Category: Women’s Literary Festival

Colin Falconer, Family, Heidi Durrow, Liebster Award, Melinda Palacio, Michele Serros, Pat Fry, Women's Literary Festival, Writing

Writing to Feel Better

Mona Alvarado Frazier


Heidi Durrow-Author

Boy did I have a great weekend. It started with  four ‘nominations’ of the Liebster Blog Award. That’s an interesting award, and I’ll explain that soon.


Next was the Santa Barbara Women’s Literary Festival where I was enthralled with the stories told by amazing writers. I was also lucky enough to take some photos with authors Melinda Palacio, Michele Serros, and Heidi Durrow. All of them were so sweet and I found them to be most engaging. Same as their fascinating stories. Of course, I came home with a bagful of books. And I won the beautiful centerpiece: a large terracotta pot filled with fragrant herbs and viola flowers.


Later I visited with my sister who took an unexpected trip into town, spent two nights dancing to a great band and gazed at the gorgeous supermoon on a warm coastal night. The one below is over our pier in Ventura, CA.

FjB63 Studio

I’m so glad for the amazing weekend because today I feel kind of lousy. Two of my three kids caught a stomach flu with resulting headaches, temps, and a bad case of the ‘ralphs.’ (throwing up). Ugh, I know you probably did not want to hear that last item, TMI for sure. 


I explain this because I didn’t want to do revisions on my WIP today nor blog but proceeded to read the blogs I follow instead. I’m glad I did because I came across Colin Falconer’s post. He tells a lovely story about his mother and the history of memories. After attending to the kids, making chicken soup, and cleaning up, I fell asleep. Then I got up and read more posts. Which led me to Patricia Fry’s blog on writing. 

Her question: What motivates you to write? 


It made me think. Although I still feel rumblies in my tumblie, I’ll feel worse (emotionally) if I don’t write something today. So now that the nap refreshed me and the aspirin kicked in,  I think I’ll jot my thoughts down. 

If I’m rambling, please understand. 

Now back to the Liebster Blog award, which makes me feel even better. 



The word “liebster” allegedly means dearest in German. I don’t know about that, but its a sweet idea. The writers/poets who nominated this blog were:

Michelle Pond, at MAPoet who was so kind as to say I tell amazing stories. She’s just published a book “I Keep You With Me-Looking at Grief with Verse.” 

Sarah over at Sarah Writes has a funny story on Beta readers that I completely agree with and took to heart.

I love Jennifer Chow’s description on her profile: “Like a fortune cookie, I’m twisted into dual selves, my Asian-American nature. This blog serves my words and my culture in a written delicacy.”  Captivating.

And lastly, the tagline on Bonnie’s blog, Just Ventures Coaching, is a twist on one of my favorite quotes from Ghandi: “Be the change you want to see.” Her unique twist is ” It’s Time to be The Change.” Here, here. 

Now, the awardee (me) is supposed to nominate 5 bloggers for every nomination. That would be 20 bloggers. Remember I said I’m not feeling too well? So you will forgive me if I nominate one writer-(pretty please). 

Nomination goes to:

 Anne because she made me laugh so hard when I read about the Jersey Oompa-Loompa Mom. I’m sure she’ll have you ROFL-ing. 

(it’s not the ralph mentioned previously , but rolling on the floor laughing). 

Enjoy their blogs!