once upon a time (a long tale)

The Story-Writing Club, plus 2
Read on for the full tale

Once upon a time there was a young woman (I won't say beautiful, but definitely wrinkle-free with long hair that had never known the touch of a colourist). This young woman was footloose and fancy free....not a care in the world, plenty of available resources to travel, and buy clothes, and go to the expensive musical theatre productions that she adored.

In that earlier time, the young lady (let's call her Lia) also had a passion for writing. Lia studied the words of other writers within halls of higher learning and even went on to learn the craft of how to turn her musings into stories for others to enjoy. She chanced upon other like-minded people and together they formed a story-writing club which was filled with light and laughter and reams of paper that told tales of many kinds.

The years passed...some of the writers completed their stories... some were short tales, some long, some imaginary and some of a more instructive leaning. They were wondrous tales and the friends encouraged each other in their work and cheered each other in their successes. Lia's own tale reached near 500 pages and 34 chapters and she loved the time she spent on her craft.

Then Lia became a mother.

This too was wondrous and filled with joy and excitement and fun. However, as all good mothers know, being a mom means BUSY. It means laundry and cooking and play dates and doctor appointments and first days at school and driving to swimming and dancing and piano and gymnastics. It means being so tired at night that stirring the brain cells to do any more than help the body crawl slowly up to bed was not to be - for a while.

Lia would not change any of that for a moment. Never. Being a mom is one of the most important and most rewarding accomplishments in her life. But her storytelling had to take a back seat and unfortunately so did the joyous times with the story-writing club...there simply was not time to do everything.

Until now...10 years later, Lia's children are growing and striking out on adventures of their own and suddenly there is a little more time. Suddenly, those 500 pages are calling out to be completed...to finish the tale started many years ago.

So be it, the tale will continue.

Okay...enough of that....I think you get the point.

The 500 pages is accurate and I figuratively dusted off my manuscript (figuratively because it is in electronic format of course) this month and am very excited to return to this other joy in my life.

Many events this year brought me to this point. Some were the musings of my sister's blog and being in contact with other writers. But also important was an email received from a dear, dear friend of the story-writing club...Rona Arato, Ronnie to her friends. I have known Ronnie since my earliest days of writing and she always encouraged me with enthusiastic words and gentle nudges.

During my first decade as a mom, Ronnie has continued to write and publish. She has many books under her belt and this past Spring another of her children's novels was published and she invited me to the book signing party. By fiddling with our crazy schedule I was able to go and bring my girls with me. How wonderful to also meet my other writing friends, Sydell and Lynn (also successful writers) and introduce all three to my daughters. (That's us above...Sydell, Ronnie, yours truly and Lynn.)

Ronnie was busy that day, of course, signing books and chatting and reading from her newest tale, Mrs. Kaputnik's Pool Hall and Matzo Ball Emporium. When I wasn't chatting with my friends, I went and bought both of Ronnie's recent children's novels.

Available on Amazon and at Chapters!

I began the first (Ice Cream Town) as soon as I returned home that day but before I could finish it Bryanna had confiscated the story and proceeded to read through the entire book in a few days. Then she took the Mrs. Kaputnik book and finished that one too. They ARE great stories and I was thrilled that Bryanna thought so too.

And so this post that began as the story of a once young writer and a return to her craft, circles back to the daughter who loves books.

Now that's a happy ending.