This year, Mother’s Day is especially painful. Thanks to COVID-19, we have lost loved ones at an alarming rate. So, if this Mother’s Day is hard for you for the first time, I’m here to tell you it’s OK to sit this one out. It’s OK to say no to this holiday that feels like everyone is celebrating “at” you.
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Mother’s Day. It’s Not for Everyone, by
Moms rock, but Mother’s Day? Not so much. The commercials, consumerism and social expectations would like me to believe differently.
I used to write a mommy blog for a parenting publication. After it won an award (and with my editor’s support), I approached the publisher to explore ways to help it grow. Turns out the publisher had never actually read my blog, and this prompted her to take a look. When she did, she deleted the posts with which she personally disagreed.
As part of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Virtual Conference April 16 and 17 Bonnie Jean Feldkamp and Dr. Adam Earnheardt will talk about backing your opinion with facts.
Facts inform your opinions so why not cite sources in your columns and essays? Expert advice, studies, research and new trends cited in columns/blogs make them much more marketable. Find out how to work with universities to provide experts and data, cite them in your work and bolster your credibility. Quoting expert resources is a mutual win-win. Most columns – health, parenting, lifestyle, religion, environmental, how-to, even nostalgia and humor – can benefit the writer with a possible pay boost.
Join Bonnie Jean Feldkamp as she talks to Biographer David Maraniss for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Discover valuable insights into the search for truth, especially as it applies to personal stories. David Maraniss, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, best-selling author, and Washington Post associate editor will share his writing experiences. His book, A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father (2019) is about his father, Elliott Maraniss, a WWII veteran who had commanded an all-Black company in the Pacific. He was spied on by the FBI, named as a Communist by an informant, called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, fired from his newspaper job, and blacklisted for five years. Yet his father never lost faith in America and emerged on the other side with his family and optimism intact.
How does one navigate writing about personal and painful memories, especially when it focuses on family? Get your questions answered. Mr. Maraniss won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and has authored books about President Barack Obama, the 1960 Summer Olympics, Vince Lombardi, The Vietnam War, Newt Gingrich, President Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Roberto Clemente and more.
Grateful to talk to David LëGere of Woodhall Press about writing, inspiration, and process as well as the upcoming book to which I’ve contributed – Fast Funny Women edited by Gina Barreca. I hope you’ll take 20 minutes and watch the interview.
I’ve written more about my contribution to this book here. Learn more about me here.
