Category: Shameless Promotion

Protecting My Peace

I want to tell you about a new writing project I’m very excited about: I got started over on Substack so I could connect with a lot of my writer/OG blogger friends: it’s easy to read and comment on each other’s posts because they’re all under one umbrella.

I started a publication over there to claim a little more world wide web space but I have NO plans of giving up this site, my little corner of the internet that belongs to me and me only. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I don’t write nearly as much here as I used to, and it might bug you…or it might not. I know for sure that my lack of motivation bugs me. I still plan to write here every now and then; in fact, I hope my Substack account will recharge my excitement for personal writing and I’ll be back to posting here every week or ten days…we’ll see. I’m simply out of the habit so it’s time to force it a little bit.

If you really like my writing and I hope you do, please subscribe to my Substack blog, called “Protecting My Peace.” It’s got a theme, which is very different from here on this site where I have written about whatever I’m thinking, whenever I feel called to do so, since 2008.

Over there I’ll be writing about something I think a lot of people will be looking for in the next year or four: things that I have done (or am doing) to take care of my peace and my mental health. I’m not officially making recommendations because I’m no professional, but you can keep up with what I write and take whatever information you think might be helpful for you, too. I’m probably going to throw in some kindness and gratitude content too, because in my opinion that’s all connected. My plan is to write on Substack once every week. If you subscribe now, you’ll only have two or three posts to read in order to “catch up,” because that’s all I’ve written so far!

Once you sign up for a free account and subscribe to me and whoever else you find over there, if you decide to look around (I have a few recommendations that will pop up when you subscribe!), you can go to your settings and choose to receive posts by email alone, on the app alone (if you hate emails), or both. The app isn’t mandatory. If you have never heard of Substack, don’t be scared of it. It’s just another website where a bunch of writers are pushing out content. You don’t ever have to visit the actual site again once you subscribe if you choose the email option.

I’m truly excited about this and I hope you’ll keep up with me both here and there!

January 21, 2025
Welcome To My New Home!

After ten years of blogging at Suburban Scrawl, I finally decided to re-brand and pick up where I left off here, on the domain I purchased nearly two years ago and then proceeded to ignore…until now. Although the “blogging for a decade” mark was the final push I needed, I knew when we purchased a home in Knoxville proper rather than in a suburb–oh, I tried! I tried!–there was no avoiding dumping the old familiar name in favor of, well, an older and even more familiar name…my own.

The site design is and will remain a work in progress as I make tweaks here and there on a (semi) regular basis. I chose a theme that is change-friendly and hope to use more of my photography on a rotating basis.

I have imported all of my old posts (thanks so much to Casey for helping me sort that out!) so everything is still in one place, and will pick up right where I left off with occasional writing on whatever amuses me at the time. I plan to place extra focus on travel writing since I’m always on the go and even put the Travel category in the margin so those posts will always be upfront and easy to find.

Soon I’ll place a redirect on the Suburban Scrawl site and you won’t be able to visit there anymore; that means the Facebook page will also be obsolete. Would you please do me a solid and “like” my new Facebook page? All of my other social media handles remain the same (@MelisaLW on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest).

So, welcome to my new home! Hopefully you’ll be seeing more of me here, especially this month: I’m keeping with my tradition of attempting to post every day as a part of National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). Crazy, I KNOW.

Thanks for stopping by!

November 1, 2017
NaBloPoMo 2015: Jumpstart!

Let’s do this.

It’s that time of year again! November is National Blog Posting Month, in which many of us attempt to publish a post every single day. There are prizes to be won when you sign up (by November 5!) on the BlogHer site, but for me the real prize is bringing myself back to regular writing on this blog, which I miss desperately much of the time.

It’s gotten harder for me to write blog posts over the past couple of years for two main reasons. The first one is because I am so busy in other areas of my life. My work with LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER and BlogHer fill much of my time. The other reason is because my boys, who I wrote about approximately half the time back in the day, are grown now. I write about them very selectively these days because many of their stories aren’t mine to tell.

