Just A Little Red

The Story Of An Angel

Posted on March 29, 2014 by DMW

My dog, Angel, is very special to me, much more than a pet and even more than ‘a part of the family’. I have always been a dog person and yet my bond with her goes beyond any other bond I have ever experienced with another animal. This is her story, and the story of us…

Angel will be six years old next month (April 28) and has been by my side for most of those six years. The first time my VP shunt broke while living in Colorado, I felt something had to be wrong and knew in my heart of hearts it was my shunt, but unlike roughly 98% of my shunt malfunctions I was not critical after only an hour. In fact my symptoms seemed to go up and down, though never away. When my husband contacted my surgeon I told him not to tell him one of the main reasons I thought my shunt was broken.

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Posted in family, Health, home, Medical, Personal, Relationships | Tagged “Dog Person”, abandoned puppies, Angel, animal lover, animals, Dog, dogs, fur baby, medical assistance dog, pets, Puppies, shunt | Leave a comment

Girl Shaves Her Head To Support Her Friend With Cancer And Is Suspended! What Are We Really Teaching Kids?

Posted on March 27, 2014 by DMW

Kamryn Renfro, nine years old, did something extraordinary last weekend. She shaved her head. Why was this extraordinary? She did so, in support of her friend Delaney Clements, who is eleven years old, and has stage 4 cancer (neuroblastoma). Clements said of her friend’s gesture “I was really excited I would have somebody to support me and I wouldn’t be alone with people always laughing at me.” She told local Fox affiliate KDVR, “I would at least have somebody to go through it all.”

Kamryn-Renfro-Delaney-Clements

A compassionate gesture and a true testament of friendship is wonderful, but hardly newsworthy. It did not become newsworthy until her school, Caprock Academy, in Grand Junction, Colorado suspended her because of it. Renfro was barred from the school and told she could not return until her hair grew back. I am trying to avoid exclamation points, but it is proving difficult. What were they thinking! Okay, I can continue…

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Posted in Education, Inspiration, News, Opinion | Tagged “Caprock Academy”, “charter school”, “Grand Junction”, “shaved head”, “suspended from school”, “zero tolerance”, Cancer, compassion, empathy, kindness, suspended | Leave a comment

Following Through Versus Starting Anew (Am I Cheating On My Manuscript?)

Posted on March 25, 2014 by DMW

The biggest problem for me (I think) when it comes to my current manuscript is that I am so over it. Writing it in the first place was monumentally difficult and yet I had to tell the story. There was a driving force there – and many times I could not type fast enough while other times I had to sit and let the story wash over me, take a breath and then begin again. Either way, my tale was told. And now, after sixteen months of writing, setbacks, rewriting, editing, revising, and select reader feedback I can see how far my manuscript draft has come… and how much further it has left until it is ready. And that is maddening.

I have two other book ideas that keep screaming at me, yelling to be released and to be put to the page, but I fear I cannot split my energies between two projects – it wouldn’t be fair to either of them. Revisiting my manuscript is a chore now, and I want that chore to be finished, not even yesterday, more like last week. I don’t want to dread going through a chapter for the twelfth time and yet I do. Right now, I am about 2/3 done with the official 2.0 version as I am calling it, and my manuscript is 241,260 words. By the time I finish version 2.0 I hope it is no longer than 230,000 words, though ideally 220,000 words would be even better. (I am not holding my breath on that though.) It started out at 340,930 words and the longest ideal length for the final polished manuscript is 130,000 words – yep, feel my pain…

Blog 25 Revise

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Posted in Editing, Publishing, Writers, Writing | Tagged “book idea”, “new project”, “professional editor”, Books, draft, manuscript, revision | Leave a comment

Becoming A Cat Person (Or Trying My Best To Be)

Posted on March 24, 2014 by DMW

I should start this post by stating that I am an animal person. I am, I love animals, wild and domestic, with the exception of spiders due to severe arachnophobia (if you want entertainment, watch what happens when I am faced with an eight-legged critter: efficient hysterics come to mind). I was the nerd who had Wildlife Fact File cards, my favorite place was the zoo and I read everything I could about animals of all kinds. I always wanted a dog, though that never really worked out for me as a child. My father couldn’t be bothered while my mother (they’re divorced) kept her house like any other well-preserved museum – unlivable with the phrase “don’t touch anything!” as the house mantra.

Even without loads of personal experience, I had always wanted a dog and even though I have one now, I still feel that heart flutter every time I see a dog and exclaim, “oh puppy!” (To be clear, I know the difference between dogs and puppies, but from a cuteness, melt-my-heart standpoint, every dog is a puppy.) I am a dog person, through and through. I am a dog person. I am a dog person.

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Posted in family, home, Personal, Relationships | Tagged “Animal Person”, “Cat Person”, “Dog Person”, animals, cats, dogs, pets | Leave a comment

Confessions Of A Bookaholic: Guilty Pleasure Edition #1

Posted on March 23, 2014 by DMW

Last week, I confessed some of my deepest, darkest secret reads to the world in Confessions Of A Bookaholic: My Guilty Pleasure Reads. All right, it wasn’t quite that dramatic, but I would certainly incur many a sneer from some book snobs I know – but I don’t care. I don’t pretend to know or understand how hashtags work but #sorrynotsorry comes to mind. I have decided to take my guilty pleasure reads a step further by sharing them much more in-depth so people can see how right I am to be shameless in my devotion to these two book series of the past or how simple and unsophisticated my tastes are.

Perhaps I am posting this because I never have enough time and having this subseries of blogs justifies the time I continue to take to read these two series (I often find myself needing to justify my actions and use of time to my boss, who is a real bitch – and yes that bitch is me). But I like to think that even if that point has some validity, the main reason I am writing this subseries is what the ‘Confessions Of A Bookaholic’ series is all about: sharing my love of reading and what I love to read with others.

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