IWSG June Secrets and Cover-ups

Hello there!

Whether you’re just passing through, or looking for a comfortable online group in which to share your writing journey, you’ve come to the right place! The Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers resources, tips, timely news, how-to’s, and don’t do’s – all the support we writers can use to make the most of our craft.

We meet on the 1^st Wednesday of every month. Feel free to browse around and mingle. As in the words of IWSG founder and “Cassa Series,” author Alex Cavanaugh, “Your words may be the encouragement someone else needs” Join us!

This month’s gracious co-hosts are:   Pat Garcia, J.Q. Rose, and Natalie Aguirre!

This month’s Optional Question is:  Writers have secrets! What are one or two of yours, something readers would never know from your work?

bookriot.com

How’s everyone doing out there in Quarantine Land? I’ve begun to talk to hummingbirds, and occasionally, the refrigerator when it spits out ice cubes for no apparent reason. The wearing of masks by pretty much everybody everywhere these days presents a conundrum for me. Who are these people? I met a new Ortho surgeon last month, and all I can tell you is he seems nice and has blue eyes. A young friend of mine suggested we might be better able to identify the looters if they didn’t have to wear a mask (!) I got the strangest look when I explained that people like that always wear masks – because they’re not exactly proud of what they do.

And that thought lead to another:

I could give you a handful of examples of a writer’s dauntless ambition. They ‘re stacked neatly on a corner of my desk, full-length manuscripts in various stages of completion - awaiting final approval. So why haven’t I dressed them in their Sunday best and sent them out into the world? Oh, I’ve more excuses than manuscripts to submit. Up until, and even including this year, I’ve promised (myself) that this is The Year I will accomplish these goals. Then, with sudden shortness of breath, I drop another file on top of the stack, so I can’t see the manuscripts anymore. Way to go, right?

But then, a funny thing happened on my way to abject depression. I called my own bluff! Had I that little faith in myself to spend (or waste?) all those hours, years weaving thousands of words only to leave them listless in the shadowy realm of dust bunnies? Of course not.  My summer mantra is now officially “Publish or Perish” whatever it takes. But first, I’ll need a mask (grin).

“Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen,” Brene’ Brown says in her book Daring Greatly. She has a lot more than that to say, and I recommend the book. Here’s a site that seems to agree: fourminutebooks.com

 

“Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June” ~ Al Bernstein