|
Burning the Midnight Oil Book Zine Archives Index
|
Subscribe
|
|
| << May16, 2007 - Burning the Midnight Oil Book Zine -- Issue Thirty-One |
July02, 2007 - Burning the Midnight Oil Book Zine -- Issue Thirty-Three >> |
|
Burning the Midnight Oil Book Zine - a FR*E*E monthly ezine for writing parents. ************************************************************** You are receiving this e-zine because you subscribed through e-mail. Unsubscribe information is below. ************************************************************** TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. WELCOME NOTES 2. QUOTES FOR THE MONTH 3. EDITOR'S ARTICLE: HOW BLOGGING CAN HELP YOU BE A BETTER WRITER By DAWN COLCLASURE 4. CONTEST CORNER 5. ADVERTISEMENTS 6. GUEST ARTICLE: LET TOM SWIFT INFORM YOUR WRITING By CAROLYN HOWARD-JOHNSON 7. BOOK EXCERPT: Marilyn and Me by Shanta Everington 8. BOOK GIVEAWAY 9. WHAT’S UP WITH THE BOOK’S WRITERS 10. BOOK NEWS 11. SITES SITED 12. FREEBIE CORNER 13. WRITING PARENT TIPS FOR JUNE 14. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 15. UNSUBSCRIBE INSTRUCTIONS ************************************************************** WELCOME NOTES Hello, Everyone! Welcome to another issue of the Burning the Midnight Oil Book Zine! As always, feel free to send me any email at BurningMidnightOil@myway.com with comments, suggestions or just to plain chat. In this issue, my article talks about blogging. Why is blogging something special for writers? Because, like it or not, blogging can be a great way to improve and explore our writing abilities. They help us come up with ideas, share information/insights and allow us the chance to have a no-holds-barred platform we can use at leisure. “How Blogging Can Help You Be a Better Writer” will show you ways you can use and develop your blog for better writing skills and freedom! This month’s guest article comes from Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the award-winning book, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER. Teacher, lecturer and seasoned writer, Carolyn is a writer in her own right! Her article, “Let Tom Swift Inform Your Writing,” shows you how to deal with a common writing pest editors groan and whine about in rejections. Check it out to get ideas on how to get rid of your Tom Swifties! Enjoy this issue! Hugs, Dawn Colclasure Editor and Publisher http://dmcwriter.tripod.com/ ************************************************************** QUOTES FOR THE MONTH “Whether your intended audience is large of small, public or private, you now have some extra motivation for writing as frequently and as well as you can. Knowing that someone is reading your side, you will unconsciously seek to express yourself a little more clearly and will likely be anxious to maintain a fairly steady publication schedule. Whatever your purpose and area of interest, you have a forum in which to speak your piece. Congratulations! You are now a weblogger.”—Rebecca Blood (from her book THE WEBLOG HANDBOOK: PRACTICAL ADVICE ON CREATING AND MAINTAINING YOUR BLOG "Unlike earlier promises of self-publishing revolutions, the blog movement seems to be the real thing. A big reason for that is a tiny innovation called the permalink: a unique web address for each posting on every blog. Instead of linking to web pages, which can change, bloggers link to one another’s posts, which typically remain accessible indefinitely. This style of linking also gives blogs a viral quality, so a pertinent post can gain broad attention amazingly fast—and reputations can get taken down just as quickly."—Adriana Cronin-Lukas "Blogs are a great way to monitor and even participate in the chatter about your new site.”—Mike Davidson "I really struggle with that feeling of helplessness. That's why I really try to get my blogs, and even myself, to point to the positive and look at all the inspiring things that are happening. "—Daryl Hannah "First, I'd become an avid reader of blogs, especially music blogs, and they seemed to be where the critical-thinking action was at, to have the kind of energy that I associate with rock writing of the 1970s or Internet e-mail discussion lists a decade ago."—Carl Wilson "I think that in the absence of a responsible national media, the blogs play an important role in trying to shed light on various issues, including the bona fides of so-called White House correspondents as well as tackling questions overlooked or ignored by the national journalists." —Joe Wilson "Blogs are editable in a limited way, HTML is too complex, but at least blogs allow people to be a little creative."