Working with Judy M. Miller is such a pleasure. Judy knows her stuff when it comes to parenting adopted children, parenting children with special needs, and just regular ol’ parenting. She has definitely taught me a lot about parenting over the years.
If I were a parent of adopted or special needs child, I would hustle on over to Judy M. Miller’s site and partake of all of her writings and resources. Please help me welcome, Judy!
About Judy M. Miller
Judy M. Miller is an adoptive parent and adoption advocate living in the Midwest with her husband and four children. She coordinates and teaches parent preparation education to those who are in the adoption process. Topics she covers include parenting and adoption, adopted children, preparation and adjustment, and transracial parenting, as well as Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond.
Judy is a Certified Gottman Educator and a Parenting Counts Educator. She is a support specialist, assisting parents and their children with information and techniques to equip and empower them during challenging times.
Judy is the Adoption Pro for Parenting Squad’s ProSquad. Her essays and articles appear in adoption and parenting magazines and her stories are featured in A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Families (Adams Media), Pieces of Me: Who Do I Want to Be? (EMK Press), Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom (Chicken Soup for the Soul), Sensational Journeys (Future Horizons), and Women Writing on Family (The Key Publishing House Inc., January 2012).
Judy finds abundant inspiration in her daily life and experiences. In her spare hours, between ferrying her kiddos to school and extra-curricular activities, she focuses on propelling her writing and platform forward. Discover more about Judy’s work and passion, and follow her on Twitter.
About What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween
What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween helps parents assist their children in understanding, examining and resolving adoption-related issues as they happen, and to empower their children to feel self-confident.
Perhaps you’re not parenting a tweenie yet, but you’re considering what it might be like to parent your child as he or she moves closer to and through adolescence. What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween is a terrific tool and resource—providing examples that will resonate with you and from which you can draw ideas to support and parent your child as this stage nears.
Whether you are now in the “trenches” of parenting a tween who has been adopted, on the cusp of doing so, or will be down the road, What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween will be of great benefit to you.
The Very Short Interview
When did you know for sure that you were a writer and that writing would be a major energy focus in your life?
I knew I was a writer as soon as my first article, “The Dragons Rest,” written in Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff, was published in May of 2008. I was empowered by the fact that people wanted to read what I felt compelled to share through writing, and pay me for it. I knew writing would be a major energy focus for me when I realized that it opened me up in a way nothing else had. I loved the focus and clarity I discovered through writing, as well as the ability to express my voice and connect with people.
Who has always been behind your writing career and who helped pull you up the ladder of success?
My husband suggested that I take up writing, and has been my unwavering supporter and sometimes critic and editor. My four wonderful kiddos are my cheerleaders. Christina and the many wonderful writing colleagues I’ve come to know in the past four years have provided me with insight, wisdom, ideas, and immense support. My writing has become just one leg of my evolving platform that now encompasses teaching, speaking and facilitating workshops in my niche—parenting and adoption.
What is the most frequent comment you hear about your book (or books) from readers? Tell us a little story about the response to your work.
The most frequent comment I hear is that hear that I understand my topic well. I’m told my e-guide, What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween, is clear, concise, helpful, and that I communicate with compassion and empathy. “Every parent, and anyone working in the adoption arena, should have a copy. This is great!”
Extra Bonus!
Judy will also give away a copy each of two anthologies her work has appeared in recently. The first is Women Writing on Family, Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing. The second is The Woman I’ve Become edited by Pat LaPointe.
And Now, Your Turn
Now it’s your turn. You remember how this works right?
I ask you a question. You answer in the comments for your chance to win a book each day.
Please just respond once, even if you make a typo. 
Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win one of today’s books). Please read the complete rules at least once!
Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway! I hope to see you here every day this month. Bring your friends!
You haven’t answered the three questions our author mamas are answering, so let’s tackle those.
Q: When did you know for sure that you were a writer and that writing would be a major energy focus in your life?
Ready, set, comment!
Comments on this entry are closed.
Christmas of 2009 I knew I had no choice. My childhood friend, Joan, has known me since I was six. I know her advice is solid because she is in a similar business. She has encouraged, pushed, insisted for 40 yrs that, “You have to write this story Mary Lou.” For years I managed to ignore her. To be perfectly honest I didn’t think my life was so unusual until I started sharing some of it. That was when I realized that while some people were interested others were turned off by it because they didn’t want to face similar issues in their own lives. At first I felt hurt, embarrassed but then I thought – Who are they to judge my life? Who are they to make me feel guilty about situations where I had no choice? And between Joan’s encouragement and those negative responses, I was committed, we all have the right to tell our stories honestly and openly, and it has changed my life.
