Once Again

Even though this was answering one of the questions on one of my writing groups it feels worth posting here. I did put a lot of thought in it.

Tell me about your first ever piece you sent out?

What was your first piece you sent out to be published? My first published piece was a poem called “Goldfinch” if you like you can find a copy in the “Archives” section of my webpage

Do you remember what motivated you to write it? I had an appointment to get my car inspected, it was Jerry’s first appointment of the day and he was running late. I had my tape player and my favorite tape, “Bach By The Beach” and of course my journal.  I was in a parking space near the retaining wall holding back the strip of weeds between the factory and his car lot. Right in front of my car less than a car length away I got a close look of a goldfinch demolishing a thistle. I was less than a car length in front of me and obviously not concerned about the music or the company.

What kind of piece was it in–what area? Back then I was only writing poems, I hardly ever write a poem anymore.

Did it take you long to do it? How long? The appointment was at 9 AM Jerry was about 30 min late. The inspection took about 20 min and the poem was basically done then. That was two or three revisions before the edition posted.

Was it rejected or published? The newspaper did publish it with an honorable mention. I did not win the contest. I expected everything I sent out after that to be published, I know better now.

How did you make that first piece a priority? The bird was there and he really did need to be written about. I did not expect to submit the poem or even show it to anyone.

Did God tell you to write it? Probably, but not to the extent he would do it today.

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~   http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/ and
http://sites.google.com/a/wildblue.net/my-corner-of-the-world/home and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

One of my groups got a discussion going about abortion and I told what had changed my view on the subject. My view changed all in one afternoon because I had. As usual I got put down for voicing my views.  I was pro-choice till someone I knew got an abortion. She was an emotional basket case after getting an abortion. She called what she had done murdering her child. I became anti-abortion after hearing the raw pain and personal guilt my friend was going through. What is wrong with telling what changed your mind about a hot issue.

There have been hot issues before on that group and as usual I am right in the middle of it. If I wanted to I could get that stirred up again. I was the last one to post before that thread was shut down. I guess that is part of why I wanted my own website so I could post whatever I needed to post. anything I had written. for instance the article about Vladimir was written years ago for my writing class. No one ever saw it but the instructor who was grading the article. time has come for it to at least see a little of the light of day.

Once again I believe I have made a true friend. I certainly hope this friendship lasts. I made a friend of Jeanne and she moved away. I made a friend of Pamela and she disappeared as if she dropped of the face of the earth. I was bending over  backwards to be a good friend. She had also made commitments to help me edit my book. I kept calling and leaving messages but I never got through to her. She had said she would be there we were helping the family I even gave her one of my mother’s Bunt pans and one or my Woks. She promised she would be around and we would be close. That only lasted a couple of months then she disappeared. The phone is disconnected. I made a couple of close friends on the internet and they have both dropped out of sight. e-mail addresses bounce. They are just gone, I miss them. Most people don’t get that close online. This week I made another new friend I hope this lasts for a long time. I met my husband online why can’t I make lasting friendships with people online I do not intend to marry? As the orphan on “Angels On The Outfield” so often said, “It could happen.”

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~
http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/
http://sites.google.com/a/wildblue.net/my-corner-of-the-world/home
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/
http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

I write the prompts for one of my groups, I do a daily writing prompt and a quote of the week every Sunday. this the quote for New Years Eve week. “An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” – Bill Vaughan 28 December 2008 j4cw2j

I actually knew someone with a pessimistic view.I saw in a decade with him ’70’s to ’80’s. he actually had a document for the ’60’s that he had gotten signed ten years before absolving him of guilt for anything that happened that decade.He had a new document drawn up for the outgoing ten years saying the ’70’s were not his fault. I was one of the witnesses for that ten years. Well he did teach me how to change the oil in my car.so that was something of value he had accomplished in that decade. To me saying it’s not my fault and hasn’t been for ten years was saying I just sat on my hands this last decade and intend to do that again. He was waiting for the old to leave ten years at a time.

Personally I have never been that pessimistic

In fact I am going to try my hand more at writing fiction you saw one of my efforts in the blog didn’t you. If I didn’t post it for you I will.

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~ http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/ and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

For once I am trying to get today’s entry done before bed time. Today I had my sister-in-law over for lunch. It’s nice to see her without her daughter. It gets blamed on her late husband doing all the discipline. When he died she needed to step up to the plate and be the parent, sitting limits providing guidance, and sometimes discipline.  She has been trying to be the child’s best buddy ever since her husband died. The child has been running the show since she was three. The only way Gianina could come here today was slipping over during school, sort of behind the child’s back.

I have been running late on things lately because so much has demanded my attention right now. As bad an attitude as I have been getting about Christmas this year all the prompts are about Christmas. I know, I wrote them for the group I’m in. Today’s prompt was: “Christmas past, Mother as a child wrote about her Christmas presents, have you ever written about one of your Christmases?”

My mother to my knowledge only kept a diary a few months when she was a child. I have that diary. When she wrote about Christmas in that little notebook. There were eight kids and very little money for a farm family. She told of an orange, a dime, a few pencils, and other very small gifts. The orange sounded like the biggest deal. My parents always tried to get gifts we would like. My two brothers were a lot older than I was so I never saw them get a toy. I had inherited some of their old toys as they grew up and moved away.

