Football fans, welcome to Dallas-Fort Worth and places around and in between! First, sorry about the cold weather. It happens when you have Green Bay and Pittsburgh headlining the game. So what can we do? Here are the answers to all your “North Texas” questions and myth crushers from The Dallas Morning News.

Photo by flickr user John Pozadzides

Technically, Cowboy stadium is in Arlington, not Dallas. Oh, not the one with the cemetery. That’s in Virginia. It’s Arlington, Texas where the 2010 MLB American League champions Texas Rangers play. Dang proud of ‘em even if they didn’t win the World Series.

You’ll also find a couple of amusement parks where I spent many summers there including Six Flags and the water park that has changed names many times.

Although Arlington is an entertaining city sandwiched between Dallas and Fort Worth, naming the teams “Arlington” just doesn’t work. Sorry, Arlington.

On top of the identity confusion, did you know that official Super Bowl merchandise say, “North Texas”? Bland, isn’t it?

“Where are you from?”

“North Texas.”

“Where’s the Super Bowl?”

“North Texas.”

Good news is that weather reports predict temps in the 50s on Super Bowl Sunday. I’d say that’s cool. Maybe not South Florida warm, but it’ll do.

I haven’t seen Texas Stadium except while driving on I-20 to my hometown of Fort Worth. My seven-year-old has (camp field trip), my cousin from New York has (Cowboys – Giants game). I just don’t pass that way often and when I do, I’m on my way to hang out with my family in Fort Worth. I did catch a Cowboy game at the old stadium. Neat experience. TV works just fine for me especially with the high priced tickets and parking.

A memorable Super Bowl: I was 11 days from my due date with my oldest child when the Cowboys won the Super Bowl in 1994. Boy, it took a lot of energy not to jump up and down. Folks were surprised I didn’t go in labor during the game.

Brain food…

• 10 Ways to Make Editors Fall in Love with Your Work: Michelle Rafter shares advice from Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) editors.
• Four reasons why the sales growth of e-books will be slower than industry executives think: Michael Hyatt is one of the most reliable resources on the publishing industry.
• The Problem with Memoirs: Harsh, but lots of truths. [Link: Rachelle Gardner]
• Yes Virginia, You Can Over-promote: Sometimes I’m perplexed. I’ve seen folks like the person described in Lori Widmer’s article. Yet, they’re getting results. I aim to help others, get to know ‘em and occasionally point to my work. I think results could be better, but I’d never promote myself like this. And I’ve unsubscribed to newsletters from people who send too much stuff.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Typography Art: Darth Vader and Typographic Maps. [Links: Bitrebels]
• Browser History Timeline: Eric Meyer updated the timeline. I remember my first browser: Mosaic from Internet in a Box.
• United States of Awesome and United States of Shame: Texas rocks wind power, but fails high school.
• Intel’s Thrilling Chase Movie: How long did it take to create this extremely creative film?
• 7 Videogame Characters Made out of Bottle Caps: Starring Blinky and Mario.
• Gamer Wedding Cakes: Glad we stuck with a traditional one even if we liked playing games. These are cute, though, especially “Game Over.”

I had planned a post using my trip, but I struggled to recover from my vacation all week. Although I didn’t think I needed a vacation from my vacation, my body thought otherwise. It wiped me out that I kept going to bed early and allergies took over. I had to modify my schedule to get things done. My body was probably in shock that I took the first real vacation in almost a decade that it didn’t know what to do when I returned.

The short version of the trip: Loved seeing and experiencing Boston while catching up with family in Nashua, NH.

Hope I get back in the swing next week… it may be tricky with holidays on Monday and Thursday. Happy Labor Day to all. And do take the day off. Everyone deserves a break.

