IWSG DAY, March 4, 2020, A Backward Glance at February 2020 By Pat Garcia

Hello Everyone,

It is IWSG Time!

IWSG is a writers' support group created and led by Alex Cavanaugh. It is an immense help to many of us who do not mind sharing our insecurities, our successes, or giving encouragement and support to others. 

So, if you are interested and would like to join, the link below will lead you directly to us:

The Insecure Writer's Support Group 

Submission: The Writer Magazine – Non-Fiction Challenge

A Backward Glance at February 2020

February was rough. It was a real test of my inner strength, perseverance, and my faith. I even doubted that I knew how to write. There were days when I didn’t want to sit at my computer, and even though I did, I wrote little.

The good thing was that I knew it was going to pass over. This confidence that I have is founded and grounded in the Creator of my life, and not myself. I didn’t know when the testing would let up, but I knew it would. 

So, I did the only thing I knew how to do, and that was not to shut myself away and to make myself live up to my obligations to myself and to others. 

I took the time to meditate a little bit more than usual and to read. 

On the last day of February, I saw a tiny light. It’s barely visible, but it’s there, and it keeps growing. For that, I am thankful. 

Wishing all of you a beautiful month of March. 

Shalom aleichem,

Pat Garcia

IWSG DAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2020, The Importance of Relentlessness after a Rejection by Pat Garcia

Hello Everyone,

It is IWSG Time, and we have moved out into a new decade and a new year. So, Happy New Year!

IWSG is a writers' support group created and led by Alex Cavanaugh. It is an immense help to many of us who do not mind sharing our insecurities, our successes or giving encouragement and help to others. 

So, if you are interested and would like to join, the link below will lead you directly to us:

The Insecure Writer's Support Group 

The Importance of Relentlessness after a Rejection

Last Sunday shook parts of the United States. I know it shocked me. As I sat before my television and looked at the video clips about Kobe Bryant’s relentlessness and his pursuit of becoming the best basketballer he could be, it had me thinking about my relentlessness in writing. 

It doesn’t matter how good you think you are; the question is always how good you are willing to become. Being relentless is not the guarantee for becoming a great writer, but it is the key to maximizing your talents. Relentlessness puts you out there to learn what you don’t know and to put your writing out for others to see and criticize.

I received a genuinely nice rejection letter again as I looked at a tribute to Kobe Bryant and his eighty-one-point game. It took Kobe some time to get on a level where he could shoot eighty-one points. It took relentlessness to keep shooting, working out even when he was tired, frustrated, and depressed. I’m quite sure that sometimes the level he wanted to reach seemed too far away, yet he kept moving, kept working, always giving his best in whatever he did, and he made it. 

I looked at my rejection letter once again. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was enough in that letter to encourage me to keep on writing, and to keep on submitting stories. One day I’ll walk through that door. 

Wishing all of you a lovely month of February. 

Shalom aleichem,

Pat G

IWSG DAY, January 8, 2020, In the Beginning by Pat Garcia

Hello Everyone,

It is  IWSG Time, and we have moved out into a new decade and a new year. So, Happy New Year!

IWSG is a writers' support group created and led by Alex Cavanaugh. It is an immense help to many of us who do not mind sharing our insecurities, our successes or giving encouragement and help to others. 

So, if you are interested and would like to join, the link below will lead you directly to us:

The Insecure Writer's Support Group 

SUBMISSIONS

The Wasteland – The Masters Review

Unknown Faces – Carve Magazine

 In the Beginning

Poetry and theater pieces have meaning for me, and I have memorized some poetry and parts of some plays since I was a little girl. I even tried to write a couple of poems. 

In my puberty years, I fell in love with Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and could identify very heavily with The Shrew. 

I also became a lover of books in my puberty years. An English teacher put a book in my hand that had me up all night reading it because I couldn’t put it down. I was hooked, though it took some while for me to discover the kind of books that I love to read. But I did find out that I was fascinated with Fiction and Non-Fiction and love cuddling up with both. 

I fell into writing. I tried to bury it within myself, but it kept on rising, like yeast in a loaf of bread. Sure, there are and have been people on the way that have influenced and encouraged me. They see in me what I can’t see. 

Thus, I can’t pinpoint when I got started. So far as I can remember, writing was in me. It was a part of me, and it still is. 

Have a lovely month of January and all the best for 2020. 

Shalom aleichem,

Pat Garcia

IWSG DAY, December 4, 2019, Seeing Myself in the Future by Pat Garcia

Hello Everyone,

It is the first Wednesday of the month, and IWSG Time. 

IWSG is a writers' support group created and led by Alex Cavanaugh. It is a big help to many of us who do not mind sharing our insecurities, our successes or giving encouragement and help to others. 

