In one month I will be retired…retired after 44 years of being a Registered Nurse.
I worked on medical-surgical units and on the rehab unit of the local hospital. I was a visiting nurse. I was a director of rehab. I was an agency nurse. When I worked in nursing homes I was a nursing supervisor, an assistant director of nursing, an inservice coordinator, a nurse liaison, a charge nurse. When I moved to the corporate office I became a Quality Improvement nurse, a reimbursement nurse, a marketing director, director of quality improvement and finally the Vice President of Nursing.
My personal life has gone through as many changes as my professional.
I never really wanted to be a nurse. But it was the best education for the cheapest price in 1965 and now finally I will have the time to become the person I was meant to me.
Whoever that is.
I think I was a good nurse. I cared for my patients with skill. And I cared for them with…caring.
But that part of my life will soon be over.
I can’t wait for this new chapter to begin.
On Retiring from Nursing…
January 26th, 2012Good-bye Llanview
January 12th, 2012
The Citizens of Llanview, PA
I’ve been watching, taping and recording One Life to Live for more than 41 years…since Heather was born. I’ve been through all of Viki Lord’s alters, marriages and almost-deaths. Tomorrow January 13, 2012 is the last episode for this “soap opera”. I’m sad to see it pass. Most of the stories have been great, with the exception of the underground city. The acting has been superb…Trevor St. John as Todd Manning waiting for his lethal injection at his execution was Emmy-worthy. The plots have been unusual and the characters memorable. I would have loved to have been a writer for the show – many times I pretended I was and tried to imagine how I would finish or twist a storyline.
I will miss everyone. I know several of the characters (some of my favorites, too) are moving to General Hospital but it won’t be the same. I’ll miss Viki and Clint and Bo and Nora. But I am glad I was there, in Llanview, for more than 41 years. It was fun and I was never ashamed to say I was a fan.
11/22/63 A Novel
November 13th, 2011 This is not a blog about writing. This is a blog about reading.
In the late 1970s—maybe 1977 or 1978—I carried a very large book around with me, telling people, “You must read this. You must read this author.”
The book was The Stand and it was the second book by Stephen King that I’d read. The first was Salem’s Lot which scared me more than anything in my short thirty years.
Thirty-three years later I find myself carrying around another very large King book: 11/22/63 A Novel, telling people, “You must read this book.” I know longer have to tell people to “read this author.” The world knows who he is and rightfully so.
The longer Under the Dome received an unusual (for King) positive review in the New York Time Book Review section. 11/22/63 A Novel also did. Either King is growing as a writer or the NYT reviewers are growing as readers. I think it’s probably both.
It took me less than a week to read this book. I “fell” into this book. That’s my term for making the book, the story, one of the most important parts of my life—almost as important as work, showering, eating—almost. I did carry it around with me, just so I could read it henever I had a spare moment. And even though I’m a Kindle fan, I got the hard cover. I loved the feel of its 840+ pages in my hand. It was weighty. The topic was weighty. But the writing wasn’t.
King’s spare, direct, no-adverb (cut them out like tumors) writing wove a story out of time—from now to 1958 and back again. I (I will not say “the reader” because this is all about me and how I saw this book) was transported to a time I remember well. I was eleven in 1958. I was sixteen when the President was assassinated.
King weaves history with the social mores of the day with a skill that has grown (I almost put an adverb in there) since The Stand. The Stand was fiction. 11/22/63 A Novel is part history lesson.
I could say so much more about this book and probably will (damn, adverb!) in the coming weeks. I just finished it, so I must digest it. I dream more about it.
I may even reread it.
Writing for a Personal Essay Anthology
October 29th, 2011One of my personal essay pieces was just published by Mill Park Publishing www.millparkpublishing.com in a book entitled Little White Dress. All of the personal essays/poems in this book are about wedding gowns. I have some knowledge on the subject since I was married more than forty years ago and will be married again (different groom) next year.
And I’ve had some experience in writing personal essays: I wrote sporadically for a personal essay column in a local daily newspaper. I was also published in “The Ultimate Cat Lovers Book” – a story about how a kitten rescued me from grief. I enjoy taking personal experiences and giving them a universal theme. “All is grist for the mill” as a writer-friend once said.
So you think you could do the same thing? Add a credit to your writing credentials…
Start by keeping a journal. Every day write a short piece about something that happened to you that day – something funny or sad…something that made you angry… something that was important to you…something that seemed so important to others but not to you. In a few months you should have some of that “grist”.
Now for the “milling”.
How did I find the submission for the wedding dress anthology? After all, it’s a small press and I just don’t have the time to look on every small press website for a potential call for submissions. So I let my good friend, Google, do it for me. I set up a Google Search that runs a daily…uh…search for writer submissions. Everyday I get a list of who is looking for submissions. Ms Google found this one. It lead to a Facebook site and voila! the rest is history.
No…not quite.
You have to write the piece.
This one, I have to admit, I wrote and revised in one sitting. It’s short but I usually let things sit and then go back to them but Mill Park’s lovely editors wanted this to be an “in one day” book, so every submission had to be into the publisher within a 24 hour period. No time to worry over a word or a phrase. Just write the darn thing, read the darn thing out loud, fix what needs to be fixed and then….then voila! send it out.
Did I say “read the darn thing out loud”? Yes, by gosh, I did.
I read almost everything I write out loud. Boy! have I found some stinky phrasing doing that. I’ve also found that I use some words too many times.
Read your stuff out loud. To the cat, if he/she’s the only one around. At least you’ll hear it.
I made sure there were no spelling/typos/grammar bugs and then emailed my story for Little White Dress out to Mill Park Publishing.
