I said goodbye to Georgia and Case* this weekend. I mean it. I literally held an inch-and-a-half stack of papers in front of my face and said, “bye.” Then I looked around to see if anyone heard. And sniffled. Fitting, really, that I called Tuesdays “done” almost exactly one year after attending my first MBT retreat, where the story was …
Playing truant.
Okay, just for a moment, please humor my train of thought upon my typing of the word “truant.” Hmm, “truant” is a funny word. Wouldn’t it be a blast to work as an olden day truant officer? Traveling around on horseback catching one-room-schoolhouse-ditching kids? Huh, are there still truant officers today? If there are, I bet they look like this …
New goal. Gulp.
It’s 11 p.m. on a Saturday night. I’ve consumed a bit (translate: a ton) too much coffee. If I were a car and coffee was gasoline, I’d be an SUV. My eyes are blurry from staring at the computer screen a little too long. And I’m thinking about… Mornings. ‘Member when Gordan MacRae comes horse-ridin’ through the cornfield in Rogers …
Waaah, it’s over!!
What I brought home from my first and definitely not last ACFW conference… …a trophy! Okay, so I hope it’s not boastful to list this first, but hearing Susan May Warren announcing my name on Saturday night truly was an exciting moment for me. I’m not an athlete – though I was cabin champion at carpet-ball one year at camp …
Pitch Fest: Premise practice…and a promise: it’s really not so hard!
Welcome, Pitch Fest peeps! Today I’m blogging about the elements of a PREMISE as part of Susan May Warren’s MBT Voices Practice Pitch Fest Blog Hop Thingy! 🙂 If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Susie’s Pitch Fest Kick-off here. Then stop by The Writing Road for Beth Vogt’s insight on finding the core of your pitch. And …
September blogging after all!
Well, I cushioned myself last week with a note about possible lack of blogging presence in the month of September. Turns out I spoke too soon! (Never done that before. Nope. Like, I totally never said the Karl Malone-led Utah Jazz would beat MJ and his Bulls in 1997. Or ’98. Uh, yeah.) Anyway, this week I’m participating in Susan …
What do Kelly, Bauer, Sparrow and a scruffy dog have in common?
Had a realization last week. And we’re talking deep. I was hanging out with some coworkers watching Disney’s masterpiece Newsies. Okay, so critics from back in the early 90s might argue with me on the masterpiece part, considering the mostly-boy musical turned out to be one of Disney’s lowest grossing movies ever, but seriously – back then folks were still …
Broken toe, broken world, big God.
I’m a day away from two weeks since my last post. For shame. A hundred lashes! (Can I take those in eyelashes? ‘Cause I saw a headline recently saying men are particularly drawn to eyelashes. Um, what?) I’ve got excuses plenty – like the fact that I think I broke a toe the other night. I slammed my foot into an …
I can’t believe I’m about to say this. It’s about as uncharacteristic as me chugging a Diet Pepsi (ugh – Diet Coke all the baby, people). But say it, I will: I’m ready for cooler weather. Fellow Iowans and long-time friends, you can raise your eyebrows high as you want, drop your jaw, smirk, pick your “Did Melissa really just …
Just one thing at a time.
This week, I felt vindicated. Probably to the point of smug, actually. Which is, perhaps, something I shouldn’t admit. But hey, they say the rise of social media (facebook, et al) has produced a culture of sharing. So I’m just being cultural here. My moment of “I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!” came while reading an article …