Blog Hop Around the World

This is my first experience with a creative blog hop. My dear friend, Trece Wyman, invited me to participate. Blogging from New York, USA, Trece is animal lover extraordinaire, specializing in cats; her heart is at least as big as Texas. You can find her at SimplyTrece. 

Now, to the questions, and my answers:

What am I working on?
I’m amassing quite a collection of books on writing.
I enjoy playing with words, it never seems like work. I blog, journal, write devotional pieces, and have a work-in-progress memoir that started as a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) rebel project. Most of my writing is nonfiction, but I stepped out of my comfort zone a few months ago and began creating 100-word flash-fiction stories with Friday Fictioneers.  

How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Mine is written by a young-at-heart, eternally optimistic cracked pot.

Why do I create what I do?
I used to look through the box of family photos my mother had. There was one in particular that intrigued me: a man, in a Civil War uniform, and his wife. Aside from their names and her relationship to them, Mom knew nothing else about them. When I became a grandmother, I began to journal. I was determined to leave something of myself behind for my grandchildren and the generations to come.

How does your creating process work?
It varies somewhat by project. For Friday Fictioneers, I study the details of the photo prompt looking for an unusual perspective, then run with it. I write the beginning, and I usually know how I want it to end, so I write that next. Then I know how many words I have left to put the meat in the middle of my sentence sandwich.

Here are the three creative bloggers I’d like to share with you. They will post their blog hop posts June 23. For a sneak peek, here are their links:

Susan Carter Payne, http://suzicatepoetry.wordpress.com
and http://suzicate.wordpress.com
The former features her poetry and photography, the latter her thoughts on family, relationships, and the world around her–and more of her beautiful nature photography. Susan is a published author and has many creative talents. From the mountains to the shore, Virginia is her home.

Dianna Keen, http://thesedaysofmine.com
Another Virginia blogger, Dianna is an amazing photographer. Her blog features family, two cats who adopted her–they’re also family, wild horses on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and her many adventures, near and far. She creates greeting cards, too.

Beth Ann Chiles, http://bethannchiles.com
Beth Ann blogs from Iowa. She has various creative abilities, so it will be interesting to see what she decides to share with us. If you visit on Tuesdays, you’re likely to find a teapot from her collection on display. Beth Ann’s blog features Comments for a Cause–each comment left on her blog is worth fifty cents toward the featured cause for that month. Be sure to visit and leave some kind words.

Thanks for hopping and stopping by!