Celebrate 60 Blog Tour with Margaret Norton (When Ties Break)

I am so happy to launch my good friend and great author, Margaret Norton’s, blog tour today for her book, When Ties Break. Margaret Norton is a writer, speaker, personal life coach, and It Works! distributor. She blogs about her life at http://healthy-n-fitgranny.com. Her first book, When Ties Break: A Memoir About How to Thrive After Loss, is available as an e-book for just 99 cents on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with grand kids, reading, traveling, photography, and dancing.

**And even more exciting, Margaret is giving away fabulous prizes to go along with her Celebrate 60 blog tour and re-launch of her book. Here are details: **

Leave a comment on this post to enter into Margaret’s Celebrate 60 blog tour contest. Margaret is celebrating her 60th birthday by giving away three grand prizes: a 30-minute FREE life coaching session (by phone—for U.S. residents only), her memoir in paperback (for U.S. residents only), and her memoir in e-book (for anyone!) format. Each blogger participating in the tour will randomly select one winner from all the comments and enter that name into the grand prize drawing. Margaret will contact the three grand prize winners for their choice of prize the week of 2/27 and announce winners on her blog on March 2.

***For extra entries into the contest, please tweet about the contest, using the hashtag #Celebrate60 OR tweet about why you love being the age you are! (Don’t forget to use the hashtag.) Anyone who tweets with #Celebrate60 will get an extra entry into the contest for the three grand prizes. Any questions? E-mail ME, Margo, Margaret’s publicist, at margo (at) margodill.com .

Now here’s a guest post from Margaret herself!

Never Give-Up on Your Dream to be a Writer

Several years ago, at the age of 58, I published my first book. It was the first thing that I had written – except for church bulletins, family Christmas letters, and business correspondence – in 35 years. During my book tour, I did a signing in the town where I attended high school and had lunch with my best friend from the 9th and 10th grade. My contact with her had been sporadic through the years for various reasons. As we spent time together and talked about school events, memories came flooding back. She told me that in the 9th grade I had wanted to be a writer.

Wanted to be a writer? How did I forget that? What happened to that dream? How did I get so far off course? My working life included a combination of owning my own businesses, working for non-profit agencies and 17 years trying to climb the corporate ladder. There was very little writing and very little encouragement to develop my creativity. I married young, had a family, and then divorced. And repeated that several times. Life got in the way. I needed to earn enough money to raise my family and sought jobs with the highest income potential rather than following my heart. My life came to an abrupt crossroads in 2004 after the death of eight individuals connected to me.

Write to heal is what my therapist suggested. During the first few months of 2005, I poured all my thoughts onto paper. Why did bad things happen to good people? One thing led to another. I found myself going all the way back to my childhood, trying to put the pieces together. It was difficult to deal with all the painful issues in my life. But when I finally faced all my demons, true healing began. If I were a teacher, or a parent of young children again, or anyone with the responsibility of influencing children – what would my advice be?

1. I totally understand the need to work jobs that pay the bills but so many times when we do this we end up working jobs that we absolutely hate. We stop dreaming, settle for less than we should, and in doing so, we lose whom we really are. Women, especially (even in today’s world), give up their dreams for marriage, family, etc. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can do it all. Maybe not excel in all things but certainly be more aware of your needs, wants, and dreams.

2. We all need an outlet for our thoughts and feelings. There are many benefits to writing. It’s a safe and healthy way to vent our feelings. Writing helps you sort things out. We all learn from the experiences of others. For me, the most rewarding part of writing my memoir is the e-mails I receive from individuals telling me how much my story inspired them. Don’t underestimate the influence of one person’s story.

3. As we grow up, we tend to shed things from our childhood. As a child, I constantly wrote. I had journals, dairies, and scrapbooks. But somewhere along the way, they all disappeared. Husbands were threatened by them. I felt I had outgrown them. When I stopped writing, I stopped saving things that I had written. When I started writing my book, I wished that I had kept everything. Don’t discount what children write. Encourage them to keep their dairies and journals. If for no other reason, it will probably make interesting reading in later life.

4. It’s never too late to become a writer. I was 56 years old when I received my first check for a writing job. I didn’t have a degree in English, my writing wasn’t the best; and when I started writing my book, I had no idea what I was doing. I am so thankful for individuals like Margo.

5. I am a newbie in the writing community, but many of the blogs that I read talk about how writing is different today. Writing on the Internet is not the same as a published writer. Anyone today can become a writer. The standards are relaxed, etc. There may be some truth to this, but it’s not totally negative. I’ve taken affordable Internet classes, done writing jobs that I got from the Internet, and I’ve connected with other writers. For me, the Internet was the perfect place to explore my writing abilities and birth my book. I expect that the future will bring even more changes. To survive, we need to keep an open mind and learn to embrace change.

When Ties Break is a memoir that explores how to pick up the pieces when life falls apart. When this happens, we tend to look back with anger or regret. There are no easy answers or quick fixes when life gets messy. But there is a lot of truth to never giving up, to keep trying, and to always expect the best. Good advice for anyone thinking about becoming a writer. In my book, I finally came to the conclusion that by living in the past, I was missing out on the present. I stopped asking why and instead started to focus on what I did have. Dreams that I had long ago given up on are now coming back to life. And that’s a good thing. Never say never, and never give up.

Thank you, Margaret! Readers, don’t FORGET to leave a comment or question for a chance to win a life coaching session or a book! Please leave by Friday, Feb. 10! Let’s see your tweets with the hashtag #Celebrate60. You can tweet the contest OR your favorite thing to do on your birthday OR what year you are celebrating!