Curtiss Ann Matlock's Blog, page 12
May 20, 2022
Persistence
Years ago, well before my writing days and when my son was small, I designed and sewed an appliqued quilt for his bed. About half way through the creation, I put it aside. I don’t recall what was going on in my life, perhaps the big organic garden, or perhaps I was simply tired. The following year, I got it out again and finished it. I was so happy to see it on his bed. And I was so happy that it lasted thirty-five years and into the lives of my grandchildren, used until it was threadbare.
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May 16, 2022
I Finished! The End!
I finished the novel re-write on Friday. Actually, it was such a re-write as to be a completely new book after consulting with an editor. Was it two y...
May 13, 2022
Breathe and Write
“Writing is like breathing, it’s possible to learn to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what.” ~ Julia Cameron, author, artist, poet, teacher, wise-woman.
I once knew a very, very famous writer, who, so she said, made the rule for her children that they were not to interrupt her unless someone was bleeding. This is dedication.
For myself, well, I never managed to have this mindset. I once took most of a year off of novel writing to enjoy home-schooling my son. I can be calle...
May 9, 2022
Are We There Yet?
When I was a child, my father was in the Coast Guard. His career required change of duty stations and gave our family the opportunity to cross the nation a number of times. This was in the late Fifties/early Sixties. Imagine two adults traveling with three children, one a toddler, driving day after day. My father behind the wheel (I rarely saw my mother drive) and my mother in the passenger seat, her dark hair in the style of Lucille Ball, with dark sunglasses on her face. We children were c...
May 2, 2022
Keeping a Journal of a Novel
Late last year I came across John Steinbeck’s Journal of a Novel. He kept it while writing his epic novel, East of Eden. The journal was written in the form of letters to his editor, who was also a close friend, and reveals both his trepidation and his love and dedication at the undertaking of writing his most ambitious novel. On the pages of his journal he challenges himself, encourages himself, explains and defends his creation, and generally keeps himself going.
Inspired in the reading ...
April 29, 2022
April 25, 2022
On Birds and Writing
There are people who ask me what I do all day. I’m always vague. I don’t know how to explain myself, often even to myself.
One answer can be that I watch birds. As I loaded the dishwasher and mulled over this post, I heard the calling of mourning doves from somewhere out along the deep creek. I went out to my screened porch to retrieve my tea mug and startled the little Carolina chickadee at the feeder that is on the other side of the screen, barely two feet away. I paused and the Carolina ch...
April 18, 2022
Porch Musings–Keep On Keeping On
Sitting on my back screen porch this early morning, I savored my first cup of black tea and writing in my journal and reading. The green oak limbs bowed low beyond the screen, as if to shelter me in the porch. I was surprised to see evidence of a storm in the night–puddles and the debris of leaves, and a potted verbena that appeared to have taken a beating. And how wonderful that I’d slept through it all and never heard! Presently the early golden rays of sun painted the tops of the trees along ...
January 12, 2022
This is the Year
This is the year I’ll finish my book. I’m seeing, and encouraged by, the realization that this is also the year I have arrived at a couple of major decisions for my life, decisions as long time coming as this book.
I have been working on this novel since before my mother’s death. Good heavens–since early 2017. That year I was holding on to a shredded rope of my life during a number of hard but glorious years of soul-building, revolving around my son and grandchildren growing and my mothe...
January 7, 2022
Wisdom, Chuckles, Hope from the WordPress Reader
I just now realized that I’ve created a new helpful habit–I open the WordPress Reader every few days and read from blogs that I follow. There’s a superlative wealth of variety and knowledge. This morning, I was inspired to select a life verse from the Bible (how does one, someone like me who has a very hard time making up her mind, choose just one?), given a smile by the thought of the powers of tea and coffee, heartened by numerous, well written, original and passionate political analysis, give...
