the other mother - free writing workshop for moms

You've come a long way, baby

So summer is winding down. Never mind that we haven't yet been to "our beach house" (a one-week rental, and believe me, I'm excited -- this year it's more than 400 square feet!), but back-to-school is a full-on event out there. A friend at the pool told me she spotted Thanksgiving items in the Rite-Aid. C'mon, folks, let's not skip the all-important DNA Day! Tolkien Reading Day! National Boss Day!

I ordered my daughter's school lunch for September online the other day. She has more lunch options than we ever did. Mostly, I ate pb&j, or a cheese sandwich, or the ever-weird (but delicious) pomegranate (now I know I was ahead of my time).

Once in a while we were allowed to order school lunch from the lunch ladies. It came in silver foil and smelled, inevitably, of cardboard, cabbage, and feet. Mmm. She gets to choose between yogurt bag, turkey sandwich, cheese sandwiches, and of course, hot things, every day. What I really longed for was the chocolate milk.

There's still time yet to enter the summer writing contest. If you do it by Labor Day, I promise not to put a turkey on the door until then.

Meanwhile, here's a topic for the waning days of summer:

Write about school lunch. Packing it, eating it, smelling it, wanting it, lacking it, buying it, hating it, loving it. Write for 8 minutes because it's the 8th month of the year.

Then come back in September, because it's time to get writing some more!

Sweeter than Tupelo Honey

sweet honey
image by mateusz atroszko

Some days we all need a little sweetness, a little honey, a little magic. Never mind the initial groans grownups make, this little book is lovely, full of imaginative language and dazzling drawings, and most of all, magic. My daughter is at the age of magic (not that it really ends, ever), and she gasped when she saw this.

"Oh, Mommy, it's the most beautiful book in the world!"

fairy foals

I haven't grown tired of reading it over and over (never mind that we have about a thousand other books in the rotation), and she says the fairy foals are in her dreams. It makes me think about believing, about when I was walking home from kindergarten, so, so hungry for a snack, and I believed myself when I decided I could eat imaginary chocolate pudding from my pocket. It wasn't imaginary, it was delicious. The grasshoppers spoke to me, the tree leaves had a language, I could fly. You remember it, too.

So here's your topic:

Write about magic, when you believed.

It doesn't have to be corny; it shouldn't be cynical, it should be summer cicadas and the hissing of deep green lawns. Write for seven summer minutes.

And don't forget the contest. I've set a deadline: the end of summer. Labor Day. Sure, that's loads of time, but if you hone and post your paragraphs now you can feel as though you've accomplished one summer goal already.

Happy sprinkler weather!

Contest! Brought to you by the letter P

bird of paradise (Strelitzia)

School's almost out, the cocoons have hatched into moths and butterflies, the air conditioners hum and the grass sings with insects that will live very short, lovely lives.

Time for a little contest.

It's little because you only have to write two paragraphs. I'll give you a topic, and you can write for as long as you want (or 23 minutes, if you need a limit), but then take your work off into the outside world and hone two paragraphs for me, make them your best.

The winner gets:

• a) the honor of being the first ever Moms Who Write Summer Contest winner
• b) a fabulous car magnet featuring The Other Mother book jacket, so you'll always know which minivan is yours in the parking lot and
• c) an adorable little box of chocolates.

It isn't huge, but it's good. 4 runners-up get car magnets and can call themselves runners-up in any desired social event.

Take your new status to the Hamptons! Or the Shore! Or the Cape! Or the backyard sprinkler! Fire hydrant! If there's enough interest, I'll send out five fridge magnets as well, but mostly I'm hoping to get your best paragraphs. Don't be shy. Write, hone, post. The closing date is TBA.

Enough details. Now more details:

Yesterday my daughter and I were talking about the plum tree, about how for one week we get an explosion of fragrant flowers, then the next week a plethora of pink petal precipitation, and then, which is now, some perfect purple plums. Sure, they're ornamental, but we've used them as a sort of snack since we had a Persian babysitter who ate them by the bushel, and told us, "If I don't come to work tomorrow, they weren't good to eat." She came back. If you're out there now, Nooshin, we're thinking of you!

So summer means perfect purple plums around here. When I lived in San Diego it meant Santa Anas blustering the night-blooming jasmine and the hot dry wind making your throat ache for the east. June Gloom. In San Francisco the single bird of paradise plant bloomed in the tiny little space between our earthquake shack and the apartment building next door. One square foot of dirt enclosed by walls and a bird of paradise perched there.

