I’m over at Pete Springer’s blog for my Day 3 of The Winding Road launch tour. Pete and I followed each other several years ago. He tells you why we became good friends. I love his book They Call Me Mom. Every new or experienced teacher will benefit from this book.
During this book launch tour, I talk about memoir writing. Today’s topic is How to Write an Experience Memoir. Please head over to join me for the discussion.
I am pleased to give a shout-out to my friend, Miriam Hurdle, with the release of her latest book, The Winding Road. Miriam was one of the first people I met when I started blogging almost three and a half years ago. She is considerate and supportive, often taking the time to leave kind comments on others’ blogs. We first bonded because we’re both retired educators. Miriam not only taught but also became an administrator for several years near the end of her career. A second area we have in common is we both sang in church choirs. I know this is one of the things Miriam missed most during the pandemic. Finally, in retirement, we’ve both become writers. Having read her book of poetry, Songs of Heartstrings, and her children’s book, Tina Lost in a Crowd, I was excited to learn she had another story to tell. Her memoir…
I’m over at Dan Antion’s facility called No Facilities! Dan hosts Thursday Doors challenge and meets with his friends at his virtual bar for the Stream of Conciousness Saturday post. He is hosting Day 2 of the blog tour for my new book, The Winding Road. I talk about Memoir Writing during this tour. Please head over to join me for the discussion.
A few months ago, Miriam Hurdle joined me at the bar on a Saturday, along with Robbie Cheadle. They set the record for views and comments for a bar visit. A few weeks later, Miriam sent me a collection of resources to help me launch my debut novel. When I heard she would be releasing The Winding Road: A Journey of Survival I immediately offered to join her launch tour. When I receive the book and started reading, I was so happy I would be part of this tour. I’m going to turn this over to Miriam for a while, but I’ll be back.
Thank you for hosting my launch tour today, Dan! I’m so happy to be here to share my new book with your friends.
During this launch tour, I want to talk about memoir writing. Here is my topic for today.
I’m over at Jacqui Murray’s blog at https://worddreams.wordpress.com. She graciously hosts the first day of my launch tour. Please head over to read her beautiful post. I talk about Memoir Writing during this blog tour.
In the summer of 2008, Miriam Hurdle was diagnosed with melanoma-an aggressive and invasive cancer in her internal organs. The survival rate before 2008 was low. Besides risking harsh treatments for a slim chance of survival, Miriam had hoops to jump through. By the time she received treatment at the beginning of 2009, her cancer had progressed from stage II to stage IV. It was a rough and uphill winding road. But alongside her was support and encouragement. Accompanied by the love of her family and community, this is Miriam’s journey…
We canceled the Mother’s Day trip to see my daughter’s family because the kids caught some non-Covid virus from daycare. The entire family was not feeling well.
I rescheduled our trip for Memorial Day weekend. It is also my daughter’s and her hubby’s anniversary. Whenever we visit them, I offer to watch the kids so they can go on dates. Since this last weekend was their anniversary, they went on a two-day trip to the beach.
Mercy is a master planner. She made a comprehensive list of suggestions from breakfast to bedtime for us to go by. Even though I’ve been watching the kids for four and a half years, it helps to have her suggestions to fall back on.
Autumn has no problem with mommy and daddy going on dates or a short getaway. Nora is attached to Mercy. She was not happy to see mommy walking out of the door after breakfast on Saturday. Fortunately, I had a special treat for the girls to distract them, at least to calm down Nora.
It turned out that both Saturday and Sunday went smoothly. The girls painted the garden stones, read, and played together, but did something separately with grandpa and grandma. Grandpa is Nora’s favorite. Grandma is Autumn’s favorite. It is just perfect. It was easier for us to handle while they got our individual attention.
Autumn painted the butterfly and the sun, and Nora painted the ladybugAutumn looked for certain pictures and Nora pointed at the wordsAutumn’s new favorite is to trace the maze. Nora does the same.Autumn is good at the magnetic Tile Building BlocksShe built the blocks on wheelsSticker, GrandpaHi, Grandpa
It was raining most of the day on Saturday and Sunday. Whenever the sun peeked out a little, we headed out to the school playground right away. One neighbor has some goats. Nora loves to feed the goats. The kids rode their bikes to the playground on Saturday and just walked there on Sunday.
Goat, GoatCheersClimbing upSharing
There was something I tried to do this time around. I asked Lynton to read bedtime stories to Nora and put her to bed. Amazingly, it turned out to be a success. Yay!
It worked out perfectly because Autumn wanted me to read her many books. I could just relax to spend time with Autumn without worrying about Nora.
During the two-day trip, Mercy and Will went wine tasting, hiking, and strolling on the beach. They came home after a late-night movie on Sunday. I was happy that they had a wonderful time.
Monday was the Memorial Day holiday. We went on a family walk together. The girls rode their bikes, and Will rode his skateboard to keep up with the kids.
WheeeeMy turnFamily Walk on Fanno Creek Trail
By the way, Lynton and I did the cooking for all the meals from Thursday to Tuesday. We tried to cook different main dishes, such as salmon, veggie & sausage casserole, pizza, and tofu. Lynton cooked mashed potatoes a couple of evenings. I cooked the same mixed vegetables. It turned out perfectly because we could eat what we normally eat at home. Mercy and Will loved to have some days off without doing cooking.
The Showers of Blessings 