I am trying to decide on my new profile picture for my book jacket. I am seriously thinking about self-publishing and I need to move forward from the whole mine field of thinking an agent is going to be the most important thing for me to get published. The whole thought of I. Need. An. Agent. To. Validate. My Skills. As. A. Writer. I am a writer, aren’t I? This is where you can validate me. Ha Ha.
Truth be told, I have contacted the agent that is reading my motherhood memoir and I have not heard back from he/she. Granted, a hurricane is headed towards NYC and my polite check-in via email is the least of his/her concerns, but I would like to know where I stand. Is it great? Is it bad? Is it marketable? Better yet, is it sell-able? Does he/she love it ? Does he/she hate it?
I am a curious creature. I will admit I crave validation. I was a stand-out athlete in high school and I played soccer in college (Division I — do you hear the horns tooting?) It strikes me as funny and a little pathetic now how I love validation. But nothing holds a candle to how I feel when I just do it and write. It feels good to get all those feelings and thoughts down on paper –or rather squeezed out in a sentence which turns into a paragraph which turns into a page and then it is like skating on a frozen lake you know every corner of…just magic. Let the blade slice into the ice and off you go.
One of my favorite quotes is from guess wh0 — yes, Anne Lamott.
“The great writers keep writing about the cold dark place within, the water under a frozen lake or the secluded, camouflaged hole. The light they shine on this hole, this pit, helps us cut away or step around the brush and brambles; then we can dance around the rim of the abyss, holler into it, measure it, throw rocks in it, and still not fall in. It can no longer swallow us up. And we can get on with things.”
Well, that is what my book is about — the water under the frozen lake of motherhood. There are some deep cold pockets in that water, just as there are some beautiful snowy, sugar white sparkly — stop you dead in your tracks kind of awe and wonder. Motherhood, she is one complex braided rope –somedays there are rope burns and somedays this very rope saves me.
I have had time to process how I feel about this over the weekend, as I have not had a response. The truth is I have to be prepared to put my book out there with or without an agent. I am apprehensive about publishing this book because it is a creative nonfiction account of my personal feelings about motherhood. There are no quirky characters to hide behind –just this quirky character and my beautiful son (whom I do worry about reading this book later). I did not have an easy go with motherhood. I have my own issues (which will be discussed in another memoir which I am working on) but I also had to contend with infertility, postpartum depression, intrusive thoughts, nipple scabs, bleeding nipples, anxiety and among other things — the inability to stop farting. What the heck is up with that? (It should be noted this is under control now)
“There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Anyway, I detailed my journey as I was taking an independent study course I designed in graduate school, in which my primary focus was to intellectually study my emotions and feelings and write about it. As most of you know, I don’t like to sugar coat things. So this memoir is one big diaper bag full of angst, anxiety, sadness, loneliness, wonder, depression, internal judgement, self-doubt, confidence, miracles, happiness, joy, amazement, and a whole bunch of diapers, stuffed animals, other mothers, and just about anything that happened to pop up in my feeling mom jack-in-the-box that day. One thing I discovered as I was writing this memoir was that I was practicing attachment parenting and I didn’t even realize it. The theme of this memoir is how attachment parenting helped me find my way and the security that I was doing it right.
Here is a piece I recently wrote for APtly Said — Attachment Parenting International’s blog, which I am a regular contributor to. This piece also talks about my independent study course, Motherhood: The New Frontier.
So, without further ado — can you help me pick a photo to slap on the back of my book? I’d like to at least look my best as I prepare to get slaughtered by the judgmental moms out there. It’s brutal in Momville somedays. I do find that most moms when you have them cornered and there is good coffee on hand, will freely admit to how difficult it is to be a mom. The juxtaposition of feelings. The loss of identity. The loneliness. The boredom. The joy. The stress. The calm. The pain. The smiles. The backbreaking daily labor. The lulls in-between. The long braided rope, complex and multi-layered.
