IWSG: Wednesday, May 4, 2016 ~ "Uncle!" She Cried.

Happy May to all 
the IWSG members
making the rounds today!

It's the first Wednesday 
of the month ~ 
the day when members of the
Insecure Writer's Support Group
share their writing struggles
and offer their encouragement
and support to other members.

To visit the IWSG website, click here.

To become a member of the IWSG, click here.

Our wonderful co-hosts who are stepping up to help IWSG founder Alex J. Cavanaugh are:
Stephen Tremp , M.J. Fifield, Loni Townsend, Bish Denham, Susan Gourley, Stephanie Faris, and Fundy Blue (That's me!).

I hope you have a chance to visit them and thank them for co-hosting.
I'm sure they would appreciate an encouraging comment!
~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

"Uncle!" she cried.

Perhaps I should back up a little.

Aloha ~ Until We Meet Again!

I left Hawaii on April 6th with a very sick husband in tow;
and, generous soul that the Ever-Patient is,
he passed his illness on to me during the long trip home.

The next three weeks passed in a sick haze for both of us.
Neither of us left the house except for quick forays
to get milk, bread, or more medicine.

About two weeks in, I crawled into the kitchen
for some coffee to soothe my raging throat,
coffee the E-P kindly plunked in front of me.
And then I saw it:  a life ring on TV!
A piece about Arianna Huffington's latest book 
The Sleep Revolution.

ariannahuffington.com

At that point we had been sleeping
in separate rooms for some ten days.

I couldn't sleep for more than an hour
without catapulting awake with explosive coughing,
followed by long bouts of hacking
trying to clear my lungs.
Terry was a little better,
managing several hours of sleep at a time.

My sleep-starved eyes latched onto that book,
and lickety-split I ordered it with Amazon Prime.
If I couldn't get some sleep,
I thought I might die.





Two days later I raced through the two-part book
looking for sleep salvation as I shivered against vertical pillows.
The first part, Wake-up Call, made the case for more sleep;
the second part, The Way Forward, showed how to get it.

But it was the Acknowledgments and Notes at the end
that made me cry, "Uncle!"
They were a mother load of information
and a thunderbolt moment for me.

I looked at the 1,200 plus, up-to-date, chapter by chapter endnotes
meticulously compiled and impeccably attributed,
and I thought No way in hell one person pulled this off! 

Huffington had five researchers who helped her
and whom she thanked in her Acknowledgments.
She acknowledged plenty of others for their help too.
But it was the researchers who zapped me.

I have been hitting obstacle after obstacle
as I have tried to locate historical records for my memoir
in the Canadian parliament and press.
I have wasted so much time and energy with little to show for it.
I looked at all of Huffington's endnotes, 
and I cried, "Uncle."
It's impossible! I thought, so discouraged.  I can't do this!

Wikimedia

 

"Yes you can!"
a little bird told me.
"You just need a researcher!"







So the Ever-Patient Terry and I had a chat
over hot coffee amid mounting piles of used kleenex.
I've got the go ahead to look for some professional help!

So I have some questions for my fellow IWSG-ers:
Have you ever hired a researcher?
How did it go?
What things should I know as I start hunting?

All the best with your writing this month!

Oh yes, I'm sleeping and feeling better.
It helps not to have high octane coffee after 2:00 pm!
Thanks, Arianna!