I look back with um … well … fondness would not be entirely accurate or nearly truthful … at my first blog posts.I decided one day (okay, it was a few years back now and you know I have a dreadful memory. Perhaps I decided over the course of a few days. Or months. Maybe a year. Don\’t judge) to start writing. I didn\’t have a bestseller book idea in mind and after a random search of the Interwebz found this neat thing called blogging. I signed up to follow a few blogs in my genres of interest and started writing for…
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Our intrepid word nerd leader, Gabriela, asked this question today: Tell a story about a time when you had to honor your reality. The behind-the-scenes here is that life (often) intervenes in our writing schedules. Here\’s an example:Leave us go back to … wait. This is happening now, live and in person.Life has presently intervened in my writing, but I can take you on a quick memory lane trip. A few years back, my full-time work contract ended. I was struggling to make sense of why I wasn\’t picked up for any of the other contracts I applied for and…
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Leave us go back to elementary phys-ed class in school.Remember the kid who, in dramatic fashion, figured out ways to avoid the physical and the education portion of the intended activities? He or she might have come up with all sorts of interesting rationales each day, like using a metal nail file to slice a thin dermis layer and coating it with Mercurochrome (or Merthiolate) so as to be placed on the injured list as a benched member of the team. Don\’t look at me like that.Okay, that kid was me. I hated gym class. Throughout life, I went to…
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When Madness dropped the song from which the title of this post came, I quickly made my way to the nearest vinyl emporium (where are my Rio Mall nerds? I know you\’re out there) and purchased the 45 RPM. I played it until I wore the grooves off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmezIIrFQmYYou\’re welcome for that pleasurable little jaunt down musical memory lane. And if you were uninitiated to the fabulousness of Madness, you\’re also welcome.But I digress.If you\’ve been following along lately, you have probably noticed that I have been on an anime kick. It\’s Amazon\’s fault, with their 30-day trial of Prime. I…
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Ah, Gabriela and her compelling questions … this week, she asked us to rewind and reflect on how we became writers. Specifically: When did you realize that you wanted to write? What motivated you to get started?Leave us go back about a thousand years to when yours truly was in elementary school. The war with my second grade teacher (over the spelling of \’lick\’ that resulted in my refusing to speak or acknowledge her presence whilst in class — a story for another time) was in the not-too-distant past. For some reason, I had read the electric company newsletter that came…
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Western society in particular seems to focus on the letters behind our name as proof of our ability to do something. When visiting a doctor, our eyes might wander to the directory and peruse the list: DO, MD, PhN, PA, RN … If we take a class, there is something about seeing PhD, EdD, JD, DBA, MSW or some other combination of alphabet soup being the facilitator\’s name.But what about writers? Does an MFA make difference?The question was sparked by a discussion group and I thought I would take a moment to explore it here.Gabriela Pereira runs a great site…
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I once heard or saw or read a thing … for me, the three are often one and the same.The thing was that humans (and other animals as well) use pheromones for attraction. To bring it down to basics, a person might smell pleasant, smell unpleasant, or seem to have no noticable natural scent. If he or she smells good, chances are there is some level of compatibility.My Christopher indulged me, allowing me to smell his flesh. I would firmly plant my nostrils against his bicep, shoulder, or upper back (I was partial to his neck but he was too…
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I’m watching this very thought-provoking anime called Shigofumi. A Shigofumi is, as the English titling suggests, a letter from the dead. In the story (no spoilers!), the young woman pictured above is the person who delivers such post; when a person dies, he or she is given the opportunity to write a letter and this woman delivers it to its intended living recipient. I’ve only watched a few episodes (three from Season 1 as of this writing) and there was a line that struck me. I can’t remember it exactly, but it was something like ‘Death doesn’t save a person.…
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One of the best things you can do in life is buy a book. The next best thing you can do is read the book you bought. The next next best thing you can do is review that book. The first list item is economic in nature. Buying books allows retailers to keep their doors open for the rest of us to buy more books.The second item on the list is for you — reading is one of the greatest ways to develop creativity. The influence of reading on creativity has been studied.The last item is for the writer: how…
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When someone Leaves for the Great Beyond, those remaining must begin, at some point, to pick up the pieces.Of everything:Shards of broken heart.Bits of memories that randomly flutter in like leaves.Tears that fall intermittently like Southern California rain.And then there is the cleaning, the removal of papers, clothes, and various bric-a-brac that no longer fit the remains of the life Left. I\’ve been making my way through our house — it will always be our house — and the space that requires the greatest elbow grease is the garage. So the story goes, this was the model home for the…