Madeline Sharples's Blog
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Apr.25.2012
I spent most of last weekend at the LA Times Festival of Books held at the University of Southern California campus, hanging and pitching at the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society booth.
I was pleased to bond with several of the GLAWS members who volunteered to provide hospitality to people...
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Mar.18.2012
I was about eleven or twelve years old when I decided I was through with my children’s books and began to borrow the books from my parents’ shelves. Early on I was interested in one in particular, mainly because my mother told me I was way too young to read it. I read it anyway. I left the dust...
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Mar.12.2012
Social Network Update
I’ve now joined BranchOut and Pinterest – as if I needed more social network connections than I already have, e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads. I really don’t know what BranchOut is all about and Pinterest is even more of a...
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Mar.01.2012
True confessions. I haven’t read any of Jessica Barksdale Inclan’s romance novels although I’m sure they are wonderful.
Instead, I got to know Jessica first when we both attended a poetry workshop at Esalen Institute way back in 2001.
We reconnected several years later when I took her UCLA Writer’s...
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Feb.21.2012
I fell in love with poetry and creative writing in grade school. Early on I loved to read, always checking out the maximum number of books I could from our local library. And, I think I was in seventh grade when it just hit me. I wanted to be a writer, and I never veered from that ambition...
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Feb.04.2012
Time to revisit my 2012 writing resolutions (posted on January 1, 2012) and report how I’ve been doing.First for the things I’ve accomplished.
I participated in the January River of Stones project, writing a small stone every day of the month.
I finished reading Doreen Cox’ ...
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Jan.16.2012
I’m checking things off my list of to dos. One of the things that’s been on that list for months has been to make a three-minute video to post on Marla Miller’s Women Over 45: Speak website - another tool for marketing my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On. And with the help of my son...
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Jan.04.2012
Since I retired from my day job as a proposal manager at an aerospace company in April 2010, I have been transforming my life slowly but surely. I got a book contract almost immediately and I spent the next six months busily revising my book. My memoir Leaving the Hall Light On was published on...
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Jan.03.2012
It’s time to get back to my writing life again. I know this list looks daunting but it’s not much more than I’ve already been doing for the last six months or so. But I must say that writing this all down makes it seem more ambitious.Hopefully, this list will encourage my writing readers to join me...
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Dec.14.2011
Most of the people in my family celebrate Hanukkah, and it had always been our tradition to give our nieces and nephews money – Hanukkah gelt – every year. The amount always varied depending on how wealthy or not we felt in a given year. However, as they grew up and married and had children of...
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Dec.09.2011
Lunching and my regular get-togethers with old high school friends – after all, we’re edging up to our 55th high school reunion – continually remind me how precious life is and how important it is to maintain old friendships. During our last month’s preholiday celebration I also learned that there...
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Nov.16.2011
I think the greatest love story of all time is the one that is unfolding between Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Astronaut Mark Kelly. Married just four years this couple has had to endure Gabby’s slow and hard recovery from a bullet shot through her brain. Early on we didn’t see photos of...
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Nov.08.2011
I participated as an exhibitor at the Ventura County Author Book Fair last Saturday, November 5. Here are some observations.
The Good Things
I sold seven books.
I gave away lots and lots of bookmarks.
Many people shared their stories of suicide and mental illness in their families when they...
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Nov.03.2011
This week has been very productive.
I’ve sent off my second piece for the PsychAlive website, and I got word from the editor that it’s ready to go live. The piece is called “Comforting Those Who Grieve.” I’m still awaiting word from my Savvy Over 60 editor about when my November piece for...
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Oct.23.2011
Okay, I’m on to another marketing project.
I was overwhelmed and indeed impressed by the numbers of blogs Jessica Bell is going to visit during her two-week book launch blog tour for her soon to-be-released, String Bridge. And that got me thinking I hadn’t visited nearly enough blogs at...
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You are a remarkable woman with a remarkable book and it SHOULD be read!”
—Jessica Bell, author of String Bridge
About Madeline
I have worked most of my professional life as a technical writer and editor, grant writer, and now as a proposal manager, managing the proposal development process and turning engineering "writing" into readable prose. I co-authored a book about women...
Connections
Causes Madeline Sharples Supports
Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, Culver City, CA
Vistamar School, El Segundo, CA
Crossroads School, Santa Monica, CA (Endowment in...