So I will label the photos I had taken by a professional photographer and if you are willing, write a quick comment on your favorite. I hate decisions. I will admit the best decision I ever made was to be a mother.
Photo #1
I really like #1.
“Mother’s love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved.” -Erich Fromm
Photo #2
“Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother’s love is not.” -James Joyce
I like this photo because my antique typewriters are showing. I love those babies of mine. If they weren’t so heavy, I would put them in a sling and baby-wear them around town. Just kidding, but kind of serious.
Photo #3
“With what price we pay for the glory of motherhood.” -Isadora Duncan
Photo #4
“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.” -Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty
Photo #5
“Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; A mother’s secret hope outlives them all.” -Oliver Wendell Holmes
I know I posted on Facebook (facebook.com/memomuse) and Twitter (@memomuse1) that I would post the Monday Mooseletter Monday night. I just didn’t get to it. I don’t like to make promises I can’t keep. So, here it is on Wednesday.
Afterall, I don’t want a riot to start because I didn’t have a fresh post on my blog. Ha ha. Seriously, I wonder who are my loyal followers. What I think about when I get a new like on Facebook is not about the number, but the actual number — the person. The fact that one person in this great big universe decided to go to the sidebar and hit like. It means a lot to me. It means you truly heard me and recognized and appreciated my voice. And I thank you.
So, here are some moose:
Mama moose and her little one
Here is an update of what is going on:
1. Remember 35 mm film and photos you hold in your hand
This post will be short (this is an out right lie) because I have a photography deadline to meet. I am going through my photos (35 mm film prints) from Wyoming (my home state) to find color photos for a Wyoming tourism brochure I was invited to submit photos to. I have so many photos (literally thousands) of film prints to go through. I am so biased when it comes to Wyoming because my heart still lives there even though I live in North Carolina now.
Moose on the road in Yellowstone. They are enormous in size.
It takes my breath away and it makes my heart swell. It also breaks my heart that there are so many wildfires going on in the West, especially Wyoming and Colorado. My sister lives near the High Park fire and she is safe now, but it was frightening to wonder if she would lose her farm. See — here I said this post would be short, but now I want to write about my sister’s farm.
I love Wyoming. Photo taken in 2004 on my honeymoon. We went to Yellowstone for our honeymoon.
2. Working on Two Books
An agent in New York is reading over my motherhood memoir (proposal and full manuscript requested). It is a creative nonfiction memoir about Attachment Parenting, as it relates to me, as a new mom trying to find her way. It is NOT, I repeat NOT, a how-to book. All I know how to do is be the best mother I can be to my son and write pretty well. I can do other things too, but you get my point.
BlogHer CEO and c0-founder, Lisa Stone, recently declared Mamalode magazine America’s Best Parenting Magazine. Mamalode publisher, Elke Govertsen, has agreed to write a blurb and endorse my book. She is such an amazing person and has really taken Mamalode where it was meant to go — a publication with subscribers in every state and many countries around the world. Elke is a true trailblazer and visionary. Check it out. There is a link to the magazine on my sidebar too.
3. More Details about Book Projects
I have to just hit enter and go to the next number or I will ramble on. I have so many ideas for blog posts, but they require research, development and crafting. I just don’t have the time right now to develop the blog posts I want to write about. I have been thinking about turning them into articles for magazines, but then I am brought back to #2: my books. I have to finish these projects.
These two books (AP motherhood memoir and historic food memoir) are my priority right now. The Attachment Parenting motherhood memoir is a book about my experience as a new mom. I kept detailed journal entries in graduate school for an independent course on motherhood I designed. It was called, Motherhood: The New Frontier. I picked five books to read, and basically had free reign to write whatever I wanted to about motherhood. Well, to say the least, it is raw, edgy, hopeful, honest, vulnerable, and loving (and about a dozen more adjectives). One of those books on my reading list was Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott. Read it if you are a new mom.
Anne Lamott and me at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC.
