Welcome Award Winning Author Marilyn Helmer

I was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, grew up in Montreal and moved to Burlington, Ontario where my husband Gary and I raised our family and lived in the same house for thirty-six years. When Gary retired from teaching, we traded city living for a house in the country in an adult lifestyle community. One added benefit of moving to this busy, friendly community is that we are closer to our children. Our son Chris – soon to be married - is a hydro geologist and our daughter Sandra, happily married to Jeremiah, teaches grade five.

I love to travel and have gone on several mother/daughter trips with Sandra to the British Isles, France and the Mediterranean. Not to be left out, sports-minded Chris and Gary share their love of skiing and snowboard on father/son trips to Utah and western Canada. Gary and I have been to Ireland, Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and the Caribbean as well as many trips across Canada and to the United States.

When I’m not writing, my interests include photography (every once in a while I manage to get a good shot), reading (more children’s books than adult), gardening (more weeds than flowers), scrapbooking and card making. I walk every day to keep fit – love that 10 000 step program! I’m a member of the local Red Hatters, known as the Scarlett O’Hatters, and belong to a very fun book club.

Website:  www.marilynhelmer.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/marilyn.helmer 

     

1.      Why did you become a writer…was it a dream of yours since you were younger or did the desire to write happen later in your life?

As a child I loved to make up stories, sometimes just to get myself out of trouble.  I was an avid reader with a penchant for mystery stories. My favorite books were the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys series and British author Enid Blyton’s Adventure books. A couple of like-minded friends and I started a mystery story club.  We loaned each other favorite books and began making up stories of our own. Our clubhouse was a park bench where we told our stories, complete with “… to be continued” breaks to add to the suspense. Little did I think back then that one day I would actually become a published author.

2.      What was the inspiration for your latest work?

My latest book is a picture book called “That’s What Bears Are For”.  It was inspired by my  children’s love of sleep-buddies, those well-loved and often well-worn stuffed toys children   take to bed with them at night. I wrote a poem called “Old Ted”, which was published in Spider Magazine. It is a tribute to my own childhood teddy bear.  

As children, we love to hug and cuddle our teddy bears but when we grow older, we put them aside. They no longer get the hugs and cuddles of childhood.  Aha – inspiration! How about a story of a bear who misses the hugs and cuddles he had long ago?  I rushed to my computer and began to type.  As the story goes, after years of loneliness, Bear is found at the bottom of an old trunk by a young girl named Jenny.  Bear recognizes a kindred spirit when he sees one and becomes a bear on a mission. He is determined to once again enjoy days of hugs and cuddles, because, after all, that’s what bears are for!

 

3. What was the most interesting research you had to do for any of your books? 

That would be the research I did for my middle grade novel, “Dinosaurs on the Beach”. The story is about a young girl named Josie who shares her grandfather’s fascination with fossils and prehistoric creatures.  Josie makes a fabulous find – tiny bones which may be from the world’s smallest dinosaur but she must deal with many stumbling blocks in order to prove the value of her find.

To get the setting just right, I visited the Parrsboro-Joggins area on Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy coast. Scientists and geologists have made major discoveries of fossils in this area, dating back 300 to 350 million years ago. It was amazing to walk in their footsteps, visit  the museum and see some of the amazing finds these dedicated scientists have made.

I also benefited greatly in my research from the geology and paleontology courses my son Chris took in university. We went fossil hunting with our cousins along the Blue Beach area in the Annapolis Valley. At that time, collecting fossils was permitted. Although I didn’t make any ‘fabulous finds”, Chris did and generously loaned them to me to take along on school visits.   

4.      I know you are an award winning children’s author, Marilyn. Tell me about the awards you’ve won, and the books you won them for.

