The 2019 A to Z Blogging Challenge didn’t go as expected for me. I spent the months of January and February writing posts for both, Facing Cancer with Grace and Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker. I scheduled them to publish automatically, as I have done in past years, planning to use April to comment on other A to Z bloggers’ posts. In past years, this has been extremely helpful. This year A to Z would take a back seat. In March, my husband’s cancer took a dramatic turn for the worse. By the end of March, after repeated visits to the hospital, Read more…
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It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Thank you to this month’s IWSG co-hosts: Lee Lowery, Juneta Key, Yvonne Ventresca, and T. Powell Coltrin! Today I will be writing about my experience writing about my husband’s cancer journey on his CaringBridge blog, as I answer the IWSG Day question for May: What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? Maybe it doesn’t qualify as an early experience, but it has by far, been the experience with the most impact. I always loved writing, but I didn’t know Read more…
I had a story idea yesterday. I was particularly excited about it because it was the 2nd idea I had this week, and both were brilliant. I was a creative machine! But, I didn’t write it down, so I forgot it. It got me wondering how often a brilliant idea is forgotten because we don’t write it down in time. It’s important to keep track of Zen-inspired ideas—those that hit you spontaneously when you aren’t even trying to come up with them. The A to Z Blogging Challenge I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Read more…
My daughter Sam has charisma. When I asked her when she first knew she had charisma, she said, “It’s like knowing the color of your skin. You might not know what to call it, but you know you’ve got it.” She has always known how to get what she wants. At the age of 8, she struck up a conversation with a comedian who was selling CDs of his Christian comedy act. She asked him about one of the CDs that had a scratch on the cover. She convinced him (with very little effort) to give her the CD. Then, Read more…
One of the few arguments my husband and I had was about something beneath the surface. At the time, we were dealing with some discipline issues with our kids. They were typical teenaged issues, but one of our daughters, who is autistic, was taking it personally. So, I felt he was being too hard on her. Normally, it would have been fine, but my concern was that she might question his love for her. Yet, I didn’t want to say this. I didn’t want to say, “What about when you die? What if she doesn’t feel loved by you, and Read more…
Mills & Boon have been publishing romance novels for over a hundred years, yet it was an unknown self-published author, E. L. James, who hit the best seller list with her “50 Shades of Grey.” For millions of people around the world, it had the “WOW” factor. Somehow it has hit an important known (or unknown) need or want, also known as “pain points.” That’s a little bit of wordplay for readers familiar with the book’s premise. Think a challenge your ideal user is facing. What are their biggest pain points? What would really “wow” them? The A to Z Read more…
When my daughter Summer was about a semester into her college experience at the age of 16, she knew what field she wanted to work in. With great confidence, she asked her professor, “How do I get your job?” The professor told her. Since then, she has been on track to work as an art historian. Visualizing success can you the confidence you need to reach your goals. In 2012, social psychologist, Amy Cuddy gave the TED Talk, Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are.[1] In it, she hypothesizes that your body language not only affects the way you Read more…
Today we made pancakes from scratch. They were truly the very best pancakes we’ve ever had. I’d gotten some blueberries on sale and intended to make blueberry pancakes for the family, but within an hour of being home from arriving home from the store, the berries were discovered by one of my daughters, who quickly gobbled half of them up. I let a few days go by, considering the matter closed, but another of my daughters was persistent. She continued to ask for pancakes. She has a terrible cold right now, so I could hardly refuse. My oldest was at Read more…
About 12 years ago, I was in the market for a new vehicle. I was newly separated from my ex-husband and a little overwhelmed by the car-buying process. I had done my research, though, and found a few candidates online. One of them was advertised wrong. When I called the number in the ad, I got a New Hampshire car dealership rather than the dealership right down the road in our Twin Cities suburb. Hmmm. My intuition told me I could get good deal on this van. I quickly went down to the local dealer who actually had the minivan. Read more…
Thinking of A to Z posts for both of my blogs is always hard for me to do. This year, I really wanted to keep my posts somewhat shorter than usual and have them require less research to write. I did some brainstorming and came up with several simple ideas for each blog. Theme Ideas for Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker: Heroes and Zeros: Writing Great Characters Novel Ideas: How to Write a Great Novel No Nonsense Nonfiction: How to Write a Great Nonfiction Book Your Personal Narrative: Memoir in Motion Cool titles, huh? I saved them for next year. Instead, I Read more…
