Hi ladies,
I'm Janice, a 42 year old writer/mom, and I just wanted to say thank you for all you've done for me. You don't even know what you did, you never heard of me before this very minute, but after reading through many of the previous posts on subjects like writing later in life, organization as a viable option, and common blasts from our pasts, I feel very encouraged! I'm attempting to set up shop here at home, writing about the womens' issues with which I have had personal experience, like sexual abuse, eating disorders, depression, motherhood, dieting, marital bliss and unbliss, and faith. I am so looking forward to being here, and getting to know you even more! Have a nice weekend!

Hi Janice and welcome to Dotsie's wonderful, supportive Forum. There is a wealth of information here, and "instant friends" too willing and able to help with just about anything.

Best of luck with the writing....and again - nice to "meet" you!

bluerose, soemtimes posts get buries and we have to resurrent them. I think that's waht happened to this one. We have lots of posts in this forum so you have to check back sometimes.

I'm so glad you're here. Please ask away and we'll do what we can to encourage and support you with your new writing endeavors.

There are TONS of great sites for writers. Please visit the Links page on this site and you are sure to be enocuraged by them.

Also, if you're loking for book on writing, visit the Recent Reads page on this site. I highly recommend all of them except, Get Your First Book Published. It was good, but the others are much better! Sorry, just being honest.

hi bluerose,
welcome, welcome, welcome!
lala

Welcome Bluerose,

Sounds like we love to write about the same type of subjects!

Welcome to this wonderful supportive group.

Sherri

Bluerose,
Welcome to a fun sight!
Maggie

Hi Janice,
I just joined myself and I'm starting out with my writing at the age of 44. Welcome!

By the way, I started writing again at 50. I have just self published my first book. It was self published so my Dad could see that I had fulfilled HIS dream of being a writer. He passed away suddenly one week before I received the first 5. It was a secret. I know he knows about it right now, and he is so proud!!

He took a little chapbook that I had written with him nearly everywhere he went for months so he could "show" people what his daughter had written.

Keep plugging away.

Sherri

Sherri, indeed your Dad is "proud from afar" of your book.....I know mine is too! I also didn't really get serious about my writing until after age 50 - just proving the point that it's NEVER too late to pursue a dream......

TVC, there are somelate bloomin' writers in here. I'm one of them too. Hope you'll speak up andask questions, because we love to share our thoughts!

Welcome TVC and Bluerose. Yes, this is a great place to be. I'm an aspiring writer as well. Good luck in your endeavor. This forum, as you've probably noticed already, is wealthy with info and support.

Sheree

Thank you ALL for your warm welcomes and encouraging words!!! I feel at home already, and can't wait to getting to know your names and more about you. It's neat to have a lot of the same reference points like we do, and so refreshing to hear about things I might actually understand...unlike the usual conversations with my kids! Right now I'm working on a couple of projects, while setting up my new website. Without having published a book yet, I don't know how interesting the site's going to be, but I'm hopeful! My husband took the kids to visit family in Pennsylvania last Thursday, so I've been using this alone time to set up my home office, organizing computer stuff, and other things I can't get away with when everyone is here...like stay up till 4 AM surfing! I have the bags under my eyes to show for it, although I would have preferred a less noticable prize! Thanks again, ladies, and have a nice rest of the day! Janice

Bluerose,
I didn't get the chance to say welcome to the boards, so WELCOME! Do you have your office all set up? I envy you so! I wish I could stay home and write. Say...you wouldn't want to adopt a slightly overweight, yet jolly older child...would ya? Okay, I lied...but I'm working on the overweight thing...okay, I lied again...but the chocolate was just sitting there staring at me...what was I suppose to do?

Anyway, let us know how your office organizing is going. Lord do I EVER need to do that!

JJ

Welcome TVC15 and Bluerose!
I'm sure you'll enjoy this wonderful forum. Glad you joined us!

Thank you all for the warm welcome, I'm glad to be here with you. I've been self-teaching myself this "writing thing" and sure appreciate finding a bunch of ladies like yourselves to help me out. Now I don't feel so alone anymore! I don't know about you but my family, though supportive, don't really seem to get it. They get all excited when I have a victory but during the slow times I get the feeling that they think I'm wasting my time.

Thanks for asking!! I am reading that book right now as I received information about it from somewhere on the net (who knows). I am still waiting for the first 50 books to get here. I will probably never do POD again, at least not from Australia. It hasn't been good dealing with long distance strictly e-mail, and taking so long to ship.

Thanks so much for recommending the book, haven't gotten through it totally, since I don't have the books yet, I haven't been in any hurry!!

Sherri

Welcome Bluerose, you've joined a great group here at BWS.

Writing about life experiences is what it's all about, we're non-judgemental and love to share.

If you have any writing questions there are many here who can help answer.

Peace.

Hi! I'm new to the group too. I visited with Dotsie about a month ago and am just now getting around to getting on board.

I'm 41! Have been claiming writing as a profession since I was 40:). Of course, I've been at it much longer than that, but wasn't brave enough to say so!! Working on a book...actually found this website through my research.

Anyway, looking forward to participating!

Allyn,

Nutin' does this old Queen's heart better than to see a sistah Queen make an appearance....do come on in and share with us all about your book. What's the theme? Is it published? If so, where can we view it? If not, when can we expect to see/read it? Give it up girlfriend! Tell us more.

