I now have a paperback edition of my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, in my hands. It just arrived. Getting it to this point has taken just short of three months, but well worth the time and effort. The edition looks great. I decided to keep the same cover design because it has been my brand for the last year. I felt changing it could be confusing to my followers and even to me. Plus I love the front cover photo, taken by my young girl friend, Madison Poulter, whom I've known since she was eighteen months old. Can't believe she's off to Lewis and Clark College in the fall. So both my publisher, Mike O'Mary at Dream of Things and I have been doing a lot of planning to get ready for the launch. Mike made an excel spreadsheet with activities to accomplish between now and January. Here are some of the things we're doing right now: I've communicated with friends and family about the launch and asked them to write a review and post it on Amazon if they've already read the … [Read more...]
April poem a day challenge
In honor of National Poetry Month, Robert Lee Brewer, editor at Writer's Digest and creator of Poetic Asides, holds a poem a day challenge. I love to take the challenge because his prompts are always fun. He also provides his examples to help get us started. This month Robert has also created a platform building challenge through his blog: My Name Is Not Bob. I'm doing that one as well. Here are a few of my April PAD poems with Robert's prompts. Day 5.Write a poem about something before your time. Maybe it's a certain time in history. Or a type of music. Or a story that was shared by friends or familybefore your time. Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris brought back a world before my time and people that I would kill to have known: Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald Porter, Baker, Picasso, Man Ray, and Dali all in the raucous 1920s. And for a little more romantic and quiet take he took us even further back to the 1980s Belle Epoque and the artistic worlds … [Read more...]
April challenges update
I took a break over the weekend and caught up today with my two April challenges. The Platform Challenge Days 5 through 8: Day 5. Create a blog since you're reading this you know I already have a blog. I also post at several other blog sites you might not know about: http://redroom.com/member/madeline-sharples/blog/ - Red Room blog http://www.naturallysavvy.com/savvy-over-60 - Naturally Savvy Over 60 blog http://www.psychalive.org/index.php?s=madeline+sharples&image.x=15&image.y=7 - PsychAlive blog http://tlswriters.wordpress.com/ - The Last Sunday Writer's group blog Day 6. Comment on a blog: Robert LeeBrewer posted a few possible ways to respond (and he suggested linking back to our own blogs). I think these are great suggestions. I just need to learn to follow them: Share your own experience. If you've experienced something similar to what's covered in the post, share your own story. You don't have to write a book or anything, but maybe a paragraph or two. Add … [Read more...]
Challenges and writing work update
Yesterday and today's assignments for the April platform challenge were to accomplish things I had already done build a Facebook profile and give myself a Twitter name. I also have a Facebook author page. So I was ahead of the game there. However, Robert Lee Brewer is always very generous with his helpful hints. I'll give you the links to Day 3 and Day 4 here and you can visit both sites if you're interested in learning more. I feel that I know very little about how to use Twitter so I can use all the help I can get. I have, however, heard that Re-Tweets are golden. I had two yesterday that got to thousands of followers. I guess I'm doing something right. I'm also keeping up with my goal of writing 1000 words on my novel a week, and I'm now writing a poem a day for Robert Lee Brewer's other April challenge. The prompts are always interesting. Today's was: take the phrase 100% (blank), replace the blank with a word, make that the title of your poem, and then write a poem. So far … [Read more...]
Rejection – another cause of a U-turn
Talk about a U-turn. This must be my week. Here I am facing that U-turn again, and I need to find a way to work myself out of it. It is so easy to get in the rejection doldrums. Any little thing can set it off an unreturned telephone call or email, someone saying they'll do something and they don't, and of course that actual dreaded rejection letter. I'm sure most of my creative readers know what that dreaded word is about it. You've probably experienced it. I know I have. I actually got sixty-eight rejections (by actual letter or by silence) before I got a publishing contract for my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On. So I thought I was immune to it. Turns out I'm not. Rejection hurts. In the last month my work has received two rejection emails. And since these rejections were from anthologies I've been featured in before, my first reaction was Whoa, what am I doing wrong here? I better stop and rethink my course of action. Did I just say I'm taking a U-turn? I think … [Read more...]
