Recycling Vacations...

To all my current and future #DCSPeeps (DECIDE, COMMIT, SUCCEED), welcome to my new series in my continuing effort to inspire, amuse, and entertain you! Each Monday I will select a new word to analyze how it might apply to our writing lives and also give you a peek into my childhood growing up in the swamps of southern Louisiana, so kick back, put your feet up, and check out my story about TODAY'S WORD:

RECYCLE

Growing up, my mother was the queen of RECYCLE. It didn't matter if it was food, clothes, furniture, etc. With six in the family and one poor man's salary, my mother had to be extremely resourceful to keep all of us clothed and fed.

Being the youngest of four, I resigned myself to wearing the RECYLED hand me downs of my older siblings, but the ultimate humilation to living the poor life came when I was about nine years old. My mother was a proficient sewer so most of our school clothes were home made which stood out in a small town fueled by rich rice barons and the upper "nobility" who certainly didn't include any of my family. 

But the icing on the cake came on the day my mother thought the best way to get new material for dresses to start the new school year should come from the estate of a very elderly neighbor who had gone to meet her maker.

My mother carefully undid the seams of all those "old lady" dresses and RECYCLED them down to our size, but no amount of lacy trim could hide the fact I had to attend school in geriatric attire. Food for the bullies, but it was in my nature to simply endure what couldn't be changed and wait for the next growth spurt.

Writers RECYCLE all the time...in fact, some of us can consider ourselves the KINGS & QUEENS of RECYCLE. A revised manuscript until it rises like a pheonix from the ashes of multiple drafts...a hurridly scrawled story idea born of participating in Tara Lazar's Storystorm...or even reworking a plot written out during Julie Hedlund's 12X12. Look around in any serious writer's study and you will find snippets of ideas and partial manuscripts just waiting to be RECYCLED into that next treasure to share with their readers... 

On a funnier RECYCLE note...this past Christmas, I went on a writer's retreat to the beach where I hoped to get a lot of writing done while recharging my physical and emotional batteries. The day before I was scheduled to leave my home, someone decided to steal my trash can I had been assigned by the city.

It made no sense to me who would want my trash, but I gave it little thought while away. Unfortunately I became very ill during my vacation and was unable to participate in almost all of the activities I had planned. Upon returning home I got ready to return from work one day to discover what I thought was my replacement trash can sitting in my back yard. 

I was mistaken about my "new" RECYCLE bin.

The following day I received a call from the city. I thought they were following up to make sure I had received my new trash can, but they were actually calling me to say when they attempted to deliver the new trash can, they found my original RECYCLE bin waiting for them.

What I thought was a NEW trash can was in fact my OLD trash can, all cleaned up and returned to me. All I want to know is, how can my RECYCLE bin end up taking a better vacation than ME???  

ARE YOU THE MISSING PIECE? is now available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble Bookstore, and other fine retailers. It was a #1 bestseller in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US last fall.

 

International best selling author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt Taekwondo Instructor by day and a 'ninja' writer of children’s picture books, chapter books and young adult novels by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host and book reviewer for Harper Collins, She is also a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators and Children's Book Insider. Donna is a lover of dark chocolate, time at the beach, and well written stories.

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