Daily prompt : Release me

Tags

blogging, comments, personal, postaday2013, writing

Tell us about the blog post you were most nervous to publish — and what it was like to set it free.

I haven’t been nervous about publishing my posts, at least the ones on my personal blog. I haven’t yet shared any deep dark secrets about myself, that may come later in life or not. When I do share my thoughts about my struggles with anorexia and my recovery, I am not nervous about sharing them, on the contrary I hope that if someone can be helped or at least feels that they aren’t alone, that makes writing about it even easier.

On the other hand, my political blog is a different story. There have been a few instances when I have had less then amiable comments or responses. While at the moment of publishing, nervousness isn’t part of my mindset, sometimes after I click the publish button, I reread what I have written and say to myself “this might not go over very well with some people who disagree with my political philosophy” and more often than not, I do get a negative response telling me how incredibly wrong I am and my views are what is destroying America. At first it was difficult to read those comments because it felt very personal but now I have come to accept them for what they are, a difference of opinion and thinking, I am free to think how I think and it’s my blog. So if they do not like it, they do not have to read it.

Why the dislike of government?

Tags

distress, government, personal, politics, postaday2013

Why do I feel that I am in the tiny minority of liking government? When it is well thought out and held in respect, government is a positive entity. It is how we govern ourselves into a manageable society. We can not all be our own security, fire fighter, medic, regulator and educator. Abraham Lincoln summed it up eloquently when he said that government is for those actions that can’t be done by the individual. I think that former President Reagan did our nation a huge disservice when he said that “government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem”. Government is only the problem when the elected officials collude to make it the problem by doing precisely what the tea party republicans are doing right now; refusing to reopen our government and bringing our government to the precipice of default. Apparently the 80 or so conservative republicans are very comfortable with the idea of defaulting if only to make a point in upholding their ideologies and principles.

If these republicans had won the election in 2012, I would understand their justification or if the ultra conservative Supreme Court had deemed the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, then I would understand their behavior but none of these things had happened. The Republican Party is ready to throw our economy and the world’s economy into the air and let the pieces fall where they may because they lost, they do not want to allow most Americans the choice to buy affordable health care insurance on their own if they must without fear of being denied for having preexisting conditions or being dropped because the limits were surpassed.

I know that I had promised not to write about my political inclinations on this my personal blog but I am really upset by the impasse we find ourselves at and playing chicken with other people’s lives and livelihood is morally wrong and morally contemptible. I am sincerely hoping that this is the last time that I will feel compelled to write about my distress over the political reality of my country.

Finishing my book

Tags

books, challenges, personal, postaday2013, writing

I’m looking forward to Nanowrimo (National November Writing Month) because it worked beautifully last year to force me into my chair to write, and those chapters were relatively easy to produce. This year I definitely need the structure of the challenge to help with the difficult last quarter of the book. I got my characters all the way to their transatlantic voyage and I am, for some reason, having a hard time getting a feel for how Madeleine will take to New York of the twenties. I have been watching as many programs that have to do with the gilded twenties in New York and Board Walk Empire has been a must see t.v, if only because prohibition plays such a strong role in the New York chapters.

I know why I have been having a hard time writing the last piece of the book. I am having a difficult time articulating in the most honest way possible, the ambivalence that Madeleine will feel, the culture shock, the excitement, the homesickness and the fear. Having been on a cruise ship, I have the overseas voyage mapped out and that will go well, arriving at New York and disembarking will bring Madeleine into a whole new universe. She knows Paris, but New York in terms of energy is Paris on steroids. Food is her passion, so that will be another challenge for me, how exactly to show the differences and her reactions, because though the food is different she is adventurous in her gastronomic pursuits.Family is another conundrum, Madeleine lives for her family and now she will be the outsider in Jack’s family and I have to figure out exactly, given Jack’s line of work, how much proximity there will be between Jack and his family.