If you haven’t met Anne yet, let me introduce her. Reader, this is Anne Lamott. She is a recovering alcoholic and addict, absurdly funny, and radically Democratic. She is not afraid to speak her mind. She writes as if in a confessional, and turns a phrase with the craftsmanship of a needlepoint artist. Anne, this is my reader (feel free to introduce yourself to Anne in the comments — I’d love to know more about you). You two should talk.
One of the themes of my motherhood memoir is the fact that I was practicing Attachment Parenting without even knowing it. AP is flexible and you can adapt the 8 principles to fit your family’s needs. People are up in arms about AP and the recent Time magazine cover. I really don’t understand all the hoopla and outrage, but the Mommy Wars are a real thing. I’m a lover, not a fighter.
Motherhood is beautiful, ugly, difficult, easy, complicated, simple, textured, smooth, heart-breaking, heart-pounding, and one of the most complex relationships.
My road to motherhood was not easy; I struggled with infertility, postpartum psychosis, postpartum depression, breast feeding, co-sleeping, and anxiety. As they say in the South, I was a hot mess. The thing is, nobody really talks about how hard motherhood is. In fact, it is a taboo subject. I guess it easier to talk about the joys and blissful moments instead of talking about nipple scabs, cracked nipples, sleep deprivation, and all the other little dirty secrets mothers live through.
My little miracle. Hard to believe something as wonderful as being a mom can be so downright terrifying at times.
I remember calling my friend, Debra Elramey in tears saying, “Debi, my boobs hurt.” My milk had just come in. I was not told it would feel like the lower falls of Yellowstone were dammed in my breasts. I was parked in the parking lot near the super strip mall and my husband was getting me a Subway sandwich. I was trying to be strong, and the baby blues were coming on something fierce. Ben was sleeping peacefully in the car seat, probably a week old. Debi said, in a voice only a good friend can emulate, “Honey, you’re engorged,” she paused while I cried, then said, “you need to get a pump.” I was like, “What is engorged?”
She explained the situation and what I needed to do. I got a free hand pump from the lactation consultant that spent ten minutes with me the next day. She said, “Yep, you got this, you’re doing it right,” as if I was some tick mark to check off on a list. I wanted to call her out and say, “Lady, I think you are mistaken — I have no f#@&ing idea what I am doing! Please sit your a$$ back down on my couch and please don’t leave.” Instead, I just kept a stiff upper lip until she left and then I cried. My next call was to the La Leche League and that is a story for the memoir…
Historic Food Memoir — The Community Kitchen
My other book is a historic food memoir about women in the kitchen and history in the making. It is about my great-grandmother’s (Elizabeth Hawley Odell) food business. The Community Kitchen started as a food conservation project in the basement of the Evanston’s Woman’s Club in the summer of 1918, during WWI. Read this blog, to find out more about it. I am working on the book proposal for this book. Two agents have expressed interest in this book already. The history is incredible, as it spans 1918 – 1951.
The Community Kitchen store front (600 Davis Street, Evanston, Illinois)
My grandmother, Elizabeth Odell Welch, was an executive chef for Alice Foote MacDougal, Schrafft’s, Birdseye, and General Foods. ”In 1926, she joined the staff of Alice Foote MacDougal in the tea shop business in New York. Later she did experimental recipe work for Schrafft’s and before she returned to Evanston in 1947, she was on the staff of General Foods preparing foods for advertising photography.” – The Evanston Review — May 31, 1951
Juney was a 1930′s version of Peggy Olson from Mad Men. In fact, she had the beauty, style, and sass of Joan, the sense of humor and charm of Roger, and the creative vision of Don. She was a trailblazer.
My grandma, Juney (nickname), was something else! She was a Taurus, athletic, smart, sassy, and beautiful — honest and funny too. She loved New York so much that when her husband bought a home in Long Island when they were newlyweds, she said, “Take it back! We’re going back to the city.”
She loved my sister, Kathleen and me dearly, as we were her only grandchildren. She adored her nieces, Mary Liz Price Hunt and Virginia Price Ware and her grandnieces, Harriet Hunt Brown and Mary Hunt Newcomb, and nephew, Lewis G Hunt. She loved her daughter (my mom) more than anything in the world.