I recently decided to reframe the problem of explaining what it’s like to live with cancer, by creating a complicated graph. In January, we had a crazy week, down at the Mayo Clinic. We had gone thinking my husband would be in a new trial. Then, the doctors discovered what they thought were more brain metastases. These would disqualify him from the trial. So, they cancelled his biopsy and other testing appointments. Meanwhile, the polar vortex hit Minnesota plunging temperatures to record lows. It was so cold that a man died in the very town where we were staying because Read more…
Many years ago I ended up being the president of the homeschool support group at our church. I say, “ended up,” because after attending only 1 meeting, I agreed to become the vice president and then the president resigned 2 weeks later. So my unexpected rise to power left me feeling pretty overwhelmed. I had to question everything in order to come up with a plan to improve the way we dd things. There were some problems As we began to question everything, we started with the attendance. It was really low. There were only about 5 of us. Yet, Read more…
For this post about making prototypes, I decided to interview my 16-year-old daughter, Samantha. Whenever anything breaks or needs assembly, I call on her. She thinks like an engineer, which is good because she is going to school to become a biomedical engineer. Last year she made a lightsaber like they use in the Star Wars films. How prototypes can benefit any project Me: You made a lot of drawings and prototypes prior to actually assembling your lightsaber. In what ways did that help you? Samantha: There is a reason that engineers and researchers make blueprints and prototypes before building Read more…
Anyone raising teenagers knows the challenge of overcoming opposing viewpoints. They want things one way, but you have rules which say they have to be another. Sometimes it can feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall. Why does she insist on wearing shoes without socks in the winter? Why does he consistently come home 10 minutes later than he was supposed to? What is behind her failing grades or his bad attitude? Likewise, they probably view your rules as restrictive and think you just don’t understand what it’s like to be in their shoes (even if Read more…
Today we took one of our frequent trips to the Mayo Clinic. We sit in waiting rooms for long stretches of time each day. And each trip can take 2-3 (sometimes 4) days. So, I filled a bag with my kindle, my phone, charging cords, my purse, a sleep mask (in case I was able to catch some zzzzs in the quiet lounge), some snacks, a book to read to Dan on the drive down, another book that I’m preparing to review, and even more things that I later learned were not needed. I often overpack, as if I’m afraid Read more…
Throughout my childhood, and even in my teenage years, I was brave. I lettered in drama by the end of my sophomore year in high school. I was in every play, on the speech team, the debate team, and even the captain of our mock trial team. Then, I went on to art school where I focused on literary art. I was never afraid of failure or making a mistake. Now, I often play it safe, because I’m afraid of making a mistake. I’m not sure why I get so hung up on it, because I’m not the kind of Read more…
I love getting feedback on my projects, whether they are blog posts or books I’m writing. The first people I turn to are my family members. Countless times, their feedback has saved me public embarrassment and ridicule (primarily from them). Another valuable source of feedback is my group of beta readers. As I was writing Facing Cancer as a Parent: How to Help Your Children Cope with Your Cancer, my beta readers gave me feedback that made a big difference in the quality of the book. Trends in Feedback The benefit of getting feedback from several people is that you Read more…
I love to learn. I think that’s an inherent trait in writers. We learn and then we write to sort through that knowledge. So this was a fun exercise for me. I decided to learn a bit more about something that has always intrigued and perplexed me: 3D printing. To learn about what 3D printing is, and how it works, check out this video by Mashable Explains. 3D Printing and Guns The first time I heard about 3D printing, it was in a news report about the potential for 3D printing to be used to make parts of a gun, Read more…
History is full of innovative concepts that were the result of combining existing ideas in new and novel ways. James Dyson did exactly this when he combined a vacuum cleaner with a sawdust cyclone to invent the first bagless vacuum cleaner. You could say he cleaned up at problem-solving. Think about a problem you’re trying to solve. Grab some Post-it notes and write down one problem-solving idea on each one. Mix and match the Post-it notes together. How many new and interesting problem-solving combinations can you discover? The image of James Dyson combining a vacuum cleaner to a sawdust cyclone Read more…
Today’s prompt asks, “What’s your ideal scenario? Bring your vision to life by creating a drawing or collage of pictures.” I’m a little bit uncomfortable with things that don’t line up neatly, and a collage definitely falls into that category, so I’ve made it a practice to never put together a collage…ever. But, I can definitely get into visualization as I imagine the ideal scenario for my future. What I see and feel in my ideal scenario It’s 5 years from now. A treatment has been formulated to cure lung cancer and reverse the negative effects that living with and Read more…
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