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Showing posts from 2015

Han Solo-isms: You Need Them in Your Life

See this guy? Yeah. You know who he is. Han Solo. Corellian, friend to Wookies, and Millenium Falcon Driver. Or Flyer. Or Whatever. Pilot! That's it. Pilot. Okay. Here he is. ↓ See this look on his face? It says sarcastic, sardonic, sneer-filled, snide, and know-it-all, in one fell swoop. But of course, we love that. Every. Single. Bit. Of. It. It's what makes Han Solo one of the best characters. Ever. ↓ Okay. Now. Look at this picture. The one that says, "I ain't havin' none of this." and "My way or the highway." Got a good look? Well that's pretty much the look I give to my two boys -- and all the time now. What am I talking about, you say? Well, I'm glad you asked. I've relegated to being the Han Solo in their lives (minus a few things like chest hair and a blaster or two et al, ... I don't need to elaborate). And you can learn more by reading the article I wrote here ◄on Society Letters. Enjoy. An

Summer 2015

It's been said that life goes by faster with every year that passes. This is undeniably true. School has been out for my boys for two months, and yet, I can't understand how they're starting school again in three weeks. A parental phenomenon is what it is. And this humorous, albeit ridiculous, door knob sign that my eldest son made, is a phenomenon all its own.  I shouldn't have had to ask, but I did ... the blindness will happen if I don't knock on his door and make sure he isn't naked before I walk in. Oh, good heavens. This summer, it's good to see him using his words and writing. And per usual, it's good to see his humor is still intact. Have a great weekend friends. Oh, and a little article about my Etsy start-up five years ago just posted a few days ago on this sweet blog I'm a part of, called Society Letters. ◄ -HJS

Writing │ Things Always Turn Out Differently

The way I start a story is rarely how I finish it. And writing is pretty much always this way. Which is a good thing. No, it's a fantastic thing. The first draft of anything should never, ever see the light of day. Or anyone's eyes. But yours of course, the first time around. Then said eyes need to watch yourself retyping a great deal of it. And this is for any writer. Pro or amateur. As Hemingway once said, and I'm going to paraphrase, "All first drafts are crap." Clearly, he didn't say "crap." That wasn't the word he used. That wasn't Hemingway. But, I digress. Here's the thing. He's right. First drafts are garbage. Always. They must be rewritten. Now, sometimes when articles and things getting printed, what you think will be printed won't always be the case. I know this first hand. I've written many things that have been edited sharply. Things I wrote, that turned out nothing like what I submitted. That's the fre

Mamalode Magazine │ Poetry

A friend of mine recently told me about a parenting magazine called Mamalode.   And after checking them out, I've come to the conclusion that Mamalode is a darn cool magazine. They have both an online and print magazine, dealing with mom life, parenting and everything that falls in between those two categories.Which is great for me. Because that's my life! The photography in the print version is incredible.  Apparently, Mamalode is quite well known. The blogger and creator of BlogHer, Lisa Stone, calls Mamalode "The best parenting magazine out there." That's saying something coming from a parent and writer, herself. My friend suggested I start submitting to them, as I needed fresh markets to submit material. I felt like I was in a writing rut. So, I submitted a poem. They took it and it was online last week. It's rather appropriate they printed this first, considering April is poetry month. The poem is called Harvesting the Oranges before Spring

Working Title │ The Chicken or the Egg

I often wonder when I'm reading, or listening to music, whether or not the work was written before or after the title. It's a common thing for writers not to name their works until after the book or article or poem is finished. Because coming up with a title before everything is done, is kind of like putting the cart before the horse. And many times, once a work is finished, days or months can pass before the editor, writer, publisher or everyone, can agree on a title. Sometimes, a title is easy. Rolls off the tongue the second the last word is finished and it totally make the book complete. But, I find that this usually isn't the case. How do you narrow down 100,000 words to just one or two? Do you go by the subject matter, or a personality of a character, or an emotional theme to the book? What story can the image of these flowers create? I don't love titles. Those are tough. But, I do love writing on prompts. What's that? When a picture or sentence or sin

Reading │ Writing

Well hey! Just wanted to say a quick hello. I'm still here. No excuses for not blogging. However, I'm going to give you excuses anyway. Just went here for Winter Break with my boys. Their first trip to Hawaii. Spent a lot of time looking up at this while lounging on the beach or at the pool.  Spent an equal amount of time trying to get them to let me take pics of them. Took a ridiculous amount of fun selfies with my oldest. (Very cherish-able.) Came home to celebrate this boy's birthday (again). Proceeded to eat all of this by myself. Took this girl for many runs, even though I was the one that needed to run. Now, I'm doing (still) a lot of this. But wishing I was doing this. I'm getting back into the writing groove guys. I promise. Hope to share some of it in the near future. Aloha...