Showing posts with label StoryWriting contest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label StoryWriting contest. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Oh Dear

A few days ago, someone asked me why I was doing this, writing, blogging, all that. So, I decided to tell you.

 

Long ago and far away—in San Diego, a long way from Junction City, Oregon, where I now live, I sat on a hillside overlooking Fashion Valley. Alternately drinking a McDonald’s coffee and orange juice, I asked one of life’s persistent questions: “What do I want to do with my life?”

 

I had just delivered my two girls, ages six and nine, to school, a 45- minute commute, and I didn’t want to drive home and be back by 2:30, so I parked. 

 

“Well,” the little voice in my head answered my question, “I’d write if I had anything to say.” 

 

That day I wrote a little children’s story and haven’t shut up since. 

 

This morning Amazon Kindle informed me that I was eligible for their StoryWriting contest. That’s good.

 

The rub is, a part of the judging depends upon people reading the book. That's the "Oh Dear," part.

 

Oh, but then all of you would love to read it/ them. There are two. Not to be pushy or anything, but people have to know it’s there, for they aren’t apt to stumble upon it. 

 

Here are what they look like and the links.




 

 

 

 

Where Tigers Belch is a novella, 8,424 words  

 

https://www.amazon.com/Where-Tigers-Belch-jewell-d-ebook/dp/B0965Y2K7V/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Where+Tigers+Belch&qid=1623779561&sr=8-1

 

One young girl’s search for her purpose.

 

 

The Girl on the Pier is longer. Most novels are around 90,000 words. This one is 43,718 words. Amazon.com : The Girl on the Pier

 

When a buyer offers two million for a painting but then says, “That’s not the painting, there is another.” It sends Sara and her newly found love on a world search to find the lost painting.




 

https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Pier-jewell-d-ebook/dp/B096G9GT6G/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+Girl+on+the+Pier&qid=1623779856&sr=8-1

 

  








It looks as though I can attribute my writing career on my girl’s schooling. More accurately, those long commutes did it, for I often spent those hours between delivery and pickup, studying, reading, and writing.

 

Now my girls have children of their own, and Grandma is still plugging away at the keyboard.

 

Blogging makes you notice things, allows you to make comments, and is a commitment, and, think of this…no professor will mark your page with a red pencil.

 

I must love what I do, or I wouldn’t keep doing it. 

 

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

 

Yes, I consider what I do art. It’s my creative endeavor, and I preach to others to find that thing that gets them up in the mornings. We are all artists. Find that thing that lights your fire. 


Why in the world are so many people on drugs, uppers or downers, when they have a fabulous endeavor at their fingertips? We have eyes to read and a beautiful world to enjoy. This is life, folks. 


When someone asked the Science fiction writer and person who coined the word ROBOT what he would do if he was told he had fifteen minutes to live, Isaac Asimov answered: “I’d type faster.”