I know this story is powerful: women’s history, food history, American history, and most important — family history! Did I mention how excited I am about this project! I am the sieve of this story.
Please tell your foodie and history buff friends about it. Word of mouth is a powerful tool in marketing. I hope you enjoy following The Community Kitchen as it evolves.
The photo below is a photo of my grandma, Juney — isn’t she just something else? She was the only grandparent I ever met. She passed away when I was ten.
This is my grandmother; her nickname was Juney.
4. Moving on, as I am rambling on. I am thinking about self-publishing a lot lately. I have the motherhood memoir written and am working on final editing. To be or not to be. That is the question. I do like the glamour of a publisher and agent from New York, but the more I read, the publishing process is not very glamorous. My grandma was a New Yorker and my mother was a New Yorker. There is something magical for a writer to think their manuscript is traveling like a tourist in New York. I hope that both my books not only travel New York City, but become residents, ultimately securing a book deal and publishing contract. For now, I am enjoying the cab ride, gazing up at the tall skyscrapers of possibility with wonder filled eyes.
5. Artist in the Schools and Writer-in-Residence
I was selected by the United Arts Council to be an Artist in the Schools and a writer-in-residence. If you are a teacher in Wake and Johnston County (North Carolina), you can apply for a grant to bring me to your school to conduct residences and workshops on Poetry (The Bicyle of Poetry: Riding through the Senses), Memoir, Poetry Slams and Spoken Word, Photography (A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words) and any other writing program. I am more than happy to tailor it to meet your classroom needs. Email me directly if you are interested. Don’t worry, I can tone it down for the public school setting, as I was a teacher for thirteen years (Special Education, Elementary Education, Middle School, and Residential Treatment Center). There is nothing more powerful and rewarding than helping children and teenagers find and hear their own voice.
6. Brain Tumor Thursday
I have a profile for Brain Tumor Thursday, which will be posted tomorrow. It was submitted by a man named John. He was an archeologist and his profile is moving. I don’t find these profiles sad, but then again, my mother has brain tumors and has lived with them for the last twelve years. They were diagnosed in 2000; she most likely had them longer. Brain tumor survivors submit their profiles to me, using the template I created. They fill in the blank:
I hope…
I wish…
I dream…
I am…
And then they can share their diagnosis, treatment, photos, and three things about themselves.
Well, I should be wrapping this post up. I do have that photography deadline to meet. Have a great day. I hope to see you here tomorrow for John’s post. It is whimsical, funny, hopeful, and beautiful. The photos he submitted are quite magical.
Find me on Twitter (@memomuse1 or @600DavisSt). You can find me on Facebook too (facebook.com/memomuse). I would love to chit chat with you there.
I leave you with one more photo, as you have been reading a rather long post (thank you for reading the whole post, even though I said it would be short). If you click on the photo it will take you directly to the food memoir blog. If you are interested in this book, read the about page, as the history is fascinating.
This is a photo of my great-grandmother. She is the woman on the far left. The three women pictures founded the Community Kitchen.
Happy April! Hope you didn’t get too fooled on April Fool’s Day. On April Fool’s Day, I felt like a fool. Many of my cowboy photos have been copied off the internet and been put into Google searches with someone’s else name and website. It makes me feel like a fool for not protecting my photos with watermarks. When I first started www.meganoteri.wordpress.com in 2009, I went with the muse and shared my images, hoping to celebrate and inspire others. I was very naïve. People stole my images with the right-click one two move, not even thinking about the fact that this was my art. So I have to buckle down and purchase a watermark program and I also have to watch what I put on the internet. The good news is one of my photos is so artistic and visually appealing that a professional bull rider is using my photo as his Facebook profile photo (the photo is of him).
This same photo has been reposted (without credit to me) on a Southern Romance Writer’s website, a cute faces website, a bunch of other websites, and you can Google the cowboy’s name (Brian Canter) and the website origin on Google says it started at this website (an all-girls school). The website address above says the name of the girls’ school and Canterbury Tales.
