Indie Chicks: 25 Independent Women 25 Personal Stories

By Cheryl Shireman, Heather Marie Adkins, Donna Fasano and 22 more

This exciting anthology contains stories from twenty-five women from different parts of the world. Their ages differ, as do their backgrounds and locations, but one thing they all have in common is a spirit of independence and a determination to not only succeed, but prevail. Whether their struggles are to maintain balance between motherhood and career, escape from an abusive relationship, or to step out in faith and pursue a dream, all of these women have forged their own path.

As women, one of our most powerful "gifts" is the ability to encourage one another. This book is an effort to encourage women across the world. These twenty-five women share stories that will make you laugh, inspire you, and maybe even make you cry. Their hope is that these stories will inspire YOUR independent spirit and allow you to live the life you were meant to live.

Foreword by Karen McQuestion

Afterword by Beth Elisa Harris

Compiled by Cheryl Shireman
Formatting by Heather Marie Adkins

Stories included:
Foreword by Karen McQuestion
Knight in Shining Armor by Shea MacLeod
Latchkey Kid by Heather Marie Adkins
Write or Die by Danielle Blanchard
The Phoenix and The Darkness by Lizzy Ford
Never Too Late by Linda Welch
Stepping Into the Light by Donna Fasano
One Fictionista’s Literary Bliss by Katherine Owen
I Burned My Bra For This? by Cheryl Shireman
Mrs. So Got It Wrong Agent by Prue Battten
Holes by Suzanne Tyrpak
Turning Medieval by Sarah Woodbury
A Kinky Adventure in Anglophilia by Anne R. Allen
Writing From a Flour Sack by Dani Amore
Just Me and James Dean by Cheryl Bradshaw
How a Big Yellow Truck Changed My Life by Christine DeMaio-Rice
From 200 Rejections to Amazon Top 200! by Sibel Hodge
Have You Ever Lost a Hat? by Barbara Silkstone
French Fancies! by Mel Comley
Life’s Little Gifts by Melissa Foster
Never Give Up On Your Dream by Christine Kersey
Self-taught Late Bloomer by Carol Davis Luce
Moving to The Middle East by Julia Crane
Paper, Pen, and Chocolate by Talia Jager
The Magic Within and The Little Book That Could by Michelle Muto
Write Out of Grief by Melissa Smith
Afterword by Beth Elisa Harris

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cheryl Shireman
• Release date: Jul 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781625660435

Cheryl Shireman

Cheryl Shireman lives on a lake in the Midwest with her husband. She is the mother of three adult children and the grandmother of the three “most adorable grandchildren in the world.” Her novels are sensitive portrayals of multi-faceted characters. Often humorous, and always thought-provoking, whether focusing on love, finding purpose in life, or a little mystery, Shireman’s novels depict realistic characters facing realistic dilemmas. One reader writes, “Cheryl has a wonderful talent for describing people. Interesting, flawed, multidimensional people. I can picture them so clearly in my mind and some I can almost smell. I love the way her characters are as messed up as real people all are. I can’t wait for more.” She is the author of several bestselling novels including Life Is But a Dream, Broken Resolutions, and the popular Cooper Moon series. Cheryl Shireman is also the author of several titles for children including the I Love You When books and the Curious Toddler series - Let's Learn About. She also enjoys creating coloring books for adults. In her spare time she can be found kayaking on the lake, playing in her flowers, or spoiling grandbabies. Follow on Twitter.com/cherylshireman Follow on Twitter.com/2old2color Follow on Facebook.com/cherylshireman Follow on Facebook.com/cherylshiremanbooks Follow on Facebook.com/2old2color Follow on Facebook.com/coopermoonseries Follow on Instagram.com/cherylshireman Follow on Instagram.com/2old2color Follow on Pinterest.com/cherylshireman

Book preview

25 Women, 25 Personal Stories

This exciting anthology contains stories from twenty-five women from different parts of the world. Their ages differ, as do their backgrounds and locations, but one thing they all have in common is a spirit of independence and a determination to not only succeed, but prevail. Whether their struggles are to maintain balance between motherhood and career, escape from an abusive relationship, or to step out in faith and pursue a dream, all of these women have forged their own path.

