Useful at Times #mfrwauthor

Welcome to Week 42 of the MFRW 52-week challenge. The topic is "Cell Phones: Necessary or wanted, or stuck to you like glue."

Image by LoveYouAll at Pixabay

I am not one of those people who wait in line latest smartphone release. I do have a cell phone. My entire life is not on my cell phone. I've used its internet capability one or twice while traveling. And I can test by using a one-finger hunt and peck method.

There are people who cannot exist without their cell phone permanently attached at their ear. They answer every ring regardless of where they are or what is going on around them. To some, their phone and its instant contact amounts to an addiction. 

My flip phone enables medical updates to be made to the family from a hospital room, hotel reservations made from the road, or a summons for help. Or before times of lockdown and safer at home isolation orders, the phone let the partner know when dinner is ready and it's time to come home. Or that I'm done shopping and will bring lunch (or dinner) back with me.

Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

I've seen the telephone go from black rotary devices on a party line to internet-accessing, picture-taking, mini-computers. My flip phone is a necessity and useful at times. But it is not attached to me 24/7.

~till next time, Helen

Line in the Sand #mfrwauthor

Welcome to the next post in the MFRW 52-week challenge. The official topic is "As a reader, what attracts you most to a character." I couldn't answer this as a reader. My writer hat kept slipping making it impossible to think. And when I asked my characters for their thoughts, they just laughed and said, "We are who we are." That really isn't sufficient for what is supposed to be a "thoughtful" post, so I went in another direction, one inspired by the date. The title for the post came from a comment left on the blog post, Never Forget.

I tried to think of a post along the lines of service. Duty, honor, and loyalty came to mind, but that was done. Every option from the price of duty to those who preserve the homefront were considered and tossed. Even the date, 9-11 (or what is now known as Patriot's Day, had a post previously done. However, even though almost two decades have passed since the fall of the Twin Towers, because of my own personal ties both to the date and the event, I kept returning to it.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Author's image

The impact of the date goes beyond the attack on the national psyche, for me it was personal. Although the fall of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the crash of United Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, can technically be considered two events, for me they are one, inextricably entwined. On the date now simply called 9-11, I lived across the bay from lower Manhattan and stood on the boardwalk watching the smoke rise from the buildings. Other connections were working in the north tower for several years and knowing someone who died on Flight 93. I also had family members stranded when all transportation was halted. One of who was 1800 miles away from home as a result of a death in the family.

   

The fall of the Twin Towers also impacted me professionally. One of the local histories I've been fortunate enough to research and write dealt with a Monmouth County, New Jersey town. The county had one of the highest losses of people that day. Considering that town resident's lost in the towers and on Flight 93 the event had to be included in the history. The writing of which turned out to be quite emotional.

So now the emotions are relived twice. And that didn't include the barrage of mentions in the news day after day, week after week, and for years later. But the date wasn't finished with me. Those same emotions of anger and loss reared again when I wrote the history of a local organization. One of those lost on Flight 93 was a leader of the church and included in the book, which meant reliving those dark days.

Enough reflections. It is time to focus on a happier thought, a special someone's birthday as she turns 91 years young.


~till next time, Helen

What's Your Creativity Trigger? #MFRWauthor

Creativity - how it strikes us in different ways is this week's topic in the challenge. First a definition. Creativity is defined as the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. Just from the definition it is easy to see how creativity can manifest itself in different ways. Our imagination and thoughts can take us on journeys to the stars and to the old West.

Image by Mediamodifier from Pixabay

Then there is the variety of production. There are as many forms of artistic expression as there are people doing the creating. Stone and wood, fabric and paper, are used by artists. Creativity doesn't necessarily involve material things. Authors and musicians create more ethereal works, which may be one of the contributors to the rise of piracy. An ebook or a song isn't held in your hand.

Image by Karen Smits from Pixabay

However my first thought upon reading the topic involved when and where. Some of my most productive writing has been at two in the morning while in a bedside vigil. Some people need absolute silence or isolation to create. Music can release the muses from control of the conscious mind or the reality of daily life to allow creativity free rein. Other things that can distract conscious control and allow creativity to flourish can be television or crowds.

I hope you enjoyed the discussion into creativity.

~till next time, Helen

Work or Fun? #MFRWAuthor

Each Friday a group of authors write a post. Many of the prompts in the 52 weeks-52 posts challenge dare the participating authors to reveal something personal about themselves. This week's topic is "When I'm Not Writing, I..."

OK, first off, I thought the post was written only to find out at the last minutes that it wasn't. My first thought was the ways I pass what little leisure time i have. But that was covered just a few weeks ago in Creative Without Paper and a similar topic in last year's challenge.



