Yolonda Tonette Sanders | A Much Needed Break

A young busy mother of two, I look at my twelve-year-old son and a soon-to-be nine-year old daughter and wonder, “where did the time go?” Like many parents, I often get nostalgic while looking at old photographs or remembering when they were born. Now that they are getting older, I cherish moments with them even more, realizing how fleeting time is. It’s funny because there are times when I’m feeing overwhelmed and I’ll say, “I need a break.” We’ll make plans for the children to visit relatives for while and once they’re gone, I miss them terribly. Like now, my daughter is out of town with my husband’s sister and niece. The original summer plan was for her to attend day camp along with my son, but there was a waiting list for her age group. Seeing how she was number sixty on the list, we didn’t have high hopes of her being enrolled. I’d wanted both children to attend day camp so I could write during the hours they were gone and then we could do “fun stuff” together when they came home. Well, with my daughter home with me during the days, my plans to get a lot of writing done went out the window. Through I have tones of work to do, I didn’t think it would be fair for her to be cooped up in the house on nice summer afternoons while I hovered over the computer. So, the plan changed for me to get my work in whenever I could fit it in. Thus, when my sister-in-law asked if my daughter could come stay with her for a week, I’m like “Cool!” Immediately I thought about all the work I’d get done while she was out of town and my son attended day camp. I did get some things done, but I wasn’t really as productive as I’d hoped to be. I spent a lot of time thinking about the things she and I would do when she got back. I would often say to my husband, “I miss her.” (I know she misses me as well, but she’s hanging out with her cousin and they are only five months apart in age, so I’m certain she’s not pining away for me.) Though I’m eager for her to return home, I must admit, I have enjoyed aspect of her being gone - I’m not refereeing arguments between her and my son. I seriously needed a break from that! LOL!!!

Yolonda Tonette Sanders
http://www.yolonda.net/

Beryl Singleton Bissell | One Writer's View

Have you ever written to tell an author how much you've loved their book and then waited, hoping for an answer, in vain? I'm not one of those unresponsive authors. I love getting fan mail and make a point of answering every letter I receive. I even invite readers to stop by should they be traveling through this area, and I get quite a few such visitors, all of whom are stunned by the view of Lake Superior my writing desk provides.

"How do you ever get any writing done with a view like this?" they ask. Yesterday I had several such visitors -- a reader from Wisconsin who brought her daughter and her husband, another reader from the Twin Cities who arrived with her hubby and four ears of freshly grown corn, a young man and his two small children who wanted to see the small shed where I write.

This view is actually one of the reasons I became a writer. Moving to this pristine and fairly remote area nine years ago changed me from a writing hopeful into an actual author. Prior to moving here, I'd worked for a literary publisher in Minneapolis where, surrounded by great writing, I'd wondered what I had to say that others hadn't said already -- until I overheard my son proclaim that he thought he was damned because his mother had been a nun and his father a priest.

Daily, I'd walk the lakeshore pondering how best to construct this story for my children. Writing memoir forces the writer to examine the beliefs, events, and choices that have shaped a particular portion of their lives. Mine demanded confronting doubt and darkness as well. The lake's unbridled power showed me how ruthlessly I'd need to plumb the depths of my heart to summon the truth. Six years and eight drafts later an agent grabbed the manuscript and sold it within days. Within the year, my memoir, THE SCENT OF GOD, hit the bookshelves and the letters started flooding in.

I am now working on the sequel to that memoir and two weeks from now, on Friday, August 24 at 10:45 a.m., will speak about it on Minnesota Public Radio (MPR). The host of MPRs Midmorning Show, Kerri Miller interviewed me last summer when THE SCENT OF GOD was released and wants to know how the sequel, which deals with the sudden violent death of my beautiful, tormented 24-year-old daughter, is progressing.

Like all mothers who have lost children to murder or suicide, I wrestle with overwhelming grief and a sense of failure that my love could not protect or save my daughter. As I gather hundreds of pages of notes from my journals and medical and psychiatric records, I find myself -- not trying to resolve the mystery of my daughter's death (which remains unsolved in the files of the homicide division of Minneapolis police department) -- but in trying to uncover the child that lay beneath the façade she presented to others. I realize that I really did not know or understand my daughter and so I think of this book as a "looking for" rather than a "losing of" Francesca. And daily, as I did with my first book, I walk Lake Superior's shoreline to ponder how best to tell this story. And then I return to my writing shed to summon the words I need.

I wonder how the places you've lived have affected or changed your lives. I am offering a free signed copy of THE SCENT OF GOD to one of you who shares your experience in a comment to this blog. Wishing you peace and every good.

Beryl is the author of THE SCENT OF GOD and was named "Best of 2006 Minnesota Authors" by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Her book was a Book Sense notable for April 2006.

You can visit Beryl at her website: berylsingletonbissell.com, or, at Gather, or her blog/