The Christmas I remember best was my second year of collage. My roommate had a small collection of Raggety Anne dolls. Did you know they have a date on their labels her oldest one was from the 1940’s. My time living with her the Raggety Anne dolls were 48 years old. She convinced me I should get one, she convinced me to want one. That year the younger of my two brothers spent Christmas with us with all his family. His first born was about four and sitting on the floor by the tree with me. Helping hand out the presents. Mother had asked me what I wanted so she got her twenty year old girl the Raggety Anne doll she wanted. My niece then four took one look at the doll and screamed, Mine!” I had to convince her that was my doll, hers was in the next box. It was not a Raggety Anne and I don’t believe Alisa was ever satisfied with it but I was going to keep my doll. Remember I was much younger then…

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~ http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/ and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

Well it is the end of another day this is a day of history. Pearl Harbor is a dark part of history, “A day that will live in infamy.” That’s what President Roosevelt called it. On one of the groups I’m in had Pearl Harbor as a prompt today and the discussion on the group has been more about fathers. Two of us in the group had fathers who were there. Fathers who had memories, locked within that they couldn’t share and never forgot.

I guess for this generation it will be the twin towers, before that it was the Kennedy’s both president, and senator, and Martin Luther King. I wish for us to never face another horror like those, but I know we will.

That’s enough of that. This morning the pastor had everyone laughing talking about men’s room manners. My husband had to work today and I asked him if that was really the case, he said it was. If you want to know more of what was said I had only heard of it once before. It was in the first of Isaac Asimov’s Robot novels. I will always remember something else that book it is the only place I ever heard of about someone being named Jezebel, the lady hated her name and insisted on being called Jessie. The other memorable thing about her was her husband was Elijah. Can you imagine someone named Jezebel being married to someone named Elijah? The Biblical Jezebel was out to kill the Biblical Elijah.

When I started this blog I threatened to post one of the many prompts I have collected. Today is the day. I answred this because the group I am moderator for has a fairly new member who has been answering every prompt. I did that when I first started posting prompts for group.

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Actually I never thought I could keep it up this long. But I have posted a prompt a day for over a year. The newbie got the lot of us writing again. She was a breath of fresh air.

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Now to the prompt 
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One word prompts (Lost) 20 October 2008 j4cw2j
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I have a lot of lost things. My husband tells me my desk is where all lost things went before they fell of the face of the earth. I used to remember where everything was and could put my hands right on it. I have lost assorted bills and some receipts. A TV remote, we never found that it’s been several years.
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As for lost things, a lot of odd things disappeared when I moved here, odd things. I have one rectangular corningware dish it started with a lid. I know I packed it, I stripped the apartment bare when I moved. I should also have gotten the cake decorating set. I know I packed it. I remember pulling the drawer out in the kitchen to rescue a few pieces of the set that had fallen over the back of the drawer. My father had put large drawers for all of the bottom cabinets so you could get things out of the back of the cabinets by simply pulling out the drawer. Unfortunately dad curved the drawers so they would open and close easier what it succeeded in doing was giving various items a way out to make an escape to the next drawer down, or the floor below the bottom drawer. Then they would be really lost.
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All my good shoes hid for a few years because I had packed them in a box with something else on top of them. I looked in the box a few times but the stuff on the top was so unrelated I was sure the shoes were not there. Instead of emptying the box and finding them at the bottom. The shoes come to mind because I have thjem on now. They were the world’s most comfortable shoes. I have worn out 2 pairs and I have three more pairs, they were so comfortable I kept buying them till the company went out of business. I got two different pairs toward the end that couldn’t hold a candle to them, they were big and clunky not the comfortable attractive shows they had made in the previous years.
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The good thing about the shoes is they eventually did show up I’m hoping for most of the lost things to show up as well. Physical things that get lost can turn up later. Other things can be even more elusive. Have you ever had a dream you wanted to remember. As clear as it is the moment you wake it can be lost forever by the time you finish your breakfast.
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I am sure there are times you have something just crying to be recorded in your journal that you don’t get around to writing. The event, or idea, or story, or article depending on what you really write is not still there when you finally sit down to write all because of the passage of time.
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Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~ http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/  and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

I was reading Genesis the last couple of mornings in the Dakes Annotated Reference Bible by Finis Jennings Dake. Anyone unfamiliar with that Bible you find more notes per square inch than you will find in any other Bible. Some of the notes are pretty dated1963. I recently read Leviticus in that Bible and he had priced the various animals with the prices of 40 years ago. A lamb probably cost a lot more than $20 today. All the offerings were priced with prices of 30 years ago. Some of the references are as good as they ever were I plan to write a devotional with the words that appeared on the Liberty Bell. Thanks to him I learned they were a biblical quote. I did not realize that before. If those ACLU types ever get hold of that fact they will probably try to get them removed like the arms of the cross in the Mt. Solidet cemetery.
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Lately, I have been writing again. It was as if everything dried up and there were just no words. To write now I am part of many conversations on the internet and writing on other things. I think it basically comes down to reordering my life. Even though writing has always been for late in the day I am getting much more done with the writing in the morning. Though I still haven’t worked on chapter six of my book though God did give me the direction to go late in August. I need to get back to working on the story but I haven’t been able to get back there since the critique group only having one critique and that from the one who responded to my critique with such a lack of grace. I have done a lot of Bible study over the years and it stood out that the woman had not really looked at the whole chapter. One can’t just cut and paste the word at will to force it to say what you think it should say and that is what she did. I suggested two relatively simple changes to make it make the scripture she cited and her devotional to agree.