Meet Our Writers Week 35 on Elizena

Tell us about yourself:

I turned 50 in July 2011, but I still think like a teenager, however my body tells me I’m definitely my age. I love spending time with my family and I dearly love my son, great-nieces and nephews and spent as much time with them as I can. My son and my two oldest nieces aren’t just family, they’re also my friends. With my son I talk music and arrangement and voice and both of our hopes and dreams and with my great-nieces I talk makeup, friends, Face Book and food together. They’re my taste testers when I come up with a new recipe and together we plan our yearly Christmas bake and craft night for all the other great-nieces and nephews. They always make me feel like I’m the best cook in the entire world. I’m blessed to have the family I do.

As I said previously, I love to cook, clean (yeah, I know! Crazy isn’t it? LOL!), read, write, watch anime, watch anything science fiction (I'm a real geek), make jewelry, do office work (yep I’m nuts, huh?), and I’m a background soprano with my church’s praise and worship team. We sing Christian music; we sing it hard and soft. I also worked for 25 years with the same school district where I went to school, as a bilingual secretary, while also working in a nursing home.

I grew up in a Christian home and began singing at the tender age of five. I’ve sung with three different local Christian bands and with my youngest brother’s band. I’ve been in a quintet, a quartet and a trio, sung on local television and for Christian Spanish radio and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

I always wanted to travel, but most of that has been only in Texas, Illinois and New Mexico. I’ve cruised to St. John, St. Thomas and Puerto Rico and I think I finally got the travel bug out of me, when I burnt to a near Mexican American crisp on the beaches of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Tell me about your blog(s), name(s), what does it mean to you?  

I have two blogs. The first one is Loving My Creator:  

http://elizena-lovingmycreator.blogspot.com/

which is self-explanatory. I love God and I try somehow, in every story that I write to hopefully honor and glorify Him. I'm not a great speaker, because I stutter, but I've found that I can express myself very well when I write. I know that God understands my heart when I'm praying, but I'm hoping that through my stories, maybe people can come to see God as a wonderful loving Father that's always there when we need Him.

The second blog is Kickin' It With the Kids:  

http://www.kickinitwiththekids.wordpress.com and basically I started this in hopes that I might sometime be able to post not just my stories, but my nieces, nephews and all the great-nieces and nephews stories on it. I would love it to be a family thing.

When have you started blogging?

I started blogging on myspace a few years ago, but didn't really think that what I was writing was worth reading. Last year in early June right after the anniversary of my mother's death, June 1st, I wrote a short story entitled My Last Texas Summer and emailed it to my brother who has his own blog Power to the Poet:

 http://pinchepoetpomes.blogspot.com/,

He called me and told me he really liked my story and that I should start blogging and maybe posting on sites like yours. The next day he emailed me the link for Bluebell books and on June 23, 2011 I posted my first short story on my blog and then in November of 2011 I posted my first story on Bluebell books and the rest is history. 

What's the theme(s) of your blog(s)? What do you write most? poetry, fiction or novel, or  short stories?

The theme on both my blogs is about the healing power of love that God, Christ and the family can have in our lives if we just let them in. 

I right mostly long, short stories (as I call them) and while the characters and stories are fictional there is quite a lot of myself in them, which makes them semi-fictional/semi-truth I guess.

What are the inspirations of your writing? 

God and His awesome goodness in my life is my biggest inspiration, but I'm also inspired by my family; my son, brothers, nieces, nephews, just all of them. I have at last count 15 pastors in my family. My father was a pastor and one of my older brothers is as well, and many of my cousins on my mother's side. I'm in awe of how God has changed their lives and how different they are and how much they love those around them and want to bring them to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I also love that my family uses their musical talent to serve God. Several of them are music ministers or are part of their church's praise and worship team, as I am. It's just awesome to be able to serve God together as a family.

Does music impact your writing?

As I stated above my family is gifted musically and they use it for God, but does it impact my life? Oh yeah, in a big way. If you've read any of my stories, you'll notice that there's always a song in it, whether in English or Spanish. I find that when life is getting me down the first thing I do is to turn on my radio or put in my Christian cd's. Sometimes, I literally spend hours just listening to my music and as I listen I write a little thing here and a little thing there...it helps me to focus my thoughts and calms me down.

You are involved with Bluebell Books Short Story Slam writing challenge? How do you feel about it so far? What's the benefits of it?

Yes I am, very much so. I didn't realize until I became involved with Bluebell books, just how much I needed something like this. It's helped me to stretch my wings and try to do something that I would never have been able to do before. I've become much braver with my writing and I'm able to better express myself and I no longer mind sharing my thoughts with others. 

Do you have a favorite blogging friend(s) to share? Tell us about his/her blog link and the writing in it!

Actually I only recently started reading other peoples blogs, since becoming involved with Bluebell books and I can tell you that my favorite is Charles L. Mashburns' Marbles in Pocket: http://charleslmashburn.wordpress.com. He started a story on Short Story Slam Week 15 entitled The Last Grain of Sand and has continued it up to now with each short story slam entry and I've been hooked ever since. I check back every week to see if he's posted a new chapter. I'm like an excited little girl when I realize, "Yes, he's got another chapter up!!" Yeah, I actually scream that every time. Hahaha! I'm falling in love with lots of the writers that post on Bluebell books. I never before realized just how many different ways there are to write and how many wonderfully talented people are out there. I'd have to literally copy and paste the entire list of writers for each of the short story slam weeks. They're incredibly talented and I'm so lucky and they take the time to read what I've posted. Thanks to all of them by the way!

Do you have a favorite book or author? 

I know lots of people laugh when I say this, but my favorite book is the Bible, because it has everything in it. It has history, love affairs, family strife, mysteries, the supernatural and awesome love stories. Also, I've never been the real deep and super intelligent type so I'll admit that my favorite human authors are mostly romance writers like Diana Palmer, Linda Howard, Nora Roberts, Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Stevens and many more, but I also love James Patterson, Dan Brown and Edgar Allen Poe. Truthfully I'll read anything as long as there are no Zombies in it. They may be make believe, but they scare the poop out of me. LOL! 

Any tips for those who started blogging and wish to become successful in it?

Just go for it and don't let anything scare you and make you think that you're going to fail at it, because if you don't try you've already failed and I can tell you that it's so very much worth it. I wish I'd done this years ago instead of starting at the tender age of 50.

What's your writing plans in the near future?

You know others may want to write the great American novel, but I would like to maybe just have a book of my short stories published. I read an interview from Meet the Writers and Dan said he just wanted to leave a little bit of himself behind for his children and grandchildren and that's what I want to leave something behind that will tell them what kind of person I was; that I laughed hard and loved well and that I wanted my family to remember just how important it is for them to stick together and to always love each other. 

I hope that didn't sound too corny….

PS. Okay, may I do want to write the great American family novel. Hahaha!! I better get started, huh?

Elizena