Monday, November 14, 2005

Happy Birthday to Me!

www.writersremember.com
This is my new place to be on the 'net. I'm helping Julia with writing articles for this inspirational website. I'm proud to be able to work with her, and I'm happy for the experience this will bring. Sometimes I feel like such an amateur when it comes to writing, yet I've been doing it for a very long time. I remember starting to write stories as a kid. I'm 36 now so that's over 27 years ago!

I had a good birthday. I'm happy to be "published" online again, too!

Friday, November 11, 2005

Rejection Letter

Well...........I got my first official rejection this week. Oh well. I will not be teaching after the holidays, so I plan to devote some time to writing during that time of cleaning, selling online, and general decluttering of our family's belongings.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

The article is in the mail.

I am so happy that it's OUT of my hands now. It truly took a lot of work and some pain to get through the process of writing this article.

Now we get to play the waiting game.

I have decided to join NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org) this year again. Maybe I can at least make it to the halfway point?

Saturday, August 20, 2005

ACCEPTED

"Dear Pattie: Thank you for your query letter on "Adult Children of Divorce." Please send us your manuscript at your earliest convenience. . . . Our policy at TCW is to treat each manuscript as an "on speculation" assignment . . . "

I am sooooo pumped!

Logistically it's going to be tough to get this to them right now, with my new job starting Wednesday.

But I was accepted!

Thursday, August 04, 2005

No writing right now...

VBS is in full swing. Once that's wrapped up next Monday, I'll be preparing my syllabus for teaching English Comp I at our local university. When will I have time to write? When will I carve out time to write and to study the Bible? I'm not sure.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

SAVE GENERATION EX!!!

HELP SAVE Generation EX!!! Help Jen Abbas!

The Amazon link to the book is below. There are so few resources available to ACOD's (Adult Children of Divorce), that the possibility that this book isn't going to be in print anymore truly breaks my heart. You can read the author's blog here (http://generationexfiles.blogspot.com/) to learn more about it.

If you are willing to help, please email the publisher at info@waterbrookpress.com . Help save this important book!

Here is my own impassioned plea:

Dear Waterbrook Press:

I read Jen Abbas' blog and was sad to learn that her book Generation EX: Adult Children of Divorce and the Healing of Our Pain may not have a second printing. The fact that this book may not be available in the future truly breaks my heart. This is a book that should be on the shelf now and next year and even five years from now. Every day on a Yahoo! group for adult children of divorce (and by this I mean adults whose parents divorce after a lifetime together), another brokenhearted adult cries out for understanding in the wake of their parents' divorce after 20 or 30 years of marriage. The only book other than this one that deals SPECIFICALLY with adults whose parents divorced in their adult years is A Grief out of Season, and it is difficult to find. It's sorely out of date, out of print, and not specifically Christian in nature. Generation EX, on the other hand, is relevant to today and has really helped me and my sister in dealing with our parents' divorce after 36 years of marriage (it's only been three years next month since my father left my mother).

This book needs to be a continually available resource for the increasing number of adults, like me, who find themselves brokenhearted over the fact that their parents have decided, for whatever reason, to divorce after a lifetime together. I wish that it had been published when I needed it in 2002, but more importantly, it's available now. It needs to be available next year and the year after that, because the message of healing and redemption is vitally important.

I sincerely hope that Waterbrook Press will run another printing of this book, but more than that, I hope that this book reaches those brokenhearted adults who need its encouragment from someone who's been there, done that, and burned the t-shirt, figuratively speaking.

Sincerely,
Pattie R.

Currently Reading
Generation Ex : Adult Children of Divorce and the Healing of Our Pain
By JEN ABBAS

Monday, July 18, 2005

I want this!!!

http://generationexfiles.blogspot.com
Jen Abbas is my new hero!

There's a new book releasing in January. The author is Brooke Lea Foster, and the book is: The Way They Were: Dealing With Your Parents' Divorce After A Lifetime of Marriage (Crown, 2006).

"There is such a need for books that focus on those who are adults when their parents divorce," Jen says.

I agree.

I wonder where the phrase "Gray divorce" came from? Good thing I'm going back to work at a college in the fall; I'll have access to a good library in which to do research.

I will request a copy of this new book if my query to TCW is accepted. Definitely.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Silence~golden or oppressive?

Not very many people know about this blog. I don't post it anywhere, and I started it only so I could comment on others' blogspot blogs. Then it became my writing blog.

I haven't written anything the past couple of days, and I can feel everything building up inside me, like a volcano. But I have so much frustration about other things in my life, that I don't feel like I should "waste time" with writing, when there are other things that are more pressing to do.

My girls are at their grandparents' and even though they are not slated to return home until tomorrow, I expect to see them this evening.

I long for silence and unstructured time, but when I get it, I don't know what to do with it. Strange.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

It's in the mail

My first real query for a major article is in the mail today.

Wow. I'm so nervous!

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

It's done, but what now?

I think I'm going to have two writerly friends edit the query again, and see if it passes muster so I can mail it tomorrow. I'm nervous but ready to get 'er done!

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Query, query, query

I have had this idea for an article, and I need to send a query letter to Today's Christian Woman. I have intended to do this since last year, but I haven't.

Until now.

Today I got the July/August issue of TCW; in it there's a letter answered by Dr. Leslie Parrott about a woman who is dealing with her parents' divorce after decades of marriage. Dr. Parrott said in her response that she herself has dealt with this situation.

I have wanted to pitch an article about being an ACOD for probably two years or more. Now that I'm almost three years away from the original split of my parents, I feel I have enough levity to tackle it with more objectivity.

I am very nervous about the query, but I think with the books I have (Shirley Kawa-Jump's and of course Writer's Market) I should be fine. I hope.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

The whole writing thing...

Just a hodgepodge because I feel like venting and don't want to put this on my xanga.

I started reading a great little book called Pen on Fire. The first assignment is to write a letter to a friend who thinks she's not a writer. Surprise, surprise, the next assignment is to write a letter to yourself for the same reason. Guess what? I encourage one of my best friends ALL THE TIME to write, yet when it all goes down, I feel the same as she does. I need the encouragement that I wrote to myself.

I've been spending this evening looking at websites of freelance writers, wondering what the heck my problem is that I am not doing it too.

Also, here on Blogger I have gotten into the 13 Journals Project. The link is: http://13travelingjournalsproject.blogspot.com/ I am excited about this and the hamster is running on the wheel in my brain to gather ideas.

I had a writer's group meeting today. Got an "eh" response on my piece. I know why. It was unfocused and random. A draft, certainly, but not that great.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Whooo, new magazine!!!

I was so saddened by the demise of Personal Journaling. It was the first REAL magazine that published my work, so I had a vested interest in it.

However, today at Hasting's I discovered that it has been reborn as Personal Writing. Wahoo!!! I can't tell you how thrilled I am!

Just in time for my journaling workshop preparation...