raquelmartinamartinez.com
Raquel Martina Martinez: December 2014
http://www.raquelmartinamartinez.com/2014_12_01_archive.html
Monday, December 29, 2014. You wake up in the morning and the day laughs at your pain. It is sunny and bright, cheerful and promising; everything opposite of how you feel. You count the days in minutes. First a few seconds separate you from the person you loved, then the seconds melt into minutes and hurry into hours. The minutes become days, weeks, and months. You hear a voice and you turn, a smile on your face, ready to answer, forgetting for one second that it is not him or her. You yell at anything a...
raquelmartinamartinez.com
Raquel Martina Martinez: April 2015
http://www.raquelmartinamartinez.com/2015_04_01_archive.html
Monday, April 27, 2015. Before my injured shoulder, I carried large purses. I had everything in them that one would need in an emergency. Rarely have we been somewhere when someone would not ask if I had and I would whip it out of my purse and impress them with my super powers. But because of my injured shoulder I cannot carry large, heavy purses anymore. I have to limit myself to small bags that do not weigh very much. Monday, April 20, 2015. Living Off the Grid. Grandpa HoneyBunch attempts a summer veg...
raquelmartinamartinez.com
Raquel Martina Martinez: July 2015
http://www.raquelmartinamartinez.com/2015_07_01_archive.html
Monday, July 27, 2015. The teacher was over six feet tall. He walked around with a scowl on his face and was always angry with everyone. One year he was assigned a classroom down the hall from me. By then I knew him well. Suffice it to say I was not one of his favorite ethnic groups. It didn’t bother me, but that dislike included the majority of the students that made up our middle school. Though we closed our doors during class time, we could hear the teacher berating someone every day out in the hallway.
raquelmartinamartinez.com
Raquel Martina Martinez: The Bully
http://www.raquelmartinamartinez.com/2015/07/the-bully.html
Monday, July 27, 2015. The teacher was over six feet tall. He walked around with a scowl on his face and was always angry with everyone. One year he was assigned a classroom down the hall from me. By then I knew him well. Suffice it to say I was not one of his favorite ethnic groups. It didn’t bother me, but that dislike included the majority of the students that made up our middle school. Though we closed our doors during class time, we could hear the teacher berating someone every day out in the hallway.
raquelmartinamartinez.com
Raquel Martina Martinez: Resources
http://www.raquelmartinamartinez.com/p/resources.html
Ten Amazing Books for Beginning Writers. Writing well can be learned and I have a lot of learning to do. As I write I try to read as much as I can on the craft. I read poetry and fiction and books on writing poetry and fiction. The following books have been extremely helpful in my journey to success. They are listed alphabetically because it was difficult to rank them any other way. The Art of War for Writers. By James Scott Bell – superb little book with so many helpful hints. The Power of Focus. By JI ...
raquelmartinamartinez.com
Raquel Martina Martinez: August 2014
http://www.raquelmartinamartinez.com/2014_08_01_archive.html
Monday, August 25, 2014. Ten Revision Techniques: The Belly of the Beast. One cannot revise a manuscript (go into the belly of the beast) without a plan, a tactic, or training. Writing well is both a science and an art. There are certain skills that are integral to good writing before a courageous writer can take risks and propel forward to great writing. Revision is a scientific, laborious task and must be done page by page. Eliminate unnecessary or redundant adverbs. Step Five: Find, circle or highligh...
raquelmartinamartinez.com
Raquel Martina Martinez: March 2015
http://www.raquelmartinamartinez.com/2015_03_01_archive.html
Monday, March 30, 2015. The Last of the Red-Hot Introverts. People laugh when I tell them I am an introvert. I am dead serious, yet they laugh and snort at me. They confuse “shy” with introvert. I am not shy. I know how to defend myself. I can talk to strangers easily. I have social skills. Anyone who has met me knows I LOVE. I can go for days (and have) without needing the proximity of another living being, animal or human. Monday, March 23, 2015. Names, phone numbers (from those who still own landlines...
raquelmartinamartinez.com
Raquel Martina Martinez: May 2015
http://www.raquelmartinamartinez.com/2015_05_01_archive.html
Monday, May 25, 2015. Memorial Day – A Mother’s Perspective. It took twenty days for his body to get here from Vietnam. In that time we grieved and tried to come to an acceptance that he was gone. He was only twenty years old and the most out-going of our group. We all loved him. CNN carried the war in great detail back then, so much so that the Pentagon asked them to tone it down. The enemy knew all our moves; all they had to do was watch TV. We watched also, so when they captured the first group of Ame...
raquelmartinamartinez.com
Raquel Martina Martinez: October 2014
http://www.raquelmartinamartinez.com/2014_10_01_archive.html
Monday, October 27, 2014. My brother was a year and nine months older than I was. According to my parents he was supposed to be my playmate and my protector. He considered me nothing more than his pesky younger sister whom he could blame whenever we got into trouble with the parents. There were times his protective, big brother nature did prevail and he would rescue me from boyfriends who did not know how to take no for an answer, and I, in turn covered for him with our old-fashioned, unhip parents.