Brain food…

• Make the Most of Your Memory: 10 Tips for Writing About Your Life: I ask family to fill in gaps when trying to recall a memory. People writing memoirs won’t get it perfect, but they can take steps to complete the picture.
• a brief guide to life: Trying to declutter and enjoy life more…
• Why & How Freelancers Should Exercise (from Fitness Expert Scott Tousignant): When I returned from Boston and Nashua, I felt out of sorts and had a hard time returning to my routine. While my exercise routine was off — I exercised for at least 40 minutes daily — maybe not what I usually do that day or as hard. The point was to do something and feel like I accomplished something.
• See How They Did It: 104 Social Media Case Studies: Not all 104 are on this page — it links to others elsewhere. Good resource for both B2C and B2B.
• Author Headshots: Also applies to any professional photos. I’m trying to schedule my family’s annual photos and get my professional headshots while at it because mine is from 2005. The hard part — finding the right tops for the family (we wear jeans) and for my professional photos. This part isn’t going well, but I might get some shots in my meryl.net tee (which I happen to be wearing in the photo).

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 50 Best Websites 2010: According to Time. NO resource can truly name the best websites or best anything online… but at least, you discover a few goodies.
• Stay: From the 50 Best Websites. Wanted to bring this one out so I’ll have it for myself for the next time I travel. (By then, they’ll be 10 newer, better sites.)
• 12 Geekiest Fashion Accessories: Fun stuff, but I wouldn’t wear ‘em all.
• “Set” has the most definitions of any word in the English language: 464! Better make sure we clearly communicate what we mean when we use “set” in our writing.

Today we have a virtual treat! Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg stops by on her WOW! Women on Writing blog book tour and you have an opportunity to win a copy of her book! So grab a favorite drink, put it in a safe place and your keyboard will thank you while you absorb a taste of Caryn’s memoir and how writing during and about yucky times can help us through it.

About The Sky Begins at Your Feet

This tender but humorous memoir chronicles Caryn’s tale of resiliency and love in the face of breast cancer. She braves breast cancer, the breast cancer genetic mutation and the loss of a parent by connecting with an eclectic Midwest community, the land and sky, and a body undergoing vast renovation. Along the way, she swims with stingrays in the Gulf of Mexico, searches for cream puffs for a Pennsylvania funeral, leads a group fighting to protect ecologically-essential land in Kansas, and helps students find their own voice in Vermont. In searching for a new definition of the erotic through our awareness of nature, this memoir illuminates how our bodies are our most local address on the earth. Read the preface.

Published by Ice Cube Books (April 2009)
Paperback: 229 pages
ISBN# 1888160438

About Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg received her doctorate from the University of Kansas and was recently appointed the Poet Laureate of Kansas. The author of four poetry collections she is certified in poetry therapy and has led workshops for many groups, including people living with physical and mental illness. In 2000, Caryn founded the Master’s level program in Transformative Language Arts, that focuses on the effect of written and verbal language on the community, at Goddard College where she teaches. Her writer’s guide Write Where You Are is unique in that it is directed to teenage writers.

Caryn co-founded Brave Voices with singer/songwriter Kelley Hunt to provide singing and writing workshops. Songs written by Caryn have been performed by the Kelley Hunt band both in the United States and Europe. Caryn’s musical talents also include playing the cello.

Along with her husband, writer Ken Lassman, and children, Caryn calls the countryside south of Lawrence, Kansas home. Find out more about Caryn by visiting her web site and her blog.

Turning Rotten Lemons into Fresh Pages by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Sometimes life gives us lemons, and sometimes rotten lemons. In any case, whatever challenges we face — cancer diagnosis, car break-down, children or parents driving us crazy — offer us ample material for our writing. Such writing can also help us sort out what we’re going through, how we really feel about it, and what choices we have in the situation. What’s more, just the act of writing can help us feel more alive, and that in itself can be refreshing, even healing.

In my memoir, The Sky Begins at Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community, and Coming Home to the Body, I wrote my way through a breast cancer diagnosis in which the bad news kept getting worse for a while, my father was dying of pancreatic cancer, and I was in the middle of raising three children with my husband, and working full-time plus.

The writing helped me put the cancer into perspective and also face the very real and mortal issues involved. Furthermore, the book itself keeps on giving. I just met someone who told me the story of a man finding the memoir in a waiting room of a hospital while his wife was going through breast cancer surgery. He found reading the book during that long wait helped me find greater strength and hope.

