LISTEN to your mom!

I am asking for your support. I'd love to see you in the audience shouting my name, cheering, "You rock, and your baby does, too!"

No, really, applause will do. Please come out to support Listen to Your Mother, St. Louis, a stage performance which focuses on motherhood.

Most writers in this town fondly remember our dear friend, Claudia Mundell, President of Joplin, MO Writer's Guild who developed an anthology as a fundraiser to benefit the Joplin Library after the devastating tornado wiped it out a few years ago. Claudia passed away last year from Ovarian Cancer. Proceeds from this event will benefit St. Louis Ovarian Cancer Awareness.

I'm so excited to announce that out of more than 100 writing submissions, my story Embarrassing Baby was one of 30 chosen to audition for this annual event that also takes place in cities across the U.S.

I was one of only 12 cast members chosen to be in this year's (7th season) Listen to Your Mother St. Louis stage show.

 Local writers will read their original personal essays to the audience in a span of ninety minutes. 

The stories will make you laugh, cry, sigh, and say, "Oh My!"

Show times are at 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 11th. I'm including a link to the EventBrite page where tickets can be purchased. Please pass this on.

https://bit.ly/2CSaD1Z

THINKING ABOUT MEMOIR

My dearly departed mother, was five foot two until osteporosis robbed her of a couple inches in her later years. The presence of that tiny little woman looms over me everyday. Sometimes a memory jabs a chuckle out of me, brings a tear to my eye or makes me want to squeeze my eyes shut and ask myself or her, Why?

Mom had a loving heart, a wise cracking mouth, some quirks, problems, issues, secrets (who doesn't?) and a heart of gold. She loved her children, adored her grandchildren and obsessed over her first great-grandchild. She lived down the street from me for a few years. I would call to borrow something.
"Mom, do you have any eggs?"
"No, but I have mayonnaise. Come on down."

Oh, I used to get so upset with her. I knew she didn't want me to use mayonnaise as a substitute. I thought she acted like an attention-seeking child. The two things weren't related. When I would tell her that, we would engage in lengthy conversation.

That was when I was a young mom. Now that I am a grandmother who also feels lonely at times and wishes for a visit from children or grandchildren, I too find ways to entice them. I just don't use mayonnaise.

Readers, please drop by, CLAUDIA MUNDELL's blog and tell her, "Linda is so happy with the book she won from your drawing."

Thinking About Memoir, by Abigail Thomas is a 110 page how-to, fast read, packed with ideas and starting points for journaling life stories. Abigail Thomas is a former editor and literary agent, the author of, A Three Dog Life and several other books. As I read this book I felt like I was listening to a new friend share glimpses of her own life. Thomas teaches fiction writing in the graduate program of The New School in New York. I wish I could take her class. This book is one of the most helpful that I have read. She writes, "My life didn't feel like a novel, it felt like a million moments. My truth doesn't travel in a straight line, it zigzags, detours, doubles back."

She spoke a truth that has hampered me for quite sometime, "Poor little me is not a good motive to write memoir." I have written a skeletal memoir from that perspective. I am now ready to tuck it away and forget the chronological timeline and all of the woe is me stuff, and simply travel the winding road, thanks to Claudia and Abigail.

Thinking About Memoir is the first volume in the "Arts of Living " series from AARP. It should be on your reading list.

Okay, just had to share this. As I clicked off my blog, this advertisement popped up: Remember Your Loved Ones. All I can say to that is, Hi, Mom.