Got my final draft of Caring Lessons in to my publisher this afternoon! It will soon be on its way to layout. Now I can diddle some more setting up this site. Notice that I changed my TAG CLOUD to CATEGORIES with the number of entries after them. Nifty! A slow, big learning curve. I've …
Student Angst All Over Again
Trying to figure out this blog today reminds me of when I was a returning nursing student--multiple times. But this is a tad more fun because there are no tests. There's just the satisfaction of seeing that my PAGES have indeed been started, my TAG CLOUDS streamlined, and my WIDGETS expanded. My expanded Widgets are …
All in a Day’s Work
Today, I'm having fun trying to figure out how to get things on the new "Pages" list you see on the right. I've had many "views" of them already, so maybe you're as puzzled as I am that nothing is there except a place to comment. I'll figure this out. Eventually! Back to getting my …
Go Back to School – Again and Again
Writing Tip: Take writing classes. Classes can be taken in person or online. So no excuses--just need to carve out the time. I've learned a ton about writing that charting in a patient's chart or writing nursing curriculum never taught me. I've benefited by having teachers and many peers give me feedback on what works …
Find a Like-minded Friend!
Writing Tip: Write with a friend. I started writing Caring Lessons only because my long-time friend Marianna and I cooked up the idea together of writing our nursing stories. Marianna and I live in different cities. We met in person in August of 2000 to make our writing plans. In fact, with respect to Marianna, …
Writing as Mountain Climbing…in the Snow
Some days trying to be a writer is like climbing a mountain-after a heavy snow. Two years ago, I happened to be at Mount Rainier on the first day that hikers were allowed after record snowfalls. Their lone plodding journeys up long steep hills came to mind yesterday as I ran into some uphill snags …
Subscribe to More Journals?
Writing tip: Subscribe to writing journals. I promised in an early post that I'd describe my "writing process," how I "crawled step by step from teaching nursing to writing memoir." Here goes. As a nurse, I'd subscribed to several nursing journals for nearly 40 years. So, when I decided to begin writing Caring Lessons in …
Writer’s High
I'm on a writer's high today--thanks to the Festival of Faith & Writing at Calvin College last week. I'm also tired, but every ouch of muscle revolt is worth it as I start to sort out the 24 notebook pages of notes that I scribbled while attending 15 sessions in three days. If I needed …
“Caring Lessons” Coming Soon
Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor's Journey of Faith and Self is coming out 10/1/10! For use in the classroom or for simply an inside look at the life of a nurse, mom, teacher, and student. I used to tell my students that if an ordinary suburban sandbox mom, propelled by restlessness and prayer, could end …
Write Along with Me 