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“Stories in the Making”—Guest Post at Lara Britt’s Writing Space

/ Gerry Wilson / Leave a comment

Grandmother and Blackie

“Stories in the Making” appears today as part of Lara Britt’s Memoir Mondays series on her blog, Writing Space—my first guest post ever! Thanks, Lara, for the invitation.

“Stories in the Making” is about the influence of previous generations on my fiction. Here’s a bit of the post. “She” is my maternal grandmother.

The story she always told about her father’s death is a special gift to me in terms of writing material. He died in a hunting accident when she was twenty-three. My mother would have been two years old at the time. My grandmother was at her parents’ home when neighbor men brought her father’s body back from the woods. She always said she had nightmares for a long time after that day, the image of his bloody head still stark in her mind.

Hop on over to Lara’s Writing Space to read the whole piece. Happy story hunting!

The Writerly Life is Blushing!

/ Gerry Wilson / Leave a comment

Well, golly. Writerlicious (Erin Pike) has nominated The Writerly Life for the Versatile Blogger Award! A happy surprise! Thank you, Erin. I’ve been thinking the blog needs to be tightened up in terms of theme, but maybe it’s coming along all right the way it is. I enjoy being able to “free-range” when I want to. So thanks for the affirmation.

The Versatile Blogger Award comes with some rules, basically about spreading the accolades. So here goes . . .

The Rules:

1.) Thank the person who nominated you.

Done, above.

2.) Share seven things about yourself.

• As an only child, I thought I was the center of the universe. I sometimes still expect to be (but not too often).

• I love good food, either comfort or gourmet: anything salty or sweet, cashews, fresh pear tart, sushi. And chocolate. Not necessarily in that order.

• When it comes to my writing, I’m probably my own harshest critic. Perfectionist? Yes.

• I make really good cornbread dressing (Southern style).

• I’m a cat person. Our current feline Oliver (a foundling part-Siamese, thus the name) has enough neuroses to create a full cast of characters. But he loves me.

• I love poetry. My favorite poet is in-house.

• I’m a lousy birdwatcher. I have to look the birds’ names up over and over, but I love watching them anyway.

3.) Nominate Seven Other Versatile Bloggers.

This part is hard; there are so many talented bloggers! The writers I’m nominating blog on topics that range from cooking and gardening to books, photography, personal reflection, original prose and poetry . . . You name it.

—April Line 

 —Marilyn Braendeholm

—Elissa Field

—Mariya Koleva

—Andrew Kreider

—Lauri Meyers

—Elizabeth Saunders

4.) Contact the people you nominated and post your award by linking back to the photo on:

http://versatilebloggeraward.wordpress.com/

So here’s to the blogging world and to excellence! Enjoy.

Monday Discovery / K. M. Weiland’s Blog: Helping Writers Become Authors

/ Gerry Wilson / Leave a comment

Today begins a new feature on The Writerly Life, Monday Discovery. Each Monday I’ll offer a writerly find—a blog, a quotation, a writing tip, a book I love.

I’ll begin with K. M. Weiland: Helping Writers Become Authors, a website chock full of writing tips and links to two writer-centered blogs: Wordplay, which she describes as featuring “writing tips to enlighten and encourage,” and Author Culture, a smorgasbord of articles related to writing and publishing.

I was struck by her phrase, “helping writers become authors,” and it led me to look up author and writer. In my mind I probably equate the two, but the dictionary reveals a subtle difference: an author is a writer who has published professionally. A writer is one who, well, writes (oversimplified a bit!).

Here’s a powerful message from Ms. Weiland (offered free on her website) that I’ll post on my desktop to remind me, when the writing gets hard or a rejection rolls in, of who I really am.

What’s your opinion? Is there a distinction between author and writer? Which do you call yourself, and why? Weigh in with your thoughts in a comment, please. 

A Wordplayer’s Manifesto—K. M. Weiland