Post #35 – Women’s Memoirs, News – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
I’m sure you’ve all been waiting with baited breadth to find out who won our May contest. And I expect that you’re equally anxious to set to work on the next contest. So without further ado…
Winners of the Mini Memoir Vignette Contest Using Google Search Story
It was a difficult decision. They all were good. Interestingly, love found and love lost were the most common themes. I guess we know what’s on most of our minds. Even so, love was not our choice for the winning story…actually I need to say stories because we have two winners: Barbara for “The Dream Year” and and Tricia for “Living for Me.” Because they were all good, let me explain our rationale for selecting the winners. In both cases, we felt that Google searches were integral to the development of the story.
In “The Dream Year,” Barbara tells of her and Alan’s decision to take a year off from work to travel and blog about the experience. Her Search Story tells of planning a road trip, researching RVs and learning how to blog. In fact, Barbara and Alan created a blog called The Dream Year. Nicely done.
Tricia went an entirely different direction. Actually it’s a very personal piece. She calls it “Living for Me,” and it’s her story about her daughter’s journey from struggling teen to independent young adult. Congratulations, Tricia, and congratulations, Mauri. I know from friends what a difficult road bipolar illness can be for anyone to overcome, especially teens. Tricia used her video to go beyond her “verbal blessings” to her daughter and express herself in a video homage. Nice job.
Our Limited Edition Rosie the Riveter Bandana
Congratulations to everyone who submitted. Barbara, Tricia, we’ll be in touch to get addresses so we can send out your original Rosie the Riveter Legacy bandanas. We’ve been receiving a lot of orders recently, which has us thinking that there’ll be a lot of Rosies celebrating Fourth of July this year. You two will be equally well coiffed. Enjoy.
We also hope that everyone will take time to experiment with the Google Search Story video creator. It’s so easy to use, and it’s an excellent tool for focusing writers on their theme, message and plot. You’ll find that to create a powerful Google Search Story, you’ll be spending more time thinking through your story than you actually spend building the video.
Write a Memoir Vignette About Your Furry Loved One(s)
I have always been a dog lover (I came to adore cats much later). We have always been a dog family. More specifically, we are Terrier people. We’ve had two Kerry Blue Terriers and three Airedales. Now, if you have Terriers, you know that you must be prepared for anything. These are smart dogs with minds of their own; they’re also natural born clowns.
Tallulah's first birthday, with my sister Niki.
Tallulah Too (our second Kerry…guess the name of our first one) had an insatiable sweet tooth. We had a candy bowl that my mother filled with M&Ms most of the time (exceptions were jelly beans or pastel-colored Jordan almonds around Easter and candy corn for Halloween).
Now Tallulah knew this was people food…even though the bowl sat on a low table–just her height. When the bowl had been freshly filled, she never touched the candy. She restrained herself for a couple of weeks, but as the bowl neared empty she knew it was her turn.
And we all knew the day that the bowl was officially Tallulah’s. I remember more than once, walking by and grabbing a handful of M&Ms only to scream, “Ahhh, Tallulah’s been in the candy!” At the same time, I’d be trying to release the candy back into the bowl, only to have several pieces sticking to my palm. Terriers, you see, have beards. And when they drink water, their beards get wet. When she would drag that damp, bearded face through the candy bowl, well let’s just say the remaining contents of the candy stash were instantly marked “For Tallulah Only.”
Yes, our pets are the source of much pleasure in our lives and many funny episodes. They are a great source of writing inspiration. In fact, for the past two weeks Promptly Portland has used pets as the subject of our Women’s Memoirs Writing Prompts.
We felt the pet prompts were so popular that we should make pets the subject for a contest. We invite you to tell us a story about a favorite family pet. Write a ScrapMoir memoir vignette about a memorable event with you and/or your family and a pet. Remember, these are personal–memoir–stories so you need to include yourself. Even if you write about your children and pets, you’ll want to tell the story from your perspective.
Your story should be about 1000 words and include at least one photo. You have until July 31, 2010, to submit your story. You’ll find all the details here.
The Prize
We’re giving away a copy of Dr. Greg’s Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health. Dr. Greg Martinez has been a vet in Gilroy, California, for 30 years. He’s been a dog lover all his life.
Dr. Greg is one of a rare breed of vets because he treats many of the most common pet ailments with a combination of medicine and
nutrition. The medicine, in most cases, is to clear up the symptoms (itching, hotspots, vomiting, mild seizures, bowel problems, etc.). The nutrition (easy, convenient diet changes) gets to the root cause of the problem. The result, chronic sufferers gain greater relief, and their owners save money on extra trips to the vet, tests and meds.
Dr. Greg’s Dog Dish Diet is the first book we’ve published under our Riparian Press imprint. It’s won four book awards, and rightly so. While editing the book, I decided to try his principles on my rescue cat, Angus. Now when I got him, Angus was a 15-pound orange tabby and a prime candidate for feline diabetes. If you’re connected with me on Facebook, you can see his photo. I put him on a cat’s version of Dog Dish Diet. Angus loved eating (all three of my cats do). He quickly started dropping the extra weight. Today he weighs about 8.5 pounds. In fact, all my cats are about the same weight, which they maintain easily on the Dog Dish Diet.
If you have a dog with chronic problems–overweight, hotspots, red inflamed ears or skin, diarrhea, inflamed bowel, vomiting, even mild seizures–you need to do yourself and your dog a favor. You can GO HERE to read Dr. Greg’s story about how his dogs showed him the secret to feeding for good health.
So congratulations to our May winners, and thank you to everyone who submitted. And now, get to writing! We look forward to reading your pet stories. You have until July 31, 2010, to submit.
memoir writing
memoir vignette
memoir scrapbooking
memoir writing contest
pet stories
ScrapMoir
