My Talent

Tonight, the YM and YW are sponsoring a ward talent night. I teach the MIA Maids, so I'm involved with the set-up this afternoon. My main job was to manufacture the banner that goes across the front of the stage saying "[Our Ward's] Got Talent" -- just like the TV show--get it?  So, I've been carefully cutting out letters and I've got a plan for a great looking banner and it involves color dot markers and everything. The girls will have fun helping me finish it.

Then I started thinking...hmmm...do I have a talent to show off?  In past locations, I've read some of my essays. I've read the story about my mom's coat Christmas present. I've read the one I titled "The Cow Washers" which tells about my self-absorbed persona as a young teen. I read the story of my sister's Shetland pony in one ward and a friend, wiping her tears at the end, called out, "No fair! You didn't say it would make us cry!"

But, I'm still crippled and getting around on the dumb cart, plus I know that there will be various packs of small children roaming aimlessly and they mess up the ambiance for a reading. So, I decided instead to make a display on a table. One of the set-ups the YW are doing late this afternoon is display tables for people whose talent involves crafts, sewing, photography, painting---whatever---that is best presented visually in a static display. So, I've been busy making color copies of the articles and story that I have had published in the New Era or the Ensign. I have a copy of each of the four magazines in which my writing appeared.

Bummer, I've actually had five pieces of writing printed in church magazines, but I failed to keep a copy of one of them. It doesn't have my name on it either. In Sacrament meeting, a young man preparing to leave on a mission soon told an experience he'd had in Marine boot camp. He was a reservist. It was such a great account that afterward, I asked him if he'd mind if I wrote it up to offer to the New Era. I wrote it, mailed it to him for approval. He wrote back and said it was great. So I told him to mail it in. I knew they'd pay $150 if they published it. But I figured he could use the money for his mission. But, now I know, to always, always put my own name on my own writing as in "As told to [EarthSignMama] by [Marine/Missionary]."  He can have the money--I want the credit. So, I'll link you to that story, even if it doesn't say I wrote it, from October, 2001.

I started out back in 1972 by entering the Arts Contest that the New Era used to sponsor. The top prize was a scholarship to BYU, Church College of Hawaii, or Ricks College (as they were known then.) As usual, my best thinking was done in the barn. My little brother and I tweaked my story while we were milking. I was home for Christmas break from BYU and I decided to enter the contest. I got the story finished just before the contest deadline and was relieved to have mailed it finally. I didn't win the scholarship, but I did win a cash prize. But--more importantly---they printed my story in their contest issue in August 1973.

Along with the check and the letter congratulating me on being a winner, there was a note from the editors saying they liked my writing, did I have any more to submit?  Well, that was inspiring! So I sent them a poem and that was printed the next year (October 1974). This poem tells about autumn in Star Valley, Wyoming.

Then, I got married and gave birth to our five children in eight years and became a very busy mother. I kept writing, but I didn't send it to church magazines. I got paid for a story I wrote for a biker magazine once! But most of what I wrote, I sent as gifts to my parents or my sisters. I wrote letters to the editors and had a letter printed in each of the city's newspapers where we've lived--including the Washington Post. Oh, and I was going to college for 10 years, too. That sort of absorbed all of my creative energy and writing time.

But then, I got inspired by the Laurels in our ward in Maryland and I submitted an article to highlight a fine thing they had done. It was printed in November 2003 and I unexpectedly received a check! I don't know why I didn't think they still paid people for what they printed, but it surprised me. So, I decided to send off another essay that I'd originally written as a lesson for Relief Society.

This time, I tried the Ensign. It was quite thrilling when they decided to print it. I found out about their choice when I arrived home from work one afternoon and CoolGuy told me of a phone call he'd received. The speaker identified himself as an editor from the Ensign, and CoolGuy replied that I was still at work. But, the editor said that, actually, he was calling to talk to CoolGuy. Was he the man referenced in the article I'd submitted? Yes, why? Well, they needed his permission to use CoolGuy's actual name in the article before they could print it--and they wanted to print it. So, if CoolGuy objected to having his name used, they could change the names in the essay. CoolGuy then laughed, as he recounted this to me later, and told the editor that he was pleased to appear in his wife's writing under his own name, and didn't mind being the bad example. But he's not the bad example, he's the inspirational example. This article was published in June 2004.

So, anyway, I hope  you enjoy reviewing my "talent" that I've linked to in this blog. There are a couple of other newspapers and college magazines I've had my work published in, but I decided to just show off my Church magazine efforts today. Oh, in case you're wondering, I've been rejected by the Friend three times as an adult. They did print a poem I sent them, as a nine year old,  when it was called The Children's Friend, many eons ago. I haven't given up yet on the Friend. But they are a hard nut to crack, I guess. I'm still writing, and I hope I'll have a story there someday, too.