Madeline Sharples's Blog
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Dec.15.2010
After years of working on proposals for the aerospace industry and grant proposals as a consultant I came away with one huge lesson learned. Follow submission instructions and guidelines as if they are the words in the Bible. And the first rule to follow before even that, read the instructions, not...
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Dec.15.2010
The Great American Poetry ShowVolume 2Poems byEdited by Larry Ziman, Madeline Sharples, Nicky SelditzThe Muse MediaWest Hollywood, CAVolume 2 Copyright © 2010 by Larry ZimanHardcover, 157 pages, $35Review by Zvi A. Sesling
This book of poetry really is a "show." It is 8x10, hardcover and...
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Dec.08.2010
As a child growing up in the Midwest I loved to visit my family in the South. They lived on a cotton plantation, ate wonderful fried chicken cooked by a nanny just like in Gone with the Wind, and had such delicious southern drawls. I'd go there for a few days and come home to the Chicago area...
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Nov.23.2010
Since our son's death in 1999, I have been involved with The Compassionate Friends. It is a non-profit organization for bereaved families and the people who care about them, following the death of a child.
Every day on Facebook TCF poses a question regarding how we handle the issues involved in...
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Nov.13.2010
Way back in September I began the process of getting permission to use quotes in my up-coming book, Leaving the Hall Light On (to be released May 9, 2011 by Lucky Press LLC). And I must say the process seems to go on and on.
Actually I heard from Random House that the Anne Lamott quote from...
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Nov.09.2010
More and more I'm feeling ready to have the writing and the revisions and the editing of my memoir be finished. I'm now looking at this final process the way I worked proposals. I have a deadline, and as I get nearer and nearer to it, I'm beginning to prepare myself for the proverbial pens down...
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Oct.29.2010
I started bragging on Facebook last week that I had four chapters in the proverbial can. And this week I have three more.
Then I got to thinking what that really means. Does that mean that I'm done, done with them, that I'll never touch them again? Absolutely not.
As soon as I posted the first four...
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Oct.22.2010
I decided in January 2003 to return to my day job at the aerospace company I had retired from eight years before. I needed the benefits of a full-time job - lots of stress, strict deadlines, plenty of work to do, and socialization with other people - after our son's death. And right away I realized...
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Oct.10.2010
We saw the world premiere of the opera, Il Postino, based on the book and film about the exiled poet Pablo Neruda and his relationship with a young postman on the Italian island of Cala di Sotto. Though the story about Neruda and the postman is fiction, the portrayal of the power and beauty of...
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Oct.06.2010
Yesterday my Lucky Press publisher, Janice Phelps Williams gave me some very sage advice regarding my revision process. She of course knows I've farmed my book out to readers and editors for comments, and she just wants me to stay on purpose. She said,
"I know you are working very hard on the...
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Sep.29.2010
After I proudly thought I was on my way to getting permission to use a quote from a Paul Simon song in my book, I got an email from the organization (the third one) I had last communicated with telling me they were not the guys who give out the permissions. However, they were kind enough to give...
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Sep.15.2010
In this past year I have transitioned from working full time for a large Southern California corporation to working at home as a wrier. When I returned to my job as a proposal manager in the aerospace business after my son's suicide in 1999 I knew I had made exactly the right decision. The job left...
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Sep.15.2010
Yesterday I spent a lot of time figuring out how to ask for permission to use a few quotes I have in my book. I've always been into quotes. I write them down when I happen on them. You can see a few of my favorite ones on my Facebook page profile.
So, I thought nothing of it when I inserted a few...
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Sep.12.2010
I’m 16 minutes late starting this. I had set my goal to start a journal entry/blog post at 10 am, to give me enough time to complete it before going on walk to the beach with friends. And what I managed to do was find a few distractions causing me to miss my start time. And the distractions were:...
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Sep.01.2010
Where I live, in a small beach community a few miles southwest of the Los Angeles airport, we haven’t even begun to have a summer yet. Our normal June gloom days of low clouds and chill are still going on even now on the first of September. I’ve already heard complaints from the school children –...
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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...
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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...