About Me:

Aloha! I'm Wendy Kennar. I'm the mother of a seven-year-old son and a wife living in Los Angeles. I was a public school teacher for twelve years until a chronic medical condition made it necessary to leave my teaching career.

I've always been described as "quiet" - really, I'm just biting my tongue. I've got lots to say, and lots of thoughts to share, I just prefer to write them. That's the purpose of this blog. Each Wednesday, I post a personal essay offering my observations and thoughts.

A few fun facts about me: I've wanted to be a writer since second grade, when my teacher, Mrs. Jones, made me a "book" with a yellow construction paper cover. I have never learned to whistle, have always preferred sunflowers to roses, and have spent my life living within the same zip code.

Through the years, my writing has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, United Teacher, GreenPrints, L.A. Parent, DivineCaroline.com, RoleReboot.org, XOJane, and Brain, Child Magazine. Additionally, my personal essays have been included in several anthologies, including: The Barefoot Review, Beyond the Diaper Bag, Lessons From My Parents, Write for Light, Being a Grown-Up: A User's Manual for the Real World, Ka-Pow!, How Writing Can Get You Through Tough Times, Breath and Shadow, The Grey Wolfe Storybook, and Sisters Born, Sisters Found.
I am a regular contributor at MomsLA.com, and you can also find me at Goodreads.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Feel free to comment and share my blog with others!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Wendy the Writer

   At the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books I walked over to a booth advertising self-publishing.  When I took a flyer, the attendant asked if I was a writer.  
I answered, “Yes.”
And for the first time, I really believed it.  
I’ve been asked before, and I usually give some faltering answer of, “I like to write” or “I want to be a writer.”  This year, it was just “Yes.  I am a writer.”
A writer is a person who writes.  And I do.  Thanks to this blog, I have a self-imposed deadline of a posting a week.  My own column in cyber-space.  Thanks to this blog, I make a concerted effort to write.  And re-write.  And send out my writing.   
I used to hope to be a writer.  Someday I’d write something, someone would love it, and it would lead to some sort of writing job.  Well, I’m 35, and things didn’t work out that way.  So, I’m writing every week.  I’m submitting my writing to various publications (at least once a month).  I’m putting my writing out there because I can’t be “discovered” if I’m not writing.  And I’m getting published - an essay in L.A. Parent Magazine, an essay at DivineCaroline.com.
I’m a full-time, working mommy.  I don’t have much “free time.”  And, until I started blogging, writing was at the bottom of my daily “to-do list.”  Not any more.  Let’s face it; I’m never going to have free time - at least not until I retire.  The only thing I could do was make the time.  So, now I set writing dates for myself - an hour after-school.  A mocha and my laptop.  It’s my “Wendy time” to write.  
I write in the bathroom, because I often get ideas in the shower.  I keep a pad of paper and a pen in my purse, my car, my son’s diaper bag.  I stop and I write - a phrase that catches my attention, a snippet of conversation, a word I like, an idea that the muse has dropped into my lap.  I write them down.  Small abbreviated versions.  And later, on my writing date, I will write and develop the idea into a blog.
So, yes, I am a writer. 
And readers, thank you for reading what I write.

5 comments:

  1. Honey!

    I Love your writing!

    You are dedicated and gifted.

    I am so proud of your work.

    Love,

    Paul

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love reading your work.You are very gifted and certainly have a way with words.I am so glad you are taking the time to write each week.Keep it up.I love you and I am very proud of you.
    love,mommy

    ReplyDelete
  3. I enjoy your writing. The responses to your blog is often a challenge for me. I hope to see more of your words in print. I look forward to reading your book. Your Mother & I are proud of you.

    Love, Dad

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  4. You are truly gifted with your writing.I am so glad you are finally taking the time to write each week.I love you and I am very proud of you.
    love,mommy

    ReplyDelete
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