Sharing is Caring: My Weekly Finds

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Barbara McDowell

Each week, the posts here will be a mash-up of interesting things I’ve found or learned from during the week. 

Current Chattering

The biggest story at this time is Hurricane Irene.  It is one of those situations where you hope the predictions are wrong and that it will lessen in wind force as it hits the coast and moves eastward.  Everyone stay safe. 

Wicked Writing Wisdom

Prostitution is illegal in the majority of America and in Deadly Sin of Writing #5–P.O.V. Prostitution, Kristen Lamb shows us that it should be in our writing too.

I got on a time-management/goals kick with my writing life this week and stumbled upon several great posts in this area.  With Seven Easy Steps to Much Faster Writing, Ali Luke give us some great tips for getting more focused writing done.

Kristin Nador continues the great advice in Start Your Week Off Write: A Time Management Formula That Works For You.

In her post ROW80 Check-in 8/24: How To Find More Time, Jenny Hansen talks about the reality of moving forward on goals and links us back to her oldie, but goodie piece Is Your Blog Eating You Alive.  Following the ROW80 progress of Jenny and my Write It Forward Blogging to Build Your Brand* class buddy Kerry Meacham (who makes and shares a tasty sweet tea) has inspired me to retool my weekly WIP approach and join in the fun next round. 🙂  Also, my WIFBTBYB classmates and I can be found tooling around Twitter at #WANA711.

* Sidenote – Registration is open for the Write It Forward blogging class that starts in October.  The class is led by social media guru Kristen Lamb.  Yeah, enough said.  Register.  Now.

Guest posting on Gene Lempp’s Blog, Jenny continues her writing wisdom with Playing To Your Strengths.  Sharing her training and development background, I have seen where employees discount the talents they already bring to the table.  This post was eye-opening because what I haven’t seen is the strengths I’ve discounted in my own writing.

Jami Gold asks us Do You Write for Yourself or Your Readers?  She goes on to discuss the importance of using beta readers to gain external input, and notes that while the start of a project might be for the writer, that the revisions must open up to keep future readers in mind.

Making Media Magic

Manic Monday: What’s in a Name?  Stacy Green shares the fun story of how she came up with her blog name and would love to hear the process of others.

In Back It On Up Baby, Back It On Up – Woodie Knows WordPress, another WANA711 classmate Carrie Spencer (and our resident tech guru) shares how to back up your blog.  Listen to Woodie, follow the basic steps and get this done pronto.

Danny Iny’s Reading Blogs for Fun and Profit provides an interesting discussion on the “business” of blog reading.  My take away from the piece was the listed tips on how to improve learning and relationships as a reader.

Frolicking Fun Finds

Prepare to chuckle then belly laugh as you read Kristen Lamb’s Top Ten Reasons to Become a Writer.  I fess up to identifying with reasons 2, 3, 9 and 10.

Shout out to WANA711 buddy Angela Wallace who introduces us to Dusty.  Dusty has a little problem.  He’s a Klepto Kitty.

Do not read the following post while drinking.  Here is another one from Carrie that brings us a boatload of kitty love with Kitteh Giggles – Crazy Cat Lady Needs a Splash of Humor.  The last video had me sputtering and singing along. 

How do you like your fiction?  I tend to like mine dark with a twist.  Colin Barnes provides a quirky tale with Toothbrush Terror – Friday Flash Fiction.  Warning – this is the horror genre, baby.

Sophie Duvernoy shares Michael Jackson’s Art and Studio, Revealed for the First Time.  Wow.  Just wow.  Did he know how talented he was?!

Check out My Dirty Little Secret and prepare to confess.  I’ve found a kindred soul with WANA711 classmate Tameri Etherton and her love of reality TV. 

Imaginative, Insightful, Inspirational

Looking to add to your to-be-read list?  Then check out the Huffington Post article Fall Books:`Wimpy Kid,’ `Heroes Of Olympus’ Among Tops to learn about some exciting upcoming options.

Another great post from Kerry with his Sweet Tea Tuesday – Are You Keeping Yourself On A Short Leash piece.  I’m a firm believer that sometimes we (*cough* I) need to get out of our own way.  The stories he shares inspire me to run out of my comfort zone.

