Write Out of Your Box

Today’s post is from award winning and Amazon Best-Selling author, Ann Everett. In addition, Ann is a top reviewer on thenextbigwriter.com.  She lives on a small lake in Northeast Texas where she writes, bakes, and fights her addiction to Diet Dr Pepper.  Today, she suggests that writers should step out of their writing comfort zone occasionally. And she shares a short piece she wrote – out of her writing box.

For the most part, I write steamy romance.  However, for my own enjoyment, I like to step outside the “love” box and pen stories that mean something to me personally. Today, I’m sharing one of those short pieces. It’s based on an account that came from my daddy. He served in WWII and enjoyed telling tales from that time period. Many were funny. Some were serious. And some were downright disturbing.

Daddy’s gone now, and one of the things I miss most is his storytelling. Regardless of what genre you write, I encourage you to step out of your box and record childhood memories and family history.

It’s what I love most about writing…long after I’m gone, the stories will live on.

HELL IN PARADISE

Hell in Paradise. It’s a contradiction, but true. Biak Island, less than a degree off the equator has a constant daytime temperature of one hundred ten degrees, but at night cools down to eighty. It’s a beautiful sandy coral reef off the Northwest coast of New Guinea surrounded by dense jungle, crystal water, and a mountain range reaching six thousand feet. The terrain is rugged and the humidity, during the dry season, is so heavy it wears you down.

There are no white people on Biak, and all of them have malaria and hookworm. They do most of the shovel and pick work, helping set up our camp.

I’m one of two hundred fifty with the 92nd Evacuation Hospital which includes doctors, nurses, and personnel. We are rated for a particular job, but all do what is necessary and take great pride in being able to set up three medical tents in two hours. It is here, where we receive the first casualties from the 36th and 41st divisions of infantry.

I admit, at first, we resented the nurses, feeling women have no place in war. But it didn’t take long for us to change our tune. With death imminent, they became what the wounded and dying needed…Mother…wife…girlfriend. They cradled dying soldiers in their arms until they drew their last breath. And I can tell you from experience when a soldier dies, he calls out for God and woman equally.

Until this day, it bothers me when I hear someone refer to women as the weaker sex. They may lack physical strength, but there’s nothing weak about their resolve. They care. They comfort. They cry. Then they straighten their shoulders, dry their eyes, and carry on.

Ann Everett embraces her small town upbringing and thinks Texans are some of the funniest people on earth. When speaking at conferences and to writing groups, businesses, book clubs, and non-profit organizations, she incorporates her unique brand of wit, making her programs on marketing, self-publishing, and the benefits of laughter, informative and fun.

Ten things you won’t know about Ann by reading her bio:

 

She’s married to her high school sweetheart.

She loves shopping at thrift stores.

She doesn’t remember her first kiss.

She hates talking on the telephone.

A really sharp pencil makes her happy.

She secretly wants to get a tattoo.

She thinks everyone should own a pair of cowboy boots.

She’s thankful wrinkles aren’t painful.

She sucks at math.

You can connect with Ann via Social Media —

Facebook     https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAnnEverett/

Twitter    http://www.twitter.com/TalkinTwang

Pinterest   http://www.pinterest.com/loacl/

10 thoughts on “Write Out of Your Box

  1. You omitted a very important fact about Ann. She has a fascinating twang in her East Texas voice that makes it a pleasure listening to her speak. No, I didn’t say hick, did I?

  2. Ann, I can dig it! There, that ought to date me, doesn’t it?

    I rattled around the Navy in several different jobs but never the one i was good at – photography.

    And I’ll be your dad had the same worry — have I told this one before?

    Thanks,

    Dac Crossley

    • Thanks so much, Dac! I appreciate you stopping by. As for Daddy re-telling the same story over and over, he certainly did, but he had such a great way of storytelling, no one cared! ~Ann

  3. Jim,
    Thanks so much for featuring me on your blog! Taking a moment to remember Daddy was a nice way start to my day. Since he was a mechanic by trade, he thought that’s what he’d do in the army. Instead, they gave him 92 pounds of medical supplies to carry and he became a medic! Government logic!! Because he dealt with the wounded and dying, he had many tales. The grandkids would gather around him and listen for as long as he was willing to keep the stories coming. I doubt he ever thought something so simple would be one of the things for which he’d be most remembered.
    Thanks again. ~Ann

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