Answering more than you asked about me

Here we are, J2, Greta Jo and I at Movement, the annual

Detroit electronic music festival.  My husband started taking 

this photo when he was a bachelor.  The year prior, I was added;

2010, Greta Jo, and next year, 2011, we'll be sure to take one with

all four of us!

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, I am the youngest of four girls, am married to a wonderful man, JJ, and we had our first child, Greta Jo in October 2009, and our second, Clara Lou in November 2010.  I write because I must.  I write at this very moment because I can.  JJ sits near me, checking in our our daughters.  He is my rock, and Greta Jo and Clara Lou, are the light of my life.  JJ and I met late in life for starting a family, our late thirties, and after realizing that the other was in the room, he and I moved quickly to get on with the meat of creating the rest of our life together.  The girls arrived in short order, when I was 40 and 41.  I love JJ in a way I had only dared dream possible before meeting him, and hammered past relationships for not measuring up to the high standard he now sets on a daily basis.

My writing, it is as compulsive as taking in air.  It started young, and I kept it to myself for decades.

I have great examples.  Jo and Les Moïse, my parents, had their first date, fell in love and were engaged a few weeks later.  That was over fifty years ago.  I know this story and often repeat it myself, because my Mother is a storyteller.  She doesn't think of herself as a writer, but the only thing she lacks is putting her words down on the page.  My Father too.  He wrote throughout his career, and now in his retirement, is making regular changes to existing manuscripts, or mailing out copies of his books.  Their shining examples, both as my parents, as loving spouses, as innovative educators formed my early notions of what being a... how shall I say, a fully formed human being is.

My sister Leslie also influenced and continues to influence me.  Leslie is the eldest of the four Moïse sisters.  Elaine and Ellyn between us are identical twins, and we all share a common bond, but like Elaine and Ellyn, Leslie and I are quite close.  Leslie read me Greek myths when I was very young, and told me her made-up stories.  She was the one who introduced me to Dorothy Parker at an age that many might shudder, but I merely glowed at the introduction to such a confessional neurotic.  The Waltz, The Telephone Call, her poem, Resume, all were memorized and words still haunt my slow and steady thoughts.  Leslie's own words follow me.  She too writes because she must.  Her blog, Love is the Thread, is a memoir of her friendship with Kristine who taught Leslie how to knit, all the while Kristine was fighting a losing battle with cancer.  She has her second book due to come out early 2013.  Leslie is an academic, having taught at the university level for twenty years, and now provides services to her clients, from Reike, to energy work, to her ghostwriting.

My dear friend Don Vish also influenced me a great deal.  Our friendship may have started because of my ex-husband, but it grew deeper upon my return to Louisville.  He was the first to encourage me to keep what I write, and put it in one place.  I did as instructed, keeping my poetry... there I said it... yes poetry.

You see, my family already had its writers... what I did was a bunch of scribble.  Just to get thoughts out of my head and onto the page.  But through Don's sympathy and support, I gained confidence in my ability to find a rhythm of what to include, and what to leave out.

Most recently, there are the Scribbling Women, a handful of talented women, whose lives stretch them thin and often the pull and tug keeps our pens quiet.  Scribbling Women was started by Erica Rucker's pernicious invitation to get some women writers together. The original five include Erica, Beth Sturgeon Northup, Leslie Moïse, and Amy Barnes.  The name comes from Erica's reference to "America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women." by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  We are not a mob, but we may be disorderly.

JJ too is a wonderful example.  I mentioned that he is my rock.  He makes it possible for me to work, to write, to be.  I have never been more accepted.  All this, and he is brilliant.  I love his mind.  I just wish he too could write more.

hmm.... more.

I am a dark-o'clock blogger, addicted to words
and music.  08-2010

More time?  Well, not within my power to create, but choosing what to do and what to leave undone is.  These posts are the product of many a late dark hour and wee morning light spent with pen and, more often than not, composing at the computer.  I write for you, the random reader, for my daughter and child on the way.  I write to put down thoughts and recipes and memories and beliefs down, lest the moment pass and I neglect to tend this mental garden and let it be filled with misperceptions created by the weeds of neglected conversation.  I write, often listening to music, in closed dark, since the light of my screen alone is often enough to make babe and husband stir.  The cats, Molly and Detroit visit me, seeking access to the window by my table to better guard against stirring prey outside in the night or light of dawn.

The bit about me I haven't included is that I have a varied professional background. I am a practicing attorney with a solo law practice, www.nancyesq.com, as of April 2010, having graduated from law school in 1998.  I have worked in all three sectors, private, public and not-for-profit over the last 15 plus years where I established win-win negotiations in a variety of concentrations. Accomplishments in a variety of disciplines demonstrate my key strengths in sales, my professional flexibility and determination. A writer, I understand the creative. My business savvy makes for a potent combination in envisioning the big picture and managing the details to take ideas into action and handle client needs.

I love my life.