It is September, and schools across the USA are back in session now. Fifty-five Septembers ago, I left my rural farmland to attend college at the University of Mississippi. In terms of the seasons of the year, that was early autumn. In terms of the seasons of my life, it was early summer. You see,…
Category: Jacki Kellum Memoir
6 Words: Memoir Challenge – Exercise 2 – Write to Beat Writer’s Block
Ok. Yesterday, you should have listed 6 concrete words that signify yourself in some way. Today, we have a short writing exercise. 6 Words: Memoir Challenge – Exercise 2: For each of the 6 words that you listed, write one simple paragraph to express the way the word is significant to you. Write is an…
6 Words: Memoir Challenge – Exercise 1 – Beat Writer’s Block
For many years, autumn has been the time of year that I do most of my writing, and during the month of October, I am hosting a Memoir Writing Challenge: Harvest Your Past. I have decided to throw in an extra memoir-writing challenge before October, to help you prime your writing pump. Bottom Line: The…
Harvest Your Past Challenge – 31 Days of Free Writing Prompts to Help You Write Your Own Memoir
Some people know me as the author of the picture book The Donkey’s Song, The Donkey’s Song – A Picture Book Written by Jacki Kellum Illustrated by Sydney Hanson Published by Doubleday for Young Readers at Penguin Random House And some people know me as an artist, but a few people also know that I…
Listening for the Voice of God
A couple of weeks ago, I visited with two ladies who have been friends almost their entire lives. At various times, Estha Mae Coleman Parker and Virginia McKibben Vanlandingham lived and worshiped at the old country church at Pilgrims Rest in Yalobusha County, and now, both of them live only a couple of farms away…
Finding the Spirit of God in a Forest Church – at Pilgrims Rest
This week, I have continued my search for an old place of worship that I have been carrying in my heart for many years, and in doing so, I discovered the Pilgrims Rest Church and Schoolhouse. It is important to note that in this area, many of the original church buildings are no longer standing…
My Church Journey Feeds My Soul
For the past week, Yalobusha County’s former circuit clerk and lifelong resident Mary Sue Stevens has taken me on a tour into her past—which, in some ways, was also a tour into my own past. For many years, I have been fascinated by old, white country churches, and as soon as I settled in Water…