My picture book, "Fog Cat", won four awards and although I greatly appreciated all of them, the one that I remember best is the Mr. Christie award.  It was the tenth year the Christie book awards had been given out so a gala celebration was planned. The recipients and their families were invited as well as a number of school classes and local celebrities. The date of the ceremony was to be June 4. Unfortunately on that date, my daughter would still be in Hawaii finishing up a work program and my husband would be away at a conference. But my son assured me that he would be there. Then, oh glory day, the date of the award ceremony was changed to June 7. My husband was coming back from his conference on June 5, my daughter from Hawaii on June 6 and June 7 that year was our 30^th wedding anniversary. My whole family came to the award ceremony. Afterward we had a lovely lunch with my publisher and that evening celebrated our joint wedding anniversaries with my daughter’s in-laws and their jolly extended family. The good times don’t get much better than that!

"Mr. McGratt and the Ornery Cat" was named an Ontario Library Association Best Bets selection. This book was a delight to write. The inspiration for the story came from the experiences my family had with our very ornery cat, Star, who lived to be twenty years old. Although Star was basically an indoor cat, every once in a while she would make a great escape and terrorize the other cats in the neighborhood. I always read this book when I visit schools to talk to primary children.

"Funtime Riddles" received a Canada Toy Testing Council Great Book award.  The six riddle books I wrote for Kids Can Press was one of the most fun projects I have ever done. My contract stipulated that 30% of the riddles should be original. Coming up with original riddles is not easy – they have all been done before!  But I had a terrific editor to work with and we had a lot of laughs putting these books together.

"One Splendid Tree" received the Rotary Club of Hamilton Children's Book Award. For years my dream was to have a Christmas book published and “One Splendid Tree”, set during WWII, made that dream a reality. I have done a number of events at libraries during the Christmas season where children make the decorations described in the book and use them to decorate their own splendid tree. I was delighted when two years ago The Hamilton Academy of Performing Arts turned “One Splendid Tree” into a play. I have also discovered online that several schools and libraries in the U. S. have featured  it in their Christmas programs.

5. How did you decide to write books for kids? Have you always wanted to write children’s books, or did that come about later on? 

I didn’t start seriously writing until I became a stay at home mom when my two children were born. My children, Chris and Sandra, are only fifteen months apart in age and a very active pair they were! Getting them to sit still was nigh unto impossible but when I brought out a book, magic happened. They would sit quietly (well, relatively quietly!) cuddled up on either side of me, listening and begging, “Just one more story, Mom. Please!”  That is when my dream was born. Maybe I could write stories myself, stories that would inspire that kind of joy and pleasure in children.  What satisfaction it would be to write a book that might become a child’s favorite, that might introduce them to the wonders of the written word and instill in them a life-long love of reading.  And so my writing career began. The road to success was paved with many rejection slips but I hung in there. Eventually I was blessed with success and my dream to be a children’s author came true.

As an extra bonus, I have had the opportunity to visit schools and libraries to talk to children about the writing process. My penchant for entering writing contests has brought me recognition in the field of adult short fiction too.

6. Have you written any books for adults (I don’t mean “adult” as in erotic romance, just non-children’s books)?

I haven’t written any books for adults but I do enjoy writing short adult fiction.  I may one day self-publish a collection of my short stories. However, I will need to have more stories before I seriously start to compile a book.   

7. What’s your writing schedule like?  When do you find time to write?

When I first started writing, I wrote haphazardly in my spare time, tucking my poems and stories away in a drawer, thinking “maybe, someday I’ll try to get them published.” Then I took a course in Creative Writing and on the advice of the very encouraging teacher, I joined CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers) and signed up for their annual day of workshops. In one workshop a published author talked about her initial hesitancy in submitting her stories to publishers and facing the dread rejection slips. I felt as if she were talking directly to me because that is exactly what I had been doing.

I came home that day, a woman on a mission. Never mind finding the time to write, I would make the time. With steely determination, I set myself a program – I would write in the mornings when my children were in school, five days a week, 8 a.m. to noon. Every month I would send out a minimum of three submissions.

