Morning Pages

Multiple Personalties in the Cow Pasture

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

Hello World,

If you’re wondering about the different looks my blog has had over the past week, it hasn’t been a mirage. And no, I don’t have multiple personalities. Although, based on, “I Write Like …”  I’m not so sure.  Having run samples of my writing through this intriguing site, the instant analysis I received said I wrote like HG Wells, Cory Doctorow, Kurt Vonnegut, HPLovecraft, David Foster Wallace, and most often like, Stephen King.  You draw your own conclusions, but I digress.

My blog has and is still undergoing an overhaul. I am combining my blogger, of which I have multiple, and my WordPress accounts into one. It has not been an easy task and I ask for your indulgence. I had thought I was rather tech savvy until I nearly sent all blogs into the stratosphere never to return. Why bother? Well, plain and simple. I’m not getting any younger.

I am doing this for two main reasons. 1) For simplicity and organization. To clean house. And, 2) To get me back in the game of writing, something, anything. I have been out-of-pocket for a long time due to illness. You have heard from me  with a post on occasion, but the truth is I had no focus or energy to write. Then the docs gave me a huge dose of prednisone; a medication I detest taking because of the side effects. However,  with it came  a renewed focus and the energizer bunny has nothing on me.

I began blogging  in 2009 with Friendship of a Lifetime .  It was for a different reason than why I blog today. I spent time this week  reading through, Friendship, Morning Pages, my short stories, and other writings I’d completed since all this began in October of 2009. I discovered I’d come a long way as a writer, but  still have much to learn.  I’ve shared great writing tips along the way, as well as some heart-felt stories. Not to mention a few strong opinions and the occasional creepy flash fiction.

As time-consuming and exhausting as this process has been this week, it has reawakened my muse. Over the next week or so I will continue to re-vamp my blog. I am relocating my first blog,  Friendship of a Lifetime and featuring it as a page.  Written after the loss of my best friend of 37 years,  the posts are a poignant reminder to value friends. I am putting it out there, as is. At the time  I gave no thought to grammar or style, it was written from the heart and in a state of grief. So fair warning, you will find an abundant use of adverbs.

Also, I will be sharing more of my writing, and perhaps exerts from works in progress. I may continue to share tips or things of interest to fellow writers on this journey, but my Cow Pasture Chronicles will be more personal. You will see ME  revealed in the things I write and share with from Cow Pasture. Or perhaps it will be,  Cory, David, Kurt, HG, or Stephen…..

Sheila’s Morning Pages: A laugh a Day..

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 2 Comments

Flicker

You don’t stop laughing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop laughing.”  Michael Pritchard

Okay, I admit this is not mine; I can’t take credit for it. This little gem, as the rumor goes, has been making the Internet rounds, but based on the last six months around our house my husband and I could relate. We enjoyed the best belly laugh we’ve had in a long time. It felt good. Laughing together gave us a moment we shared the rest of the day.  So laugh away. Laughter is indeed good for the soul.

A Senior Moment

The tale is about a woman’s senior moment at the office and the search for her car keys.

The keys were nowhere to be found in the office, so she figured she must have left them in the car. She headed for the parking lot, thinking about the many times her husband had scolded her for leaving the keys in the ignition. As she reached the parking lot, it was empty.

She immediately called the police to report her car stolen. Then she made the most difficult call. “Honey, she said when her hubby answered. “I left my keys in the car, and it’s been stolen.”

“Are you kidding me? I dropped you off at the office,” he said. Embarrassed she said, “Well, will you come and get me?”

He retorted, “I will as soon as I convince this cop I didn’t steal your car.”

Spartanburg Herald-Journal

You can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants. – Stephen King

 

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Intuition

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

I can’t believe Christmas is here. The week has flown by with last-minute preparations for family, and as the year winds down, I’m contemplating the direction I want my writing to go for next year.  As, of now, I’m now sure which direction I plan to go, but I’ll share more later. In the meantime, I along with the rest of you will be taking a few days off to be with family and friends to enjoy this sacred holiday.

But, before I go, I’d like to pass on a great article, I read this week, The Moo of Intuition.

The article was written by one of my friends Nan Lundeen, author of The Pantyhose Declarations. Nan teaches The Moo of Writing Workshop, and you can find her columns in Female First.

This week she wrote about listening to your intuition,  and the role it plays in our creativity. For me, listening to intuition goes hand in hand with authenticity, especially in writing, staying in tuned to both is the key. I highly recommend Nan’s article.

You can find her book, The Pantyhose Declarations  at Amazon, and it’s on sale now for those of you who may still be looking for last-minute gifts.

Merry Christmas and God Bless

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WHY?

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

prayingThere is less Christmas joy in the air, this week. The merry season is forever tainted. Our nation is still reeling from the tragedy that unfolded, two days ago, in Newton Connecticut. We can’t wrap our heads around the insanity of such an act against innocent children. That it happened so close to Christmas, a time families cherish with their children, only adds to the horror. And, we are all left asking “Why?”

The truth is, there is no “why.” There is no “one” explanation for why bad things happen to good people. I wish there were, and then we could stop it, eradicate it.

These parent’s will be grieving for a long time. They have every right to scream to the Heavens,  “Why?” I can only imagine their grief and pain. I pray for them every night.

But, the politicians and lobbyists shouldn’t try to answer that question for these families by promoting their own agenda’s. They should leave them alone.

There may come a time when one or more of the families choose to take up a cause in the name of their child, but that should be, must be, their choice, not a choice driven by the media or politics.

This is not about gun control, violence in Hollywood, the music industry and their influence, or how inept our nation is at helping the mentally ill. These issues are important and worth discussing, but NOT NOW.

This is about 26 innocent victims, 20 of them children killed less than two weeks before Christmas. For those families and surviving siblings, Christmas will never be the same. For journalists and politicians  to exploit these grieving families to further their own agendas, is but another tragedy.

It is up to us, society, and to those close to the families to help them as best we can by offering our prayers, words of comfort, and help protect them from opportunistic journalists and politicians. Tell them to let these families grieve in peace.

To the families of Newton Connecticut, you are in my prayers.