During this Hanukkah and Christmas season I can't help feeling grateful for all that this past year has provided. I'm especially grateful to my dear writing friends - some I've met in person and some not - who have brought me continued wisdom about the writing process and such joy in knowing them and their writing work. First of all thanks to Kathy Pooler, author of her new memoir: Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse, for tagging me to participate in this blog tour. Kathy's memoir is a must read if you haven't yet. So here goes: My Work in Progress Synopsis and story idea : My novel, Papa's Shoes, is the story of a family immigrating to America in the early 1900s and a daughter's coming of age in the 1920s in downstate Illinois and Chicago. Some other things going on in the book life in a Polish stetl, early 19th century Chicago and Illinois, a woman's role in society at that time, religious prejudice, interfaith marriage, and a feisty … [Read more...]
Drumroll please for my WOW guest Sue Silverman
Please give Sue Silverman a huge welcome. I'm so glad she agreed to stop at Choices while on her WOW - Women on Writing blog book tour. I can relate to Sue Silverman author of The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew. I too was a nice little Jewish girl looking over at my WASP grade school classmates and wishing for their long blond waves, blue eyes, clear skin and willowy bodies instead of my frizzy dark hair, short and stocky frame, and my best feature, my hazel eyes, always hidden behind thick glasses. Unlike Sue, I did not experience an abusive upbringing. However, I write about the other taboo subjects that darkened my history: mental illness and suicide. I feel our frank and raw writing goes a long way to erasing the stigma associated with such topics. Plus, writing these hard stories can be healing. Putting your pain on the page can be very liberating. That said, I'm excited for you to read Sue's thoughts about writing about taboo subjects. Writing … [Read more...]
A warm welcome to Cate Russell-Cole. She’s all about being positive
I love that I've gotten to know Cate Russell-Cole so much better in the last few weeks. She's always been so supportive of my work by retweeting, liking, and commenting on stuff I post around my social media networks. She has even placed my book on the list of the memoir writers and services that she follows on Twitter. It is here: https://twitter.com/cateartios/memoir-writers/members. Cate provides support for writers and has founded with Kathy Pooler, Sharon Lippincott, and Sherrey Meyer (all writers I deeply respect and admire) the Memoir Project, a nonprofit initiative that shares memoir writing skills, news and resources, promotes quality memoir writing web sites, and builds a supportive community for writers at all levels. I encourage you to visit the Write Your Life Story Memoir Project. Even if you don't write in the memoir genre, I'm sure you'll find something to help enhance your writing there. Now I'd like to introduce Cate. She has generously written a guest post … [Read more...]
Back to work
First of all I want to thank all my friends who participated in the Choices Guest Post Festival from the end of August to mid September: Susan Weidener Deborah Kalan Viki Noe Ace Antonio Hall Meryl Hartstein Chanel Brenner Eleanor Vincent Jerry Waxler Sherrey Meyer Linda Joy Myers Karen Levy Kathy Pooler You all certainly raised the bar over here. During the last three and a half weeks the number of views more than doubled because of your contributions. So it's time for me to get back to work. I need to keep the momentum going by posting myself and hosting guests as much as possible. Please let me know if you'd like to share your writing story on Choices in the near future. On Wednesday, my guests will be Cami Ostman and Susan Tive who will share about their anthology, Beyond Belief: what happens when women of extreme … [Read more...]
Presenting Laura Dennis, author of Adopted Reality
With raw honesty and thoughtful reflection, Laura Dennis crafts a stunning psychological thriller in her true-life memoir, Adopted Reality. She weaves in three major life events adoption, reunion with her birth mother, and a bipolar episode following the 9/11 terror attacks where her beloved Uncle Tom died in the Twin Towers and she believes she was responsible for his death, writes reviewer Kathy Pooler. And most amazing is that it took Dennis only six months to write and publish her thriller of a story. I was especially interested in Dennis' writing about her manic episode because it rang true of what I remember about my son's bipolar disorder. My questions have mostly to do with that aspect of Dennis' story rather than her adoption and reconnection with her birth mother. I'm so glad that Laura Dennis accepted my invitation to join me for a Q&A here on Choices. Madeline: I am so impressed with the way you have managed your manic and depressive states and with the clarity … [Read more...]
My blog tour starts today
Angela Felsted officially kicked off my blog tour today by posting her wonderful review of Leaving the Hall Light On. Please find it at her blog site, My Poetry and Prose Place, or on the Leaving the Hall Light On Amazon page. Thank you, Angela, for your kind words about my book. Thirty-seven of thirty-eight readers found your review helpful. My tour will continue through the months of October, November, and December - But so not to give you the idea that I'll be working at it constantly during that time, not every day is taken. Also, the posts will vary between book reviews, questions and answers, a blog post my me, and a giveaway. So I hope you'll stop by often. The rest of the October agenda is: October 9 - Linda Hoye at A Slice of Life Writing October 10 - Jessica Bell at The Alliterative Allomorph October 17 - Amanda Lebron at All Between the Lines October 22 - Kathy Pooler at Memoir Writer's Journey. I'll let you know what's in store for November at the end of the … [Read more...]
