The awesome co-hosts for the May 1 posting of the IWSG are Lee Lowery, Juneta Key, Yvonne Ventresca, and T. Powell Coltrin!
We need more awesome co-host for June, July, and August. Want to be one? Let us know.
This month’s optional question is “What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?”
It must have been when I first took the book away from my mom and started reading to her. Magic happened in that moment. I was inside a story and I could stay there as long as I wanted.
I was trying to remember what that story was about and I think it was something like “See Spot Run.” Not a riveting tale, but for goodness sakes I was three or thereabouts. I soon moved on to Hemingway and Steinbeck with a few other books making the bridge for me.
Thanks Mom for all that reading aloud time.
This month’s Email Connect reveals one of my embarrassing moments as a writer. It had to be told just to make me feel better. Besides, others might avoid my mistake. If you’d like to receive my monthly tidbits and receive a free gift, sign up HERE.
And now the BIG news! The 2019 Annual IWSG Anthology Contest is now open for submissions!
Want to see the ones that have come before? Check out the video or click HERE.
Guidelines and rules:
Word count: 3500-5000
Genre: Middle Grade Historical – Adventure/Fantasy
Theme: Voyagers
Submissions accepted: May 1 - September 4, 2019
How to enter: Send your polished, formatted (double-spaced, no page numbers), previously unpublished story to admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please include your full contact details, your social links, and if you are part of the Blogging, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter IWSG group.
Judging: The IWSG admins will create a shortlist of the best stories. The shortlist will then be sent to our official judges who will be announced later this year.
Prizes: The winning stories will be edited and published by Freedom Fox Press next year in the IWSG anthology. Authors will receive royalties on books sold, both print and eBook. The top story will have the honor of giving the anthology its title.
Quote of the Month: “The greatest use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.” Philosopher William James. (I immediately thought of buying more books!)
Bon Voyage, I hope you have a wonderful trip.
I was fortunate to have great grammar school teachers who awakened me to the possibilities of language, such as the magic of how an adjective completely transforms a word or how a story can convey more than just a literal message.
C. Lee McKenzie says
Sometimes just one excellent teacher is all it takes.
The anthology theme is something that I’d probably enjoy writing. If I have time, I’ll do it.
I developed my love of books because my Mom always read to me. It’s a great thing for parents to do.
Moms seem to get that delightful duty more than dads. But I’ll bet there are dads out there who read to their kids, too.
Hope you can join in the anthology fun. I’m sure you’ll come up with a great tale.
My mom read to me all the time too and I can still remember sitting with her and having her fill my head with stories. I loved it! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on books and read them myself. It took me a while and I had some struggles learning to read, but once I got the hang of it- I have been a reading machine ever since.
Thanks for the information about the anthology!
Love those reading moms! They pass on such a treasure to us.
My love of reading started when I was really small because of all the reading in bed at my house!
I know what you mean!
Everyone should read aloud to their kids. So important for sharing that magic.
You’re a great dad. I know that from all the contact we’ve had over these years.
Hi Lee - great little video promoting the anthology contest. I’m so grateful I can read - I lost myself as a kid in books … I know the early ones were fairy stories - but there must have been others before that … I know my father read to us … Edward Lear’s nonsense poems - The Dong with the Luminous Nose … springs to mind. Great prompt … cheers Hilary
I can tell you’ve been steeped in reading for a long time, Hilary. You share such enthusiasm for the love of it and knowledge on your blog. That’s why I enjoy my visits so much.
My mom was big on reading aloud when I was little too. I’ve always been grateful for it.
Have a great May, Lee!
Thanks, J.H. I hope your May is exciting with book success!
Good luck to all entering the new anthology contest! And congrats to all included in the one just released.
Thanks Carol. I know that’s appreciated.
How special to have your mother read to you like that! Lol! And it’s great to hear that someone was caught by See Spot. My parents didn’t read to us too much, but we went to the library every weekend for many, many years.
Libraries are my go-to places and I guess they were where your parents felt you’d blossom as a reader…now a writer!
