Blogger: Mary Keeley
In anticipation of Mother’s Day this weekend, I’ve been thinking about all kinds of mothers and those who may not be mothers officially but who are filling that role in some way. Today’s post is in honor of mothers who are writers as well as those filling a motherly role to support them.
You writer moms are amazing. You take care of the needs of each person in your family and perhaps also have a job outside the home. Yet you have the desire, energy, and brainpower to write books, with all that entails, in your free moments. That personifies passion and inspiration.
She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness (Proverbs 31:26-27).
Family, friends, and your agent who support you are your immediate reward.
Speaking of family and friends, some of these are mothers too. They have their own
families of various make-ups to care for. These women deserve to be honored for their supportive role in your writing life. They put their own responsibilities aside to read your drafts and offer feedback. Or care for your children so you can have blocks of time to meet a writing deadline. One of them may be your mentor, a role that is close to a mother’s role in some ways. Without the help of these mother types, your writing career would be moving at a snail’s pace.
And then there are grandmother writers. Your family has multiplied, which means you have more loved ones to nurture relationships with while also feeding your writing career. You are to be honored for the legacy of example and written word that you will leave for them.
Here’s to you writer moms of all varieties and ages. We applaud you and thank you for your contribution to family, Christian publishing, and society.
What writer moms or supportive “moms” have I missed? How have you helped another writer mom? How have others helped you so that you can pursue your writing career? What kind of legacy to do want to leave for your families?
TWEETABLE:
In honor of mothers who are writers and the mother types who support them. Click to Tweet.
I am thankful for my grandmother (who insisted on good grammar), for my mother (who thinks everything I write is wonderful), my 4th grade teacher (who praised my early efforts to tell a story) and a dear writing friend (who read my first draft and said “this book needs to be published”).
I’m kind of the wrong gender to be a mother, do not have good memories of my own childhood, and did not know my grandparents, so one might be excused for thinking (perhaps with relief) that I’d sit this one out.
* Wrong-oh. Bella The Miracle Dog just got me out of the fitful rest that passes for sleep these days. Since her back’s broken, she needs to be carried out to do her morning ablutions and greet the coming day…usually at four in the morning. And carried out for every subsequent call of nature. She and her twenty-odd special-needs adoptive siblings have taught me this:
The only worthwhile legacy is love, the only worthwhile love is found through compassionate service, and the only service that can be truly compassionate is that laid as an offering, daily, at the feet of the Lord.
Beautiful summary of a deep truth, Andrew.
The Patron Mom.
My best friend lives near San Francisco, and prior to 2014, I hadn’t seen her in 7 years. We met up at the San Francisco airport prior to me going to an event south of the city. We were weepy and giddy and she even got to meet a few very important people in my life before I had to move along and say goodbye.
Once the event was over, she picked me up and we meandered home.
Since then, she has done 2 research trips with me, and hopefully in September, we’ll do a 3rd together.
(Travel tip? If you’re going anywhere in the Southwest, and money is tight? Fly in and out of Las Vegas. The airfare to that city is crazy cheap.)
How does she support my work? It may sound simple, but it’s a rather pricey thing: she pays for the rental vehicle when we travel together. For a week of vehicle rental and the insurance? Well, that’s a big bucket of doubloons that I don’t have. She’s already committed to another week of fully air conditioned comfort for this September. Oh, and all the driving, since insuring me, a “foreigner” on the car jacks up the price. And did I mention we share the gas? On top of all that, she’s a professional photographer and takes incredible photos all along the way.
She also has every Panda Express between Vegas and Gallup programmed into her GPS.
I have a few other Patron Moms in my Writer Wrolodex…Jeanne Takenaka, Shelli Littleton, Amy Drown. When I needed help to get from Point A to Point B? They helped me down the highway. Literally!
As for my legacy? I think mine will be “despite it all, she pressed on”. The “all” being starting my writing so late, and having such a steep learning curve. And all the stuff that comes with being slightly over 35.
Thank you so much for the mention, sweet friend. I thank God for you!
You’re welcome!
I thank God for you, too.
Aww. You’re going to make me cry. 🙂
I have this deep desire to drive to Mex-ee-yah, but not til we find the Dairy Queen..