This week's writing topic: What is June for you? Write your June, perfect plums or terrible rains. Then post your two paragraphs. Have at it. If you have been lurking, this is the time to post!

and the winner is...

Janeen of ChupieandJsmama

I literally put the comments in a hat (a small white straw hat embellished with flowers) and drew her name. Thank you all for your interest and enthusiasm, and I hope you'll pick up a copy of The Other Mother when it comes out in a few weeks (you can preorder on Amazon now).

Most of all, what a wonderful and wild way to meet up with all sorts of amazing bloggers and storytellers, craftswomen of many types. I'd do it again, that's for sure. Hope everyone won something good. Happy weekend!

And please, post a few writings under Judy's post, below, so I can brag to her about my students and e-friends, okay?

New topic coming soon.......

Look to the skies! (dog days o' summer)

Okay, I’ve been trying to post this for a while, but Typepad’s having woes. What? Power problems? But it’s the web, we all need web. I kid. They’ll work it out.

Anyway, what I wanted to say was this:
Dog Days of Summer Giveaway!

Everyone’s giving stuff away via their blogs. Check out Bloggy Giveaways for more contests and the chance to win more free stuff. I love the idea (and have, of course, entered several drawings).

So, I’m giving away one gorgeous, hardcover, signed copy of the yet to be released The Other Mother. Who doesn’t want free stuff? And of course, if you love the book and tell your friends, that’ll make me extra happy.

Here’s how it works: post in the comments, answering the question below. (hint: if you don’t know already, check out The Other Mother website) and make sure to include your email address. You don’t need to write a writing post, though those are welcome, of course! Just let me know you want to be in the drawing.

The comments will close on Friday, July 27, 2007 at 5pm eastern time, and I’ll put them all in a hat over the weekend and draw a lucky winner.

Okay, here’s the question:
In what state do Thea and Amanda live?

*Note:* I didn't realize, until I tried looking it up that way, that the book description on the site no longer gives the answer, though you could find it elsewhere.

So, it's okay if you answer this instead:
Where does Amanda work?

Hope you’re all enjoying the dog days, and writing up a storm! Feel free to reply to earlier topics, whenever you’re ready.

Too much

Hello, all! First, let me offer this: the first person to post on this topic wins a free advance galley of The Other Mother.

Hopefully, you'll love it and tell all your friends to pre-order or run out and get one on August 7th, 2007. Just post your writing (in the comments) (you also have to actually write to the topic), and I'll contact you for your address!

Second, we went to the fireworks despite the rain last night. The display was spectacular (even though they cancelled the skydivers, and, having never witnessed skydivers, I was a little disappointed), and reminded me of my own childhood 4ths, watching fireworks from Boston Common, listening to the Boston Pops play the 1812 Overature, scared and thrilled by the light, sound, and drunks. Not to mention staying up late.

Leaving the show last night, my daughter couldn't stop talking as we walked along the dark streets with the other satisfied audience members, noticing how quiet it was, how dark it was, how it was late, how the rain made funny sounds on her hood, and then this, which I love: "Mommy, those fireworks were so beautiful, they were even more beautiful than a banana peel!"

The thing is, I get it. She meant the shape of an open peel after you've just denuded the fruit.

Enough. On to your writing topic:

Write about too much (noise, talking, food, interference, love, swimming, sex...have at it!) for 17 minutes.

And hope you all had a spectacular 4th!

another week, another topic, and something else for free...

Hello wonderful writing women!

First, I want to mention two wonderful sites:

Great for a daily dose of something good.

Second: it's tell-a-friend week!

I know some of you are off on summer expotitions (Winnie the Pooh's word), but for those who are around: you know who I mean, that friend who writes long and eloquent emails, a writer at heart. If you will, share this blog with her, okay?

In fact, I'll sweeten the pot: the first person to have two friends post (writing posts, that is, in the comments) and mention her name gets a free advance galley of The Other Mother. My marketing manager sent me one extra, and I'd love to share it (and if you love it, maybe you'll even post elsewhere and spread the word).

Now, at last, the writing topic at hand (I've been waiting to tell you):

Write about waiting.

For a table, waiting tables, waiting for Godot, waiting up late, for birth, for test results, for the end of school, for the beginning..........you choose.

And here's a little challenge: after you read through the rules (try reading 'em out loud). Write for three minutes and make everything one sentence--that doesn't mean you have to be brief, but instead, that you link it all up with commas, semicolons, dashes, or nothing.

Don't worry about the grammar police; they're off duty for first drafts. Then, try to write for five minutes more using that same wild momentum you (hopefully) got from writing without the break of a period.

Happy summer all! Happy writing!