Hugs from da Queen Mother, JJ

I was a little worried about this double Queen situation, I'm glad to see that you are okay with it Queen JawJaw! I suppose deep inside we all want to be the queen, once in a while.

Ok... so we have another Queen, and she's pretty too ! Welcome Queen Me! Glad you joined.

I forgot to say Welcome to the forums to Queen Me!

Honey, we're all Queen of something...right Allyn? Visit her site and you'll see what I mean.

Hugs,

JJ

I love this Palace...I mean forum.

Queenme, I love your site.

jj - I have to tell you, my family calls me the Queen because I am so spoiled rotten in my second life. There's a sign in the kitchen that says, "The Queen do't cook." My sister-in-law just gave me a cute "Queen sign" and she gave me towels one year for my birthday that have my name on them and a crown. So I guess you're right about us all having to be queen of something.

Except, my sister-in-law calls me the "Queen of absolutely nothing." Royalty isn't always easy. And, when I got married again almost 5 years ago to my charming prince, I wore a tiara. I just had this thing about wanting to wear a tiara again. Everyone got such a kick out of it. My (new then) sister-in-law bought cardboard tiaras for me and my girlfriends and we had our pictures taken in them.

This forum is so awesome! Welcome queenme, or do I say, "queenyou" when addressing your highness
Louisa

Really great site Allyn! There are so many of you in here with great sites, I'm afraid that if I keep visiting all of them I'll never get any writing done! And if I can't get my writing done, I won't ever be able to have a great site of my own. Woe is me! Decisions, decisions, the real problem is that I'm just so easily swayed. It's so much more fun to browse than to actually do any work!

Louisa, I love the fact that you honored your prince charming by wearing the tiara! That is sooo way cool....and you are so correct in saying/agreeing we are all Queens of something. What I like about it is that we really ARE the Queens now. We've earned it, and by jobe we're gonna wear the crowns! hahaha....

Long live da Queens, long live this forum...and long live da Queen of BOOMER WOMEN---Ms Dotsie. Am I right? Uh huh...sure nuff

JJ

We're all queens, but there is only one queen of this forum and that's you jawjaw!

The tiara story reminded me of a dear friend's 80th birthday party. A younger friend brought her a tiara to wear during her celebration. She put it on and never took it off. She absolutely adored it. It made her day!

Welcome Queen Me. Please share your hopes and dreams for your site with us.

Well I must add my welcome to you Queen Me - Since I am honored to be one of the "Court" attending Queen JawJaw, I have to join in Dotsie's proclamation that JJ's the forum Queen for sure. But there's plenty of room around Dotsie's table for ALL of us and we gather here to support each other and get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses, hopes and dreams.......so WELCOME to the table!

A big 'WELCOME to our Kingdom' to all you newbies!

Princess Donna

Queenme,
Welcome to the neighborhood/kingdom. What a fun site you have!!
Princess Maggie

What a warm welcome! And now I have to ask that you don't laugh. Ha! You know, the newbie in town can't quite figure it all out. Anyway, I knew I had posted and everytime I returned to the forum, I couldn't find my post (okay...so, it was on page 2!!!) Although quite bright (is that another ha!), I couldn't figure it out:). So, tonight (two or was that three days later)...I discovered the problem. I found my post and your supporting posts and well...all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you.

The book is a work in progress, but should be available this spring. I'm a Mississippi girl. Queen JawJaw will completely understand where I'm coming from because our places of origin are so very much alike. My book is about cultural (specifically, the Southern culture) influences on women and how this impacts women--specifically our abilities to make choices and respond to our inner knowing.

I'm thrilled to have found a group (meaning you!) that will support me in my endeavor. Courage is not something I have always had (again Queen JawJaw will understand).

And, I have to sign off with my new favorite line..."Ah, yes it's good to be queen!"

Allyn, there are lots of southern, women writers online. I'll try to remember to send you their sites as I come across them.

Hi Bluerose! I recently joined as well and have never met such a supportive, wonderful group of women in one place. And Georgia (Queen JJ), whom you just "met" is one of the funniest and warmest women around. Truly, I'm in awe of all these ladies. In terms of being an aspiring writer, another group I recommend is the IWWG, the International Women's Writing Guild. Dotsie's got a link to them on her "links" page. The bottom line is that, if you need it, there's lots of support and encouragement and honesty here.

For AT LEAST 20 years starting at age 19 or 20, on my birthday I wore this ensemble consisting of a rhinstone tiara, pink patent leather 5" platform shoes, a silver wand (large cardboard Jewish star taped to a dowel, all covered in aluminum foil) and what I labelled my Pat Boone Virginity Prom Dress, one of those 1950's numbers with the voluminous crinolines and plastic spangles on the bodice -- white of course, hence the "virginity" part -- that a friend found at a thrift shop. OK, I've already mentioned that I'm a little weird. I stopped wearing this when I could no longer zip the dress.

For the next 10 years it was the same tiara, but with a leopard print spandex catsuit. No platform shoes either.

Now the tiara has fallen apart, and a new one just won't do. But I still make a big deal about my birthday every year: If I don't, who will??? For my 50th I was selling at a crafts fair and I told EVERYONE who asked "How are you?" (Ha!!! little did they know...) that it was my half-century, so a bunch of people came back to my booth with little gifts and food that they purchased just for me!!

See, sometimes it pays to be a little crazy

so all those years I definitely musta been a Queen, but now that the tiara has gone south, can I graduate to Goddess?

Honey....you are...why do you think we call you THE DIVINE Ms M?

JJ