The Indie Showcase presents, Miriam Hurdle.

Thank you, Richard for featuring me on your website today.

I grew up in Hong Kong where I spent my childhood, college and early career years. My dad made a great impact on me for my love of reading. He read every single day until he had a stroke at eighty-four years old. When I was at the fourth-grade, I read my dad’s newspaper. We traded sections to read. I read the horrible news describing the details of crime scenes, read adult fantasy, comic strips and the Sunday children’s section. In elementary school, my favorite literature was Aesop’s Fables. I read each story with the anticipation of learning the moral of the story. This literature has influenced my attitude toward life, my thinking and writing.

I wrote a diary as a teenager. The lessons in Aesop’s Fables weaved into the diary and I wrote what I thought of the events more so than what happened. As far as writing skills, I remember in the upper grades of elementary school, we learned how to write a story with an opening, middle, climax and ending.

After college, I worked as a Director of Children’s Department in a literature company. My job was writing children’s magazine. I worked closely with the illustrators in the Art Department. In fact, I recruited my artist. When I taught Chinese as a Second Language at the Baptist University of Hong Kong, he worked there also and sometimes wrote me notes at the end of the day, signed it and drew a little cartoon next to his signature. I liked his art so when I changed job, I remembered him. The comic strips I read in my early years helped me to communicate with the artists how I wanted to illustrate the stories in the magazine. The experience I had on this job also helped me to layout and illustrate my first poetry book forty years later.

I came to the U.S. for the graduate studies. I got three master’s degrees, then started working as a counselor for two years, and a teacher for fifteen years.  Then I went back to school to get my Doctor in Education and was promoted to a school district administrative position. I took retirement in 2010, earlier than anticipated because of recovering from a stage IV cancer.

A friend introduced me to blogging, and I created my blog in 2011. I wrote twelve posts from 2011 to 2014. My blogging didn’t take off until July 2016. At that time, I was to write about my cancer and recovery experiences. It has become further and wider than expected. I have been writing short memoir, poetry, short stories, flash fiction, family stories, travel journey and post photography.

When I gained energy during the recuperation, I joined several writing and publishing groups. The Publishing group has retired professionals help each other publish. Being around the writers and volunteer helpers was an encouragement for me to publish the first Book, Songs of Heartstrings–Poems of Gratitude and Beatitude published in October 2018.

Prior to publishing the first book, I spent a year to explore the traditional and self-publishing. The initial contact of traditional publishing discouraged me with the price they charge and their control of the book. I then purchased a self-publishing instruction package for $395 to learn the basics from writing, formatting, publishing to marketing. By the time I prepared to publish the poetry collection as my first book, I could do formatting, insert photos, design the book cover and upload to Kindle Direct Publishing.

I took part in an Anthology publication. My article about the cancer was included in the UNDERSTANDING: An Anthology of True and Significant Life Events, compiled by Stevie Turner, which was published in early April 2019.

Songs of Heartstrings, Blurb

Human being has the will power to travel through an exhausting journey, win a tough battle, and heal a deep wound. Strength from hope keeps us going until the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight and striving until the storm is over.

Songs of Heartstrings plays the melancholy tune of the suffering and transcending to the melody of serenity and peace. It is a road travelled with optimism, hope and appreciation amid heartache circumstances and an unpredictable cancer. It also celebrates true love and fulfilling relationships.

Hurdle in her poetry collection includes nine themes: Songs of Nature, Songs of Dissonance, Songs of Physical Healing, Songs of Marriage, Songs of Parenthood, Songs of Tribute, Songs of Reflections, Songs of Challenge, and Songs of Inspiration. Each of these themes covers various aspects of her life experience. Many poems are illustrated with her photos and watercolour paintings.

The poems in this collection are inspiring to the mind, heart and spirit. The readers will echo with these experiences.

The Sun Welcomes Me

Journey through high and low

amid worrisome melanoma cancer.

The sense of mortality heightened, with 

no assumption of

the survival chances.

My prayer was to ask

the mercy of the Maker 

granting me one more moment to live.

Every new morning was a precious gift.

Cloudy or sunny the sky might be,

trotting on the street rain or shine

even when having no energy

to pick up my feet.

Hoping to keep up

the physical strength

to sustain through six months of

harsh chemotherapy.

What a profound gratefulness as

treatment fading at the end

when the sun pierced through

the clouds to

welcome me.

Rowing a Boat

I love to go rowing a boat.

Weather is not the matter.

The day may be sunny or cloudy,

windy or even stormy.

Having you in the same boat,

I can go anywhere, everywhere.

We had a rough day at sea,

almost dangerous to manage.

Our hearts were in touch,

hands were in sync,

same spirit, same strength.

Your encouraging words to me, mine to you,

all the way through.

We strived until the storm passed.

A day I will forever remember.

The storm brought us closer.

I love to go rowing a boat

when you are with me.

Bio

Miriam Hurdle is a multi-genre writer. She writes poetry, flash fiction, short stories and memoir.

Music has rooted in her life. Being a soloist as a teenager led her to taking voice lessons and to have ongoing singing engagements. She continues to sing soprano in choral groups. Lyrics have a major influence in the natural flow of her melodic writing. She writes memoir in the form of poetry.

She took photos when the films were black and white. Photography is still her enjoyable hobby. Drawing and painting were fun activities as a child. She resumed drawing and watercolour painting several years ago. In her poetry collection, she includes photos and paintings to illustrate the poems.

She earned a Doctor of Education from the University of La Verne in California. After two years of rehabilitation counselling, fifteen years of public-school teaching and ten years in school district administration, she retired and enjoys life with her husband in southern California. She makes frequent visits to her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter in Oregon.

Amazon Links

Amazon Universal Link: http://smarturl.it/SongsofHeartstrings 

Amazon UK Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07K1S47W9  

Amazon.com Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K1S47W9 

Contact the Author

Website: https://theshowersofblessings.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Miriam-Hurdle/e/B07K2MCSVW

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mhurdle112

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miriam.hurdle.1

My thanks to this weeks guest for a great post. I hope you all enjoyed it.

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Richard.