During the first year, I collected a lot of rejection slips but eventually persistence paid off.  I had a poem published in a children’s magazine and won a home computer in an adult short story contest. I stuck to that writing schedule for many years, taking summers and March breaks off. Now I don’t find as much time to write but I still keep at it and for me, mornings are still my most creative time.

8. Do you have any writing idiosyncrasies?

In an attempt at being organized, I have way too many files and notebooks sliding around on my desk. One notebook would likely work better – and not be constantly lost in the shuffle.  But that tottering pile of notebooks looks so impressive …!

I always have more than one project on the go in case I come down with an attack of the dread writer’s block – or writer’s blockhead as my daughter calls it.  That way I can switch to another project for a few days and come back to deal with the problem with a fresh mind.  Oh, and I always have a cup of tea handy.  

9. What’s the most challenging aspect of writing for you?

That would be getting the initial first draft completed – it’s like pulling teeth! Once I have a beginning, middle and ending though, I feel encouraged to forge ahead.  I don’t mind self-editing and revising until I believe the manuscript is ready send out. When (if!) the manuscript is accepted, there will likely be more revisions to do with an editor. Speaking of editors, I have been so fortunate. I have worked with many and have yet to meet one who I didn’t feel had the best interest of my manuscript at heart.  

It's a Crying Shame

As I read posts from Christian news this morning, I was so heartbroken, sad and just sat here in disbelief, yet I was able to find one thing that wasn't evident in the articles.

China has performed over 356 million abortions in the past forty years since instituting the one child only law, and a good portion of those were performed by force and the women then sterilized. 355 million babies murdered. In America, 55 million babies have been aborted in the past thirty years, many of those were aborted at a gestational age where they could have survived out of the womb.

And now a "doctor" and his nurse is under arrest for murdering babies in the doctor's abortion clinic. I cannot even type what they did, so I am posting the story:

Assistant Admits to Killing 10 Babies With Scissors During Trial for 'House of Horrors' Abortionist
As the trial for notorious Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell proceeded this week, one of Gosnell's employees testified that she had personally been involved in the murders of 10 newborn babies, the Christian News Network reports. Adrienne Moton told the court the babies who were born alive had their spines "snipped" with scissors. "I learned it from Dr. Gosnell," she said when asked by prosecutors where she came up with the idea. "I never asked why. ... I could remember a good 10 times that I did it." Moton has been incarcerated since 2011, and has pled guilty to third-degree murder, along with other charges, for her participation in Gosnell's late-term abortion operation. She is the first of at least two employees who are set to testify against the abortionist in the trial. Gosnell, 72, faces seven counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of babies who were born alive but had their spinal cords "snipped"; he also faces one count of third-degree murder for the death of an abortion client who was administered a lethal amount of medication, in addition to approximately 20 other charges. Gosnell was taken into custody in 2011 following an investigation into his practice, called the Women's Medical Society. Philadelphia district attorney Seth Williams, who initially leveled the charges against Gosnell, described the clinic as a "House of Horrors." In addition to several babies found with their spinal cords severed, investigators "found jar after jar after jar of fetal remains and specifically severed feet in jars" and "medical waste bags just strewn everywhere," according to Williams. Gosnell, if convicted, could face the death penalty for his crimes.


I cannot feel sympathy for either of these people, and I believe they should receive the death penalty. "House of Horrors" is not even close to what these people have done. And it is far beyond me to understand people like that.

What I did come to see after I cried over these poor, innocent babies, is that each one of them is in Heaven with the Lord and I am thankful for that. I can't even imagine what over 400 million (and counting) children in Heaven looks like, but I can't wait to get there and see them all.

When I was young, I had this world by the short hairs, but the older I get, the more I realize I don't understand much about it or the people who inhabit it. And the less I want to be here. I want to hear the Lord call me home, and I look forward to that day.

