Choosing My Children - IWSG October 2025

 

Welcome to IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of our ninja leader Alex Cavanaugh. Thank you to October  cohosts, Beth Camp, Crystal Collier, and Cathrina Constantine! For links to all contributors, click here.

This month’s optional question: What is the favorite thing you’ve written, published or not? And why?

I wonder if asking this question of a writer is similar to asking a parent to identify their favorite child. They’re all my favorites! But if I had to choose, would it be the poem I wrote in high school that my English teacher submitted to the literary magazine without telling me? The one that when my friend congratulated me, I said, “Huh?”

Or would it be the piece I wrote off the top of my head before work one day and submitted to an online writing magazine before thinking about it? A few weeks later an editor called telling me I’d won $500 for my essay and I'd almost forgotten writing it.

Perhaps my favorite is the first piece I had published in an actual print magazine about living through the stages of life as an older mother of an only child. The essay was called “Middle Passages” and yes, it inspired the name for this blog. That particular essay put the bug in my head about beginning a regular writing practice.

But how can I forget the pieces I wrote for local magazines when I was freelancing? I had a blast writing them. Well, mostly. I was assigned a feature highlighting the best restaurants in which to dine on oysters. At the time I didn’t eat them, and every chef I talked to wanted me to sample their dishes. Gulp. (Now, I love them fried!) Then there’s the story I wrote about a neighbor’s yard, three acres filled with gardens, cairns, a labyrinth plus a three-tiered tree house. He was so delighted with the piece he had the photographer who took the accompanying pictures come back and take more after which this neighbor made them up into his own book. My copy has pride of place on my book shelf.

Another time I wrote an article about an encaustic artist, who painted with wax. Not only was I clueless about the medium prior to interviewing the artist, but my GPS was clueless too. It kept trying to send me north of the city when I needed to go south. But during the ensuing stop-and-start trip, I dead-ended at a pier on a river I’d noticed for years while speeding by on the highway. I’d always wanted to find it. Check that off the bucket list.

Of course I can’t leave out the four unpublished books I have under my belt which have taken years upon years of effort. I do, actually, have a favorite there, but I’m not confessing. I wouldn’t want the others to feel bad, especially the one I am currently querying.

In the end, they're all my children and there’s no way I can  choose. After all, there are sixteen years of essays I’ve published here at Middle Passages. Let's just say if I had to rank them, my “Church of the Jetty” posts would land close to the top because I cherish the memory of visiting our harbor breakwater with my husband on summer Sunday mornings. I miss it still.

But then there are my "Festival on the Common" posts. They're pretty good too...

https://middlepassages-lcs.blogspot.com/2009/03/practice.html

https://middlepassages-lcs.blogspot.com/2012/07/summer-blessings.html

https://middlepassages-lcs.blogspot.com/2013/08/church-of-jetty-take-three.html

https://middlepassages-lcs.blogspot.com/2014/07/church-of-jetty-2014.html

https://middlepassages-lcs.blogspot.com/2015/08/church-of-jetty-2015.html