So, if you are interested and would like to join, the link below will lead you directly to us:

The Insecure Writer's Support Group 

SUBMISSIONS

The Wasteland – The Masters Review

Unknown Faces – Carve Magazine

Seeing Myself in the Future

My daily routine starts out with me using the early mornings to connect with myself. Writing in my journal, reading the Bible, and speaking positive words of affirmation over my life, are impregnated within me. I do these things even when I don’t feel like it. I usually drink one cup of coffee in the morning and one cup in the afternoon. I still see myself doing that after I have become a published author. I start writing around eleven a.m. but allow myself time to be late. There are some things that catch me on my blind side that must be taken care of. 

I like to write in my office, downstairs in my basement. No matter what, I believe I will always have a home with a cellar regardless of where I live because a cellar is my favorite place to write. 

Besides, having become a career novelist, I see myself continuing to compete in writing competitions, receiving fellowships, and helping other writers in their careers. 

In many ways, I am living the dream already. Sure, I am not yet published, but that's only a matter of time. I believe that the life I am living now as a writer reflects the kind of writer I will be in the future. For me, my writing life is a process that evolves one step at a time. It doesn’t happen overnight and then suddenly I’ve arrived, but it starts in the here and now. 

Wishing all of you a lovely month of December.

Shalom aleichem,

Pat G

IWSG DAY, November 6, 2019, A Soft Soul by Pat Garcia

Hello Everyone,

It is the first Wednesday of the month, and IWSG Time. 

IWSG is a writers' support group created and led by Alex Cavanaugh. It is a big help to many of us who do not mind sharing our insecurities, our successes or giving encouragement and help to others. 

So, if you are interested and would like to join, the link below will lead you directly to us:

The Insecure Writer's Support Group 

 A Soft Soul 

The weirdest thing I’ve ever googled so far is information concerning doing an autopsy. Some chapters in the second book, I am writing, deal with an untimely death.  Untimely, in that none of the main characters, are expecting that person to die. 

 I have to admit it kept me awake afterward for some nights. My appetite dwindled.  The research that went into examining the post-mortem of a body seemed harmless when looked at on television or seen in a film, but an in-depth search on the what and the how on Google gave me nightmares.  

Wishing all of you a great month of November. 

Take care.

Shalom aleichem,

Pat G

IWSG DAY, October 2, 2019, My Reasons for Reading by Pat Garcia

Hello Everyone,

It is the first Wednesday of the month, and IWSG Time. 

IWSG is a writers' support group created and led by Alex Cavanaugh. It is a big help to many of us who do not mind sharing our insecurities, our successes or giving encouragement and help to others. 

So, if you are interested and would like to join, the link below will lead you directly to us:

The Insecure Writer's Support Group 

My Reasons for Reading

The first brick laid in my storytelling was by older people who told me stories or read me stories from books. These simple stories like Jack and Jill or Humpty Dumpty fascinated me. They awakened my desire and made me hungry to learn how to read. That hunger is still within me, and I doubt that it will ever disappear. 

I am a voracious reader, and I take great pride in reading books by other authors. Books that are written by different authors expand my horizon and educate me over the writing process.

For me, writing your story deals with utilizing the craft. I am able to learn and use writing techniques from my favorite authors, which helps me interweave my words into a tale where the reader can slip away from his or her everyday existence. 

I honestly don’t believe I would be as far as I am now in my writing if I didn't read.

Wishing all of you a lovely month of October and take care.

Shalom aleichem,

Pat Garcia

IWSG Day, September 4, 2019, If I Could Choose One Spot In the World by Pat Garcia

Hello Everyone,

It is the first Wednesday of the month, and IWSG Time. 

IWSG is a writers' support group created and led by Alex Cavanaugh. It is a big help to many of us who do not mind sharing our insecurities, our successes or giving encouragement and help to others. 

So, if you are interested and would like to join, the link below will lead you directly to us:

The Insecure Writer's Support Group 

Submission:  On August 15, 2019, at 11:26 a.m. my manuscript entry for the Romantic Novelists' Association, New Writer’s Scheme, was completed, uploaded, and is now sitting somewhere in the U.K. 

 If I Could Pick One Spot in the World

 If I could pick one spot in the world to sit and write my next story, it would be in my office in the basement of the house I would be living in anywhere in Europe. 

I concluded a few years ago, that I write my best in a basement I can decorate and use as my fictional world. Being there, I shut myself away from the noises, people, objects and any other thing or situation that could distract me.

I am then able to construct and experience the fictional world of my characters. 

It is a type of submergence in the story. It revitalizes. It rejuvenates. It explores. It buries. It opens my inner eyes to grasp the meaning, and it gives me insight to the dots that need to be connected in my plot. 

Wishing all of you a lovely month of September and take care.

Shalom aleichem,

Pat Garcia