Writing Contest: Bedtime Story
March 17, 2010 by Lillie
One of the best ways to get your creative juices flowing is to use a a picture, a situation, or an opening line as the starting point for a story or essay. Aggie Villanueva at Visual Arts Junction has created a writing contest that invites you to look at Bedtime Story, the photo art on the left, and write a 500 word story or essay inspired by it.
Aggie has asked me to be a judge, and I’m looking forward to reading lots of creative entries. There are Professional and Amateur categories, so whether you’re a beginning or seasoned writer, you can enter.
Visit the contest page for complete rules and a list of prizes. You can win some great books and exposure on a number of Web sites/blogs. Each judge will tell you what she liked best about your entry and what she thought could be improved, valuable feedback for any writer.
You have two weeks to write and polish your entry. I am eager to read your story.
What I Learned from a Colorful Character: Eliminate This Word
March 4, 2010 by Lillie
Today I’m combining my response to the Blog Challenge for Words Matter Week with my entry in the What I Learned from Colorful Characters groupwrite project.
You see, I’ve been married to a colorful character for nearly 43 years. I’ve laughed every day, and I haven’t been bored a single minute. Jack is smart, funny, opinionated, assertive, upbeat, tenacious, independent, determined, self-confident, perfectionistic, and unconventional.
Recently, all the waitresses in the restaurant gathered around the cash register to listen to Jack’s silly banter as he paid for our meal. One of them said, “Y’all have to come back more often to entertain us and keep us from getting bored.”
This week, the election worker who set up the voting machines for us told Jack, “Hey, I remember you from the last election. Glad to see you again.”
Whether we’re at the bank, the grocery store, or the dry cleaners—if Jack has been there before, someone remembers him and smiles.
When I had a stroke, he took care of me and did all the things I couldn’t do for myself. More importantly, he had the attitude that recovery was the only option. Regardless of what it took, it was just a matter of time before I would be well again. “The improbable we can do right away,” he said. “The impossible takes a little longer.”
If I ever say, “I can’t,” he responds, “Eliminate that word from your vocabulary!”
At age 77, he’s slowing down a little, but the word can’t still isn’t in his vocabulary.
Which brings me to Words Matter Week’s Blog Challenge. Each day of the week, the Words Matter blog posts a question and encourages readers to post the response to the question on their own blog. Today’s question is this:
If you had to eliminate one word or phrase from the English language, what would it be? Why?
Jack, my colorful character, taught me the answer to that question, both by words and actions.
I would eliminate the word cannot (can’t) because we are all capable of far more than we give ourselves credit for, and we tend to accomplish what we expect to accomplish. As Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”
Thanks to Jack, I’ve accomplished far more than I ever expected. Most of all, I’ve enjoyed the journey filled with love and laughter.
Post #700
February 19, 2010 by Lillie
This is the 700th display of brilliance, eloquence, wisdom, originality, sagacity … uh, ah … I mean, the 700th post on this blog.
Thank you for visiting and reading and commenting on the posts, even if they aren’t brilliant, eloquent, wise, original, or sagacious. 
Happy Valentine’s Day
February 14, 2010 by Lillie
Wishing you a Valentine’s Day overflowing with love.
Thanks to January Commenters
February 11, 2010 by Lillie
Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
February 8, 2010 by Lillie
I read on Celeste Stewart’s blog that this week is Freelance Writers Appreciation Week. She didn’t give any details, and I searched for more information. Although I found several references to the second week of February being Freelance Writers Appreciation Week, there doesn’t seem to be much activity or information about this event. This has been the case for the last couple of years.
So I’ll do as I did in 2008 and 2009:
A big hug of appreciation to my fellow freelancers. I appreciate all of you!
Thanks to December 2009 Commenters
January 19, 2010 by Lillie
Religious Freedom Day 2010
January 16, 2010 by Lillie
Today, January 16, 2010, is Religious Freedom Day, a day proclaimed by the president to celebrate our freedom, honor our tradition of religious liberty, and commemorate the signing of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom on January 16, 1786.
In the United States, we are free to worship the God of our fathers—the God the founders recognized as the One who granted us the “inalienable rights” described in the Declaration of Independence. We are free to worship other deities or follow other beliefs. We are free to choose not to worship anything. No one and no government can stand between us and the free worship of our God.
Unfortunately, many people around the world do not enjoy religious freedom. We must stand up for them and do all we can to teach the world the value of allowing its citizens to worship as they choose. We who enjoy this amazing freedom must remain vigilant to protect it. And we must exercise it to set an example for the world and to keep our country great.
O God, who art the giver of all good gifts; We bless thy Name and give thee thanks for the religious freedom guaranteed to us in these United States. Grant that we worship thee, the one true God, faithfully and reverently, and that we protect this freedom for future generations, ever mindful that we enjoy liberty that many have not. We offer supplications for thy children around the world who do not enjoy the freedom to worship thee openly and freely without fear of persecution. We beseech thee to remember them in thy mercy and spread religious freedom around the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, who liveth and reignth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
A Post that Matters to Me
December 27, 2009 by Lillie
Joanna Young at Confident Writing has challenged us with a group writing project: Essential Lines from 2009.
