People always tell me to write about my life and how I have become the person I am today. I always tell them my life isn't that interesting. Believe me no one wants to read about my life. I am as Plain Jane as they come. Sometimes I think of myself as Jane Eyre although I was never a governess, lol, but sometimes I think I did belong in a different time period and I don't know what I would be if I did live in a different time era. I have my love of the Regency of England and the Civil War here in the United States. I wonder would I be the rich beautiful heiress or would I be the lonely slave who had no idea what it meant to be free and do all the things that I have dreamed of?
I was born, I grew up and I have lived. I can't quote the exact way that Dickens started out Oliver Twist or was it David Copperfield? I always get them confused on the opening line but he had a point. We are all born and it is up to us how we live. I have done things in my past that I am not proud of and there are some things that I am very proud of. Sometimes I find myself in my stories and I am like how did that happen? And there are times when I do intentionally put my life in the story and change the outcome so I can feel a little bit better and have a way to release my frustrations.
When I was in college I tried to write a story of my life in college and my friends I had there but I never finished that one and then I tried to write one about how my life was different than it really was and it was much happier than what I had been through. That didn't get finished either. Then I started a story about 3 little boys who were ghosts and and a girl and her two sisters and set that one in Jefferson City, Missouri since I wanted to showcase the history of the town but that one is still left unfinished, hoping to one day see the light and become a book. The other story I started was a result of me being extremely irritated and frustrated with my parents and so I took the idea of having vampires attacking the family and the girl having to deal with the loss and leaving the town to start over again. It too is still sitting there waiting to finish telling me it's story. See the patttern? My lastest one which is fully written but waiting to get completely revised is set in England and she is a bookstore owner, which I wanted to own my own bookstore at one time and a part of me still does, and her dealing with an egostical male, not that I have met too many of them. Most of the men I have met have been uncommitted to relationships and pretty much geeks, not that it's a totally bad thing but sometimes I wonder.
I always have ideas running through my head and thanks to a wonderful friend and fellow writer I now carry a notebook in my purse to write down the ideas when they come to me. There are a few ideas sitting there but not going very far. I have to try and stick with one and finish it and then go back and fix the others. They will stay put and maybe one day they will tell their story to me.
I did have an idea one day while watching Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters with my niece. What is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were zombie hunters???????????? I mean come on, it's not that far fetched. LOL. I mean if they can make Honest Abe a Vampire Hunter why not Snow White? Just an idea. Hehehehe.
Also I know I am a writer at heart when I tell a co-worker that there could be a story written about an ice machine that turns into a monster. Not completely sure where that one would have led but it was an idea.
That's what I love about writing and even baking. Through words or even cake or food you can express your feelings and at the same time tell some sort of story.
Hi my name is Jacqueline Kay Veltrop Lycke. I know long name but it is the name I was born with and then got married and divorced from and never changed it. I was born on August 2, 1969 and I am one of the last of the sixties generation. Where has the time gone? I was born in Mesa, Arizona and my dad was in the Air Force so I was considered a military brat for some of my life but even now I still consider myself one even though my dad got out in May of 1970. I have had a long interesting and sometimes boring life depending on who you talk to. I have an older half brother who I haven't seen in over thirty years, a younger full blooded brother, James, who passed away from cancer almost 3 years ago at the age of 37. He was a great brother and sometimes a pain in my ass but he was my brother and I loved him. I have two other younger half brothers and I have yet to see either one of them.
My parents were divorced in 1975 and so my brother, Jimmy, and I were left with my biological mom who was not the greatest mom in the world but she did what she could or least I think she did. I don't have a lot of memories of that time and sometimes I wonder if that's a good thing or not. When my dad and stepmom (#1) got married in 1976 they filed for custody of my brother and I and won, so on March 17, 1977 we went to live with them in Clovis, NM and that day was our "anniversary". That alone is another story in itself and I will delve into it later. This is more of an intro to me and who I am today. There are many "stories" to be told and they will be told in time. In 1984, my parents divorced and stepmom #1 adopted us on October 18th. We were fine for a time and it was hard since the split occured around Christmas but we made it and all went okay. Later she met someone else and seemed to be happy.
As for me, I got married on July 10,1993 and then following year on July 6th, 1994 I had my wonderful son Dominic Andrew. He was the one bright life in my life. I never regretted having him and now 18 years later he still is the best accomplishment I have made in my life.
As for my writing I have been doing that off and on for over 40 years or close to it. No, I didn't start writing at age three but I did start back in elementary school with the tale of a spider who lived in the corner of my bedroom. I don't remember the whole story now since it was soooo long ago but I do remember it was one of my first stories. And my other passion is books. I haven't read too much lately because I have been so busy with work but I love books and maybe that combined with my love of writing has kept me somewhat sane over the years.
