Stories Served Pandemic Update

Welcome to the Stories Served Around The Table Notes and News Letter. It has been a while since I brought a newsletter to you. I hope all of you are well staying in a safe place and keeping socially distant yet connected.

It has been a tough few months. March started with shelter-in-place restrictions and frightening numbers of COVID-19 diagnosis and death. Main Street, Sayville has an abandoned feel with only restaurants’ curbside takeout, and essential pharmacy and grocery stores opened. Just like your world, schools and churches have closed their doors. Suddenly, teachers teach remotely and  parents tackle Common Core, juggle screen time and keep their kids from friends.

In an effort to be helpful during this unprecedented time, I put together quick journaling video lessons for kids on YouTube and quickly realized-YIKES- selfie videoing is hard and incredibly time-consuming to produce, and-YIKES again- teaching to a camera is a very steep learning curve. I posted six lessons but went back  to the written narrative.

Blogging A to Z April Challenge came up. I developed Journal On! Daily Writers Workshop for kids of all ages in alphabetical order. You can browse the daily posts here. The following are links to a few of my favorites.
E is for Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy
G is for Games
J is For Jam and Jam
N is for Nature
T is for Tongue Twisters

I had such heartening feedback! I decided to continue with the concept and fashioned themed workbooks. The current results are Journal On! Fun and Games and Journal On! Thoughts and Ideas While Quarantined.

I decided to make them available free through the end of the school year (June 26th). That meant, Stories Served had to sport a webstore. While I was at it, my copies of Hug Everyone You Know could be sold through the webstore as well. This meant I had to redo the whole website theme since my current theme did not support the criterion. Once I completed one little task, another seemingly hidden detail reared into view. It took a good chunk of a week, a few YouTube tutorials, and chat-help sessions, but I finally got the wrinkles ironed out and the widget cooperating 🤞.  I even got a friendlier URL as an alternative to my very long name. You can now access Stories Served Around the Table with www.storiesserved.com. So much easier, right? And then, while I was on a roll, I made a logo. Thoughts?

For now, the Journal On! workbooks can be ordered FREE by email request until June 26th. I am offering personally signed Hug Everyone You Know books for $12—shipping included! Hug Everyone You Know is a memoir for your summer reading list. It would make a terrific gift. Drama and humor occur as the first year tackling breast cancer unfolds. If you live in the continental United States, click here or on the website’s book cover sidebar and order your very own copy. Be sure to let me know to whom you want the book inscribed to at check out.

My middle-grade historical fiction novel, Daily Bread,  just came back from editing as did the query and synopsis. I fashioned a spreadsheet of agents and publishers to submit to and started the campaign toward publication 🤞🤞. While I wait for a green light, I decided to share the story’s character and plot developments, the fun research adventures, and my writing process. The following are the first two posts.
Daily Bread: An Introduction
Mrs. Goldberg’s Knot Surprises 

I continue to post the weekly Weekend Coffee Share hosted by Eclectic Ali. Well, almost every week. I find that the regular deadlines and the practice to be very good for my writing process and head. You can browse the Weekend Coffee Share page here. The following are a few favorites.
Regrouping, Rewriting, and Disinfecting Coffee Share
Easter 2020 Coffee Share
Hurray for May Coffee Share
Mother’s Day 2020 Coffee Share

Whew! That was a lot of catching up.
I will continue to look forward and strive to be well in mind and spirit, especially during these pandemic days. Writing is my go-to in times of uncertainty and stress. What is yours?

Be well, My Everyone.
Be safe. Be smart

Antoinette Truglio Martin is the author of Hug Everyone You Know: A Year of Community, Courage, and Cancer. The memoir is a wimpy patient’s journey through her first year of breast cancer treatment.