1. Select your essential post
Sift through what you published in 2009 to select the post you’d call ‘essential’.
You can define that in different ways, for example:
- A post that matters: that mattered to you then, that mattered to your readers, that still matters to you now
- A post that captures what your blog’s all about
- A post that reflects what 2009 has been about, for you or for others
- A post that models essential writing
Joanna further instructs us to explain why we chose that post and encourages us to include a few “knock ‘em dead lines” from the post.
I narrowed down the choices in What I Learned from … 2009 for Middle Zone Musings’ groupwrite project. For Joanna’s challenge, I’ve chosen a post that mattered to me when I wrote it and still matters to me now.
Adversity? What Adversity? reminds me—and I hope you—that I—and you—have been blessed beyond belief with salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All we have to do is accept the gift and proclaim Him Lord of Lord and King of Kings.
Nothing I have ever experienced or ever will experience can compare to our Lord and Savior being beaten, mocked, tortured, and murdered in the most vicious way.
And why? For my sins and your sins and the sins of the whole world. If I were the only person who needed redemption, Jesus would have died for me alone. My sin makes me Judas betraying Him, the chief priests and scribes condemning Him, Pilate washing his hands of Him, the crowd calling “Crucify Him!,” and the Roman soldiers killing Him.
Yet Jesus prayed on the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34, KJV)
Thanks be to God for the gift of salvation!
What I Learned from … 2009
December 22, 2009 by Lillie
Middle Zone Musings’ groupwrite project for this month is What I Learned from … 2009. Robert Hruzek has challenged us to compile a list of our favorite, best, most popular, whatever we choose posts for each month of 2009.
Choices like this are always hard for me for a couple of reasons:
- How do you choose your favorite child? Since every post comes from my heart, choosing my favorite post is about the same as choosing my favorite child.
- I write for my own enjoyment and don’t strive for profundity or eloquence—not that I would achieve those if I did strive for them. So it’s a little presumptuous for me to say any of posts are “best.”
In spite of the difficulties, however, I’ve come up with a list of posts by month.
- January: A Thirty-Six Year Tragedy—I chose this post lamenting the tragedy of 36 years of Roe v. Wade because I am passionate about saving the lives of unborn babies, and the thought of the 50 million babies denied the right to life sickens me.
- February: What I Learned from Love—I have been so blessed with the love of my family, the love of my husband, and above all the love of God that I was delighted to share my great loves.
- March: Healing Miracles—It took a series of three posts beginning with this one to describe the many healing miracles I’ve experienced in my life. What a blessing to experience these miracles and what a blessing to share them to the glory of God.
- April: Adversity? What Adversity?—This post was another opportunity to share the blessings I have experienced in life. April posts included five of six parts of a series on memoir writing, which I hope was helpful to readers. However, sharing God’s blessings is more important to me.
- May: Lessons from Community—The thing that surprised me most about blogging was the creation of community, and this post tells what that means to me.
- June: Creating Fictional Characters—This post was the first in an eight-part series based on a course I taught. The series was popular among readers and generated a lot of comments, and a couple of the posts rank high in Google for the phrase “creating fictional characters.”
- July: What I Learned from a Blooper—I enjoyed recalling a silly blooper I made that gave me the chance to share a little about physical therapy for strokes.
- August: Mission Impossible: Book Trailer for Dream or Destiny—Joanna Young’s challenge to post something we’ve never done before motivated me to try creating a video, which I’d wanted to do for a long time. Although I was satisfied with what I did for a beginning, I have yet to go back and improve the video enough to post it anywhere else.
- September: What I Learned from Laughter—This post links to a previous entry, which I enjoyed because I don’t often write humor.
- October: Domestic Violence and You—The last in a seven-part series, this post shared ways all of us can help with the problem of domestic violence, a cause close to my heart.
- November: Advent—We get so busy during the Christmas season that it’s easy to let other activities take priority over the reason for the season. Advent helps us prepare for the coming of the Lord.
- December: Christmas Gift-Giving—Though it’s important to focus on Jesus as the reason for the season, giving gifts at Christmas is a long and cherished tradition. The best gifts are those that come from the heart.
I’ve had some wonderful authors visit my blog this past year. Each of them deserves recognition; I couldn’t choose any one of them because I couldn’t choose all of them. Some posts weren’t considered because they didn’t contain anything original from me. The freelance rates survey took a huge amount of time and energy to compile. Recognition of special days—such as World Alzheimer’s Day, I Love to Write Day, and Religious Freedom Day—and special organizations and programs—such as Operaton EBook Drop: Free Books for Deployed Soldiers and Free E-Books for Read an E-Book Week—generated many comments. However, I limited my choices to posts that reflected my opinions, beliefs, and experiences.
Only two posts during the year generated 100 or more comments: World Alzheimer’s Day (102 comments) and Comments, Spam, and Comment Spam (100 comments).
The most-visited post this year continued to be a post from 2007: How Much Will It Cost? Average Freelance Editing Rates. The most-visited post written this year was Creating Fictional Characters—Part 1: Characters Are Story People. There were several other posts from 2007 and 2008 more popular than any 2009 posts.
Rather than believing that the quality of my posts is deteriorating, I choose to believe that good posts have staying power. That’s what I learned from 2009.