The editor emailed me and said she laughed when she read it. That was what I was going for….at least this time.
We all have stories, some funny, some sad, some poetic. There’s an audience for them.
Trust me. After all, who would have thought that forty years after the first wedding dress, I’d be writing about the second one.
Little White Dress “out of print”…
October 29th, 2011Wow!
It seems that the anthology is “out of print” – at least that’s what it says on the Amazon site. But it’s only been out for several days. So if anyone out in cyberland wants a copy, I would suggest going directly to the publisher’s website: www.millparkpublishing.com.
NaNo Comin’…NaNo Comin’…
October 22nd, 2011NaNo is short for November is National Novel Writing Month. Last year more than 200,000 people took part in a month long contest. Each one attempted to write 50,000 words – a good start on a novel. For the first time in several years of entering, I made it. My book, The Last Guardian, will soon be published by…wait for it…ME!
Yep, I’m going the Indie route. I’m 64 years old (as of this coming Tuesday) and I can’t wait for an agent or an editor to find me. And it plays heavily on the 2012 end of the world as we know it theme. I have to get it out there…FWIW.
During this NaNo I’ll work on Elizabeth Peacock and the Ghost of Gettysburg – my second Elizabeth Peacock book. When that one is ready to go I will self-publish both within a month of each other. My Elizabeth Peacock books are an older Stephanie Plum meets The X Files…amateur sleuth solving (or trying to solve) paranormal mysteries. Heather, who did the cover for The Last Guardian, will be working on the Elizabeth Covers.
I want to also finish The Last Nurse, my memoir – so much finality here – Last this and Last that. I think that’s because I’ll be closing a chapter of my life and opening another soon.
I’ll retire from nursing in April 2012., I’ll be getting married in June and moving. I’ll finally become a full time writer.
But until then: NaNo’s Comin’.
Rejections…
September 3rd, 2011…why do they come in packs…like rabid dogs…or a colony…like rabid bats?
They always bum me out, especially when I get a couple at once. Prozac, anyone? No – not on that…yet.
So I’m rethinking one novel that is completed and have to finish editing another one. Oh, yeah – I’m also editing My Guy’s novel – well, the latest one. He has seven or eight completed manuscripts. I’ve lost count. He’s retired.
And that’s what I’ll be soon…retired except for writing full time.
And getting more rejections…unless…
Unless I go Indie (the boutique name for self-publishing).
In fact, one of my manuscripts has to be self-pubbed. It would be useless otherwise – it has a 2012-prophecy theme. That one was rejected. A short story also got the thumbs down.
But I have several other projects I’m working on.
And I did get an acceptance from Mill Park Publishing for an essay on my two wedding dresses.
So maybe I don’t really suck at writing.
Maybe some editors just suck at reading….
Environment of a Writer
July 7th, 2011Anyone coming into my apartment for the first time will notice one thing – well, maybe two. First – books, books, books. My shrink once said I use them as a wall to keep people out. So? I love books. Some people…not so much.
The second thing would be the cats – not a herd -only three and one great big fluffy yellow one usually lounging on the little dining room table behind my desk – so he can be near me. Another one lies on the back of the sofa against my desk, his foreleg and paw next to the mouse (not a real one – computer adjunct mouse). The third lies at my feet. They’re my muses – well, at least they think they are.
My “dining room table” is stacked with papers and a notebook with my latest book, along with the big fluffy cat because I don’t “dine”. You see, it’s just me and I eat while I read emails or blogs or research, so I’m eating at my desk. Yeah, I know – not that healthy. But the cats eat well.
My young friend, Olivia, was so happy when I got a small desk to use in my small dining room and got my laptop off the “dining room table”. I guess in her mind, I was moving toward being “normal”. Hey, Liv – I’m a writer, I’m not normal. I couldn’t write in the second bedroom where I’d set up my desktop computer. I felt like I was locked away in a back room. I wanted to be in a more open space – hence the move to the dining/living room area where I can see the action outside my patio door.
This is a writer’s environment – not a big mess but definitely not OCD material either. If I’m researching, I want those books and notes at my finger tips. I’m usually reading several books at once, so they’re also nearby. Thank Goddess for the Kindle or I would have even more books.
I’m thinking about this, because, you see, I will be marrying another writer next year – another lover of books, another person who goes from one thing to another, someone else who has a lot of interests. Our biggest task will be to combine all of that.
It should be fun.
Please, may I have some more?
July 6th, 2011It’s almost like getting a small taste of a great dessert and then not being allowed to eat the rest. Or it’s like being told you can never have anymore – at least not for a while.
That’s what it felt like being with 2000+ Writers last week at the romance Writers of American National Conference in New York.
Being at a conference like that can be invigorating and it can be discouraging – both at the same time.
Invigorating because you’re around so many dynamic writers.
Discouraging because…you’re around so many dynamic writers.
And you…rather…I felt less than dynamic.
You see, I’ve been doing this for more than fifty years. Oh, I’ve been published in almost every venue except novel-length. By now I should BE there…wherever “there” is.
That’s my Holy Grail – getting a book…not written – I’ve done that already – in fact several times…getting a book published.
Published by one of the “legacy” houses.
I loved being at National, around so many wonderful writers. My head was swimming with ideas and then I came home and wanted to keep on writing.
I wanted to revise one book, work on another and then do research for a third.
But soon reality set in and I went back to my day job…
For a while longer.
So one day I’ll be eating that dessert everyday, all day.
One day I’ll have that book with my name on the spine.
One day…
More Pics from NYC
July 4th, 2011
