As someone who loves American history, I find myself thinking about what we inherited and what we are responsible for preserving. Our country has survived terrible failures, bitter divisions, and leaders whose judgment left considerably more to be desired than their portraits suggest. Survival, however, has required people willing to challenge wrongdoing and insist that the country live up to its promises. That work has never finished itself.
What interested me most, though, was how naturally those parts of her life fit together. Whether she is caring for children, teaching a Bible lesson, or helping someone tell a difficult story, Gert wants to be useful. Her faith in God gives that desire its direction.
...sounds simple enough when someone else is doing it: choose a spot, set up, open your mouth. Then you remember that every passerby is free to ignore you, judge you, or keep walking before you reach your best note. Hamish admitted that his first experiences were intensely nerve-racking, sometimes more frightening than stepping onto a stage.
Pierce is not exactly the president whose face appears on every documentary poster. Most Americans know Lincoln. They know Washington. They know Kennedy, Reagan, Roosevelt, and several others who have managed to remain part of the national conversation for decades—or centuries—after they left office. Franklin Pierce, on the other hand, often gets the historical equivalent of, “Oh yes, I vaguely remember that name.”
Franklin Pierce definitely falls into that category. He is not exactly Washington, Lincoln, or Kennedy when it comes to name recognition...
A screenplay has limits. It must move quickly, tell much of its story visually, and fit within a practical running time. Eve and Marcus had more to say, more to learn, and more trouble to get through than the screenplay could comfortably hold. The supporting characters also began demanding additional attention, as fictional people tend to do once they realize the writer is listening.
Labor Day is about the people who do the work. Not the people who talk about work in boardrooms while pointing at charts. Not the people who create slogans about productivity from chairs that cost more than my first car.
For a writer, this is especially annoying because writing depends on concentration, and concentration is a fragile little diva. It requires space, mood, energy, patience—none of which did I possess this week—and a brain willing to stay in the same room for more than 11 seconds.
This group is open to experienced authors with dozens of published titles, first-time writers still wrestling with Chapter One, and newcomers trying to decide whether KDP is the right path. Any writer or author is invited. If you have information that may help another creator, bring it.
What stayed with me was not simply that she was kind. Plenty of famous people learn to appear kind when a microphone is nearby. With Dolly, kindness seemed less like publicity and more like the machinery quietly running beneath everything else.
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