Featured Writer: Me!
...because this month's posts have been about Pets & Places and my first published prose in an anthology was about my dear dog, Whiskey.
Hello all and sundry!
I am thrilled that you are here! Come on in! Let’s head to the living room and get comfy. Fill up your drink. I’ve got my sweet, green tea. Okay, have a seat. Fluffy lap blanket, anyone? I’ll be using one! It’s a bit nippy here, a Texas winter has been easing in. My goodness is this first month of 2025 on a sprint!?! It’s Featured Writer time and that tells me February is about to show up at the door telling January they’ve stayed long enough.
Did this month’s Featured Writer surprise you?! Yeah, it did me, too. Now, I am no best seller, not even on the radar, as my published experience is, well, from ages ago and miniscule at that. In starting this Substack newsletter in June, I am here to get my feet back in the water; easing myself in by sharing much of my older writing. If you remember, I’ve got binders, drawers, and boxes FULL! If you are new here, now you know!
This leads to the question: How do you decide what to share and what to post?
I have no formula; I go with the choosing of things as they happen. I did begin with the time in my life when I was doing more writing, submitting pieces for publication, and I was really in the budding stage of crafting better poetry. I’ve said before how my poems as a child and into high school were overly rhymey and sappy. Yeah. From college and on, I improved immensely and even more so, later on, as I’ve done more to challenge myself with diversity of forms or style. So, I started in a way, with this Substack, with the early years of my life. That was certainly a conscious choice. How those poems are presenting themselves, a much less planned deciding.
Did I dig through a file folder and find a piece that came back and spoke to me, or would maybe speak to you? Did I find a few pieces that were thematic to a place, time, or event; that includes anniversaries of heartbreak in loss, or particular seasons that inspired the pen to the page? Yep.
Oh, and a few pieces I wrote as I created the post, like the Pantoum poem I posted in December. Rather random,— yet, not— gatherings and postings have emerged. Unearthing these poems brings them to light, and reflecting on them, and the goings on in my life when I wrote them, brings up opportunity to write another, or post a prose piece, take a dive into photo albums, or old journals, for pictures or more substance of what I want to share. So, some direction, but no concrete planning. I have always been a go-with-the-flow type of person. Can you be a go-with-the-flow type of person and still be a little OCD? I don’t know. I guess I am a subject to study! Anyway, I have always been a, yeah, pretty go-with-the-flow type of person particularly when it comes to putting words to life. I feel a feeling, have a thought, or an idea set on my heart and pretty soon it is weighing on me to do something about it. I get out a pen and notebook and let it find its place on the page.
I’ve always trusted God in the moment and let that guide me. What comes, is what was supposed to come. The pieces that present, when discovered, were right for that moment. Though, I have written a few where I questioned that, as I wasn’t sure it was a topic I needed to visit, buuut a wee voice inside seemed to say, ‘This one isn’t about you. Someone else needs it more than you do.’ Listening to that voice, I’ve learned, is incredibly important to do.
It is possible something I’ve written came at the time you needed to read it. Not that my messages are profound, but it might have been that you were going through something and a line or two, or the whole piece, brought you to reflection or a different perspective. Some of you have shared this happening, and THAT is when I get confirmation for that voice’s prompting or an answer to ‘Why should I share this one?’ This is truly the best validation for those posting choices.
There was a time when I wrote JUST for me, for my eyes only, as I needed to find release in placing my emotions somewhere just so I could move forward. You may have recognized a few of those. There are also times, when I am writing and I have no clear image of who I am writing for, just that it ISN’T for me. Still, the pull is great to write it. Soul’s Search was one of those. I will be sprinkling in more and more of the inspired-for-other-souls poems as the year goes on. For now, the majority of my pieces are personal; I want you to get to know—me. At least I do because I like to know the writers I read; that connection is human and important and special.
I hope this shed some light on my writing here and why I am moved to share a piece. There are two early prose posts where I discuss my why and give light to other reasons for writing. I’ll link those at the end of this post in case you’ve missed them. With that, I am going to share the story I wrote for submission to an anthology. My first paid submission! Yip! My goodness, the first time something you write gets accepted is a thrill, goosebumps and all. Internal fireworks explode when an accepted submission gets you PAID! I remember this day very clearly, though the amount wasn’t much at all, I skipped to the bank like a lottery winner! Some of you will know exactly what I mean.
Now, life was a bit different for me then: divorced, single, young-er. I had moved to Texas really knowing NO ONE. I created a life here: teaching, having new friends, the majority of them met at work, and life was good. After the first year, had bought my first home, got a new pup, Riley, and brought my Chicago (horse) down from Montana. I was teaching in a classroom during the week and on weekends giving riding lessons at the ranch where I boarded Chicago. I would go home to those snowy mountains for Christmas and part of the summer, to help out on my parent’s farm. Things were— GREAT! Wasn’t writing poetry like I wanted to, but I was doing some. With all that I had going, there was really little time for the focus on words. Until.
