Millions of Suns is an open invitation for all writers to create something new. Each chapter features a pair of essays-in-dialogue between two working artists, Sharon Fagan McDermott and M. C. Benner Dixon, which addresses a specific writing element such as metaphor, inspiration, place, surprise, or imagery. These hybrid essays reveal how two very different writers approach the building blocks of their craft. Explore how white space intersects with grief, how the act of reading changes over a lifetime, or how “familiarity, in life and in stories, invites us in and gives us a hand to hold.” Witness the ways that race and climate change find their way onto the page. Learn how memory can be an act of betrayal or healing. With decades of combined teaching experience, McDermott and Benner Dixon share practical craft-of-writing advice with the reader, including over fifty engaging writing prompts to spark the creative process. These prompts guide readers toward the freedom and joy that comes with finding one’s authentic voice. Embracing both the painful and the playful, Millions of Suns is an ideal text for classrooms, professional development, or daily writing practice. Through humor, lyricism, and poignancy, the fundamental message of the book remains the same for newcomers and career authors. Let Millions of Suns open a door for you into your creative work, inviting imagination, memory, and inspiration into your writing life.
Like alleys themselves, Sharon McDermott's poems are tough, gritty and sometimes violent. They are also lively, daring, on edge, and filled with ironic juxtapositions. Many of the poems are literally set in alleyways; others deal with metaphoric passages such as adolescence, midlife, death, sex changes, and daydreams. McDermott is intrigued by "fringe space[s]," the "in-between world[s]" that constitute a "crack between ordered lives," where "boundaries [are] breached/and breached again." After all, "in-between is/both about erasure and new blooming.
Sometimes you feel like a bystander when it comes to your own health. Everyone tells you what to do and it seems you have no say. Being well informed about your many choices and well prepared is the best way to feel like you're in charge. This book brings together a lifetime of reading and personal experience with alternative health practitioners from a wide variety of fields to provide an overview of many of the things you can do to soothe everyday aches and pains and be an active participant in health decisions for yourself and your loved ones. If you've ever been curious about complimentary medicine, including chiropractic, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, massage therapy, exercise or occupational therapy, nutritional supplements, aromatherapy, homeopathy, Reiki, hypnotherapy, yoga and meditation or many other ways to make your life healthier and ease daily discomforts, "Whose Health is it Anyway?" is for you. It's a primer for people who are looking for something other than prescription drugs or surgery. It touches on things you can do for yourself or with an alternative health practitioner.Sometimes, surgery or a prescription drug is the only choice that makes sense, but that doesn't mean that other methods can't be used to improve healing, reduce side effects, control pain and increase comfort. We've included stories of real people who have had excellent results, using yoga and other body work, acupuncture, massage, exercise or other supportive therapies in conjunction with conventional medical treatment.A healthy lifestyle serves as the cornerstone of your plan to regain and maintain your health, incorporating diet, exercise, stress reduction techniques and more. Many books provide detailed descriptions of every morsel you should put in your mouth and every step you need to take. "Whose Health is it Anyway?" is more like sitting down with a knowledgeable friend and discovering ideas that may be new to you that you can use to feel better. You may find some self care and mome remedy ideas that are perfect for you, but not be convinced about others. You get to make your own decisions.In addition to all of the contributing authors who are alternative health practitioners, Linda Fostek, often known as The Crisis Planner, has provided a chapter on all the policies and documents you need to have to make any health crisis go more smoothly, Ilene Corina, Founder of the Pulse Center for Patient Safety Education and Advocacy tells us how to improve the safety level of our interactions with the health care system. Her advice goes far beyond the basic bill of pateints' rights. Richard M. Brodsky, Founder of the Richard M. Brodsky Foundation shares tips on how he has managed to not only survive, but thrive and run marathons with diagnoses of brain cancer and HIV.Often, when people receive a diagnosis of a chronic or terminal condition, they lose hope and may not even do the things that are within their power to get the most out of life, given their circumstances. Richard's story serves as an inspiration to all of us. He blends lifestyle choices and alternative health care with his modern Western medical treatment to continue to maintain a quality of life that might make others envious.
At the turn of the 20th century, Sharons very existence was threatened by the collapse of the local iron industry as the towns economy and population began to decline. However, the popularity of automobile transportation and Sharons accessible distance from New York attracted a class of wealthy visitors who fell in love with the rolling hills and quiet valleys. This new weekend population purchased land and built stately country homes, reigniting interest in the area. Steady growth in construction provided much-needed work, and commerce began to thrive again. Early businesses expanded, and new operations opened. Local residents could shop at stores run by the Gillette brothers and A.R. Woodward, fill their tanks at Herman Middlebrooks gas station, and have their health care needs attended to by doctors at the state-of-the-art Sharon Hospital, built in 1916. Eastern Europeans became the towns newest residents, taking advantage of the affordable, cleared land to fuel a large number of highly successful farms. Sharons residents thrived as they reshaped their town, welcoming newcomers and nurturing a community of inclusion that lasts to the present day.
Growing up, author Sharon Sents knew that her mother had exactly the right thing to say for every occasion. Life brought many opportunities for the two of them to share daily lessons and words of wisdom. Many years later after Sharon joined a church and began to study the Bible in depth, she realized that her mothers words of wisdom were practical applications of advice and good counsel thousands of years old. Entertaining and effective, these are examples of how to use scripture in a context of modern life. Enjoy a cup of tea and relax with Sharon and her mother?Ǫand learn to share from heart and soul, one generation to the next.
From the murderer on death row to the soldier in Afghanistan, priest to prostitutes, housewives to home wreckers--each has a common bond. Each was born of woman. Whether Heaven-sent or Satan's spawn, mothers leave an indelible print on the lives of children. For some, the print is a masterpiece. Carefully outlined, lovingly filled in spaces to admire. For others, a slinging of paint on a tattered canvas, careless spatters and cigarette burns. And what happens to those left behind when that mother-link is broken? .
Sharon Watts is the daughter of the late Mr. George E. Watts and Mrs. Jennie V. Watts. She has nine siblings and an abundance of nieces and nephews. Over the past years she traveled as a professional trainer with a well known telecommunications company. Due to the threat of losing her connection with God and to re-develop personal relationships; she left corporate America. Her hobbies includes: cooking; riding her bicycle; walking; sewing and being creative. She loves spending time with her family and friends. Her favorite places are the beach and being outside enjoying God's wonderful handy work. She is awed by the sunrises; sunsets; the moon and the stars. Through this book she will encourage children and adults to accept themselves and others for who God made them to be. Her aim is to point out that we all are created physically unique. Psalm 139: 13-14 in short states . . . "we are fearfully and wonderfully made". We all are familiar with this saying; "Sticks and stones may break my bones; but words will never hurt me". This statement has been an untruth from the beginning. Personally; I have been haunted by "name-calling" I experienced as a child. When I realized that God accepted me for who I was and what I looked like was who he made me to be; no other opinion mattered. My final words are; "Encourage all children to love themselves and others as God loves us".
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