Stacy’s back with Thriller Thursday: Mississippi Burning, a piece that reflects upon an incident from a dark part of America’s history.  Kudos to her for the research and perspective against where we are today.  We are all blessed for what we have learned and been able to move beyond.

Kait Nolan’s honest gripes in Grump G.I.T. made me giggle because I also hate the sweatiness of exercise.  Once done laughing, I noted the need to revisit my fitness goals (and get back to blogging about them) and get past the plateau I’ve been hanging at.  She’s my new self-discipline hero.

Speaking of heroes.  As writers/bloggers, we sometimes dance along the fine line of what to share–of how naked we want to be on the page/post.  In Surviving Abuse, Patrick Thunstrom talks about the dark and difficult moments in his marriage and the healing that has followed.  I stand and applaud his courage to both write and share.

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Facing My Fear of Flying

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Barbara McDowell

Passenger aeroplane 1Image by Hisks via stock.xchng

My junior year of high school, I wanted to visit my sister for my spring break.  She was away at college in Minnesota and my mother, my main mode of transportation, decided to travel to see her mom.  So I found myself faced with a solo trip.  I selected to take the Greyhound bus.  From Ohio. Cue an almost all day excursion.

Yes, my folks might have put some money towards a plane ticket.  If not, then I could have swung it from my babysitting and summer job fund.  Yet I did not, could not, because of my fear of flying.

How does a fear develop about something you’ve barely done?  How does the brain circle around and create doomsday scenarios without any basis of fact?  Before that trip, I’d flown twice to South Carolina.  I remember the first was on Eastern Airlines and that the flight attendant gave me pin-on wings.

I also remember the hot tears streaming down my cheeks and the feeling that my head would explode.  My mom gave me chewing gum and instructed me to yawn.  None of those tricks relieved the pressure within my blocked ears.

I don’t remember any turbulence, unexpected bumps or weather-related conditions.  There was nothing concrete to pin the fear to yet there it landed, festered and grew.  My concept of a good travel destination was to confirm we could get there by car.

When I stated working and found I needed to take flights for the job or to be able to fit in vacations outside of quick driving destinations, I resisted flying in the winter, balked at small planes and white-knuckled all the way–unable to sleep, eat or read.

Then on August 25, 2001, Aaliyah Haughton died while returning on a chartered plane from a video shoot in the Bahamas.  My mom called to tell me she’d heard a singer had died and I turned on CNN to see the announcement running across the bottom of the screen.  I remember sitting up in my bed with my hand over my mouth, then saying over and over, “oh no.”  I’d first seen Aaliyah when she performed “My Funny Valentine” on Star Search in the ’80s and became a fan by her first album in 1994.

My heartbreak at learning of her death was as much tied to her being only 22 as it was to the way she died on that plane.  Rumor is that she was a nervous flyer too, but did it as a requirement for existing in the fast pace of the entertainment world.

As I sat there in my bed and flicked channels then headed to my computer to learn every detail I could, I played the thought over and over in my head of her on that plane.  Of the fear that someone must feel when they realize a takeoff has gone wrong.  The grip of the gut as a plane loses altitude.  The pain and destruction of impact.  I thought about her fellow passengers on the flight and if they had a chance to say anything to each other.  And I thought about the words of prayer they all might have offered.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1, KJV)

And it was there, in that moment, that I faced my fear.  I thought it was crazy at first, to find a sense of personal understanding from the tragedy.  Yet in her death, I reflected back on myself at 22 and the years I’d been able to enjoy since.  I thought about the difficult flight I was on out of Tampa a few years back and how I made it through.  I thought about Aaliyah’s courage to get on those small planes again and again.  I thought about my spiritual beliefs and how if I truly had faith, I’d know I would be okay regardless of what the plane did.

Now, the majority of my trips involve a flight.  Once I even flew roundtrip from Phoenix to Laughlin in a four seat plane with my best friend’s husband at the controls.  When I fly, I say a silent prayer as we board and takeoff and then say “thanks” when we land.  In the middle, I watch a movie if offered, read my Kindle or a book, eat snacks I’ve brought on board or doze off as my iPod spins on random play.  And I think of Aaliyah and her strength and know it will be alright.

What are some of your fears?  Have you found the courage to face them through the experiences of others?

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