Photography - Needlepoint - Painting - 



In accordance with the writing theme, there are blog posts to do such as for this challenge and the weekly BookHook or monthly RT Day. A portion of each day is dedicated to requesting reviews (email me if you're interested in reviewing any of the books in the page banner), sharing my posts as well as those of others on social media, keeping up with the activities of or supporting the other authors in my groups or my publisher. And let's not forget edits, tracking sales, creating promotional plans and material, and learning something new of the craft.

But to be honest the bulk of my wake time is not dedicated to fun. There is housework, cooking, laundry and laundry, and then starting over. In an earlier post a popular thing many of the participants said they'd love to do away with was doing dishes.

Supporting family is also a major activity when not writing. Sometimes the two activities are done at the same time. Supporting, helping, backing up can be as simple as sorting through and printing out their emails for them to read or making a dish for a pot luck dinner at one of their groups. There might be some fun mixed in when taking a turn as an alternate babysitter. There is the teaching to get a great-grandson ready for school or playing with all the great-grandchildren.

Then there is the  myriad of things that come with being a caregiver from vitals and medication management, weekly trips to the gym, or emergency doctor visits.

When all is said in done, in most ways it isn't that unusual a life. But the alarm is going off so it's time to start at the more work-like aspects of my life. And if I'm really, really lucky, sneaking in reading a few pages.

Leave a comment if you will. And be sure to check out the posts of the other authors who have challenged themselves to reveal their inner selves and their writing lives.

~till next time, Helen

Ancestry Inspires #mfrwauthor

It's Week 44. Where has the year gone? Surprisingly, I made it this far. This week's topic in the challenge required a lot of thought. It was officially "A Person who Inspires Me." Did I want to go personal or professional? To expound on a religious figure or an author whose books I love? (However books and their creators was already covered in some form or other in weeks 20, 25, and 39.)

A blend of personal and professional might be an author who acted as a mentor in my younger days. Or a young author who through receiving the mentoring gave me much more back.

I could focus on learning responsibility, honor, and duty from my kin. I am the grand-daughter, daughter, niece, wife, sister-in-law, and aunt of those who served their country in uniform during times of war, whether declared or otherwise. They are acknowledged in my upcoming release Hearth and Sand --  Tales From the Front Lines And The Homefront.

The topic said "A Person." So that restricts it down even further. So, I'm taking the easy way out and writing about two women who inspired me--my mother and my grandmother. Both instilled in me an independence that was ahead of its time. A love of reading helped me to become a correspondent, a writer, and an author. My grandmother was a talented seamstress and craftsperson. One ability skipped a couple of generations (don't ask me to sew on a button), but I do love crafts.

My mother and grandmother also inspired in how they lived, through hard times and loss, peace and war, their own sickness and that of others. Today I honor the one by using her name as my penname for my historical westerns, and the other as the basis for a character. I hope when the time comes to measure my life that it is written I lived it as well as they did with dignity, love, and kindness.

On some of the topics in the challenge, the poster took odds as to how many others would give a specific answer. Stop by the rest of the blog to see how many picked a parent or ancestor as the "Person Who Inspired."

~till next time, Helen

PS - you'll notice there are no pictures of the ladies. One is passed and the other didn't want her picture taken. And since my mother works out with a personal trainer every week, she's stronger than I am so I obeyed her wish.



The gremlins ate spaces or dots in the following posts, so follow these links if you get a 404 (aka not found).

Valerie Ullmer/

Inspiration Floats On The Wind #mfrwauthor

Welcome to week 14 of the 52-week blog challenge. This week's topic is story inspiration.

I find inspiration in various aspects of the world around me. A verse of music, a few notes of a tune or a photo from some exotic place can trigger an idea. But not all inspiration is the same. Sometimes a dream awakens me in the middle of the night and gives the overall storyline for a new work or a scene unfolds like a scene from a movie.

Those are inspiration for a specific item. Then there is the writing inspiration. The music or image that transports you to another world. For fantasy worlds, celtic flute gives me dragon wings or lets me sail with mages. 

 



Pictures provide a ground in a setting while the music invites the muse to visit.

Sometimes the inspiration comes from the story and the characters themselves. When the end was typed for Hatchling's Mate there were several characters whose ultimate fates remained to be determined. Their paths could be sealed by vengeance or redeemed by love. The storyline was a new approach I wanted to explore and I took the inspiration from the characters themselves. And the result was Hatchling's Vengeance.

Stop by the other authors in the challenge to see what inspires them. And come back each week for new insights into the authors of MFRW and their writing life.
 
~till next time, Helen
 

We Shall Never Forget

Welcome to Week XX of the MFRW 52-week challenge. The topic is "XXX."

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wrapup


~till next time, Helen

Be sure to see how the other authors answered the question. https://mfrw52week.blogspot.com/




Signup is open for Week XX on "XX")