Writing resolutions check-in
Besides writing I do participate in other creative activities - like seeing a wonderful art exhibit at LACMA called In Wonderland. This painting is by Frieda Khalo. Time to revisit my 2012 writing resolutions (posted on January 1, 2012) and report how I've been doing. First for the things I've accomplished. I participated in the January River of Stones project, writing a small stone every day of the month. I finished reading Doreen Cox' Adventures in Mother Sitting and wrote and posted reviews for it. I overachieved in the review category, by finally writing and posting a review of Laura Mays Hoopes memoir Breaking the Spiral Ceiling: An American Woman Becomes A DNA Scientist. And I'm happy to report that my novel writing has gone very well. I'm writing a bit more than the one thousand words a week that was my commitment. I'm also writing a poem a week and writing my regular posts for NaturallySavvy and PsychAlive One of my best accomplishments of the month was … [Read more...]
The last January 2012 small stones
January 22 Dark gray clouds cover the roaring waves. I wonder why the surfers aren't riding them instead of taking them them one by one lying down. January 23 Kristi's photo was posted on Putting a Face on Suicide today. She was just 19 when she took her life. I wish I could share her huge eyes, her smooth skin, her friendly closed-mouth smile with you. She was beauty. And even that couldn't save her from a drug addiction that sucked the life out of her. January 24 I met an old friend this morning and within five minutes of talking she was in tears. She told me about her mentally ill daughter in yet another healing institution. She's been in nine since she was thirteen; she is twenty now. I hope my writing will inspire my friend to take good care of herself. Her daughter will have to find her own way. January 25 I was so proud of myself last evening for being an advocate in getting a mentally ill young man some help. I was told at ten in the evening that he would be in … [Read more...]
Writing in Times of Grief – Join our roundtable tomorrow
I'll be participating in a roundtable discussion tomorrow afternoon with my dear friend, Eleanor Vincent. Sponsored by the National Association of Memoir Writers, we'll discuss Writing in Times of Grief. And we'd love for you to join us by listening in and asking questions as well. In the latest NAMW newsletter, founder and discussion moderator, Linda Joy Myers, wrote: In preparation for our September 8th Roundtable discussion, I have been busy reading the books by our featured authors for the September Roundtable. Eleanor Vincent wrote Swimming with Maya and Madeline Sharples' memoir is Leaving the Hall Light On. Both books are about their beautiful children, how the death of a child leaves a scar that can't be completely healed. Each mother had to find her own path to become re-engaged with life and the rest of the family, and try to heal from such a heart breaking tragedy. Eleanor Vincent lost her daughter in a freak accident with a horse. Madeline Sharples' son suffered … [Read more...]
WOW blog tour stop No. 11
WOW Women on Writing arranged another wonderful blog tour stop for me today. I'm at Colloquium with Janie Siess who introduces authors and reviews books. She says her goal for her website is "it will be a place where people feel comfortable dropping by, reading about my experiences, observations and opinions, and responding by sharing their own vieewpoints, experiences, and feelings." My post today is: "Using Memoir Writing to Deal with Grief." And on June 27 Janie will post her review of my book. I am so pleased about being the guest of Colloquium. Please go over and check it out. And if you post a comment on June 27th, you'll have a chance to win a signed hardcopy of my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On. … [Read more...]
WOW blog tour stop No. 10
I am so excited to be the guest blogger on Women's Memoirs today. Thank you Robyn and Jodi of WOW-Women on Writing for arranging this stop for me. Kendra and Matilda of Women's Memoirs asked me a series of questions about journaling and writing my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, as they related to my path to healing after my son Paul's suicide. The post not only has my answers and recommendations for other women who need to find ways to heal, they've posted photos of Paul and our family and a wonderful piece of Paul's music played by him. The music player is inserted right there on the blog. Please take a look at this wonderful and useful blog to writers of all genres. http://womensmemoirs.com/memoir-book-reviews/memoir-book-discussion-leaving- the-hall-light-on-by-madeline-sharples/ … [Read more...]