Before I was 10, I began composing stories in my head while I rode my bicycle back and forth in the circle driveway on the farm where I lived in Iowa. I said the words softly as I rode, oblivious to my surroundings and only vaguely conscious that my parents and three younger sisters were in the house.
The winter of 1989. I was a senior in high school and we had a writing assignment that revolved around the theme of Christmas. I chose to write a fictional story, a love story (ah…the naivety of being 17). Never before had I experienced the pleasure I felt as those words seemed to just flow from my mind to my hand and finally to the paper. I would lock myself up in my room for hours, just writing or proofing or even perfecting. My instructor was so impressed with what I had done that she entered it into the school writing contest. I took first place and got it published in the school’s yearly publication. Ever since, I have written something each day. Now I am eager to get back into it since I have “lost my way” over the last several years. Writer Mama has helped to get me started 🙂
I didn’t begin to call myself a writer, until after
I published my first piece in an online journal. Before then, I simply thought
of myself as someone who dabbles in writing. But getting that affirmation that
someone besides me enjoyed my writing, and saw something of value in it, gave
me the confidence to keep going.
I had homeschooled my children for 15 years and parented them for twenty or so. They were flying the nest and I thought, Dear Lord, what now? It seemed like a dark abyss at first but then I realized it was really the beginning of something wonderful. I was teaching a creative writing class to dip my toe back into the work force. To illustrate creating characters I started writing a short story using each of my students as a character. It was great fun!
I desired a career in business, but the doors to
my coveted career would not open. For 22 years I enjoyed being a mom and
volunteer extraordinaire, marred by the occasional career what if. Then as empty
nesters, I often accompanied my husband abroad when he traveled for business.
While in London the career question made its last stand. Why would I ever want
to tie myself to a job when he was about to retire? Months later (in 2009) our
son married. Big event – we recouped taking a beach vacation. While playing in
the ocean my husband got caught in a wave. The back of his neck slammed into a
sandbar instantly paralyzing him from the shoulders down. I posted on Caring
Bridge to keep family and friends advised of his recovery. Writing wasn’t an
energy drain, but life giving for me. Eighteen months later a friend talked to
our daughter – your mother needs to write a book. This past year I’ve read and
studied the craft. My hurdle is giving up privacy and believing I write well
enough. Doors open when the time is right. Could this be the career that eluded
me all those years?
Last year. I wrote something and was so excited about it that I couldn’t sleep. I had to get up and write more. It felt so good to be in the zone! I feel like I have finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up, and I’m making progress. I’m a little sad it took me to 46 years to figure it out! Sometimes I feel like there is not enough time left to learn everything I need to know to make me a ‘good writer.’ But I sure am enjoying the journey!
I think I still don’t know for sure that I’m a writer. It is easy to say I write, yet difficult to say I know for sure I’m a writer. It’s that sneaky Imposter Syndrome, I think. My first hint that I might be a writer came in my Freshman year of college. I couldn’t even type, and my English professor said she so enjoyed my stories that it didn’t matter if they were handwritten. It was years later before writing would become a major energy focus, when I learned that writing is not just something I enjoy doing, but something I need to do.
This is so great!!!!
I knew for sure that I was a writer when I spent all my time
writing instead of out looking for a traditional 9-5 job in the workforce. I
wrote articles about current things in my city and sold them to local magazines
or newspapers. I wrote short stories and inspirational pieces on my blogs and
was contact to provide other content for websites and blogs. Currently I’m
writing on a non-fiction novel and plan on self-publishing it. Hopefully, I can
move into fiction writing as well and fall in love with characters. When I
realized how much of my time I spent writing, and was getting paid for it, I
knew there was no turning back! 🙂
As a girl I was going to be a school teacher during the week, a ballet teacher on Saturday and write Nancy Drew books on Sunday. Fast forward twenty years: I wrote earnestly for about six months and realized I needed more life and literature under my belt. By retirement at fifty-five, with lots of minor to serious dabbling, I have never been more sure or content with my choice. All good things come to those who wait, watch, work and write!
I knew in high school that I would be a writer. I was proud of my work and had fantastic teachers who supported and encouraged me. Then I went to college and drifted on a sea of “what if’s” and “shoulds” which sent me in another direction. My world expanded so much in college, but left me stunned, with the sense that I who had lived so little and so narrowly could never have anything to say that others have not already said. Well, next week I will be 40. I guess I have a little more to say now. It is just in the past two months that I’ve reclaimed the dream and the wind is back in my sails.
I’m probably the last one to comment tonigh t. . . racing the clock against midnight. But I’ll bet without even reading today’s posts that the majority of Writer Mamas knew they were writers from the time they were kids and were able to write. I did. I believe writers have the writing gene and are born with it. It just takes different amounts of time to show up.
Guess who’s a winner? You, babe! Way to go!