I know how to portray their night life and their restaurant outings, it is the in between time that will be a little difficult. I don’t think that Madeleine will get a job, so what will she do? Will she be Jack’s partner in crime, if I am channeling my great-great aunt, then Madeleine will be Jack’s partner because my great-great aunt was a bootlegger, so Madeleine get ready to put your ingenuity to work. Writing this has made me feel better about my being stuck and the plan on getting unstuck. Why do I make i more difficult in my head? All that I need to do is sit down and let the words get out.

Daily prompt: out of place

Tags

blogging, creative, personal, postaday2013, writing

Daily Prompt: Island of Misfit Posts
by michelle w.
We all have something we’d like to write about, but that doesn’t really “fit” our blog. Write it anyway.

My blog doesn’t have that problem, my blog is a free for all. My blog carries my name and so I have the freedom to write whatever I want to and that is the way I like it. “It’s my blog and I can write what I want to, I can write what I want… you would write too if you had a blog like I have too.”

When I started writing, I started for my own piece of mind and my own need to document my thoughts, my concerns and to explore the question “did I have a talent for writing and did I have a voice that needed to be heard” After doing this and writing on a daily basis, my blog has made me very happy. I have made new friends and their friendships are very special to me.

I probably didn’t treat this prompt correctly but I think that you get the gist, I can write whatever I want, so everything fits in my blog, as it should.

It’s my blog and I can …

Tags

blogs, complaints, emotions, personal, postaday2012, vent, writing

It’s my blog and I won’t cry because I don’t want to cry on my iPad but I can complain if I want to and rail if I want to. Today was the same old, same old; walking Jack, hauling firewood, doing the outside lights, putting away the big storage boxes, checking all of the lights. My hubby likes to have a light in each window, we have 30 windows, I gave up halfway through today, I’ll continue tomorrow. What I am really complaining about isn’t the activity, it’s my stupid, ugly, ugly, itchy cold sore and now I have the hives on my left arm which is itching and burning at the same time. I originally thought it was the Shingles, but honestly how many times can I have them? I am prone to hive outbreaks when I’m stressed so I am going with the hive diagnosis. But seriously why is my stress attacking me so viciously right now, it is seriously raining on my parade. I didn’t go the doctor because he’ll just say the same blah, blah; you already have an auto immune disease, rheumatoid arthritis and prednisone therapy on top of that makes your system vulnerable to any awakening of your dormant viruses; like I said, blah, blah and blah. This is most unpleasant.

On a brighter note, for tomorrow I made a butternut squash gratin. I peeled and chopped two big onions and, on low flame, sautéed them until they were golden soft. Before that I had roasted two butternut squash, split in half rubbed with olive oil and a few unpeeled garlic cloves hidden in the cleaned cavities, for an hour at 375 degrees, and when the onions were soft, I scooped out the flesh and threw it into the pot, I squeezed the roasted garlic out of their skins, I added a little bit of chicken stock, some thyme and some sage, salt and pepper. I mashed it all together, I also added some Parmesan cheese, just because, and I put it into a casserole dish, I grated a whole mess of Swiss cheese on top and put it into a 425 degree oven for twenty minutes. It looks pretty and the house smelled awesome.

Thank you for letting me vent, it felt good. Feel free to vent yourself if you need to down below in the comment section. Everyone needs to vent and if you can’t do it on your own blog, than where can you?

If my blog went viral

Tags

blogging, personal, postaday2012, Posting, viral, writing

• Your blog just went viral. Ok, sorry, not yet. But just imagine. What’s the one post you’d like new readers to see and remember you by? Write that post.

• The Ultimate Post
• blogging

  I’ve written a few that I wish had gone viral in a big way; the ones about my trip to France that the baby girl and I took this summer for instance. I really enjoyed writing those posts, describing all of the foods we were eating, the countryside we were traveling through and my incredible family. There were also a few posts that were on a more serious note such as when I had anxiety over getting a biopsy after an unclear mammogram, writing about it helped me expunge the fear and the anxiety. Moreover receiving the good news afterwards of all clear and sharing it via my blog made the good news even more concrete.
  I don’t know if this answered or even satisfied the prompt, but even if none of my posts ever go viral, I still find so much satisfaction and I reap so many benefits writing through my blog and interacting with my readers, that I seriously doubt that I will ever stop.