Image source: freebooknotes.com Where were these cliff notes when I needed them in college?
Anyway, this photo below of the cowboy, is just one of my photos that has not been credited back to me as the artist. Some teenage girl must have copied it from my website and put it in a Canterbury Tales paper. I really have no idea. But Canterbury Tales and Caymen farmers are in the web address when you go to the link. Any Canterbury Tales scholars out there know how this photo would connect to Caymen farmers from Canterbury Tales? I remember reading it (or skimming) it in college when I took the best class, which I did not appreciate, at the time (unfortunately) — Western Civilization. In fact, it was a great class – every weekday, but it was my freshman and sophomore year in college. Let’s just say academics were not really my focus. The course was designed to tell the history of Western Civilization from five perspectives — Literature, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and History.
Back to one of the photos that was pirated: I am telling the world right now — this is my photo!
"Brian Canter" (c) Megan Oteri - All Rights Reserved
I took it. Someone acknowledge it, darn it. I am working on getting the image correctly credited to the website it originated at: http://www.meganoteri.wordpress.com – I have since made this website password protected since so many people stole my photos. I am in the process of putting together the photos to publish a coffee table photo book. The website address above says the name of the girls’ school and Canterbury Tales. Anyway, this is just one of my photos that has not been credited back to me as the artist.
I get really upset because photography is an art and if a painter spent a lot of time on a painting and someone else claimed to have painted it, that would be just as upsetting. People think they can just take photos on the internet because they google a name or a place. But an artist took the time and practiced precision, patience, and craft to capture a beautiful moment, image, place, or portrait. The photo is so good that Brian Canter, a professional bull rider is using it as his profile photo on Facebook. This I don’t mind, but I would like to be given proper credit. It is my copyrighted photo.
Please credit an artist when you share a photo. Or better yet, contact the artist and ask his or her permission if you can share their work. They probably will say, “Yes.” Artists do not create with the intention of getting rich. Have you ever met a rich artist who got rich from their art right away? Artists create because the muse is in us! I won’t get started about how some of my other cowboy photos are on other websites.
Pinterest
The silver lining to all this is one of my photos has been properly identified on Pinterest as me being the photographer.
I have had this photo also pinned on Pinterest with my name given.
I have not looked much at Pinterest. The photo is credited to meganoteri.wordpress.com. Bad news is I had to take that website down because so many photos got pirated. But I am working on getting the new website up to date with watermarks and flash so photos can’t be stolen. I do offer photos for sale at this website: http://www.artflakes.com/en/shop/megan-oteri.
Food Review
I am working on a food review for Grocery.com. This should be posted on Grocery.com late this week. I will also share the link of the review on this website, Twitter and Facebook. The last food review I wrote for Grocery.com was for Wheat Thins — it is a review of Wheat Thins 100% Whole Grain crackers. ”What do The Colbert Report, Family Guy, a disbelieving Twitterer, a hiker stuck under a rock, and Wheat Thins all have in common? They all are part of the new advertising launch of the new Wheat Thins made with 100% whole grain.” – opening line of review. Click on this link to read it.
Balance
I am trying to find balance as a stay-at-home mom, writer, and creative. I still struggle with the desire to go back to work full-time outside the home and finding balance with being OK with just being a stay-at-home mom. There is no just to being a stay-at-home mom. That is not what I mean by that statement. What I am really trying to communicate is the idea that just being a stay-at-home mom should be enough. It is one heck of a job. I think I say it more poignantly in this post, Red Belly Slide. I have always been driven by needing to do something. Call it dysfunctional, call it people pleasing, call it a need for validation, call it a need to achieve, call it motivation– I call it a nuisance. I can’t quiet the storm inside me that says, “Capture that moment – everything is art – the next project – the next mountain to climb – etc. etc. I was always very competitive. I remember learning to shoot hoops because my older sister was shooting hoops. I wanted to do what she did. I have little sister syndrome, I guess. I know that art lives in me and I can’t quiet the storm, so I paint it. But sometimes I wish I could just watch a beautiful sunset without having to tell someone about it. But then again I wouldn’t have this photo to show you — this photo was taken at Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. The photo is available on my Flickr account. There is a link to my Flickr account in the sidebar.