—Tim Berners-Lee ************************************************************** EDITOR’S ARTICLE How Blogging Can Help You Be a Better Writer By: Dawn Colclasure Most all old word processing programs don’t recognize it as a word, but blogs have grown into a major online writing platform gathering many readers from around the world. Since hitting the scene in the mid-1990s, blogs have become a way for anyone and everyone to share, express and inspire others with their posts ranging from day-to-day activities, family gatherings and photos, reports on home- and business-related projects, favorite recipes, reviews, and general thoughts and ideas. Blogs have a variety of uses and appearances, but writers have caught on to something big that has helped them be a better writer through blogging. When I started blogging in 2003, I just posted whatever struck me enough to write. I knew these posts weren’t exactly “article material” but they sure enough caught on to be “writing material.” I soon realized that the many posts were a goldmine for character experiences and story ideas. A fellow author I know once commented to me, “I’ve seen whole blogs turned into books.” Later, one of my blogs (Dawn Colclasure’s Blog: http://dawncolclasureblog.blogspot.com/) became my “writing blog,” where I’d only discuss topics related to writing and being a writer. This development didn’t happen too soon, though. I was yet to understand the developmental benefits for writers which blogging offered. The more I blogged, the more I saw these benefits, such as: · Sticking to one topic. My old blog posts are filled with ramblings and disorganized thoughts. Later I figured out a way to come up with a topic to blog about and stick with it until the end. This was less confusing for readers and more challenging for me as a writer. The challenge is good; it exercises writing ability. This also made me put together my topic in my head, which lead to the next challenge… · Constructing a post. Each post had to have a beginning, middle and end. There had to be some kind of “lesson” or “insight” readers could glean from the post. Whether it was a “day in the life of a writer” scenario or how I learned a lesson the hard way, it had to be put together in a coherent, understandable way for readers to better comprehend it. · Coming up with something to write about. This may be the hardest challenge for some writers, but as writers, we ALWAYS have something to say about something or another! Whether we’ve experienced something reinforcing a “rule of thumb” we often preach or what kind of work we did for the day, there’s bound to be something we’re able to write a blog post about. This is one area I soon caught onto pretty well, as I’m working at the writing every day and constantly picking up on writing-related topics to blog about. · Writing often. Some bloggers post every day and some, like me, post once a week. This instills discipline to write and keep at that writing. · Sparking creativity. Believe it or not, writing blog posts can help you come up with ideas for more writing projects. One novel-in-progress was inspired by a comment left by someone on one of my blogs, while another blog post had me asking “what if?” until I finally came up with an article. The best part? You can have ANY kind of blog, even one based on a fictional character, which can be a great catharsis for writing ideas. Other writers have found a variety of uses for their blogs, too. “I’m a screenwriter – and (blogs are) an entirely different type of writing than prose writing,” said Jim Vines (who blogs at http://theworkingscreenwriter.blogspot.com/), a screenwriter based in Southern California and author of the book Q & A: THE WORKING SCREENWRITER – AN IN-THE-TRENCHES PERSPECTIVE OF WRITING MOVIES IN TODAY’S FILM INDUSTRY. “Fact is, prose writing is a style I’ve just never been completely comfortable with. I can crank out a 100-page screenplay faster than I can write up a two-page prose synopsis. But since I started working on my website last year, I’ve had to learn to write in this non-screenplay style of writing. I think I’ve actually become fairly good at it. It’s helped immensely with my blogging.” Karen Putz, a writer in Illinois who blogs at http://putzworld.blogspot.com/, agrees blogging can benefit writers. “Blogging has