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Review of 'The Truth About Us' by Brant Hansen

:: I paid full price for my copy of 'The Truth About Us'. This is not a purchased review or review for trade.  :: Full Disclosure:  Even after all the personally affronting, bracing-like-cold-water truths he felt compelled to share in  ' The Truth About Us ' , Brant Hansen is going to have to try much, much harder to get me to "unsubscribe" from his personal brand. However, I cannot keep this man's books on my shelves - here's why: As a long time listener and reviewer of previous books, I can't look away from the puppet-driven Hansen train as it plows happily through our comfort zones and leaves us asking pitifully for more accordion. In  ' Unoffendable' , Brant checks the mic: "Testing, testing, 3...2...1 - you have no right to be angry but you're not the only one" In  'Blessed are the Misfits' , Hansen raises the house lights: "Look around, all quirky, jaded and flawed souls, we do not misfit alone." And no...

Kate's Writing Challenge #3

This week's task was to write 5 sentences then leave them alone (til they come back home...to roost in my brain with stories that won't be denied)   This is another activity reminiscent of all that I learned in #TheArtistWay but only practice sporadically.  I have come to think of these little fragments as 'ThoughtStrings" and keep a folder for them on my phone, too.  I wrote more than 5, but I think its okay.  Five Sentences For Kate: (+ 2 for me)  The unexpected  arrives on an ordinary day, one just like all the days before it. Dear Eve, the lowhanging fruit is always bitter.  Her walls went up, invisible but fully electrified by the tripwire of his careless words.  Nunjas deflect temptation by habit, using nunchucks to keep their suitors away.  Along the way, you choose more carefully because hindsight is ever before you.  LutherAnn half expected to turn into a pillar of salt as she thumbed through the old scrapbook one last time befo...

Kate's Writing Challenge #2

Writing Task #2 was to choose a writing 'accountability' partner, so I tagged my friend Brad over @  BradWhittington.com . This fella has been Encyclopedia Brittanica (A-Z)  to my wide eyed wading out into the world. Once upon a very long time ago, he was just a random human in a chat room for grown-up PK's, but now he is a true confidant and my go-to guy when it comes to writing. He is working on a new project, so I stay accountable and in the loop. It's working out nicely. That Kate is full of good ideas.

The Decade Challenge: March 2010

In March of 2010, we were just returning from Islamorada. When we were in town, we explored the nearby parks and trails. I used my amateur marketing skills to mock up drafts for professionals to print. Easter @ The DeLaigle became a favorite family tradition.

Kate's Writing Challenge #1 (continued) :The Old Neighborhood

As part of Kate DiCamillo's writing challenge during this quarantine season, she encouraged writing one page a day. This is a practice I started back when I went through Eva Shaw's Writeriffic course online and as I worked my way through The Artist's Way  in that class.  As with all good habits, it can be easy to let daily writing fall by the wayside, but this season has found creative types spurring each other on in continued creativity. I had already purposed to use this season for "getting back on the writing wagon" but the videos and encouragement of fellow creatives have helped me maintain that intent through the doldrums of days that bleed into one another for lack of enough structure.  So- I probably won't share every day I write down, who wants to decipher my sloppy handwriting? Definitely not me. But I will transcribe at least the first day where I finally made good on my promise to myself to 'get back to it' - editing all the way.  One Pag...

Kate's Writing Challenge #1

I had purposed to use some of this quarantine time to do that which I love to do: write & create. I believe those of us whose souls soar on creativity all heard the same call. And so, by the time I saw that Kate was sharing her light with reader and writer friends online, I had already begun. But it is the sharing of encouragement and the motivation of creative friends all around me that have kept me keeping on. Week 1 for Kate's Quarantine Camp: Write one page a day (fellow ArtistWay alum? Could be.)  Write a letter to someone, real or imagined.  My Letter To Mr. Rogers:  Dear Mr. Rogers,  Thank you for sitting with me when Momma had chores to do. Thank you for explaining things - even very basic things - instead of assuming I knew. You saved me from having to ask aloud, which was sometimes a hard thing to do.  Thank you for never pulling mean pranks or going for a low-hanging laugh. You were never a coarse friend, or bully. Thank you for not being too big ...

The Decade Challenge: February 2010 & A Brief Detour

Yesterday would have been 22 years of a marriage that, like most, had good days and bad. In the years as the children got older, we began to refer to the date as our family's birthday and would often take a trip to celebrate the anniversary together. This picture is from one such trip, ten years ago this week. As I have embarked on this decade challenge prompt, I have been accused of not being over the marriage, nor the man that I was married to. I've been told to take my memories down and stop writing about anything where he was involved. But to do that, I would have to erase my life til now and cease to exist myself. And so- February's entry is simply a reminder that this was the time of year we decided to involve ourselves with one another, inseparably for the rest of our breathing lives. There was actually terminology to the same effect: 'two becoming one til death do us part'. And we stayed in that knot for the next two decades. Memories from our fracture point...

The Decade Challenge: January 2010

UNBECOMING Hindsight 2020: injustice in HD excavation, sans-anesthesia, inhumanity Not pre-owned appendages that were never mine but treasure formed deep, in caverns my own  Stones once kept safe drown me now to stay afloat Matrimony monologue Monotony Move Rewrite our stories  Recast the leads Say what you'd like Rewrite History, too. The South will rise again you say, Judge Judy walked the moon?  Untangle DNA Remove as much of me Twinkle, twinkle  how you shine  impressive star in this hometown sky  Wish you may, wish you  might Wish on a falling star tonight:  Let Truth crash in Flaming meteorite Touch your lips unbecome those lies. The LoveBird Inn and Dolphin Bay Restaurant In January 2010, my BigKids were little, so full of hope and love. Perhaps a touch of whimsy, too.  ~*~ McIntosh Bookstore   Bay Street, Beaufort  January 2010 " Books, you are my home. " 

The Decade Challenge 2010 - 2020: Prologue

PROLOGUE In an effort to keep the story rolling and as a writer's prompt, I am going to try and reflect on the past decade from 2010 forward on a month-by-month entry.  The biggest event in our family in 2010 was the birth of Riley Wren. At first we couldn't imagine what life was going to be like, adding a brand new baby girl. Now, I know that we cannot imagine a day without her .  It is one of my favorite sayings, that we should write our plans in pencil.  I find the edits are absolutely worth the inconvenience of erasing. JANUARY 2010

The Decade Challenge: 2009-2019: Epilogue

EPILOGUE It is fair to say that the last year was the most eventful and challenging off-road adventure in the story that is my life's past decade. A divorce is no small matter, not even when seas are calm and everything is civil. I've gotten the same question a lot throughout the process: If things were so bad, why did you stay? And I usually give the same short and sweet answer: Things weren't always so bad. When I had removed from our home for safety reasons, and it became clear that I was to be served with divorce rather than have the safety issue addressed, my son asked me: But what about all those trips we took, (what about all those pictures)? I told him then, as I reaffirm now: They still belong to us. They always will. They really happened and we really were there together. We can cherish the good in those moments, and we should. And this is very important (at least to me): The decision to keep them in tact should have never fallen on a fault line between safety and...