Until I had all kinds of time on my hands. Five years in, living this reinvented life, and out of nowhere, life did another one of its flips. Hasn’t that always been the way of things—life is a rollercoaster, or The Zipper? Well, I was tossed on my head once being diagnosed with malignant melanoma in summer of 2003. That shitty c word can roll you like a croc or get you stalled, upside-down on a carnival ride. I tried to take it in stride; whatcha gonna do? Couldn’t control the fact that it was there, but I could control how I went forward, so I took a year away from teaching, went home to Montana for awhile, came back for 2 more surgeries, and spent much of my time refocusing, recouping, and WRITING! I got busy submitting pieces, getting some lots of rejections and a few YESES! Allow me to share a story that DID get accepted for publication.
Not to leave you wondering before we get to it—What happened? Well, well I rode that health scare ride, thought I’d work on writing full time to see where that might take me and if healing didn’t happen the way I hoped, but ultimately, I returned the next year to teaching—big bills needed paid, needed the insurance, missed my students and colleagues a TON—and with an ugly c forever stamped on my medical chart, I LIVED. I keep the devil c in check; only one reoccurrence in 2012. Though I’ve set my writing aside a time or two since, here I am back at it! Thank God for platforms like Substack to aid in that and readers like you for inspiring me to keep putting my words and works out there!
Now, you’ve all had an introduction to Whiskey, my sweet dog, but you’ve not gotten some of the after-she-was-gone story. I submitted this recounting, “A Companion Beyond,” for publication and it first appeared in Haunted Encounters: Personal Stories of Departed Pets, Published by Atriad Press, 2004.
An aside: In a previous writing, my memory had a lapse. You’ll see when reading this story.1
Here it is—
Trigger warning: Some may have a hard time hearing about the accidental and tragic death of a pet (not all pets pass of old age while in their sleep; most, do not), it is a harsh subject and a tender one for those of us who have lost pets in tragic ways, or in any way, peacefully or not. There are NO graphic details here, so that is not the worry; concern is for those whose experiences of their own pet loss are raw, or their trauma of loss is too great. Please, no need to reopen those wounds of loss should this apply to you. My extension of compassion and sympathy for your loss. 🙏💜🌈
Hummm, didn’t want to share the c, in there, as I had just been going through all of that I think, because once I came back and read this, some what, 20 years later, I wondered why I left that out. Maybe it was, you know, word counts, I don’t know, but I did.
Well, I give a grin at reading this myself, not from the story perspective, but from the vantage point of being so much older now, better at relaying a story, I hope, and where I was at the time—my bio—all of this makes me appreciative of where I’ve been and where I am now. Life is such a splendid growth process, an evolving that reminds me daily that I, as is my writing, I am a work in progress.
Before you go, just wanted to say how much I LOVE having you drop in to To Be Livin’ Poetry and Prose. I came to this space to write because it would bring me interaction with readers that a book in hand wouldn’t. Not that I don’t have visions and plans to produce the in hand product, I do! There is just something about having the connectedness with all y’all, here, that makes me ready to rise each day and create these posts and the poetry and prose within them. You are not faceless to me, and I can see you and your hearts, hear your wonderful voices. This is such a dear blessing. Thank you! Dearly, dearly, thank you. Love y’all! 🙌🤗🙏🥰✨
Many blessings and MUCH LOVE,
~Wendy💜
Why Poetry? Why Prose? It's why I am here.
Words. They saved me, more than once! Yes, they saved me from the pits of heartbreak and trauma and utter despair. Without them, I would have not survived or emerged from the darkest places in life t…
Added 1-12-25 to post “In Memory of Whiskey”: Must apologize here for the memory error of numbers. Can I say I am getting, well, older?! Having gone to creating another post about Whiskey, I am including in the Featured Writer for January 2025 post my first published short story, I realized in the rereading of that story that I misremembered the litter numbers! Whiskey was actually number 9 out of 12 pups! How I got off by a number, WHO KNOWS?!!!! But, I did. Chalk it up to a head full of pets and their details swishing all around together or it could be autoimmune brain fog, still, more likely, it is the advance in my mileage! Whatever the culprit, I will graciously give my apologies and correct my mental error. I appreciate the understanding! Blessings and MUCH LOVE, ~Wendy💜🤗🧠👵🏼⌛
Ahhh, my FAVORITE featured writer! 😬❤️ Here’s a God Wink for you: YESTERDAY!!!! I was rearranging my bookshelves and don’t you know, my hand landed on my treasured copy Haunted Encounters. I opened the cover to read your sweet inscription and signature. I again read the story of Whiskey, with a big ole grin on my face. I had no idea you’d planned this post today or even if you’d ever share this story.
Wendy!!! Having only met you in the wilds of the virtual world I can say this is exactly as I pictured you!!! Warm, a gentleness and supportive smile, peacefully present - yay to this featured writer!! What a wild Wild West story, bits I have found out through your writing but seeing it in full bloom, the reflection, the whiskey story, the new beginnings, the health challenges, the perseverance with a guide from God, just by listening - you know I try to do the same, and your writing helps always remind me I'm not alone in the listening for the next clue in this life. Wow - this was such a treat! Thank you so much for sharing!!!