I can’t remember when I started to read, but I know it was very early in life. And I never stopped. I used to worry that the library would run out of books for me to read because I went through them so quickly.
I can picture you now, reading to your mother. What a beautiful sight. I was not a reader when I was a kid. Do not remember any special books. My sister was the reader in our family and read most everything in the library. I’ve changed, though, and love to read.
So glad you decided reading was for you after all!
My daughter doesn’t particularly enjoy reading aloud, but man, does she devour books!
Hi Loni! As long as she loves to read that’s all that matters.
you might or might not believe this, but I got a hold of a copy of my first grade reader. I remember my teacher had a huge copy on a stand in front of the classroom. I loved that book most of all. Suddenly, I could read words that led me down the reading path.
Teresa
That’s wonderful. What a great keepsake that has to bring back so many memories.
Wow!! I so remember those books. See Spot Run. Weren’t the kids names Jane and Dick??
Goo memories!
Thank heaven I do remember some things. These days I remember nothing! Thanks for sharing that memory with me, Cathrina.
I enjoyed the anthology video. There have been some great covers. My mama potty train me reading books and I knew them so well if she missed a word I would tell her, so she couldn’t paraphrase such, and I made her read my favorites over and over, and then made her let me read them to her. I could read before I started kindergarten then had to relearn through phonetics.
Ha! Had to re-learn through phonics. Now that’s interesting. How much we’ve turned over to teachers and educational systems when parents are perfectly capable of teaching their young children. I think your mother had the perfect potty training technique! You were one lucky girl to have her.
I remember those Dick and Jane books (and the humorous movies that came later).
this posted without my full URL
They had movies? Now that I do not remember. What were they?
I think there were two movies. The first, and the only one I saw, came out in the late 70s and titled “Fun with Dick and Jane.” When a couple find themselves unemployed and deep in debt, they turn to armed robbery (it’s a comedy).
Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Being able to read a book for one’s self does have a certain power to it. I agree; it does start with being read to.
Always like to visit and see what others are up to, Toi. Thanks for stopping by here.
I love it when my senior students get an assignment to write about how reading has transformed their life. Such powerful stories. Helps them reflect. Hopefully they will be lifetime readers.
Teachers wield so much influence over young readers. I wish they made CEO salaries-well at least bigger ones-that reflected how important they really are on this planet.
Hey, I read See Spot Run. I think Dick and Jane did some running in there too. LOL. I loved having a book that I could read by myself.
This is really interesting. So many of us learned to read with Spot, Dick, and Jane!
I don’t remember any of the books I read or my parents read to me when I was young. My earliest memories of books are from my middle grade and high school years.
I remember those as well and probably better than the earlier ones. But that moment when I wanted to read and take charge of the book still sticks with me.
Reading a book on one’s own for the first time sure can prove the power indeed.
We know reading is powerful, right? I always think about what happened before writing and reading. Story telling of course. And how lucky we had that.
Jennifer Lee Hawes says
I remember reading a tiny book when I was four about a pig. It really connected with me, at least, my reading skills finally developed! It’s crazy how we can remember such small details from long ago.
Stories connect with us very early on and I think they lay the foundation for our reading and love of the word. Thank heaven for writers.
Love that quote!
See Spot Run certainly takes me back:)
denise biondo says
hi cheryl, let me know if you can read this. thanks! denise
My big sister was my favorite reader. She had all the dramatic inflections and everything. We shared a room and she’d read a story aloud as I settled in to sleep. Good memories.
How great to have a talented reader like your sister. Those reading times have to be treasured memories.
My parents read to us. Often and often. Some stories so often that they (and we) knew them by heart. Decades later I can still recite great chunks of the Just So Stories from memory. And am so very grateful for my exposure to the written world.
Isn’t it interesting when we still remember early stories from our childhood years later?
I remember See Spot Run. It was one of the first books I learned to read too.
It looks as if those books were quite successful!
It’s funny how our parents reading to us makes such an impact. I saw an old home movie recently where my mom was reading to me (probably 2 or 3) and I just wanted to read more and more books, to the point where I was haggling how many books we would read because she wanted to stop! It was too funny.
