Writing Blind - The Writing Mama Show with Host Virginia S Grenier

The Writing Mama show is on every Monday and is hosted by Mom's Choice and Award-winning Author Virginia S Grenier, who is joined weekly by guest authors to talk about the publishing and writing industry. Grenier, with her guests, hope to not only share their love of the written word, but also tips on writing, what makes a good book and much more.

This week Grenier has invited Romance Author and Writing Blind Blogger Traci McDonald to join her as co-host, along with some amazing authors who are not only talented but also blind. McDonald, a blind author herself has been an inspriation to many, including host Virginia S Grenier. Learn more about Traci McDonald and Writing Blind on her blog!

One of their guests today is Abbie Johnson Taylor, president of Behind Our Eyes and author of a romance novel, "We Shall Overcome" and a poetry collection, "How to Build a Better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver." Her work has appeared in Serendipity Poets Journal, Emerging Voices, and Magnets and Ladders. Her Poetry chapbook, "That’s Life: New and Selected Poems" will be published by Finishing Line Press. Please visit her Website at http://www.abbiejohnsontaylor.com.

Other guest authors include Bruce Atchison, Deon Lyons and Donna Grahmann.

Bruce Atchison is a legally-blind Canadian freelance writer with articles published in a variety of magazines. He has also authored three paperbacks. "When a Man Loves a Rabbit: Learning and Living with Bunnies" is a memoir of the surprising facts he discovered about house rabbits. "Deliverance from Jericho: Six Years in a Blind School" is his recollection of being sent five hundred miles from home for months at a stretch. "How I was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity" shows how God led Atchison out of a legalistic house church. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. He also posts regularly on www.bruceatchison.blogspot.com

Native Texans and long time Magnolia residents, Donna Grahmann and her husband, David, share their acreage with a small ark of assorted, four legged critters. Even after Donna’s eye sight began to fail, she continued to be competitive on her bay Quarter Horse, Rebel, as well as in sheepdog trials with her Border Collies, Scotti and Clyde.

Numerous competitions have lead them to winning the Texas State Championship in pole bending, to a Top Ten placement in stake race at the Quarter Horse World Finals, and then, onto their Top Ten finish in barrels at the Quarter Horse Congress, which boosted the entire Texas team to a sixth place finish. Donna, teamed with each of her dogs, also placed second in the Texas Sheepdog Finals. Never less than an arm’s reach away, her faithful guide dog, Huey, has guided Donna through the crowds of spectators, as she cheers on David and his dogs at sheepdog trials.

2010 introduced her to the national writing group, Behind Our Eyes Inc, in which Donna has served as Secretary since 2012. Her poems and short stories have appeared in their online magazine,

Magnets and Ladders, as well as in the publication of the 2013 anthology, Behind Our Eyes: A Second Look. Her short story, Dependable Pal, which was included in the 2013 anthology, was also selected as a Top Ten finalist in the Pen 2 Paper writing competition.

Deon Lyons is an aspiring writer who is new to the world of vision loss since the Summer of 2010. He has had his works published in local papers, Online magazines, as well as the Magnets and Ladders online compilations and printed second edition of the Behind Our Eyes writing group's second chapter of their anthology collection series. In the last year Deon has self published his novel entitled, "Sully Street", along with his personal poetry compilation entitled "Ready, Set, Poetry". He is the chief editor of ACB Maine's quarterly newsletter, and continues to add frequent posts to his personal website at "www.dplyons.wordpress.com"

Learn more about the host and our network at http://worldofinknetwork.com
Read articles, discover books and much more on our blog!
Keep up to date with The World of Ink Network at our Facebook fan page!

Listen to the show live or later as a podcast at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork/2014/04/07/writing-blind--the-writing-mama-show-with-host-virginia-s-grenier

Check out the YouTube Video on the anthology for Behind Our Eyes: A Second Look

Interview Friday with Author Maggie Lyons

Maggie Lyons was born in Wales and brought up in England before gravitating west to Virginia’s coast. She zigzagged her way through a motley variety of careers from orchestral management to law-firm media relations to academic editing. Writing and editing nonfiction for adults brought plenty of satisfaction but nothing like the magic she discovered in writing fiction and nonfiction for children. Several of her articles, poetry, and a chapter book have been published in the children’s magazines Stories for Children Magazine and knowonder! VS: I want to thank you for being my guest here on The Writing Mama today, Maggie. To get things started can you share what you do to help balance your writing life with your family life? Maggie: Very fortunately for me, I’m retired and my son left the nest some time ago. That doesn’t mean I have no other commitments, of course. In fact, I’m very busy as a freelance editor, but I do have the privilege of being able to control m...

American Chronicle | Get to know Rodger Dodger Dog and His Author, Jan Britland

In 1986, Jan was driving her children in a new town to start school. On their way, they would pass a beagle type dog chained to a huge Magnolia tree. Some days they would see the chain hanging down from the tree. "I think we just assumed the dog was in the house until one day we realized he was up in the tree. From that day on, Rodger Dodger Dog as we called him became a favorite. It was a 45-minute drive, which can become boring so as we passed him, I would start telling a story about Rodger Dodger's adventures up the tree and beyond. Because I am so dyslexic, the stories had to rhyme so I could remember them from day to day. They also started the same to get me going," shared Britland. However, it wasn´t until 2008 when Britland received a phone call from her daughter Kelly, who had young children of her own that the Rodger Dodger Dog started to even think about becoming a children´s book or series for that matter. "My daughter was complaining her son ...

Interview Friday: Author Sands Hetherington

Sands Hetherington credits his son John for being his principal motivator. Sands raised his son as a single parent from the time John was six. He read to him every night during those formative years. He and young John developed the Crosley crocodile character in the series during months of bedtime story give-and-take. Sands majored in history at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and has an M.F.A. in creative writing and an M.A. in English from UNC-Greensboro. He lives in Greensboro. VS: I want to thank you for being my guest here on The Writing Mama today. To get things started, Sands, what do you do to help balance your writing life with your family life? Sands: Hi Mama and thanks for having me over. Actually, my family life was part of my writing life. I was a single (male) parent of a six-year-old son. We always did bedtime stories. One night John invented a red crocodile named Crosley for an after-lights-out companion. This evolved directly into...

VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

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