So for me, while others “dread” NaBloPoMo and the pressures that come with daily posting, November is a gift. I’m going to do my best to complete all thirty days of posting, even if some posts consist of just one picture with a couple of descriptive sentences. I’ve got a calendar reminder to post every day (because these days if it’s not on my calendar it doesn’t happen!), and I’m ready to go. Happy NaBloPoMo! Who else is in?

November 1, 2015
Please Join Us Tomorrow Night!

Here’s a programming note for tomorrow night:

Please join LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER and The Partnership at Drugfree.org as we present a live-streaming event of personal stories to #EndMedicineAbuse.

Date: The evening of Tuesday, September 10th, 2013
Time: 9 PM EST
RSVP (optional for Google + users)
View live: http://www.youtube.com/user/LTYMShow/live

Hear new/original work by myself and ten other bloggers on the topic of personal connections to addiction, substance use, and/or what we want children to know about the medicine abuse epidemic in a powerful story-sharing hour. Join us at this engaging kickoff to a blog post tour and watch the livestream broadcast.

I’m honored to participate in this very special event and humbled to be included in this group:

Janelle Hanchett – http://www.renegademothering.com
Brandi Jeter – http://mamaknowsitall.com
Sherri Kuhn – http://oldtweener.com
Heather King – http://www.extraordinary-ordinary.net
Lyz Lenz – http://www.lyzlenz.com/
Judy Miller – http://judymmiller.com
Lisa Page Rosenberg – http://www.smacksy.com
Alexandra Rosas – http://www.gooddayregularpeople.com
Ellie Schoenberger – http://www.onecraftymother.com
Zakary Watson – http://www.raisingcolorado.com
Melisa Wells – http://suburbanscrawl.com

If you can’t watch the readings live tomorrow, never fear: we will all post our essays for the Blog Tour this Thursday, and we will share the link to the recording so you can watch later. This is such an important topic whether or not you have a connection to substance abuse, and whether or not you have children. I hope you can join us!

To learn more about The Medicine Abuse Project, visit drugfree.org/medicineabuseproject and follow the conversation online at #endmedicineabuse.

September 9, 2013
The Journey

It makes total sense (to me) that the day after writing a post about how consumed I am with Chicago’s LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER show, I would write another post about Chicago’s LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER show. I have two very good reasons.

The first reason is because I was a total idiot yesterday and forgot to mention that tickets are still on sale. Had we used the same venue as last year we would have sold out weeks ago, but we decided that we’d “Go big or go home” this year and moved to a venue three times the size (the gorgeous Athenaeum Theatre!), therefore…tickets are still available! You can get all of the pertinent information about that by clicking here.

The other reason for the second consecutive LTYM Chicago-related post is that, last night after I published yesterday’s post, we were able to check out pictures that our photographer took on Sunday, at our second rehearsal. Hiring our friend Sabrina Persico to document both rehearsals AND show day was one of the best decisions Tracey and I made this year. Instead of just having the all-important freeze frames of the Big Day, we’ve got captures of the little moments that made our season–and newfound friendships–so much fun.

For Tracey and me–and, we hope, our casts–LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER isn’t only about the destination. The journey is just as important to us. That’s why pictures like these (all credited to Sabrina Persico!) mean so much to me:

Tracey and me, hard at work. (Well, one of us is…)

Shannon Duffy has the best laugh ever.

Liz was trying to figure out where her hair should go when she reads her essay.

Here’s Elizabeth, practicing squatting in-frame, since the show will be recorded for the LTYMshow YouTube channel. (Squatting? YES. Come and see the show because that’s all I’m saying.)

I was trying to assist Sabrina as she took headshots in the Windy City by holding Samantha’s hair down, but it wasn’t really effective. This is one of my very favorite pictures perhaps EVER.

It’s the little moments like these that make me fall down to the ground with thanks once again that I get to do this. For all of the fantastic little moments and the great big ones, thanks to the Chicago casts of 2012 and 2013, thanks to my partner-in-crime Tracey, and thanks to Ann Imig, who made this crazy fun possible in the first place!

(Now go get your tickets, Chicago!)

April 24, 2013