Part One: Alice Sprung 1 I ARRIVED IN THE ALICE at five a.m. with a dog, six dollars and a small suitcase full of inappropriate clothes. ‘Bring a cardigan for the evenings,’ the brochure said. A freezing wind whipped grit down the platform as I stood shivering, holding warm dog flesh, and wondering what foolishness…
Category: #Memoir
Memoir Mondays – A Free Writing Platform Begins September 8 at Jacki Kellum Studios & School of Arts – Harvest Your Past
I am an advocate of Morning Pages — of Writing Each Morning — to Free One’s Creativity. For that reason, I am offering the Water Valley Breakfast Club as a time and place to congregate and Free Write together. The Best News is that the Breakfast Club is Free–both monetarily and in terms of its…
The Seed for My Picture Book The Donkey’s Song Was Planted When I Was A Child – #Memoir – Harvest Your Past
In October of 2022 Doubleday for Young Readers [a Division of Penguin Random House] Published My Debut Picture Book The Donkey’s Song. Everything about The Donkey’s Song is a miracle. One of the greatest miracles is that when Donkey was published, I was 72. But I had been carrying that story with me all my…
Myth and Memoir Writing – Understanding the Difference Between Magical Thinking and Harsh Truth – #MemoirMonday
On Mondays, I like to create a special post about writing a memoir. I call those posts #MemoirMondays. My goal for today is to explain that a memoir must be truthful– But it should not be a harsh account of reality. That is one of the differences between writing for an encyclopedia and writing a…
The Church of the Nativity, an Episcopal Church in Water Valley – My New Home Church
A quaint little Episcopal Church building sits in the middle of the town of Water Valley, MS. Although the current structure was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1984l The church body dates back to 1869. Water Valley is a town filled with old buildings and history, and I am pleased to say that today, I…
The Tapestry of Carole King’s Music: A Message and a Lesson for #MemoirMonday
After several years without melody, I have returned to the songs that have become part of my soul. I recently subscribed to Amazon Music, and I added to my Playlist: Folk music of the 60s, but Amazon also began playing music from Carole King’s Tapestry Album–which I consider to be music of the 70s. From…
Precious Memories, How They Linger – An Older Joan Baez Remembered When the President Sang Amazing Grace
I’m trying to move on from my disappointment about the 2024 election [primarily with the people who elected him]. To help with that effort, I turned off the news channels. Being hooked on the drama of what is happening in our nation’s politics is a drug that was killing me. For years, I had allowed…
Mistakes — Everyone Makes Them — Let’s Move Into the Light!
“Gypsy Rose Lee of Kalamazee, In Kalmazong, Mazoo, Has Looked in Her Ball –Oh! Wonder of All– I See what she Saw was You.” Jacki Kellum Gypsy Rose Lee Jacki Kellum Illustration Reworked in Procreate Several years ago, I started a journey toward learning how to make art on my iPad in Procreate. I created…
Happy Birthday to One of My Heroes – Mary Travers – Because of Peter, Paul, & Mary, I Learned to Ask the Questions that Were Blowin’ in the Wind
When I was a teenager, the Beatles and the rest of the British Invasion were at the top of the musical charts, but I still preferred to listen to folk music. Of all the folk musicians, Peter, Paul, & Mary had the greatest influence on my life, and partially because I was a female with…
A Look at Barbara Kingsolver’s Words about the 2024 Election — Quotes from The Poisonwood Bible
In The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver wrote: “Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened.” After the 2024 Presidential Election in the USA, she may have recalled those words, but from somewhere deep within herself she managed to say the following: “Truth and love have been smacked down so many more times in…