Breasts and Oreos

I've talked about breastfeeding before on my other blog.  I'm a mother.  I have two kids, one of whom is still being breastfed.  (The other is long past being breastfed.)  Apparently, there's a controversial Oreo ad in South Korea featuring a breastfeeding baby.  My concern over this ad would have more to do with a baby that age eating a cookie, not the breastfeeding.  Facebook has taken down all content showing this ad.  For more information, see the link below.

 peaceful parenting: Milk and Cookies: Breastfeeding and Oreos: If you're in North America you'd almost have to be hiding under a rock somewhere to have missed the hoopla that is rumbling across the U...

A Little Bloody Today

I did some writing.  A short story I got the idea for about a month ago.  It was March and it was unseasonably warm.  I don't know why this came to me, but it did.  It's been itching to make in onto paper. 

Below is a sample of what I wrote.  It's around the middle of the second page.  It definitely needs to be edited, but I hope tone is right.

The mother fell to her knees, confused, gripping the stroller and her eldest child.  She could feel the blood leaving her body.  She was losing focus. Her daughter’s tears soaked her face.  Her son continued to cry, but she knew it was a cry of fear, not of pain.

The pealing tires of a car brought her thoughts into focus.  She needed to call the police.  She tried to let go of her daughter, she didn’t want to hurt her, but the little girl wouldn’t let her mother go.

“Mommy!  Mommy!”  She felt Keira being pulled away from her and she held on to her arm again.

She looked up.  The woman with the dog was there.  She was saying something, but she couldn’t hear her.  Keira clutched at her mother.  She watched the woman moved to the front of the stroller.  She was looking at Evan.  The woman let out a sigh.  She was checking Evan and he appeared fine.

The mother’s grip was weakening.  The blood leaving her body was taking her strength.  The stared at the woman, her dog following dutifully at her heals.  She finally noticed something; there was a phone at her ear.  The woman with the dog was talking to someone, describing the scene, telling them how much blood was covering the sidewalk.

I'm not sure about the ending.  Should the readers find out what happens to the mother?  Should I just have her taken away?  I'm not sure.  Should the villain be caught?  Should this be a short, eight page story, or something that keeps going for twenty?  I don't know.  I just know that it'll be on my mind until it reaches its conclusion.

April Goals – Update (2012)

So April is half over and what have I done?

I definitely have not written for ten minutes every day.  I wrote a couple of times, but not enough.

I finished editing the short stories in my folder.  The problem is with one story.  I want to add a new scene, maybe two.  I just need the time to write them.

I have not applied the hard copy edits to the computer files.

I haven’t had a lot of time this week.  My daughter has croup.  It’s not fun.  She’s getting better, but I wasn’t sleeping much and I’ve been trying to make sure my son doesn’t get it.  She’s getting better, but taking care of her has taken a lot out of me.

I might have a go at the new scenes I want to write.  We’ll see after I finish tidying up.

*Photo from the Wikipedia article on croup.

April Goals

So, I haven’t been writing everyday.  March was a busy month.  Much of the progress I felt I had in February didn’t continue.  Now, I am looking to get it back.  To that end, I’ve decided to make a list of goals for the month.  It will not be a long list.  If I give myself too much to do, I know I’m just setting myself up for failure.  The two little children aren’t going away.  Neither are my husband or my friends and family.  All of whom I love.  What I want to do is pretty simple.

1. Write for 10 minutes everyday.  (I already know I’m going to miss a few, like the first three days of April, but I can still try.)

2. Finish editing the last short story I have in my folder.

3. Apply all short story hard copy edits to the computer files.

There, three simple goals.  Can I do it?  I think I can :)