I'm needing some Beta readers before I send my most recent manuscript off. Writing is by nature an alone sort of concept. I've not met many people yet in Abilene. I'm an observer.

 As a minister's wife for twenty-five years I was forced into being gregarious, meeting the congregation, teaching classes, counseling required the most study. I didn't want to send anyone in the wrong direction until I realized they didn't want advice, they wanted someone to listen and sympathize. I could do that. 

I could act like a preacher's wife. In fact I could for awhile act any way I needed to. I did, once a long time ago, win a Best Supporting Actress for playing an alcoholic neighbor. Which required acting as I've never been a drinker but I managed. They had to put a port-a-potty out back because I had to drink so much diluted tea on stage.

I love acting. You can be someone else freely. Your job: to entertain and help the audience forget for a few moments the burdens of their lives. You can easily make them cry. Crying is a form of release but it isn't as satisfying as laughter. Comedy is much more difficult. To make people laugh is total joy.

I was Sister Amnesia in Nunsense one time. I had 104 fever at the time but I was the comedy element so I had to do it. I had the shingles on my nerve endings but didn't know it. No one could learn my part in time. So they had icepacks ready off stage. One night the locker I was supposed to open to remind me of the lottery I had won, got stuck and I couldn't get it to open. The audience had no idea this wasn't part of the play. I banged and kicked it and finally it opened. The part also called for me to go into the audience and talk to some of the people. Some of my lines included curse words which I said in rehearsal but in performance I did not. My mother had her whole grandmother club in attendance. I couldn't embarrass her so. Nor myself and my self respect.
Always be true to your heart and your beliefs. Act like you want to become and eventually you will become that person.

AN  OLD  DOG  CAN  LEARN  NEW  TRICKS

72 and still writing

Writer's have all kinds of problems: writer's block,

character rebellion, time management, in-laws, no encouragement from family, too much sex in everything you read. Hey! Been there, done that, move on with the plot or storyline. No timeouts! Please. I read everything but only keep those I would like to emulate.

My problem for a number of years was a husband with a brain tumor, three teenagers needing money to go to college, medical debts, you name it. I taught Drama and Speech at the high school and Interpersonal Communication at night at the junior college and we owned a paperback bookstore that I had to check with the lady I'd hired. This catered to my reading habit;-)

My daughter had a car so she hauled the boys around to their jobs and activities. They each had several offices to clean at night so they had curfew passes. Yes, they had fun, too!

I had my first computer in 1983, near the beginning of the computer age. A Mac II. You can imagine my excitement! I no longer had to use my Smith-Corona with 5 carbons!

I had four inspirational novels published before the brain tumor with Fleming H. Revell, Thomas Nelson, and FootSteps Press.

For twelve years I wrote only short things, devotionals, short stories, articles for Christian Woman.

Then I retired at 62 because I had unrelieved pain on my left head, neck, and shoulder. Doctors threw narcotics at me by the bushel so I probably shouldn't have been driving much less working two jobs and raising three teens.

Six years ago my chiropractor said she had a patient who had received a great deal of help from a doctor in Austin. Turned out it was Dr. Kendall Stewart, a Neurosensory doctor who treated nerve problems like fibromyalgia, ADHA, ADD, Dyslexia, Diabetes pain, and nerve ending problems. I took a few tests and he diagnosed me as having SHINGLES in that area on my nerve endings. The other doctors didn't see anything but a Crazy woman complaining of PAIN. 

With two anti-viral meds I began to feel better. Then I went to rehab to go off the narcotics. Much better! Now Lyrica has been added to the Mix. The area still gets red and swollen but the pain I can live with now. Before I couldn't focus on anything because the shingles had me out of my mind.

The doc said the nerve endings were so damaged they would never regenerate. I'd had them since 1978 and it was 2008. Thirty years!I still have to take one antiviral because my system is too traumatized and I still have SHINGLES. The Lyrica helps but your feet swell and you gain weight so I have to combat that always but the lack of pain is worth it.

Now back to learning new tricks. I've continued to read articles on writing, subscribed to The Writer, Writer's Digest, am a member of RWA with a small lapse in 1983 when my world became chaos and I forgot to pay my dues. A sideline here. I think RWA should have a lower rate for everyone over 65. We live on low-income, in low income housing.

So now that I am retired and living near my daughter's family and I have nearly finished a 75,000 word YA Scifi Adventure. Book 1in the StarPlayers Series, Book II is in rough draft, Book III is in Final Draft. I use Scrivener, a writing program out of Britain. Love it! Contains a lot of NEW tricks!