The view inside my office today is contained within these two old cardboard boxes.  The small one holds some diaries, weather journals, and a recipe box of my mother’s.   The larger one proves I exist.  I have spread the proof across my favorite writing desk which I found at a garage sale for fifty bucks.  Great find.  Going from left to right the first proof is my baby book.  It says on the first page that Marie Frances was born to my parents.

The second is a Christmas card I received from my future husband and the next month I became a Martin.  The third two items are my pep squad and band letters.  Proof positive that Marie Frances went to high school.  The recipe box is my mother’s and it proves she taught me to cook, so I could feed my husband, and then my four children, and then my 10 grandchildren, and then my five almost six great grandkids.  The journal on the right tells me the weather every day of 1993.  Good to know Mom.  And what does all this have to do with my view in my office?  Absolutely everything as I struggle to form characters and motives on paper.  Writer’s block cannot compete with my boxes of memories.  Just open one of them and silly little stories run around in my head and end up controlling the most stubborn of characters.  Read some of my childhood stories on my blog called Shady Nook.  You may access it through my website www.mariefmartin.com.

I will give a free autographed copy of Maternal Harbor to one lucky person who leaves a comment to my post, beginning on July 16 and ending on August 1, 2013.  I will put the names in my garden hat on August first and draw the winner and the mail it off.  Good luck.