Praise for Indie Chicks:

This book is filled with pages of undiluted emotion and the baring of souls that you were not expecting...This book makes you laugh with joy, cry with pain, shake with anger, sneer with contempt and smile with triumph. Indie Chicks is that book for me.

—Albert Robbins III, Free Book Reviews

The value of setting goals, hard work, and perseverance comes through loud and clear. That it is possible to come back from bad decisions and bad things happening to a person is another common theme. No matter what your situation and dreams, these Indie Chicks can help show you the way to get there.—Big Al, booksandpals.com

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"This was a marvelous concept. These Indie Chicks are all successful not only in their personal lives, but also with their writing careers. They all put the lie to the myth that indie-pubbed authors are disgruntled writers who have lost faith in the publishing industry. I think they exemplify what the writing dream is all about.

And not just for women. I think the personal stories would mimic and appeal to many male authors out there who are struggling with the same issues of day job, family, and publication aspirations."

–Donna Hole, Writer, Blogger, Social Worker

Indie Chicks

25 Women, 25 Personal Stories

Compiled by

––––––––

Cheryl Shireman

Indie Chicks: 25 Women, 25 Personal Stories

Compiled by Cheryl Shireman

Cover Design by Christine DeMaio-Rice

Print Formatting by Heather Adkins

E-book edition published October 2011

Print edition published February 2012

This first paperback edition was printed by Createspace

Copyright © 2011 Stillwaters Publishing, LLC

EPUB Version

ISBN-10: 162566043X

ISBN-13: 978-1-62566-043-5

The 25 authors in this collection retain their individual and respective rights to their pieces.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the purchaser.

Table of Chicks

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Foreword—Karen McQuestion 

Shéa MacLeod—Knight In Shining Armor 

Latchkey Kid—Heather Marie Adkins 

Danielle Blanchard—Write or Die 

Lizzy Ford—The Phoenix and the Darkness 

Linda Welch—Never Too Late 

Donna Fasano—Stepping Into the Light  37

Katherine Owen—One Fictionista’s Literary Bliss  43

Cheryl Shireman—I Burned My Bra for This?  51

Prue Batten—Mrs. So Got It Wrong Agent  59

Suzanne Tyrpak—Holes  65

Sarah Woodbury—Turning Medieval  71

Anne R. Allen—A Kinky Adventure in Anglophilia  75

Dani Amore—Writing From a Flour Sack  81

Cheryl Bradshaw—Just Me and James Dean...  87

Christine DeMaio-Rice—How A Big Yellow Truck Changed My Life  93

Sibel Hodge—From 200 Rejections to Amazon Top 200!  99

Barbara Silkstone—Have You Ever Lost a Hat?  107

Mel Comley—French Fancies!  113

Melissa Foster—Life’s Little Gifts  11

Christine Kersey—Never Give Up On Your

Dreams  121

Carol Davis Luce—Self-taught Late Bloomer  125

Julia Crane—Moving to the Middle East  131

Talia Jager—Paper, Pen, and Chocolate  137

Michelle Muto—The Magic Within and The Little Book That Could  143

Melissa Smith—Write Out of Grief  149

Afterword—Beth Elisa Harris  153

Cancer Interruptus—Beth Elisa Harris  157

What Is Your Life Whispering to You?  The Story behind the Indie Chicks—Cheryl Shireman  175

For women everywhere.

Foreword

Karen McQuestion

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My journey was not much different than a lot of the women writers included in this anthology. Pursuing one’s creative passion is always a challenge, but more so when life interferes. As it always does.

When my husband and I started a family it was decided (mostly by me, now that I think back) that I would stay home with the kids and he would be the wage earner. This was not the easy way out for either of us. Greg had the stress of being the sole provider and he also had to come home to a wife eager for adult conversation, just when he wanted to quietly decompress. And I had my own troubles being home with one, then two, then three little kids, all needy, messy little jumping beans, more adorable in photos than I remember them being at the time.

I loved being home with my children, and wouldn’t have had it any other way, but it left little free time for either of us.

Throughout the baby and toddler years, I thought about writing. I thought about it a lot, actually, but I never did it. Not once. It seemed that if I had a child age three or younger in the house I couldn’t write.

