writing love

I mostly write about…

Adoption
Faith
Teaching
Writing
 
Here’s why…
 
Adoption
My husband, Andy, and I adopted our four children. Our youngest, Sam, has been with us the longest. We adopted him through a private domestic adoption in 2006. His birthmother was generous to us and we were there for his birth and every moment since.
We adopted our daughters, Hannah and Stephanie, from the state in 2008. They were ages 4 and 6. There were 10 days (!) between receiving the phone call and moving them permanently to our forever home.
 

In November 2012, we were unexpectedly called to adopt again. We quickly rushed through our paperwork and were ready for a child by mid-December. We received a call on December 17 for our new son, who moved home in January 2013. Jordan was 7 when he joined our forever family.

Here is a link to an introduction I wrote about us. (It even includes self-portraits!)

Building a family in a non-traditional way, watching children heal, learning to love more, and treasuring the ordinary moments are the fodder for much of my writing.
Faith
I want my life to make much of God. Because of this, faith is an organic part of my writing. I believe the Bible as truth and is relevant today. I believe we are called to love radically rather than to judge. I believe in God as Father, Holy Spirit, and Jesus. I’m not religious, rather, I’m walking in faith moment by moment.
Teaching
Writing
I’m intrigued by the writing process and am passionate about making the invisible processes visible. What began as way to help students personalize their own writing processes, became a driving force behind my own writing. I write in many different genres and topics. I love to explore the process, learn about others’ processes, share my own journey, and find ways to inspire writers.
Thank you for joining me and helping me discover, play, and build words and life.

Blogging Inspiration

BONS: My writing group…
Book Savors by Mary Helen
Clay Fragments by Tam
Cottage Chatter by Tammy (Sorry, but this is an invitation-only blog.)
Slices from the Sofa by Ruth (aka “the other ruth”)

Blogs I like to read…
I’ve been hesitant to compile a list of blogs because of the risk of leaving someone out. Still, here are people who inspire me to keep writing.

Ali Edwards
Carol’s Corner
Chasing Stories
Coffee with Chloe
Delivering Reading Passion
Elsie Tries Writing
Holy Experience
Karen’s Thoughtful Wanderings
Kate Messner
Living
Pleasures from the Page
Poem Farm
Sharing Our Notebooks
Teacher Dance
Wake Up and Write

Slicers…
Becoming Cathy
Hooplas
Just for a Month
Literacy Learning Zone
Nguyen’s Praire Home Companion
Something to Say
Teaching Tomorrow’s Leaders
Teaching Young Writers
Word by Word
Writing Me Home

About Teaching…
Patrick Allen
Troy Hicks
Kevin Hodgson
Bonnie Kapplan
Chris Lehman
Creative Literacy
Marjorie Martineli & Kristi Mraz (Chart Chums)
Donalyn Miller
Nerdy Book Club
A Reading Year
The Reading Zone
Mandy Robeck
Katherine Sokolowski
Karen Terlecky
Jen Vincent

Places on the web I learn more about writing…
Avi: It’s Avi…so it’s pretty great.
Falling Leaflets: A resource for children’s authors pursuing publication.
Laini Taylor: Not for Robots
Laurie Halse Anderson: Mad Woman in the Forest
Literary Rambles: A place “spotlighting children’s book authors, agents, and publishing.”
Mother. Write. Repeat.
Natalie Whipple: Between Fact and Fiction
Ralph Fletcher: Tips for Young Writers
Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators
Twitter: Follow your favorite writers.

Some of my favorite books about writing…
Anne Lamott: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and on Life
Jane Yolen: Take Joy
Avi: A Beginning, A Muddle, and an End: The Right Way to Write Writing

Quotes that stretch my understanding…

Laurie Halse Anderson: “I focus on creating situations that force the character out of her comfort zone, raising the emotional stakes as I go along. If I’ve developed conflicts that are organic and in keeping with the character’s world, her response to the conflicts will naturally lead to internal growth.”

Margaret Culkin Banning: “Fiction is not a dream, nor is it guesswork. It is imagining based on facts, and the facts must be accurate or the work of imagining will not stand up.”

Carolyn Coman: I don’t create characters so much as I make room inside my mind and heart for them to come and get me. I am drawn to characters who make me feel deeply — make me mad, confuse me, make me wonder, break my heart, stagger me with what they are up against.

Dodinsky: “Fill your cup with sunshine and laughter.”
Doug Lawson: Often I find clues to where the story might go by figuring out where the characters would rather not go.
Pamela Rutledge: Stories are how we think. They are how we make meaning of life. Call them schemas, scripts, cognitive maps, mental models, metaphors, or narratives. Stories are how we explain how things work, how we make decisions, how we justify our decisions, how we persuade others, how we understand our place in the world, create our identities, and define and teach social values.
Words people have passed to me…
From TeacherDance 
Elizabeth George: “Let’s just muddle through today. That’s what I say. We can’t take care of tomorrow until it gets here.”

From Juliann at Nurturing Curiosity
Courage to Connect by David Spinks
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.



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