(Mexia, TX, in case anyone is concerned about my Spanish skills, and we drove past the Dairy Queen even though it was Right There.)
Any adventure in the car with me is a trip! Lol. 🙂
It’s incumbent upon me to pay meet honour unto the Moms of Books and Such, without whom my writing endeavours would long ago have crumbled into dust, and to the Moms of this community – some of whom are dudes – whose prayers and encouragement have kept me uplifted and buoyed in luminous and transcendent hope.
I wish I could help other writer moms. I haven’t met any writers in person before. I’ve been helped by my husband. He gives me time in the evening and weekends to get away to focus on my writing. My mother-in-law has helped my critiquing my beginning work which set me on the path with the ACFW. I want to leave the legacy my mom left. She died when I was thirteen, but I remember her always smiling and spending time with us. She taught me about Christ. That’s the kind of mother I want to be.
CJ: I was the same age when my mother died. That was 52 years ago, but the grieving never ends, does it?
Lovely post, Mary.
*I am blessed to have a wonderful mother, who we’ll be celebrating on Sunday. She’s a cheerleader, and she watches my kids so I can go to writer’s retreats and conferences. I could not do this journey without her.
*I’m also blessed to have many wonderful encouragers, and a lot of them are in this community. People who have shared a kind word, a different perspective about my stories, and who have lifted me up when I’ve felt like quitting.
*And I have a friend-mom who has red almost everything I’ve ever written and given me honest, helpful, encouraging feedback.
I am so blessed by you, Jeanne. I thank the Lord for those here who text or message me when they feel concerned about me … Jeanne, Jennifer, Wendy Mac, Carol … it means the world.
You mom is a lovely, elegant woman, and you’re just like her. 🙂
If I can help another writer with pictures in any way, I feel blessed. I don’t really live close enough to other writers to help much in any other practical way.
*My mom has helped me tremendously, not with writing, but with speaking. She comes up with a speaking engagement for me at least once a year. I know that’s not much, but she’s always trying on my behalf. Speaking is scary for me … so it’s hard to pursue it too much … but when time passes, I actually start missing it … like right now. And my mom wrote me a few days ago, telling me that she had a connection. It’s very sweet. And she always goes with me when I speak … she helps me with everything.
*And I guess I could add … “the child-mama” … the kid who loves to mother everyone, even her mother … who makes sure you get time alone to write an article if she knows you need to … who’ll research anything on her phone for you in a split second … 🙂
*Happy Mother’s Day, Mary and everyone here 🙂
I miss my mother-in-law, Alta Vaughan. The girls called her Malta Alta. 🙂 She passed away when the girls were about 3 and 5. She was always so supportive and loving to me. She had a very famous cousin. I have some amazing photos of that famous cousin when he was a kid. He has passed on, too. I never met him. Anyone want to guess? It’s not hard.
Robert???
No, Jennifer. 🙂
Ummmmm.
Not Canadian, right?
He was born in Texas. I have sweet photos of him with my mother-in-law. She talked about him all the time, her memories of him. Let’s see … his last name is the same as hers (that’s her maiden name) … electric guitar.
NO WAY!!! WOW!
Yes, way! 🙂 I so often forget about her being related to him … she loved that kid. I never really got to meet any of her relatives. Most had died … her parents had died before I married. I’ve got this amazing old picture file … of her family … there are several of him and his brother. He must have been about 10 years younger than her. She went to his funeral.
*And I would love a speaking engagement with you. That would be so wonderful!
Pictures, and road trips. 🙂
And we should do a speaking engagement together. Only, I think you might have to provide translations for the audience, depending where we are.
Yes, thank you Moms! My mother and grandmother have been so encouraging and my critique partner is a mother and I just realized that all of my beta readers are mothers as well. Thank you!!!!
Oh, to have had a mother who lived long enough to know her oldest son would become a writer. But she left me a legacy of books, including many from the 1800s, passed down to me through her from her great-uncle David, after whom I’m named.
Since my mother went to heaven fourteen years ago, I’ve developed a deeper relationship with a circle of senior women in my church family through Bible study. These ladies may appear to be fragile, but they have endured tragedies and survived storms with joy in their hearts. I am blessed to have these prayer warriors in my life. They cover me and my family with prayer, and I am blessed by their love and friendship.