given me an outlet for regular writing-- I know that if I want to keep my blog active I have to post something several times a week,” she said. “This keeps me disciplined and forces me to plan ahead to produce content.” The best part about blogging? For both writers, freedom. “For me, the luxury of the blog is that I can write about anything that I think is useful and/or entertaining to my readers (which are primarily budding screenwriters),” Vines said. “If I want to provide a screenwriting tip, then I write it. If I want to vent about the knuckleheads I come across on Internet bulletin boards, or rant and rave about yet another lousy newbie screenplay I just slogged through, then I write about it. If I want to impart an amusing little “inside the Hollywood gates” anecdote, then I can do that. And hey, if I want to tout my new book, Q & A: The Working Screenwriter – An In-the-Trenches Perspective of Writing Movies in Today’s Film Industry, then I can do that, too. I can write as little or as much as I want and I can do it when I want. I rather enjoy that sort of freedom. The only real drawback to any of this has been that I start feeling like folks are waiting patiently to read my next installment, so there’s a bit of pressure to get things written and posted as soon as possible. That’s usually not such a big deal, but if I’m under the gun (i.e., on a deadline with a script project), then the last thing I need on my mind is cranking out another blog entry. Paying gigs take precedence. Can’t blame me there, can you?” “Writing my own blog has given me complete freedom to write about anything I want and the flexibility to decide when to post articles,” Putz said. “The comments that I get from others provides instant feedback and inspires me to continue writing.” While freedom is definitely one of the pros of having a blog, there are indeed certain cons. Many writing and editing professionals often debate over writers posting original work on their blogs. This can hurt their chances of selling to markets that require first rights, and it can open the door to literary theft. (Some writers have even had their blog posts plagiarized on other blogs and sites.) Yet another downside of blogging is the opinion that since there is no editor involved, the writing posted on blogs can’t really pass as “professional” work. While some blog posts may be littered with typos, grammatical errors and writing mistakes, it’s this kind of relief that many writers actually desire. They’re not writing for publication. They’re not trying to get noticed by the New York Times. They’re just blogging, and it’s a relaxing escape from the rigors of the serious writing and editing they put into their work. Another argument is that blogs can’t really “count” as writing. The reasoning behind this is that blog postings can be anything from a quote, assignment, fleeting thought, recipe or even just a picture. That may not count as writing, true, but blogging still offers ways for writers to grow in their creativity and technique. Beware of one big blogging downside: Distraction from the “real” writing work you need to do (this includes time spent reading blogs). The best solution is for writers to stick to a strict rule of spending so much time a day with blogging then focusing on their work. Alternatively, writers serious about continuing their output and meeting deadlines could save all blog-related activities for AFTER their work is finished for the day. Millions of blogs exist in the blogosphere. It’s not easy finding the good ones aimed at writers, but perhaps the following links can be helpful to get started: WritingThoughts: http://www.writingthoughts.com/ A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye: http://www.lillieammann.com/blog/ Getting it write for you: http://www.lisavella.blogspot.com/ My Writing Mentor: http://www.mywritingmentor.blogspot.com/ PAPERBACK WRITER: http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/ Vines also had a blog to recommend. “It’s called The Rouge Wave (http://www.rougewave.blogspot.com/). The gal who runs it seems pretty knowledgeable. I like her style.” If you want to start a blog, it’s easy. Many blog-creating sites, such as Blogger (https://www.blogger.com/start) offer easy steps to creating your blog. Other online blog forums are LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com/), Tripod (http://www.tripod.lycos.com/), MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/), Xanga (http://www.xanga.com/?) and Wordpress (http://wordpress.com/). A variety of blog-creating sites are out there. You can even use your own Web site to create a page for blogging. Most blogs are free to create and take little time/effort to get the basics put together. You can add more to your blog later on; just set it up and try a “beta post” to see how it feels. Blogging has grown in a variety of ways and writers are growing right along with it. You don’t have to be a published or famous writer to have a blog, but once you start posting, watch how keeping a blog can open up new creative and educational experiences for you as a writer. *** Dawn Colclasure edits and publishes the Burning the Midnight Oil Book Zine, which is a product of her book: BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL: How We Survive as Writing Parents (Booklocker). She also writes for the newspaper SIGNews and the Web site, The Shadowlands. She’s been published both on and off the Web, in magazines such as Mothering, American Fitness, Home Education Magazine and HOMEspirations, and Web sites such as Absolute Write, Writing Etc. and Writing World. Visit her on the Web at http://dmcwriter.tripod.com/. ************************************************************** CONTEST CORNER The Writer Short Story Contest http://www.writermag.com/wrt/default.aspx?c=a&id=3323 The Rejected Quarterly 1st Ever Rejected Fiction Writing Contest http://www.rejectedq.com/page6.html Lunch Hour Stories Magazine 2007 Short Story Contest http://www.lunchhourstories.com/short_story_contest.html Delacorte Dell Yearling Contest for a First Middle-Grade Novel http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/writingcontests/#middlegrade The Humane Publisher Writing Co0ntest http://tinyurl.com/24vo5g IWD Short Story Contest http://www.iwdcanada.com/shortstory/ The Third Annual Camber Press Poetry Chapbook Award http://www.camberpress.com/submissions.html ************************************************************** ADVERTISEMENTS New Message Board for Writers, Writing Parents and Booklovers!!! The Write Stuff is a new message board created by Dawn Colclasure, a disabled writing parent who loves books! The board offers anyone of similar situations a chance to discuss being a disabled writer, a writing parent or a booklover! The write Stuff offers registered members a chance to swap books, talk shop or discuss Dawn’s books, as well! All writers and booklovers of any age or stage are welcome to participate! Check the new board out here: http://p105.ezboard.com/bthewritestuff66370 *** Check out the FREE Ebook for writing parents EVERYWHERE! From one writing parent to another, “Survival Strategies for Writing Parents” by Dawn Colclasure gives the lowdown on finding time to write, strategies for writing the “skeleton” article and tips and ideas for your home office! Details: http://dmcwriter.tripod.com/id31.html *** Pop artist BRANDON is back! Brandon who gave us the Top 100 Billboard HITS like “Kisses in the night”, “Destiny” and the classic dance tune “Moves” is ready to do it again! Bal Harbour Records Inc. is proud to present our featured artist Brandon with his new single "Don't Go Away". Available now for purchase at our website at: http://www.balharbourrecords.com Go ahead and surf into our website and listen before you buy. Let Brandon take you on a freestyle journey into a whole new dimension. A Portion of the proceeds from the sale of this CD will go to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF) The foundation provides college scholarship grants, along with financial aid and educational counseling, to the children of Special Operations personnel who were killed in an operational mission or training accident. www.specialops.org Thank you for all your support Now lets get this party started! Bal Harbour Record Staff *** In Husbands, Hot Flashes, and All That Hullabaloo!, award-winning humor writer Vicky DeCoster takes you on a hilarious hormonal journey from bikinis to granny panties and control top pantyhose to knee-highs as she teaches you not to take yourself too seriously. Any woman tackling the second act of her life will relate to DeCoster’s humorous personal essays as she makes fun of matrimony malfunctions, female fervor, corporate craziness, parenting pandemonium, and aging anatomies. This new-age Erma Bombeck entertains readers with her comical anecdotes on dieting with her husband, the roller coaster