Welcome to Memories and Writing

Welcome to Memories and Writing.
My name is Penny but in the writing world I am also known as Vampirique Dezire.
I have begun this blog for two purposes. But first let me give you a little background on how this has come about and why.

Back in July of this year (2013) I had an email from a group I belong to called "She Writes" and they were calling for submissions for a new anthology they were going to put out. This anthology is due out in the US Summer of 2014.
This wasn't what truly caught my attention, it was the type of stories they were asking for and to me it held a sense of Karma. A final chapter that I needed to write for a certain part of my life.

But again I am heading off the beaten track.




The submissions were to be true accounts of people who have suffered the loss of a child and that is what had really made me sit up and take notice. You see it was a few days after the seventeenth birthday of our daughter, Mikala.  Our darling little angel.

Not only had my family and I suffered this loss, I feel we all do and I know from my own point of view, still suffer from the memories of never seeing her grow up.

I call it Karma and a way to finish the final chapter in my life of my little girl. Mikala turns eighteen next year, so we have done all the major milestones parents go through with their children. But once they turn eighteen, the only ones left as a parent you hope to celebrate with them is perhaps marriage and their own children. But these are adult milestones and not ones that you watch closely on to make sure they are happening when they should and not at a later age.

It took a lot of deep thinking and discussing it with hubby and sons on whether this was something I should do. But Shane (hubby), Joel (son#1) and Rhys (son#2) were all very encouraging abut it.

It was a very emotional experience writing her story down. On some truly loving advice from my best friend, Gina Kincade, I wrote the whole thing down, sobbed my heart out for a few days as dormant emotions became extremely raw.It took me about a week before I could cut my writing down to the pre-requisite limit of 1500 words.

I have never been very good at editing things out and I found it even harder this time around. What parts does one omit and keep. How can you determine that what someone else may seem trivial and not warranted. Like I said the hardest bit of editing I have ever or will ever do.
Again Gina came to the rescue and kindly went over it for me. She knew how much I wanted this to be perfect as this really was going to be my final tribute to Mikala.

Well editing was performed, submission was sent in.
I have had to wait until today to see if I was accepted or not and unfortunately I wasn't but that's okay. Normally when you receive a rejection, there is a period of tears, self doubt as a writer and inadequacy. None of this I felt. So obviously I was meant to close this chapter in my life but not by being published.

So hence this blog site. It is somewhere I can post Mikala's story. It is a place where I can post memories, and a place where I can share stories I may write that are not of an adult nature.

Thank you for taking the time to come visit and I invite you to read Mikala Louise by clicking here.

Feel free to leave a comment or share. The only thing I ask of you all is to take a moment to say a silent prayer for all those families who have lost a child through one form or another and if you yourself have lost one, I can appreciate how it feels.

Penny