So how do we turn the rotten lemons into fresh pages? Here are tips:

• Journal Close With No Pressure: When going through a difficult time, keep a journal or at least some paper within arm’s reach, and without putting pressure on yourself, open it occasionally, and simply write a phrase or sentence just to remind yourself later where you are now.
• Write Into Hope, Not Fear: Studies by writing and health experts, such as James Pennebaker, show that writing into fear and anguish can actually increase fear and anguish, or aim your writing toward hope. Write a list of all you love in the world, and just pluck something off the list to describe. Write a description of yourself ten years from now, assuming that whatever you’re going through will be long over, and you’ll be fabulous. See what happens.
• Steal a Line: Sometimes the best way to get to strong writing isn’t to start writing directly about your big topic, but to enter through the back door, sneaking up on your topic. A good way to do this is to find a poem, story, newspaper article, even a billboard that has a line that speaks to you, put that line down as the first line of your writing, and see what happens.
• Don’t Push the Writing Before Its Time: I’ve found that often I need time and distance from serious illness, issues and situations before I can write about them. Don’t push yourself or the writing if it’s not ready. Treat the writing as wine that must come of age before you pour it out on the page. At the same time, it’s great to take notes.
• Read Other Writers Facing These Rotten Lemons: It’s amazing how much our own words can be loosened free when we read other writers. While writing my memoir, I dove into other memoirs about cancer and losing a parent, all of which gave me more ideas for my own writing. Remember that when it comes to inspiration, the bookstore and library are your good friends.
• Write Out of Sequence: Sometimes a writer needs to write what happened in the order in which it happened, and sometimes not. You can start with the middle of your story and then write the beginning. You can later cut and paste, or tell a story in flashbacks. In any case, when you turn on the tap of your writing, write what comes, and don’t worry about how it all fits together until later.
• Suspend Judgment for First Drafts: The most important advice I can share, as Anne Lamott recommends in her book, Bird by Bird, is to write shitty first drafts. Put your inner judges on a shelf, don’t show the draft to anyone, and just write. If your judges are persistent, write first about them getting on a bus for a long roadtrip to Vegas, and then bid them adieu. Then write passionately and recklessly. You can always revise your words later.

Meryl’s Sour Lemons into Memories Story

I figure as host, I should set an example and open the comments with my own.

My mom had breast cancer. She found she had a tumor right before my wedding, and she told me in person when she came to visit me shortly after my honeymoon. I was in a new place for the first time in my life. Born and bred in Fort Worth, TX, I was a new bride who didn’t know a soul in Washington, DC. I had nothing to do. It was too late for summer school and I still had over a month before the new semester started.

I started journaling that summer, but I only had a couple of entries, and nothing for a year. It had a paragraph that Mom had a tumor that turned out malignant and her prognosis was excellent. I don’t think Mom’s situation ever hit me considering I was not with her. She recovered and that all happened 20 years ago. Since then, I’ve piled up on the journals. Sometimes I wrote lots and others, I went a long time without a drop of ink.

Then, my dad had a stroke in April 2007. And that was a different experience. Things looked dire for about a week, and he pulled out of it. I was in the middle of writing a book (Outlook Brilliant Pocketbook) that I had to finish in three weeks. I knew the publisher wouldn’t extend the deadline when it wouldn’t do it for another author of a book in the Brilliant Pocketbook series was in the hospital herself. He died the following December, but my book came out in time for him to see it. Enough about my story — it’s your turn.

Your Turn: Win Caryn’s Book

Share what comes to your mind after reading about Caryn’s book and her guest post. Maybe you’ve had a sour experience that turned into an inspiring or tolerable one. Or faced an illness that changed you or gave you a new perspective? We look forward to your comments with at  least 50 words please.

Random.org will have the honor of picking the winner.

Update: You have one week to comment for a chance to win. This contest runs through 11:59pm, Thursday, October 1.