"Blue Ridge Sunset...ahh the Beauty!" (c) Megan Oteri - All Rights Reserved
The moments when I feel most at peace though is when I am away from the computer – this can be when I am with my son, outside in nature, or celebrating the muse by writing or taking photos. I wrote this poem, Dazzleyesterday when my husband was kind enough to give me some time alone to write. I did not have my camera with me on the porch and a cardinal flew right up into a Dogwood tree in my front yard. There is something majestic about the color contrast of a bright red male against the intense white blooms of a Dogwood in full bloom. And also how a female blends into the tree, camouflaged by the brown branches. Listening to the male court the female and the female floating through the air is like watching taffy being made through a glass window at a beach town soda shop — like watching poetry being made – beautiful.
"Bloom" (c) Megan Oteri - All Right Reserved Bloom: You are beautiful, brilliant, wonderful, and strong. Happy spring. - memomuse
Article
I have an article I am working on that I am very excited about. I can’t tell you many more details, but I certainly will when the article comes out. It is a great story. I am very passionate about the subject and the magazine is very reputable. I have to say that serendipity is the word that comes to mind when I think about how the opportunity unfolded!
#Brain Tumor Thursday
"One" - (c) Megan Oteri - All Rights Reserved "Remember, it only takes one person, one thought, one word, one smile to make a difference in someone's life." - memomuse
I have volunteered my time and blog to write and host a weekly column for the brain tumor community. I met this amazing community through Twitter accidentally when I had put in a hash tag, #brain tumors, when I had this photo, Brain Tumors, up for voting at Talenthouse.com. You can vote for Talenthouse entries through you Twitter or Facebook account. Every Thursday, there are many people trying to raise awareness about malignant and benign brain tumors in the Twitter community. Their stories are inspirational.
My mother has had benign, slow growing brain tumors since 2000, at least they were diagnosed in 2000. For some readers, #Brain Tumor Thursday will be a source of inspiration and hope. For some, it may be something you don’t wish to hear about. I understand both sides. I still can’t watch any visual media that eludes or shows a brain surgery. But I can listen and read people’s stories about it no problem at all. My mother had brain surgery in 2000 to put a shunt in her brain to drain the fluid on her brain from the pressure of the tumors. This surgery saved her life.
Anyway, the template for the tumor patients to fill out is based on my motto: Hope. Wish. Dream. Be. If you wish to read about the launch of this weekly column on my blog, read this post, #Brain Tumor Thursday. You can also catch up by reading the first profile, which got posted last Thursday (3/29) about Tom McLain. It is inspirational. They fill in the blank: I hope… I wish… I dream… I am (be)… Then they share three things about themselves, a picture, and a favorite quote if they want. #Brain Tumor Thursday will be posted on my blog every Thursday.
#Brain Tumor Thursday on memomuse goes International
BT Buddies, a non-profit organization from England, that offers support and information for brain tumor patients, has expressed interest in hosting the profiles on their website, dedicating a section to these amazing stories and profiles. If you know me or my writing, you know it is heavy at times. That is just who I am. I think the human condition is what great literature is about. And I think everybody has a story. So, if you want something light on Thursdays, you might want to steer clear – some of the profiles are intense.
This Thursday, a woman shares her story of having a baseball size tumor removed. She truly is a brave person. And living courageously with a disease.
As Rocky says, “The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.” But the thing is, storms create rainbows and this woman is a rainbow of living, breathing hope and inspiration for the brain tumor community and others.
