#IWSG for May 2019

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is the brilliant idea of Alex J. Cavanaugh. The purpose of the group is to share doubts and insecurities and to encourage one another. Please visit the other participants and share your support. A kind word goes a long way.

This month's awesome co-hosts are: Lee Lowery, Juneta Key, Yvonne Ventresca, and T. Powell Coltrin!

This month's optional question: What was an early experience where you learned language had power?

This is a big question. I had to think a while about it. I know I talked very young, but I was never a talkative kid (nor adult!). I also still have stories I wrote when I was five years old. I cannot ever remember not being in love with reading. It was my escape, my joy, my inspiration.

While I can't think of a particular time when I was that young, later on in my childhood, I started writing short stories about The Kingham Kids. (It was the group of children I grew up with in my neighborhood. We lived on Kingham Road!) I'd draw the title pages and write silly adventures that always ended in a terribly cheesy joke. The other kids would always gather around me, eyes wide and eager, and listened to the stories. They loved them. Later in life as adults, a few of them told me that those stories were one of the bright moments in their hard childhoods, and with the aid of my imagination, I helped them escape cruel realities for a little while. I knew they loved the stories, but I had never known just how much they meant to them.

The power of stories never ceases to astound me.

This month's insecurities: I'm doing a lot of things... just not writing. It's driving me bonkers that a story hasn't snatched me away and driven to write. So much is going on away from the computer, and then when I get online, all I seem to do is try to catch up on things.

I think I need to clear my metaphorical desk and sweep away everything so it's only the word processor's blank screen and I. I'm going to take a blogging break for the summer (end of May through August) and ease back from social media. I won't completely disappear, but I want all the stuff that seems to pile up on me out of the way. I'm a writer, and my number one responsibility is to write.

There will still be a few promos and guests are most welcome here. I'm always happy to help out other writers.

What do you do when the words aren't coming?

The ORIGINS Blogfest

This awesome blogfest is hosted by DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0. He's a comic book fan. Hey, I'm a comic book fan too! I love reading about the origins of heroes and even the villains. The mythology behind it all, the dark pasts, and the freaky nuclear accidents.

Here's what DL Hammons writes about the blogfest: On Monday, February 13^th, you should post your own origin story.  Tell us all where your writing dreams began.  It could be anything from how you started making up stories as a child, or writing for the school newspaper, or even what prompted you to start a blog.  How about stories about the first time somebody took an interest in your writing, or the teacher/mentor that helped nudge you along and mold your passion, or maybe the singular moment when you first started calling yourself a writer.  It all started somewhere and we want you to tell us your own, unique, beginnings.

CHRISTINE RAINS - THE BEGINNING

I grew up in a small Canadian town with a troubled history. The only claims to fame we had were the great flour mill fire of '64 and the villains who clawed their way up to bigger crimes in the province's capital city. And by clawed, I mean they used their claws. Werebadgers like to live out in the country hills.

I lived on the poor side of town right beside a cemetery. The cemetery was our playground. I loved that place. It fueled my imagination for all sorts of scary stories. Sometimes the stories I wrote came true.

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little. All my stories weren't scary.

I wrote a poem about the moon when I was five years old. It informed the reader there were holes on the moon, but no trees or cars. It won a prize at the local fall fair. My infamous short story series about The Kingham Kids was my real beginning as a writer. I was seven and the first stories were only a few pages long in my childish handwriting. The first one was about a tornado. My brother, our two neighbors, and I managed to out-ride it on our bicycles. My stories began to grow in length, and I added in more of the kids in the neighborhood. We were a gang. A gang that went on adventures, saved babies and puppies, and banished the bad guys. All the kids would wait impatiently as I wrote the stories and then sit eagerly while I read it to them.

I always loved reading and writing. Yet it was through The Kingham Kids that I really fell in love with being a writer. It was an indescribable joy to write the stories and have my audience captivated by them. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to write books. No, I didn't just want to do it, I needed to do it.

My mutant power erupted when I hit puberty and I lost all confidence in myself. I could only turn my limbs invisible. It wasn't enough to impress Bad Horse. The werebadgers sucked out my power in one universe, and, in another, it was the secret government ray guys zapping mutant genes when they cross land borders. Or it could have been when I was battling zombie Trudeau. (Comic books. Yeah, so many different universes and reboots. Can't keep them straight.) 

I still feel that joy when I write. Some stories take more work than others, but it goes with being a writer. I still feel the need to write, and though I have always been writing, it's only in these past few years that I've gained the confidence and knowledge of how to make my dream of being a published author come true.

Hm. Perhaps something good did come out of that little town.

I want a cape and cowl now.

Please join me on Thursday for a great giveaway celebrating over 200 followers!