The Love of My Children & Myself

Over the past few weeks I have experienced an all time low, and I've been extremely depressed. My daughter, her husband, and their two children, who we have shared a home with for the past year and a half, moved to California. My granddaughter is two and a half, and my grandson turned a year old on May 11, 2012. I have lived with these two their entire lives, and I was in California with my daughter when her daughter was born. Their son was born out here and I was there then too. My grandson and I share such a close bond, I feel as if my daughter took my own child from me. And I know my grandson knew something was not right, since just before they drove away, I held him, bawling my eyes out, and he didn't squirm or move, he just laid his head on my shoulder and waited. I love that boy so much, and these weeks without him have been killing me. I cry at the thought of him, and his picture is my screensaver, so I see his cute little face every time I boot my pc or shut it down.

I don't know how to not miss him and his sister, or my daughter and her husband, who is like a son to me as well. Shortly after they moved, my youngest son also moved to California, although a different part, where his wife has been living. A week or so before that, my youngest daughter and her family moved to Texas. So I am all out of grandchildren who live nearby. And now my son, who lives in Missouri, and his family, are moving to yet another part of California. 


I have not felt like doing much lately, and really haven't done much at all. My husband also works out of state, so I have literally been home alone for several weeks. Thank goodness for my doggies, who I know will never leave me. They have been my only comfort.


This past week though, I have been watching my usual shows on TBN and the Church Channel, and one of the shows I never miss is Andrew Wommack. He has been teaching on self-centerdness (Is that a word? Oh, well), and while I have always considered myself as not being self-centered, since I've been a mother since age sixteen, and I've always had a houseful of kids to take care of, and then grandkids, and dogs, and I became a pastor and evangelist, and a drug and alcohol counselor, there have always been others to think of before myself. But as I listened to this teaching each day, I came to realize that even I am guilty of being self-centered. 


There are several other verses on this subject, but the following two are my favorites.  


"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Matthew 16:24-25


"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20


Yet, if I believe these, and I do, then why am I suddenly doubting my sacrifice of self for the heavenly cause? Is it simply a guilty conscience due to a preacher's impassioned words, or conviction of the Holy Spirit? I had to think on these things and consider the past several weeks since my daughter and her family moved away. Of course we expect our children to grow up and move out on their own. And with my older daughter, that has happened, but she usually came home time and again after her bits of time away from home. Even after she moved away to California to be with the man she is now married to, they did move in with us when their daughter was about six or eight months old, and have been here every since. My youngest daughter never moved out for more than a few weeks at a time. Even after she married, she lived at home, while her husband lived with his mother, for about the first six months of their marriage.


Even though we expect our children to move out on their own at some point, whether to go to college, or due to marriage, or perhaps they go to work straight out of high school, as parents, we know they will move out. We also wait for those weekend visits home, and we wait for the announcements of impending parenthood from them, and then we wait for them to bring those little bundles of joy home to visit Nana and Papa, Grams and Gramps, Nanny and Poppy, Grandma and Grandpa, Granny and Grampy, or whatever term we decide our grandchildren will call us. With all of my other grandchildren, I've been pretty much the normal Nana. I send birthday and Christmas presents, wait for school pictures, feel proud when I get news of honor roll and winning sports teams, and show up for high school graduations, weddings, and other events I wouldn't miss for anything. I try not to be too invasive in my children's lives, and I try not to be too nosey in the way they raise their children, and I really try not to be critical, although I've been informed a time or two that I've stuck my nose in where it didn't belong and wasn't welcomed. Hey, I'm normal, give me a break, it wasn't as if I intended to hurt anyone's feelings or make anyone feel as if I was criticizing their parenting techniques. In all honesty, I really was trying to help. I've been there and done that and was only trying to save my child the heartache and heart break I know will come from raising their own children. 


