Insecure Writers Support Group – #IWSG – July 2, 2014

Hey fellow writers. It’s the first Wednesday of the month and we all know what that means right? It’s time for another meeting of the Insecure Writers Support Group. #IWSG. My hero, Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh founded this amazing group of people and it’s become a powerhouse. If you are an insecure writer of any kind, feel free to click on the image to your left and join us. You won’t regret it.  From the website:

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Before I continue, I’d like to thank this month’s co-hosts for the wonderful job they’re doing zooming around the blogosphere trying to keep up with us and offer up their bits of wisdom and encouragement: 

 Krista McLaughlin, Kim Van Sickler, Heather Gardner, Hart Johnson!

June was hit and miss for me in a few ways. I tried really hard to complete the WordPress Writing-101 Challenge, but haven’t completed them all yet. I’m still going to try though, even if I don’t post them all. I’m still going to try Camp NaNoWriMo this month, but I’m so not going for 50k words. I have a nice little story rolling around in my head that I’m hoping I can complete in less than 15k-20k words.

I’ve written some poetry, although I know it’s not very good yet. I’m still working on it.

All in all, I’m not disappointed, but I’m not exactly thrilled either. I hope August will be better for me. Until next month, keep writing!!

 

 

 

Writing 101-Day 4-Write About a Loss

Hello bloggers, I’m here, trudging along, still trying to play catch-up. This is my Day 4 post…Yikes, talk about late!

Write about a loss: something (or someone) that was part of your life, and isn’t any more. Today’s twist: Make today’s post the first in a three-post series.

I’ve had so many in my life that I can’t even count them all. Some were huge, some were small, some were sad, and some I have to shake off and say to myself, just keep it moving. Because of the topic, I’m going to skip the twist and keep it as a stand alone post.

I know a few of you know about my most recent loss, Pete. He was the brother of an ex-girlfriend. He passed away in March from an intra-cranial hemorrhage that he probably didn’t even see coming. Of four people I’ve lost to hemorrhages of some kind over the past 18 months, Pete’s affected me the most.

He was like a brother, except we got along ALL the time. 😀 He was always coming to my defense and sticking up for me, especially after my brain injury. Just thinking about him makes me want to cry, but I won’t. He’s the handsome young man you see in the photo to your left. He was only 46 years old.

Throughout my recovery, I always wondered why I was spared. I questioned myself, God, the Universe, my friends, my doctors and neuro-psychologist, and always got different answers. A few people went so far as to tell me to consider myself “lucky” to be alive. Depending on how bad my pain is on any given day, I do consider myself lucky, and am grateful to be alive. However, I can do without the added dose of survivor’s guilt, thank you friends.

It dawned on me that so few people truly understand what survivors of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) go through, that Pete’s death gave me the push I needed to start another blog that will focus on my life post hemorrhage and stroke (I suffered both; the ischemic stroke happened during surgery for the ruptured aneurysm). At the same time, I want it to be a place of comfort where survivors, their caregivers, their family and friends can go to find resources and information that might be of benefit to them, even if it’s just for an understanding ear that will listen.

The blog is still in its infancy and there is so much that still needs to be done, but I’m already working on many of the pages and have sorted a lot of my research into piles that I just need to get typed in and categorized. This is where I need to familiarize myself a little better with the bells and whistles of my WP.

Though Pete is gone physically, he will always be in my heart, and he is now my inspiration for continuing to forge ahead and become a better me. I love and miss you, Pete. Thank you for always believing in me.

 

 

Expressing Gratitude for the Butterfly Light Award Nomination

Happy Sunday, fellow bloggers. Going through my comments, I find that I have been nominated for the Butterfly Light Award by my friend Deanie Humphrys-Dunne, author of award-winning children’s book Tails of Sweetbriar.

Conditions For Accepting The Award

Here are the conditions for accepting the award :

1. You must write an acceptance post, making sure you link back to the blogger who awarded you and thank them. You MAY NOT lump this award in with a batch of other awards.

2. You must individually name and re-award to a minimum of 1 blogger. You must let them know either personally with a comment on their blog OR a pingback.

3. You must link back to Belinda’s blog either to http://idiotwriting.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/i-love-charismatic-geeks/ OR http://idiotwriting.wordpress.com/about/

4. You must write a short paragraph entitled either “How I’m Spreading Light” OR “How I’m A Positive Influence”

5. Display Belinda’s lovely “Butterfly Light Award” badge on your blog.

Thanks so much, Deanie for thinking of me for this Award! It is a special one and I will treat it as such. 🙂 I’m so blessed to be able to call you my friend.