I always got accused of living in a fantasy world because I read a lot and stayed in my room quite a bit and didn't have a lot of friends but it was hard to make friends and trust and I still have that problem today. Too many people have burned me who I thought were my friends so I have built walls that are hard to take down because I think I can trust someone with my life and my secrets and they turn around and stab you in the back and it hurts when it happens and it has happened to me way to many times and yet I try again thinking it will be different and it never is.
I have always loved romance, even though my real life is no fairy tale or a romance with a happy ending. I am not totally cynical, yet but there are days when I feel like I am close. Holidays don't mean that much to me anymore but just reinforce how alone I am really am and what have I done wrong to be in this situation. I have tried to journal my feelings in my writing and from past experiences it is hard to write down what I feel. I feel like one day it will end up in the wrong hands and all hell will break loose. It's like if I write it down I will be exposed and it will hurt if someone uses it against me. But I know I have friends in this world who are behind me 100% and have never let me down and are there for me and support me no matter what and to them I am thankful.
So as I go along with this new blog I hope to write down some of the stories of my life and how I have tried to develop as a writer and the friends I have made along the way who have been my cheerleaders and have given me some sound advice. I might even include some excerpts from the three books I have started. One is completely finished and need revision the other two are still waiting for completion.
Thanks to you Avery, Linda, Valerie and Adam and the rest of the Jefferson City Writer's Group, who without them I would not have rekindled my love of writing and making the attempt to finally publish a book.
While I am sitting here waiting for the Superbowl to get back on track and watch the Raven womp all over the 49ers I decided to write a little blog on my encounter with the wonderful people at the Jefferson City Writer's group. When I lived in Missouri I didn't do much writing and I was starting to feel like something was missing in my life so I went searching on the library's website and found that there was group who met once a month and did writing. I decided to take a chance and go. I was nervous at first because I did not know anyone and I wasn't sure what to expect. Little did I know at the time that I would end making some wonderful friends who would be with me for the rest of my life.
I pulled up to the library parking lot on that Wednesday night, notebook and pen in hand and a little bit of nervousness too. I took the stairs up to the gallery where they were holding the meeting and met the person who was running the group, Adam. He introduced himself and I told him who I was and that I was interested in joining the group and he said welcome. So I sat at the table and put down my notebook and pen and waited for the rest of the group to appear. The first night I went there weren't alot of people there because sometimes there is a big group and other times it might just be one or two people. It just depended on what was going on that particular month. At seven o'clock more people came in and sat down and then we went around the table and introduced ourselves and told what we like to write and how far we were in the journey of writing. I was a little intimidated at first with how far many of these people were and I wondered if I was in the right group but they never made me feel inadequate and encouraged my writing.
That first night we did a quick writing prompt and we picked a picture that was on the wall and wrote about what we saw. I wrote about a yucca plant since it reminded me of New Mexico. Everyone was very encouraging with what I had written and I felt wonderful. I was like wow I am in the right place and there are people who want to encourage me to write and not tell me that I have nothing but a pipe dream of writing the next Great American novel. I was felt alive again and hopeful and I had found an outlet for my feelings and frustrations and I felt like I belonged.
That was almost four years ago and somewhere I think I might still have that writing prompt. And so started my journey back into writing and doing what I love and expressing my feelings on what I wanted with no fears of being ridiculed or looked down on.
Through the group I was able to write down what I wanted and got some good ideas from some of the writing prompts and a couple of times I was told expand the prompt into a story. Still haven't done that yet but maybe one day I will go back and turn them into a story of some sort.
When I left for Texas with my family and left my wonderful group I still kept in touch with them and even did a writing prompt or two via email but it wasn't the same. I missed the interaction and the friends I had made and when one of my fellow writers was about to be published I was so happy for him and I could now say I know a published author. I was sad to go and missed them a lot and then when I went back a year later to be in Missouri once again do to family issues they welcomed me back like an old friend who they had missed greatly and encouraged me to keep going with my work. And they were sad to see me go once again when I made the decision to come back to Texas, which I still wonder why. But through it all I have made some wonderful friends and two of them are near and dear to my heart because I can tell them anything and they won't put me down and make me feel stupid or small. Thanks guys. Also just this past year another one of my fellow writer's got published and I hurried to buy his book so that I had it to keep in my collection. It is nice to be able to say you know a published author and how much you aspire to be the same.
During National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWri) I had my group behind me to finish my novel but I fell short and they encouraged me to finish anyway and I did finally on December 31st. Thanks to the pushes and shoves (figuratively) and the drive to get it accomplished. I just now need to revise it and see if it's worth trying to get published.
Thanks guys for standing behind me. I appreciate it and will never forget.