Around this time I remember reading that John Grisham used to work his crazy attorney schedule and got up at dawn to write for two hours before work. Later, I read about Stephen King’s writing routine in his book, On Writing. He’s extremely disciplined and writes 2,000 words a day, no matter what. Both John and Steve made me feel like a complete loser. I had more free time than either of them, and yet, I couldn’t manage to do one tenth of what they were doing.

But then I realized that neither of them was doing what I was doing either.

Time, energy, and money. All three are finite resources. Kids are notorious time suckers, and they do a number on their parents’ money and energy too. If you’ve got kids, you don’t need a hobby—you’re covered.

When my youngest was in preschool, I finally made the time to write. I took a non-credit class at the local tech college one night a week, and I also joined a critique group that met two evenings a month at the local community center. It kept me on track with my writing, because I knew I had to bring pages to the next meeting. I still felt a little guilty spending money and taking time away from my family, but I felt, selfishly maybe, that I needed to do this, so I did it anyway.

Later, when I began freelance writing, especially during the time I got regular assignments from the community newspaper, I was able to justify my writing time because I was getting paid. I couldn’t say the same for my novel writing, but I snuck it in anyway—it was my heart’s desire. I’d always thought of myself as a writer, even during those long years when I wasn’t writing a word. Now that I had a chance, I was going to do it every second I could.

I can only speak for myself, a mom of three who was home full time and whose husband worked long hours. Writing under those circumstances was difficult if not impossible. Personally, I need balance in my life to write. And silence. To work on a novel I need to immerse myself in that fictional world and I’m not able to do that if I’m sleep deprived or my kids are in crisis. And when your kids are little that describes most of the time. Seems like someone is always teething, or needs to be quizzed on their multiplication tables, or is sad because they weren’t invited to a birthday party, or whatever. Shoes get misplaced and field trip permission slips vaporize and a person can spend hours trying to get caught up. Added to that, if you’re a writer of fiction, you probably have an acute sense of empathy. Taking on the joys and sorrows of your kids can be both emotionally draining and energizing. And that wreaks havoc on the balance I was talking about earlier.

When I first started writing on this topic, I thought it was going to be about the importance of carving out writing time for yourself. I was going to say that I should have been more selfish in those early years. I should have just told my husband that I just needed every Saturday morning for writing, but you know what? The more I think about it, I’m not sure that’s right. Even if I could go back in time and change my sense of entitlement, my circumstances would have been the same. It wasn’t uncommon for Greg to have to work into the evening or on the weekends. Some years we only had one car. And frankly, by the time the kids went to bed, I was spent. That’s just the way it was.

Even now that my kids are ages 16, 19, and 23, I still have to set time aside for them on occasion. This past spring, my daughter Maria had her wisdom teeth removed. She’s legally an adult and her boyfriend Sam took off work to go with her. In theory, I could have handed her the insurance card, wished her luck, then headed out to the library with my laptop. I never would have done that though. It’s a mom thing. It doesn’t matter how old your babies are, when they’re going through something, especially a medical something, you want to be there.

(It went fine, by the way, and it was nice to have both Sam and me there—afterward he kept Maria propped up by the exit, while I went to get the car. On they way home, through her gauze-filled mouth, she told us, rather loopily, that she hadn’t been to the zoo in a really long time. She was quite sad about it. The last time I went to the zoo, the bats weren’t there. We couldn’t see the bats at all... Later, she had no recollection of this conversation, but she did confirm the part about the bats.)

This struggle to find time to write when you’re raising kids is an age-old problem. And if you work outside of the home, it’s far worse. Writer friends who have other, non-writing jobs have the stress of their career on top of everything else.

And don’t even get me started on health problems, either your own, or those of close family members or dear friends.

Sometimes it seems the world is conspiring against you.

But if you wait, it gets better.

Unless it doesn’t because something else happens.

I know, I’m not much help. What I can tell you is that all of these challenges add another emotional layer to your real life, one you can tap into and use in your writing.

I’ve learned that it’s okay to say no to other non-family, non-writing related requests. This may seem obvious, but as a people-pleaser it took me a long time to get to that place. It’s true that if you don’t plan your time, other people will be happy to do it for you. So, take it from me, life gets easier when you just say no! And if that’s too difficult, you can always use my mom’s classic line for taking a