I attended open mic night with the Maryland Writers Associate (by the way, for any of you aspiring writers, it'd be a great idea to become a member of any statewide/countywide writing group/association). So, anyway, it wasn't what I thought it would be. Maybe 8 or 10 MWA members who were there to read their excerpts in front of a panel of head leaders of the MWA...but that's okay. I got up and read a couple of paragraphs from "Good Mothers":
"Named for Our Lady of Guadalupe--the Mexican name for the Virgin Mary who appeared before Juan Diego centuries past in Mexico City--The Guadalupe Home was established as a sanctuary for pregnant women--from teenagers as young as 13, to older women nearing the age of useless eggs, who had nowhere else to turn. Some women had children already from previous relationships/marriages that they had to leave behind, some were already living on the streets and kicking drug habits when they found out they were expecting, and one or two others had a history of child abuse/child neglect and were just waiting for the state of Texas to whisk their newborns away as soon as they took their first breath of air inside the delivery room..."
Of course, there was more; I had about 5 minutes to read. But I don't want to bore whomever is reading this. But, yeah, I got up and read, making sure to pace myself and just breathe to keep from freaking crying. The part that I read didn't have much to do with me, but it still ended sadly for a close friend of mine. Embarrassingly, I had tears in my eyes that threatened to flood my mascara, so when I was done reading, I had to just do a simple nod of my head and mutter "thank you" to my audience.
I got really great feedback, which helped my mood and my writer's self-esteem. Earlier that day, I received another rejection notice and almost decided to quit my writing--get a full-time job that had nothing to do with writing/English, and move on to more concrete and practical dreams...
But this morning, I got an email from the Maryland Writers Association--a copy of their monthly newsletter with my name featured.
So, yeah, I guess I'm gonna hang onto my pen for a little while longer.
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