Mini Muse Interviews
If you, as a regular reader, would like to participate in the Hope. Wish. Dream. Be. mini muse interviews, you can fill out the template and I will post them in the Mini Muse Interviews section of this blog. It is a current project and you don’t have to have a brain tumor to participate. We all have hopes, wishes, and dreams and most importantly – we all ARE. We be! Hope. Wish. Dream. Be. If you would like to see an example of a Mini Muse Interview, click on this link or go to the tab up top that says, “Mini Muse Interviews.” It would be great for you to participate! You can email me at memomuse@gmail.com if you are interested.
Just LeDoux It – Chris LeDoux
As most of you know, I am from Wyoming. I call Wyoming home and it always will be. But my home travels with me — Wyoming is in my heart. I carry the courage, cowboys, cowgirls, pride, people, landscape, and stories within me — within my muse. You can view my portfolio here, which has a lot of my Wyoming photos. One of my favorite poets and rodeo cowboys is Chris LeDoux. Sadly, he died in 2005 from cancer. He was an exceptional human being who really portrayed the essence of the cowboy code. He wrote poems while he was traveling the rodeo circuit, which he turned into country music songs. These are some of the lyrics from “Cadillac Cowboy,” and he mentions Cheyenne, and he is referencing the Daddy of em’ All of rodeos!
Turn up that radio
Don’t wanna think about a rodeo
Don’t wanna think about a round-up
Up in old Cheyenne
It’s a crazy circuit
But still you work it
Chris LeDoux graduated from the same high school I did in Cheyenne. I was lucky enough to meet him in person and see his beautiful smile and be LUCKY enough to have him smile directly at me. After a long day of taking photos at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo (where most of my cowboy photos come from), my buddy, Thumper, who worked behind the chutes, told me, “Be back here at 5. It will be worth your while.” I didn’t have any film left and I couldn’t go home, so I took Thumper’s advice. I have a story about meeting Chris, which I will post on this website when voting for his photo opens on April 16. So stay tuned.
Here is the link to the photo, Chris LeDoux, You can click on the link and become a supporter today. By becoming a supporter, you will be sent an email from Talenthouse when voting opens, reminding you to vote.
One Ride is a musical celebrating Chris’ music and tells the story of the rodeo cowboy. Check out the website, One Ride, to find more info. You can also find information about the musical, One Ride, at the Chris LeDoux offical website and you can listen to lots of his beautiful country songs. When you click on the website, you will be greeted by one of my favorite songs, “Old Paint.” Click here to read the lyrics to that song. Chris was a true cowboy bard and poet.
National Poetry Month
National Poetry month is April! Write a poem. Read a poem. Think a poem. You are a poem. I will share my favorite poem:
Hope
Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune–without the words, And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.
- Emily Dickinson
My Muse – My Son
My son is my muse. He is a full blown toddler. He is into everything and is as curios as a bee in spring. I am so lucky to be a mom, as I had several miscarriages in the past and struggled with infertility for many years. I am blessed and everyday I am thankful to be able to enjoy his energy and enthusiasm for life. Like right now, he is pouring coffee on the floor. But at least, it is the wood floors and not on top of my computer. Ben’s favorite March flower was the daffodil and he plucked every single one off its stem and gave my husband or me it. I wonder what his April flower will be? What is your favorite April bloom? It doesn’t necessarily have to be a flower per say — maybe an annual event or occurrence.
"Spring Muse" - (c) Megan Oteri - All Rights Reserved This is a photo of my son, picking the tops off daffodils -- the gateway flower into spring.
Monday Museletter
I am going to try to do the Monday Museletter every Monday. Don’t think I am getting organized or anything or predictable! I will still surprise you with random posts on Tuesday through Sunday, except on Thursday – that is Brain Tumor Thursday. And does anyone have a suggestion for a better title for that weekly column? Have a great week and thank you for being such a wonderful community where I can share my muse, thoughts, and art. If you would like to be on the Monday Museletter email list, let me know in the comments or sending me an email at memomuse@gmail.com. You can also subscribe via email or RSS (see the first two side bar widgets).
Thank you for your time. Have a muse filled Monday!
