Author Archive: Judy Pollard Smith
Writing The More The Merrier – Celebrating Seventy
I love a project. When I turned seventy I thought I’d take a deeper look at my life and at what aging might look like. I’ve kept journals for thirty-five years, mostly because I believe in keeping track of both family history and history in the wider sense. I like to think that my words […]
Finding Where You Fit In The Writing World
I’m still waiting for A Great Voice to come from Above and say “You are official now. You can call yourself a writer.” In spite of 36 years worth of writing and publishing I cringe when somebody introduces me as a writer. But being someone who writes is no different than being someone who canoes. […]
Why You Should Keep A Journal
Once upon a time I had tiny children. And during that same time period I longed to write. Dishing up Cheerios and worrying about Word Counts aren’t a happy mix and I knew where my priorities lay; happy children would be a better contribution to the world than my words could ever be. So, I […]
How to Use Memories to Enhance Your Writing
There is no such thing as a dearth of writing material. We sit with fingers poised over the keyboard and are met with a ghastly silence that threatens to be our undoing. All we need to do is to call up the past. One’s own past might seem mundane, but get out your microscope. Look […]
Learning From The Greats: Edith Wharton
I’m all over Edith Wharton these days. I can’t get enough of her. Back to Edith in a moment. A few years ago it was Balzac who held a headlock on my heart. I went to Paris, meandered down crooked streets and labyrinths of alleyways in order to find his house. Just as I was […]
The Literary Salon And How To Have One
A literary salon is all about exploring the riches of one’s heart. Contrary to what I have believed, it seems that Les Grandes Dames des Salons Parisiens were not the first to start that noble tradition during the sixieme et septieme siecles. Others got there first. The poet and scholar, Al-Khanas, recited her poetry en […]
Life After Switching Genres; Don’t Be Afraid!
A friend surprised me recently when she said “You write best when you write Creative Non-Fiction.” That is not who I started out to be and that is not what I started out to write. Writers have been taught that best practice involves writing what you know. Why didn’t I think that applied to me? […]
Putting flesh Upon The Bones ~ Using Creative Non-fiction to Tell Her Story
When Judy Pollard Smith came across an article on missionary Alice Seeley Harris, whose photographs brought down the Belgian Congo, she couldn’t believe she’d never heard of her before. Intrigued, she began to research, which led to her writing a biography of Alice, the woman she calls the mother of all human rights work. This […]
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