spiritualdoula

[spiritualdoula]

A great historical snippet upon which to build a great world--- Women Samurai warriors 200 AD. My brain is already building worlds and telling strong women stories

[spiritualdoula]

Me: I’m so excited! I found a new author and an entirely new period in English History!!

Ex: But did you have to buy every book they wrote on the topic?

Me: Dead Stare and silence

Also Me: That type of negativity is WHY you are an Ex.

[spiritualdoula]

‪ I wish I was my grandson and I could take a very long nap and everyone would just be proud of me...life skills from 11am to 1pm‬

[spiritualdoula]

U.S. 50 to Lake Tahoe

Dearest Mom & Pop: We are en route to Lake Tahoe for 10 days — staying in Placerville overnight Saturday, August 12th. Will arrive at the Lake today.  Zelma & I are with Lorene and Winifred, the two girls you met when we went up the hill and someone had stuck a fist through their window.  Remember?  Love, Helen. It is 102°! Plenty Hot!

This postcard was sent when Helen and Zelma were still a young couple.  They would remain together for the rest of their lives (60 years!).  Before the time when not every couple was free to marry.

[spiritualdoula]

My best friend painted me a portrait of Frida Khalo .....add Josephine Baker and my heart is about burst. When I was teaching Art I had a student burst into tears as I was sharing Khalo life’s story. When I asked “Luke, why are you crying?” His response was “Her life is so sad. The accident, then great love of Diego Rivera, his betrayal—it’s just not fair!” More children start crying!!!!

My thought was “Oh thank God I did not get into anymore detail like her other lovers, Josephine Baker, and the Bridge between the houses after her SISTER moved in with Diego”. It felt like a #teachingwin

Frida Kahlo & Josephine Baker had an affair when both women were living in Paris in 1939. 

Kahlo had recently separated from her husband Diego and had come to Paris to oversee an exhibition of her paintings at the Louvre. In addition to her music career, Baker was, at the time, working for the French military intelligence as an ‘honorable correspondent.’ She would coax information about German troops and other military matters during her parties where she would meet officers frequently.

While the details of the affair have remained cloudy, it’s been confirmed by Baker’s son and biographer that soon after meeting, Baker and Kahlo became romantically involved. Both women identified as bisexual and were famous for boldly eschewing the conventions of the time. 

[spiritualdoula]

I use outlines—this is a great one to share

Read the full article by Savannah Gilbo here

[spiritualdoula]

Oh like most writers I have this juice......but also like most authors I need the TIME this juice doesn’t magically make available.

would you like a nice glass of

[spiritualdoula]

This is everything to me! I’ve spent years researching lesbians throughout history for my Ancestry Series. Anne Lister is an inspirational trailblazer who lived her authentic self in dangerous times. I’ll be dropping pieces of my #WIP because “We have always been here”

God bless her for keeping diaries!!!

[spiritualdoula]

[spiritualdoula]

Ethereal mood inspired Dogwoods

Dogwood in Fog by Jeanine Leech

[spiritualdoula]

First edition Les Miserables

[spiritualdoula]

Rowena & Helga-Harry Potter

[spiritualdoula]

Beautiful imagery

“Let’s make this more than a moment.”

[spiritualdoula]

WRITERS PSA

Warning to writers

While you are worrying about whether beta readers will steal your ideas, there is a more genuine threat on the horizon.

When offered a publishing contract, please do all your research before you sign. There are a number of fakes and scammers out there, as well as good-intentioned amateurs that don’t know how to get your work to a wide audience. I won’t tell the heartbreaking stories here - there are too many.

Being published badly is worse than being never published.

It can destroy your career and your dreams.

The quick check is to google the publishing house name + scam or warning.

But, to be sure, check with these places first. They aren’t infallible (nothing is) but they can help you protect yourself. They are written and maintained by expereinced writers, editors, publishers and legal folks.

Absolute Write: Bewares and Background Checks

Preditors and editors

Writer Beware

and the WRITER BEWARE blog

Keep yourself and your work safe.

This is really important, so if you are a writer or have writer friends, or you are a writing blog, please reblog it.

[spiritualdoula]

This is why those "Tiny Homes" give me anxiety. Where will I put my books?

Library in Chantilly, castle near Paris, France by Babette S.

[spiritualdoula]

A Parenting Win

None of my children's or grandsons first word has been "No".

All toddlers need to walk up to the boundary and test it. It's basically their job to test the limits. It's parenting to create safe spaces, strong boundaries and reasonable limits. My mothering style is attachment based while they are very young. To create that soft space to land because the world is already filled with sharp corners, hard landings and dangerous staircases.

You can get on the floor look around at the child's world and see doomsday or you can choose to help them navigate the churning waters.

Rules aren't bad yet neither is challenging them if they seem unreasonable. We can change our minds. We are raising independent self sufficient humans.

Some days I just stand on the platform, watch the train come in, and wave as my children take their journey. When they come back…..I can meet them back on the platform, at their home or show up with coffee.

Boundaries protect

Limits can keep us safe

But the day you take all the gates down your child needs to be able to they know where they are safe. They will fall and I will be a safe place to cry, get back up and try again. That goes for ALL my children and grandchildren.

[spiritualdoula]

Early Colonial writer Anne Bradstreet had to have her brother in-law "assure" the readers that Anne completed all her wifely and household duties and only found time to write due to the fact she neglected things like sleep.

Every time I think we've come so far, I stumble across a quote like that and think of the thousands of women authors who find time to write before going to work, getting children up for school, waking in the middle of the night, putting timers on their computers at work...the list is as exhaustive as is the ways women need to steal time to write. It's no longer 1648 but I honor all the women authors "working to write".

Feel free to drop a note on how you find time to write and when. As I post this at 2 AM---Ironic.