#PlottingPrincesses welcome author Bonnie Dodge Writing her Mom's stories #MFRWorg

Please help me welcome my friend and fellow writer, Bonnie Dodge to the Princess Palace today. Bonnie lives and writes from her home in southern Idaho. Her award-winning fiction, poetry, and non-fiction have appeared in several newspapers, magazines and anthologies in the Pacific Northwest. For more information about Bonnie visit her web page at http://bonniedodge.com/ and follow her on Twitter @BJDodge. So take it away, Bonnie.

Today my mother would be eighty-four. If she were still here. For twenty-one years I’ve survived without her, and today I could be sad, but instead I’m feeling grateful.

The day before my mother died, we spent the morning traipsing up and down southern Idaho ditch banks looking for wild asparagus. Mother called this “free” food because we didn’t have to pay $2.99 a pound for it in the local grocery store. As we combed the ditch banks I told her I wanted to be a writer. I told her about the stories I was creating.

My mother grew up in Napoleon, North Dakota, smack in the center of what is still called German-Russian Country. A small town, the 2010 census claims there were 792 people residing in Napoleon with 203 families living in the “city.” Napoleon is one of those small farming towns where everybody knows your business. My mother couldn’t wait to escape. That’s what we talked about as we picked asparagus. Her hating her hometown and having to wait until she graduated from high school before she could leave, before she could get away.

“I’m going to write your stories,” I said as I snapped a green spear from the earth and put it into my plastic sack.

“No, you’re not,” she challenged. “I’m going to write them.”

This brought a smile. Always competitive, my mother wasn’t interested in writing. Not like I was. The only thing I knew my mother to write was letters to her relatives still living in Napoleon.

“Go for it,” I smirked, eager to see what she would put on paper.

She died that night and if I have any regrets, it’s that I didn’t get to see her write her stories.

My mother’s stories stayed with me and I’ve committed many of them to paper. Several have won awards. Many have been published. But the best story my mother never told me was the story that became Waiting. A story about three women who wait for love. For attention. For Life. For death.

My mother died too young. She still had many things she wanted to do. Whatever you are waiting to do, please go out and do it. Climb that mountain, swim that lake. Put on a big hat and act silly. Sing that song and hug those close to you. Tell them you love them and thank them for sharing your dreams, your walks up and down ditch banks hunting wild asparagus. Thank them for enriching your world. Without them there wouldn’t be as many intriguing stories. 

So, tell me what you remember about your mother or what you're waiting for. One lucky commentor  will win a download of WAITING.

Thank you for having me.

(PS – Happy Birthday, Mom. Thanks for sharing your stories.)

Back cover blurb: “Three generations of Foster women–senior citizen Maxine, attention seeker Grace, and aspiring artist Abbie–think they are nothing alike. But they all share a secret. They wait. For love, for attention, for life, for death, for Idaho’s warm, but promising summer to return. In their journeys between despair and happiness, they learn there are worse things than being alone, like waiting for the wrong person’s love. With sensitivity and humor, Waiting carries readers into the hearts of three women who learn that happiness comes from within.”

Waiting now available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/1620155001  and
at Barnes&Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/waiting-bonnie-dodge/1120255869?ean=9781620155004