I’ll bet that was a fun memory, and to see it in action had to make it even better.
Mike@Bitaboutbritain says
You wewre reading Hemingway and Steinbeck shortly after seeing Spot run?!
Well, there were a few intervening years. I think. 🙂
I like the anthology video. My mind is working on a story for the next contest. We’ll see what transpires.
Great to hear that you’ll be submitting to the next WEP!
Reading at 3 is impressive.
Mom helped me out with a lot of the words, but I knew Spot and I knew run. I think I might have memorized at lot.
Hi, Cheryl-Lee!
I think I discovered that language has power the first time my dad took me along with him to our city’s public library. I was awestruck by the sheer number of books available and the seemingly infinite number of subjects. The library had that unmistakable book aroma that induced a “learning trance” - made you want to dig in and get started discovering and absorbing ideas and information. I feel lucky to have been born into a family of avid readers. My parents always seemed to have their noses in a book or magazine and many volumes lined the shelves around our house.
I wish you a merry month of May, dear friend Cheryl-Lee!
I’m always in awe when I enter a library. I want to read all the books, but of course that’s impossible, so I get rather angsty before I settle on one of two to check out.
My parents always read to me, which is why my mother thought I’d merely memorized things when it came out I knew how to read. She tested me with lot of random books, many of them adult books I’d never seen before, and I read everything I was asked to. My little brother was the exact opposite. Even at 3-4 years old, he’d push books away in annoyance and disgust, and find ways to disrupt being read bedtime stories.
You were an early reader, too! Did your brother ever take to reading in later years?
Good memory (of See Spot Run). Those were clever books with a goal. I signed up to host in summer. My first time! We’ll see if Alex takes me up on it.
I’m sure Alex will welcome you. You’d be a great co-host.
I think I read a book that had Spot, Dick and Jane. They were all chasing a ball at one point or another. High-five from the peanut gallery. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
It seems a lot of us cut our reading teeth on Spot, Dick, and Jane. Thank goodness the authors didn’t use names like Hildegarde. I might still be struggling to read.
I don’t have memories of my parents reading to me, but I have so many of them taking me to the library and encouraging me to read whatever I wanted. The power of choice and of all those books! Magic!!
Thanks for the spotlight!! Such a thrill 🙂
Words enrapture when handles with love. They change people and cause them to become their very best. It is also true that words can destroy people . That is why it is so important to keep our mouths shut before we let out a bomb that will shake up someones world.
Shalom aleichem,
Pat G @ EverythingMustChange
So true, Pat. Like my grandmother always said, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
I too, have my mom to thank for the gift of reading.
Even though we didn’t have much, she always made sure there were books in the home.
Happy IWSG Day, Lee.
Having books in the home combats illiteracy probably more than anything. You were lucky.
“. . . soon moved on to Hemingway and Steinbeck . . .” LOL! You are so right - suddenly being able to read the words of those (now ancient) readers was magic, indeed. We didn’t have much when I was growing up, but we visited the library regularly. Entrance to the magic forest was free.
Those libraries have been my go to places forever. You don’t need money to read a book, so libraries are a great socio-economic leveler. You said it perfectly, “Entrance to the magic forest was free.”
Reading out loud to your kids is so important. I still read at night with my son and he just turned 9. Very neat video! 🙂 The theme for the new anthology sounds like so much fun.
So much happens when we read with our kids. My son told me he remembers me almost losing my voice while reading Lord of the Rings aloud to him. We couldn’t stop until we found out what happened to Bilbo!
Reading back to your mother must’ve filled her with joy.
I hope so. I did a lot as a teen that didn’t. 🙂
I will always be thankful to my mom for taking me to the library every two weeks as a child to load up on a big stack of books. It made all the difference.
I totally agree.
I can help out with co-hosting in July.
Love how you read to your mom - such a great turning point in a child’s life. 🙂
That video is awesome!
We’d love to have you co-host in July. Thanks.
That’s awesome you made a video! I need to add that to the site.
My parents were readers and they read to me and it made a huge difference.
Glad you liked the video and can use it. I’ve been playing with Animoto and finding it fun.