Perhaps it is better my children are all in another state, where my presence doesn't upset or offend anyone. I can visit once or twice a year and continue with the presents and money, and otherwise stay out of their lives where I'm unwanted. Yes, it hurts my feelings. Yes, I feel as if I've been ganged up on since they all left at once. And not mentioning the fact that my youngest has moved back to town, but is apparently not speaking to me because I found out by accident that she is here, I will continue to move forward.


I try not to be self-centered. I try not to think that if I'm not involved in their lives something horrible will happen, and I am the only one who can prevent these things, or the only one who knows how to handle them. I raised kids on my own, and when you do that, you become over-involved, and you become dominant, and you think you should run everyone's lives. After all, when you've done it for so long, and they all turned out rather well, you must know what you're doing, right? Well, apparently not according to them.


So to my children, I apologize. I also promise to stay out of your lives, and I promise to quit butting in, and telling you how you should be doing things, or how I would do them differently. I have raised you to be the men and women you are, and I am proud of each one of you. Because of that I have to trust that you did listen to me at least a little bit while you were growing up and know how to raise your own kids and lead your own lives. I am also going to try and figure out how to live my life without you, which I haven't done since I was sixteen, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. I have a pretty good husband who gets me through these moments when I feel like my only purpose in life was to be your mother and Nana to your children.


I know God has another plan for my life and if I will just quit crying over losing all of you, I will probably be able to hear what that is. So yes, I have discovered that feeling this loss is a form of self-centeredness. It is something I have to come to terms with, learn how to deal with, and move past. It is another stage of my life that I have to move past, because until I do, I won't be able to move into the new stage of my life that God has planned for me.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

I'm looking forward to those plans and the future God has in store for me. I love you all very much, but my love for God comes first, before 
you, before me, before everything. And I'm looking forward to it.

I Used To Be Awesome...

Ever have one of those days where everything is out of whack? Like nothing makes sense anymore and you're not even sure if you're awake because everything is so surreal it could just be a bad dream? That's been my week. Since my daughter and her family moved back to California, my son, Michael has indeed confirmed that he is moving to California, and my youngest son, Cody is meeting with the recruiter about going to Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan but if that doesn't work out for him, he's moving to California where his wife has been living for over a year. My husband went back to Texas to work, only to be told to come back home because the company's move from Louisiana to Texas isn't a sure thing yet, and may not happen after all.

On top of that, my sixteen-year-old granddaughter has been very ill over the past ten days or so, and my daughter has been taking her from doctor to doctor trying to find out what's wrong with her. Yesterday, Sarah had to call an ambulance to take my granddaughter back to the hospital but this time, they took her into surgery for her gall bladder. Apparently, because she is so young, no other doctor thought to  check her gall bladder. Today, she is feeling much better, even smiling for a picture. I know how worried my daughter was and being all the way out here, there was nothing I could do to help. But all's well, at least with granddaughter and she should be back on her feet in time for prom and her seventeenth birthday.

Sometimes I feel like there's a hurricane and I'm the eye--you know, the calm, quiet place in the center while everything around me is spinning out of control. Not that anyone would ever call me the calm, quiet type but sometimes I feel like everything just spins around me, and I have no control or say-so in any of it. Sometimes, being just the Nana is a terrible place to be. I guess I just haven't grown into the idea of being old, or at least the idea of being old the way my kids and grandkids see me. I see the way they roll their eyes when I say something they don't like, or something they think is old fashioned, opinionated, or just unwanted advice or ideas.

I don't quite know when this happened. I know my kids were like all kids, and couldn't wait to get out of the house and on their own. And I've seen my grandkids grow up, and the difference when they were small and I was awesome, but the older they get, the less awesome they think I am. At some point I have become my grandmother. She was the woman I loved and enjoyed seeing from time to time, but she had weird ideas, her house smelled funny, and she gave me birthday presents I would never use!

Perhaps it's just another of those crazy milestones that we all face if we live long enough. It's funny though, I still think of myself as being really cool, awesome, wise, and I can't quite figure out why my kids and grandkids don't want the benefit of all my years of living that equals all this wisdom.