of emotions that accompany trying on swimming suits in your forties and beyond, and the unwelcome neuroses that often occur during parenthood. DeCoster amuses with outrageous tips on how to knit without catching the yarn on fire and her witty spin on the story of a mall Easter Bunny gone wild. It’s safe to say that you’ll never suffer through a hot flash the same way again after you experience one through her eyes! Husbands, Hot Flashes, and All That Hullabaloo! will have you laughing out loud at the realities of life as a middle-aged woman, ultimately leaving you with the comforting secret that life is too funny to take seriously. Visit her web site at www.wackywomanhood.com for more details on how to order the book! *** Learn More about Promoting! To promote better, authors need to know the ups and downs, ins and outs of contests, not just the same old, same old. Here's everything a writer needs to know from sponsoring a contest of her own to how to use contests to improve her writing. Yep, they can be used for that and more! Contest Facts: How to Add Award-winning to Your Name Instructors/producers and moderators are: Allyn Evans Joyce Faulkner Kathe Gogolewski Carolyn Howard-Johnson Published by Double Dragon Press: Our Price: $9.99 USD SALE PRICE: $8.49 ISBN: DDPAUDIO00002 Genre: Self Help - Non-Fiction Audio Duration: 60 Minutes Published: November 2006 Imprint: DDP POD RADIO Go to: http://double-dragon-ebooks.com/single.asp?ISBN=DDPAUDIO00002 *** What's Momfidence? It means believing Oreos make a fine snack...TV won't rot kids' brains...Locks are for doors, not toilets...Hollering happens...Toy guns are harmless fun...And Saturday mornings are for sleep, not tiny-tots soccer. Worry less, wing it more. MOMFIDENCE! An Oreo Never Killed Anybody and Other Secrets of Happier Parenting by Paula Spencer "Bold, true, and a hoot." —Jacquelyn Mitchard, The Deep End of the Ocean, mom of seven "If I weren't dead, I'd give 'Momfidence' Five Stars!" --Erma Bombeck Based the popular "Momfidence!" column in Woman's Day and Paula's features in Parenting and Baby Talk Crown/Three Rivers Press To pre-order: http://tinyurl.com/rty64 http://www.momfidence.com http://www.paulaspencer.com/work1.htm *** Got a book inside you? Having trouble landing a publisher? Like the idea of actually making a living off your book? If you haven't checked out my latest, here's the scoop... The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living http://www.wellfedsp.com As most of you know, I self-published both The Well-Fed Writer and TWFW: Back For Seconds, and together, these two books - over 50,000 copies in print - have provided me with a full-time living for over five years (and counting…). This latest work explains, in step-by-step detail, exactly how I did it… But that's not all. To truly simplify your marketing efforts, I assembled virtually every piece of marketing material I created in the course of my successful book promotion campaigns in one phenomenal 100-page ebook resource called… The Well-Fed SP Biz-in-a-Box To quote one of my first buyers: "I took a quick look at the Biz-in-a-Box. You're drastically undercharging." You said it, my friend. You have to see this beauty to believe it. The cost? Ridiculously low. About what an evening at the movies (okay, with popcorn and drinks…) would cost: $29.95. But, it gets better… Purchase the Biz-in-a-Box along with the book, and it's only $19.95! Check it all out at http://www.wellfedsp.com. And may all your writing - and now your books, too! - be "well-fed"! Peter Bowerman Know anyone who dreams of making a GOOD living as a writer? Steer them to www.wellfedwriter.com for a FREE report, “Why Commercial Writing?” by Peter Bowerman, author of the award winning Well-Fed Writer titles - how-to standards in the field of lucrative commercial freelancing. Subscribe to THE WELL-FED E-PUB, the critically acclaimed FREE monthly ezine and companion to The Well-Fed Writer series: www.wellfedwriter.com/ezine.shtml. Just Released! The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book Into a Full-Time Living. For full details and FREE report, visit www.wellfedsp.com.. www.copywriter.pro - Freelance Copywriting Services *** My newest e-book is here!!! Whether you're a first time home buyer or already living in a great house, "Home is where the Heart/Money Is" will build your financial future. This 135-page e-book is filled with savvy tips and designer secrets to turn your