Wind for the Sails: Bethany Hegedus

I had the opportunity to go to a workshop with Bethany Hegedus . She is the author of BETWEEN US BAXTERS and upcoming TRUTH WITH A CAPITAL T, edits the children's section in Hunger Mountain: the VCFA journal of the arts, and is the Austin host of readergirlz.com. Her workshop was based around Francine Prose's book, READING LIKE A WRITER. Thank you, Bethany, and thank you also to Brazos Writers for hosting the event!

I will be honest now. I could not think of what to write about in the blog this week. I'm so tired from unpacking boxes, figuring out where the stores are, and finding good food for the table, and then working on my side job of reading on top of it all, and tossing in several hours of home schooling every day, and wedging in a family emergency, or two, ay, yi, yi, I am busy.

I keep pecking at my stories, but my creative ship has been becalmed. As Bethany moved us through a little exercise about our favorite movies and favorite books, and more, and then asked us to look for connections, I was baffled and then I began to see! I'm all about the underdog getting a day. I'm all about families figuring out a way to coexist in peace. I am about people taking care of each other. I am about putting together families from odd mixes of folks. I could feel the wind, and my sails began to billow out. The ship of my creative self began sailing again. As always, sometimes we need that surge of creative input to get moving through the deep waters of story.

Do something for yourself this week that will get your creative ship sailing. You know the stuff that moves you. Get off the beaten path. Mix it up. Get yourself in a place where the wind will hit your sails. See where it takes you. Seize the day. See you next week.

I have a photo today of pattypan squash, tomatoes, and green beans from my daddy's garden. I'm calling it: "Bounty", taken by talented daughter Jubilee Blaisdell.



What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous... Thomas Merton