Madeline Sharples's Blog
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Apr.02.2010
I'm futzing around as usual. I have the whole afternoon to write and what I'm doing is checking and sending email, finding out what's up on Facebook, writing a little ditty for the April poem a day challenge (well, at least that's writing something), and eating my lunch. I'm not doing the writing I...
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Mar.27.2010
This novel writing is a slow going business. It seems like I write in fits and starts, but once I get going I keep my fingers moving on the keyboard. Yesterday I had a research breakthrough. I needed some information about Liverpool England as a Port of Departure from 1900 to 1930, and just by pure...
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Mar.18.2010
My massage therapist told me the story of a 15-year old boy’s death by suicide. He was defending another boy in his school whom his classmates, including his girlfriend, were harassing about being gay. He got into a physical fight over it even though he had a physical injury himself. Afterward his...
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Mar.17.2010
It seems that Spring appeared as soon as we set our clocks ahead last Sunday morning. The weather turned from cold to hot with no Spring in between as if it were waiting for the time to change. All of a sudden people are wearing tank tops, shorts and flip flops instead of heavy parkas, scarves,...
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Mar.12.2010
I've been asked to speak at my retirement luncheon on May 1 as I permanently leave my day job as a proposal manager to become a full-time writer. Lessons I've learned is the assignment. But I wonder how one can even begin to make a short list of lessons learned over a career that spanned almost 50...
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Mar.06.2010
I entered the "More" Magazine Reinvention Story Contest at the end of January. Here's my story.
Writing to Save My Life
I was 59 years old when my son, afflicted with bipolar disease, took his own life. Following an aftermath filled with guilt and grief, I made the decision to come out of...
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Mar.03.2010
Our next door neighboors always identify themselves like - this is Sue Nextdoor, this is Bill Nextdoor when they call, so we've taken to calling them the Nextdoors.
We've lived next door to Sue and her husband, Bill, for about 20 years, and she was always a person I avoided like the plague. My...
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Feb.27.2010
When I told my cousin Larry on the phone this morning that I plan to retire on May 1 he asked what I plan to do. Without a second of hesitation, I said I'm going to write a novel. And, with my official retirement from my very deadline and stress oriented day job I will have no more excuses. I don'...
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Feb.21.2010
I’m not doing so well with my novel project. I’ve begun to develop my characters and do a little research about where they come from and where they ended up living. But, so far no writing. And of course I have no excuse. I’ve sat myself down at my computer this afternoon with the full intent to...
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Feb.16.2010
After failing to market my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Memoir of Madness, Suicide, and Recovery, by querying dozens of agents and publishers for almost two years, I have decided it's time to write another book about another subject and in another genre. Of course I won't give up trying...
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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...