house into a haven for your family and friends. Buy "Home is where the Heart/Money Is" for only 19.99 and download it instantly. From realizing your dreams of home ownership, to living a thankful life, "Home is where the Heart/Money Is" will help you build wealth and give you a great foundation for your financial future. Buy it today! --SHAUNNA PRIVRATSKY http://www.vonage.com/startsavingnow/ *** Hello Fellow Writers, In celebration of the successful release of my new novel, Pressed Pennies, my publisher has proposed the following: Although the book can be found on B&N.com, Amazon.com (please see posted reviews) and in your local bookstore, you can now purchase the book directly from the publisher at www.SunpiperBooks.com for $10.00, a $5.95 discount (just click on the *Book Clubs Only button)! The publisher's hope is that you will enjoy the book and spread the word to other avid readers. Early Reviews: “Steve Manchester has a gift for expressing through his writing the complicated and transcendent beauty of the human experience with poignant clarity.” – Yolanda King (eldest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King) Higher Ground "Pressed Pennies is priceless! Steve Manchester has an obvious love of words and an amazing ability to use those words to create lasting images in the reader’s mind. His detail-oriented, richly drawn characters and descriptions make this story leap off the pages." - Joyce Handzo, In the Library Reviews "Pressed Pennies is a tale of love and second chances and affirms that love can come at any stage of life if we are just open. This is a book that is sure to warm your heart." - Roberta Austin, The Compulsive Reader Sincere thanks for your time and consideration. Best, Steve www.StevenManchester.com ************************************************************** GUEST ARTICLE Let Tom Swift Inform Your Writing By: Carolyn Howard-Johnson Ever heard of Tom Swifties? Maybe you're too young to be familiar with the classic Tom Swift adventures for boys. Or maybe you're a girl who never read a Tom Swift book nor cares to. Tom Swifties are one-line jokes lampooning the style of Victor Appleton, the author of the original Tom Swift books. People started making jokes about his overuse of adverbs and unnecessary taglines. Like the Polish jokes, they were so much fun that a whole series of them became available for the pun-loving. The author of these classics, of course, laughed all the way to the bank. But that's a lesson for one of my marketing seminars, not this article on writing. Tom Swifties were then. This is now. I haven't dared to go to the new books in the series but I assume that this outdated writing has been eliminated from them. You'll want to minimize tags and adverbs in your writing, too! An example from one of the Swift books will suffice to let you know what to watch for. (Thank you to Roy Peter Clark for the example.) "Look!" suddenly exclaimed Ned. "There's the agent now!...I'm going to speak to him!" impulsively declared Ned. Even authors who swear that adverbs are always very, very good things to use and are reluctant to give up their clever taglines can see how, well . . . .awful this is. In fact, I have to reassure people the quotation is real! Some of the writing that comes to the desks of agents and editors looks almost as bad. Here's how you can make sure yours doesn't: 1. Use taglines only when one is necessary for the reader to know who is speaking. 2. Almost always choose "he said" or "she said" over anything too cute, exuberant or wordy like "declared" and "exclaimed." 3. Cut the "ly" words ruthlessly, not only in dialogue tags but everywhere. You will find specific techniques for strengthening your writing in the process of eliminating adverbs in The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. This book will also give you some computer tricks for making these edits easy. The Frugal Editor will be released July 1 and launched at the LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books April 28 and 29. Until you get the book, you don't have to know the reasons or the techniques for making the "ly" and tagline edits easy. As Nike is fond of saying, "Just do it!" --- Carolyn Howard-Johnson, award-winning author of The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. www.HowToDoItFrugally.com ************************************************************** BOOK EXCERPT Excerpt from: Marilyn and Me Author: Shanta Everington Publisher: Cinnamon Press ISBN 0-978-1-905614-17-2 Author site: http://www.shantaeverington.co.uk Publisher site (US readers): http://www.home-education.org.uk/cinnamon/titles-us.htm “The book is listed on Amazon.co.uk but not US Amazon.com. However, you can buy direct from publisher via above link for $24.00.” Marilyn Monroe never had a baby. She had a husband but they got divorced. His name was Jimmy and she married him when she was sixteen. After Jimmy, she got married again. I would like to have a husband and a baby. It must be nice to have someone to love and to love you back. If I had a baby, I would love it and never give it away. I would never give it to someone else to take care of. People say I can’t even look after myself, let alone a baby but that’s not true. I would feed it and change it and give it a bath and wind it and sing it lullabies, like I sing to Janey. I’m good at singing. When I was born, Mum was scared because of what the doctors told her. She didn’t know how I’d turn out. She didn’t know if she could cope with me. So she gave me to her sister, Maggie who lived in Southend. Aunt Maggie couldn’t have children because her body didn’t work properly. Maybe that’s why she didn’t mind that I didn’t work properly either. Aunt Maggie didn’t even have a husband because he left before she got me but it didn’t matter. I don’t remember her that much but she must have loved me and I loved her. She died when I was four. Someone crashed into her car when she was driving home from the supermarket. I was strapped in the back. They say it’s a miracle that I was okay. I don’t remember it but I don’t like cars. I always get the bus. But maybe now I don’t like buses either because of what happened at the bus stop but I don’t want to think about that. After Mum’s gone, I ask the nurse if I can look in the mirror. She has blonde hair like me but she doesn’t have roots. Her hair is clean and shiny and she wears it in a pony tail. She says I have to talk to someone first. A man comes to talk to me. He’s wearing a white coat and he has grey hair on his head and his eyebrows so he must be a doctor. He says my face looks a lot worse than it is. He says I might have scars, though. Do I know what scars mean? I do know what scars mean because I have a long thin one on my leg where I burnt myself when Barbara was my mum. I nod to show him that I do know. He says they might be able to do something about the scars later but they want to see how it heals first. I understand because sometimes things look bad but then they look okay after. Like when Billy cut his finger at the day centre doing cooking and it looked like all the blood in his body was coming out of his finger and he screamed and then I screamed and even Sharon looked scared. But when he took the plaster off the next day, it was only a tiny cut and his finger had gone all crinkly. Billy is a nice man. He is my friend. The nurse told me that he’s come to visit again and this time I let him and Sharon in. Mum has gone home to get some rest but she’ll be back. I watch the nurse talking to Billy and Sharon outside my room. I have my own room, not a bed on the ward. I look through my window. It is getting dark outside but I don’t know what time it is. They haven’t brought any food for a long time. The door opens and Sharon comes in first. She swallows hard. ‘How are you feeling, Marilyn?’ She speaks in a very quiet voice. Billy makes a noise like a horse and starts rocking. Billy is a rocking horse. ‘Oh, I guess you must be pleased to see us?’ I’m laughing at the rocking horse joke. It makes my face hurt. ‘My face hurts,’ I say and I start to cry. The tears sting and make it hurt worse. ‘Oh, oh. Shall I get the nurse?’ asks Sharon. ‘No,’ I shout. ‘I don’t want the nurse.’ ‘Okay,’ says Sharon. ‘Billy, come and say hello to Marilyn.’ Billy is facing the wall. He is still rocking. He is crying too. I know it is because I look very bad and he is scared. I want him to stop being scared. ‘It’s alright, Billy,’ I say. ‘Come and sit down.’ He is still making the noise but it is quieter now and he turns round. ‘Come on, Billy,’ says Sharon, patting a chair. Billy steps forward, then back again, then forward and he sits on the chair. He stares at me. I look at his face. It is all puffy. His eyes are very wet and there are lots of red lines in them. But they are not as bad as mine. We look at each other’s eyes. Billy is quiet. He blinks but doesn’t say anything. I wonder if the blinks mean anything. He looks at my forehead, my nose, my cheek, my mouth, my chin. He looks away. I start to cry. He looks at the tubes coming out of my arm. He looks at the machines that make whirring sounds. He looks at the flowers that Mum brought in. Red roses. Like a man might buy you for Valentines’ Day, if he loves you. He looks at the newspaper next to the vase on the bedside table. The one with the picture of plain Jane inside. He puts his hand on my hand. It is quiet. ‘So how are you feeling?’ asks Sharon. Bad. I am feeling bad. I say, ‘I want to go home,’ Billy looks up at me again. Then he looks at Sharon. ‘Can Marilyn go home?’ he asks her. ‘I don’t know,’ says Sharon. ‘What did the doctors say?’ I shrug. ‘They said there might be scars. I don’t care. I can put make-up on them.’ ‘Have you spoken to your mum about going home?’ I pull my hand away from Billy and hit the bed. It makes him jump. ‘I want to go home to my flat!’ I can hear that my voice is loud. ‘Okay,’ says Sharon and I think this means I can go home. Then she says, ‘Have you spoken to Rose about it?’ I shake my head. ‘What about Natasha?’ ‘No!’ I don’t mean to shout but it comes out very loud and the nurse opens the door. She is small and she has red spiky hair and lots of gold earrings in each ear. I don’t remember her. Where is the nurse with the silky blonde ponytail? ‘I think Jane’s had enough for now,’ she says. ‘Maybe you can come back tomorrow.’ I want to tell the nurse with the red hair that my name is Marilyn not Jane. But I don’t. COPYRIGHT 2007 BY SHANTA EVERINGTON. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART MAY BE USED WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR. REPRINTED HERE WITH PERMISSION. ************************************************************** BOOK GIVEAWAY No giveaway this month. ************************************************************** WHAT'S UP WITH THE BOOK'S WRITERS? The following is news of writers you can read interviews with in Volume One of the MIDNIGHT OIL book. No news this month. ************************************************************** BOOK NEWS What's the latest with the first volume of BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL: How We Survive as Writing Parents? No book news this month. ************************************************************** FREEBIE CORNER Free House to House Kids Activity Pack: http://www.totallyfreestuff.com/index.asp?ID=7614 Fill out a survey to get a free USB Mouse: http://tinyurl.com/2oau88 Free samples at Olay.com: http://www.olay.com/samplesandoffers/ ************************************************************** SITES SITED The following are interesting, helpful sites that I’d like to pass on. Anagramsite.com: http://www.anagramsite.com/ CreateBlog: http://www.createblog.com/ Operation DVD: http://www.operationdvd.us/ HowManyOfMe.com: http://howmanyofme.com/ Bigoo: http://www.bigoo.ws/ ************************************************************** WRITING PARENT TIPS FOR JUNE: No tips this month. ************************************************************** WANNA SUBMIT TO THIS E-ZINE?? I am always open to submissions for the E-zine!! Feel free to submit any of the following: 1. An article. Any style and length. Articles must relate to writing, being a writing parent or successful business/marketing ideas. If the article is a reprint, you must own the reprint rights. 2. Tips for writing parents. 3. Advertising info, a freebie link, fan mail or, if you are included in the book, news and updates on what’s going on in your writing life! PLEASE NOTE: Payment for submissions has been restored to $5 per article, payable on publication. And, please, be sure to include your bio with submissions. It gets everything moving a little faster. :) ************************************************************** You are subscribed to this E-zine because you requested a subscription or signed yourself up on your own. To unsubscribe, send a blank e-mail to: 59308-unsubscribe@zinester.com |
|
| << May16, 2007 - Burning the Midnight Oil Book Zine -- Issue Thirty-One |
July02, 2007 - Burning the Midnight Oil Book Zine -- Issue Thirty-Three >> |
|
Burning the Midnight Oil Book Zine Archives Index
|
Subscribe
|
|
|
Archives powered by Zinester's Mailing List Service
Details on Burning the Midnight Oil Book Zine |
Browse for more newsletters at Zinester's Ezine Directory
Managed by Zinester's Mailing List Management |