How I’m a Positive Influence

I am a positive influence by offering the best advice I can to the younger generation. Back when I was still working as an EMT, I had countless ‘kids’ who were either EMTs or paramedics half my age that came to me for advice, both personal and job related. It took me over a year of therapies after my bleed to be able to slowly start my blogging and writing adventure. I look at my WordPress site and still don’t know what half the doohickeys do, but I’ll learn. After a handful of recent heart-wrenching losses, I’m researching sites and resources, so I can make them available to others. I’ve picked up many other things along the way and share what I’ve learned freely. I believe in paying it forward; I promote other writers and artists works, so others can do the same.

I consider this to be a very special Award, and because of that, I am only nominating one blogger for it:

Jo Murphey-THE MURPHEY SAGA has inspired, motivated and, at times invisibly knocked sense back into my head whenever I would have a ‘woe is me’ day. Her Sunday stroke posts are especially helpful. I subscribe to her blog by email and read it always. I know how busy she is and don’t expect her to be able to follow the rules and guidelines required for accepting this Award. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did, though; at the end of her posts, she always ends with: “Nothing is impossible with determination.” Her faith, determination, and motivation helps fuel mine. I love her! 😀

Please be sure to check out this link:
http://idiotwriting.wordpress.com/about/

Until next post, hugs!

 

 

Daily Prompt – Careless Whisper

It happens: sometimes that filter in our head bursts and we say too much of what we’re thinking and someone gets hurt. Tell us about a time you or someone you know said something that they immediately regretted.

This will be a quick post, but when I saw the subject, I couldn’t help it. The most embarrassing thing I will NEVER forget and immediately regretted, happened about seven months after I came out of the hospital and I was spending a few days with a friend.

My speech was much better, though I was still having a lot of problems with focus, and especially, my filter. Things would come out of my mouth before I could stop them, because before the bleed, I was able to control this function.  On one of these days we go to her parents house for a small barbecue and her brother was there. He is 14 at the time and of very thin build, yet his nickname is ‘Macho’.

We are all enjoying ourselves immensely and the parents are amazing with me, teaching me how to tell people off in Spanish, even with a stutter. 🙂 At some point during the barbecue, the brother was asked by his father to get something elsewhere from the yard. He told him that he couldn’t do it because whatever it was, was too heavy.

Out of nowhere, I looked up from the burger I was eating and said “I wanna know how in the world you got a nickname like Macho.” Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at me in stunned silence for a second. I knew after a few seconds that I screwed up. All of a sudden ‘Papi’, as my friend calls him, burst out laughing and said something like they didn’t know either, but he had been the only boy out of four children…so they had hoped for the best.

In the end, it was all fine because they understood. Obviously, it took me a lot longer to get over, because socially awkward moments like that could happen to me at any time, any place. Thankfully, two and a half years later, I am about 80% in control of my “filter”, so it is unlikely that I will say anything unintentional unless I am exhausted, overwhelmed or extremely stressed out.

So, yeah, that was easily my most embarrassing moment in recent history. Until next post… later.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/daily-prompt-careless-whisper/

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award!

I’m very proud and humbled yet again to announce that I’ve been nominated for another award. This time, the wonderful Melissa Janda over at  http://melissajanda.wordpress.com nominated me! Thank you Melissa! If you haven’t visited her blog, Melissa Janda. . .The Buzz on Writing, you should hurry up and do so now. You are missing out on so much good info!!

She nominated me for the SISTERHOOD OF THE WORLD BLOGGERS AWARD.

The rules for this award are:

1. Post the logo on your blog.
2. Thank the person who nominated you.
3. Choose 10-12 other ladies who blog as your nominees.
4. Post the links to the nominees’ blogs and notify them on their blog.

My nominees for this award are:

1. Marilyn Parel who has proven to be my closest friend and confidante here in the blogosphere. You can find her at http://onbecomingawriter.com
2. Ionia Martin A true warrior and beloved part of my WordPress family at found at http://readfulthingsblog.com
3. Briana Vedsted My adopted online “daughter” and another member of my WordPress family who is at http://whenibecameanauthor.wordpress.com
4. Karen Soutar My blog and Twitter friend who can be found at http://karensoutar.wordpress.com/about
5. Janet K West  can be found at http://janetkwest.com. I never miss any of her posts. They always getting me thinking.
6. Lauren Sapala  can be found at http://www.laurensapala.com. I love her site and blog. So much useful info; love her!
7. Julianne Victoria  can be found at http://juliannevictoria.com/about. Her blog is titled Through the Peacock’s Eyes and is such a soothing and welcoming site to visit.
8. J.C. Wolfe  can be found at http://jaycwolfe.com/blog. I love her site, her blog, her advice and her tips. She is all around awesome.
9. Damyanti  can be found at http://damyantiwrites.wordpress.com. Her blog, called Daily (w)rite and I love to read it when I get the chance. Good stuff to be found here!
10. Catherine Lumb  can be found over at http://nowrittenwords.wordpress.com/about. Her blog is called The struggle to be a writer that writes. Great reading found here.

Congratulations to all my nominees!!

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