It’s Not Just About the Money
Paul Sharples 1971-1999 The Red Room Where the Writers Are blog (http://www.redroom.com/) prompt this week was to write about "writing for free." Here is what I had to say about that. I've been writing without monetary rewards virtually all of my life. However I've stepped up the pace in the years since the death of my son in 1999, when I found that writing paid me in comfort and healing. Writing about the unhappiness and tragedy in my life transfers the pain from my body onto the page. Writing is like an addiction to me; I get itchy if I don't do it. My office, where I write, is like magic to me. I could spend all day in there and never feel confined. I see the outside garden and the fountain from my writing table. The fountain attracts the most beautiful orange and yellow birds. Some have red heads, some take little dips in the pool, some surf on the leaves that hang over the fountain, some just hover over the water too wary to wade in. The time I spend writing in my office … [Read more...]
Learning to write poetry the mechanical way
I learned two techniques for generating poetry material at an all day workshop on Saturday with Jack Grapes and Richard Jones. Both techniques were to ensure that we as writers had no reason to experience writer's block. And, in both cases the techniques are entirely mechanical. Inverted Pyramid Jack Grapes, who teaches method writing in Los Angeles, (http://jackgrapes.com/grapes_approach.php) presented the inverted pyramid method. He told us to write down several unrelated sentences or thoughts the keyword here is unrelated. However, he told us what kind of sentences to write. And if you can visualize an inverted pyramid these sentences would go into the upper wider part. We wrote: two or three images, a couple of pieces of dialogue, a flowery description, a memory or two, a couple of deep thought about ourselves until we had five to eight in total in random order. The next step was to take these entirely unrelated sentences and form them into a cohesive poem so that by the … [Read more...]
At the piano bar
We sat at a piano bar last night listening to an old master play. Within seconds I was mesmerized back into memories of Paul at the piano. This man played the way Paul had played, and he played the same tunes. All the standards with jazz improvisations that showed real music genius. Early on Paul was told to get The Book a compendium of all the songs a musician needs to learn if he/she wanted to be hired to play gigs at a bar. And sure enough Paul got the book and learned the tunes in it. I remember how he meticulously kept a list of the tunes he knew. He was always adding to the list. Another thing that reminded me of Paul was the way the man sat close into the keys with his head leaning way down as he played. Maybe that's the way all jazzmen play. Last night that old musician played jazz piano to perfection. So perfectly it made me cry. My Jazzman My jazzman beat it out on the mighty eighty-eights, played those riffs, tapped his feet bent his head down to … [Read more...]
Rain
It's been raining for days. I like the rain. Bob and I fell in love on a rainy day in March so we always welcome the rain. We like the sound of it on our roof. I love the way my garden looks in the rain or just after. We grow mostly succulents in various shades of green and pinkish red, and the rain makes those colors pop. It's almost like a garden of wild flowers especially since so many of the plants are shaped like flowers. I also like to see the hills after the rain. They seem to take on an extra coat of Technicolor green. The rain completely revitalizes the usual dry tan fields so prevalent in southern California. The storm we've been having is the worst in ten years they say. But I remember one about a year before Paul died. It rained for a lot of days in a row like it's doing now, and he hated being cooped up in the house. He couldn't get out and do his usual wandering or smoke breaks outside. He said it was driving him crazy and then he chucked, realizing what he had just … [Read more...]
A big confront – holiday cards
Madeline, Ben, Marissa, Bob - August 14, 2010 Holiday cards and greeting cards in general have been difficult since Paul died. Before it was always easy to sign them with all our family names: Madeline, Bob, Paul, and Ben. And for a very long time after he died, I just couldn't sign Madeline, Bob, and Ben if I sent out cards at all. It just didn't seem right. Also I certainly wasn't up for sending a family photo with our holiday cards like the many cards we receive every year. I think the last time I sent out a holiday photo card was in 1993, six years before Paul died. That is until this year. I bit the bullet this year and sent out a holiday photo card that shows our new family of four: Madeline, Ben, Marissa, and Bob. And I sent it out with joy. Marissa joined our family in August, and we couldn't be happier. … [Read more...]
