I drove home from one of my first writing classes, taught by Erica S. Perl, where I wrote my first short story about a girl who loved maps, but only knew North, South, East, and West if there was a story attached to that direction. Stories were how this girl found her way.
Hadley’s also learning Billy Joel’s “Piano Man,” and she says this one is much more complicated than “Viva La Vida.” She’s currently trying to make a medley – a mash up – of the two songs. I wonder if that will help her learn the songs, or if this is something she simply feels like doing. Either way, it’s fun to hear her do the work.
I think that these days, it’s especially easy to talk ourselves out of creative endeavors. It’s easy to say we don’t have enough time, we aren’t good enough, we don’t know enough. We don’t have a brand, platform, and only our parents read our blog. These are all things that have been true for me (some of them still are – hey, Mom and Dad!). But what is also true, is our dreams don’t go away. They have an infinite amount of patience.
On Thursday, The Magic of Motherhood turned 3 years old, and I told a group of women writers I almost didn’t write the essays because I didn’t think I was good enough. I realized though, that I don’t have to believe in myself. I only have to believe in the work. This is the thought that has carried me along – not that I believe I can do the work, but that the work is there for me to do, if I’m willing to try.
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Here’s some of the work I did in March:
For The Banner: “Christian Publishers, Content Providers Offer Free Subscription, Tools for Physical Isolation”
For T. S. Poetry Press: Could Be Poems, The Incredible Hulk, Little Red Riding Hood, and Gwendolyn Brooks (This one is an essay for Patron Subscribers, which is available for $2/month), If I Built A House, Use Your Five Senses, and, Focus on Your End Words.
For Coffee + Crumbs: After Babies, Love
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“I think there’s more to ‘Piano Man, Mom,” Hadley tells me. She is correct. Her teacher just gave her the first page.
“Can you ask her for the rest?” Hadley asks. “This is just the beginning.”
Read Well.
I received a request for books to read “during this time,” and at first I wasn’t sure whether to recommend The Hunger Games series, or all the Mitford books. But after some consideration, I think any story that allows us not to forget or escape our reality, but to enter into it with grace and strength and hope is a good story to read. Here are the books I recommended. I left out links to the books, so you can perhaps order from your local bookstore.
Grace Notes by Brian Doyle
Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen
Booked by Karen Swallow Prior
Speak What We Feel (And Not What We Ought To Say) by Frederick Buechner
Rumors of Water by L.L. Barkat
Wild Words by Nicole Gulotta
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (Here’s how good it is – Hadley reads it instead of looking at her phone.)
Jenny Han’s To All the Boys series (These books also helped Hadley leave her phone behind, and also brought about some wonderful conversations between she and I.)
Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith
And here is a journal practice, if you wish, to help ground you in the story. I learned this from Addie Zierman.
One line that struck me…
One new insight…
Something unexpected…
One slant of light…
Something mysterious…
Something to tell God…
Local.
Literati Bookstore celebrated their 7th year anniversary this week. I’ve shared how much this bookstore means to me. (You can read it here.) Due to the pandemic, Literati has had to close the store, but you can still order books and/or contribute to their GoFundMe page. We recently ordered some books from the store and the girls wondered why we didn’t get them from Amazon. When I explained why, Harper said, “Well of course we’re gonna help them out. This is where you rose, Mama!”
Maybe it’s where we all rise a little bit.
The Twirl Girl and the Teacher.
Anyone doing any homeschooling these days? I’m not trying to compete with the professional teachers, but if you needed a supplemental activity or two, The Teacher Diaries has them, and they work with a lot of stories. Or, if you want to help your teenager through tragedy, this could be a good book to use.
In March, Amazon offered Twirl for free to Kindle users, and out of 100 books, it was #1. I can’t say that upset me at all. If you read either book, I’d love a review on Amazon. They help me and my ego out a whole lot.
Offerings.
If working one-on-one with people to help them with their stories were a spiritual gift, then this would be mine. I love learning about writers’ ideas and dreams, and then designing ways in for them to begin their stories. Every Writing Intensive I teach is a little different because we all come at writing differently, but that is the fun of it for me. This course is one of my favorites to teach.
Recently, I added a Mini-Writing Intensive for anyone who wants to keep the momentum going from the Writing Intensive, or, for anyone who wants to accomplish a smaller goal (essay writing, as opposed to setting out to write a book, for example).
My friend and colleague Jenn Batchelor and I turned our Advanced Storytelling Workshop into a self-paced course with options for critique. You get six lessons along with resources and activities that will (hopefully) become tools you’ll use every time you revise your writing.
The 40 Day Challenge is always available, and I’ve loved reading what writers have come up with from just one word. Start any time. And, if you’re ready for more exploring of the everyday in your writing, I have another self-paced course available: Exercising the Everyday is a workshop that will help you find stories from everyday moments. There is an option for critique from me as well, and you can find that here.
On April 14th at 8pm EST, I’ll be co-hosting a “Ladies’ Night In” with the lovely Nicole Gulotta, of Eat This Poem, and Wild Words. We will be discussing her latest book, Wild Words. This is an Exhale member event. Come join us!
In May, I’ll be running a Book Club on Nicole’s book Wild Words for Tweetspeak Poetry. This should be a lot of fun. Nicole’s book is one of the best books on practicing writing I’ve read. I’ve been referring to it as much as I refer to Rumors of Water. This event is a month-long Patron event. Sign up here.
This is just the beginning. Here’s to believing in the work we all get to do this April.
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