Here is an odd thought for your consideration.
The eyes have seen seven decades.
Even two centuries look the same.
They paid witness to the passing from one millennium to other.
Yet, only fifty-two years have passed.
Tag Archives: Writing
Opportunity Comes Knocking
A couple of months ago I received an email from a gentleman inviting me to write an article for his magazine, Stick and String Traditional Archery Magazine. Since the magazine’s focus is traditional and primitive archery and I have been involved in traditional archery for many years, it seemed like a good fit. Any opportunity to get material published should be considered. You never know when you will get another one.
After several emails to narrow down possible topics, I sat down, wiped the sweat from my palms, and began to put the bones in the old computer. The content of the Bridge Method article (which starts on page 16) is pretty straight forward. The article discusses how to transition from practicing your archery shooting form, to shooting at targets while maintaining the form you have developed. Archery like many sporting activities is 80% mental and 20% physical. The article discusses how the conscious and sub-conscious mind can work together to perform the perfect (repeatable) archery shot. I learned this training method from an archery coach who was a former world champion. This was a lot of fun to do and with luck, I will be asked to write more articles in the future.
With writing, like most things I enjoy doing, I can only get better if I practice. I have been making a conscious effort to expand my writing opportunities whenever and wherever I can. I participate in a number of writer’s groups, am preparing two articles for publication in the Master Gardener columns of several local newspapers, and the article for Stick and String. The more ways I can find to write and practice the craft, the better I will be as a writer. I’m hoping that this practice will translate at some level to my fiction writing.
So, What are you doing to expand your writing opportunities?
Out with the old, in with the new
A while back I posted that I had just completed the remodel of my home office/writing room. There is a lot of inspirational things in the room. Unfortunately, my computer is nearly ten years old. So old in fact that it has a 3.5″ floppy drive.
Some of you will remember these data storage devices before cloud-based online back-up, thumb-drives, dvds and cds. When the 1.44 Mb High-density/Double-sided floppies first came out I thought, “Wow, I can store my entire hard drive on less than twenty of these!” They can fit into a box roughly the size of two packs of cigarettes. My old 5 1/4″ floppies were finally obsolete.
Time passes…back to the present.
With the new room completed, the domestic CEO stated, “It is time we get rid of that piece of sh*^t desktop and get a new laptop.”
“Excuse me? Did you say we should purchase a new computer?”
“Yes, I …”
The car was started before she finished.
Two hours later, I look like a little boy petting his new puppy. It is so shiny and new and fast and new and cool and did I say new?
So I started the process of converting data from the old desktop to the NEW laptop. I took my time and cleaned as I went. Then, something dawned on me. I have a paper box filled with 3.5″ floppies filled with data I don’t want to lose. However the laptop does not have a floppy drive. So, yesterday, I transferred files to the laptop and scrubbed 263, 3.5″ floppies. 1.44Mb X 263 floppies equates to 378.72 Mb of data. That’s just over a third of a Gb. In today’s world of memory, it’s nothing. The smallest thumb drive I now own holds 1 Gb. But, those floppies represent 25 years of my data.
I ultimately dumped a lot of old data, old file types and outdated software. However, the really good news, is that I found some old writing files that I had forgotten about. Over the next few days/weeks, I’ll reorganize the files and try to post a few of them.
Now I have no excuse. Well, other than I type slowly.
How about you? Do you have old storage files that need clean-up? You might be surprised what you will find.
52 weekends
This week I will celebrate another year of existence. Another 52 weekends gone that I can never get back. They went by so fast. How did I spend them?
Weekends spent visiting family members who were ill, in the hospital, or at funerals – 10
Weekends spent visiting family members who were not ill – 9
Weekend spent volunteering for master gardener or archery events – 6
Weekends spent preparing for and traveling for business – 4
Weekends spent in the garden – 7
Weekends spent at the cabin (since 6-1-12, cleaning and repairing) – 5
Weekends spent fishing or hunting – 4
Weekends I cannot remember what I did (it’s an age thing) – 7
Overall, I’m okay with my choices of activities. Although, a note to my family – Let’s try to reduce the first item to zero this coming year.
You may be asking, “What is it with weekends?”
A year or so ago I read an article about the importance of spending your weekends wisely. You are given a finite number of them. If the average person lives to be 75, they have 3,900 weekends assigned to them. This number can never increase. It can only decrease as the weekends get used up. Now let’s say that until you are 18 you have little control over your weekends as your parents have a larger say in what your choices are. That leaves you with 2,964 weekends to spend however you choose to. Now at 18, that seems like a huge number. Nothing but time on your hands. When you reach 40, that number has dropped to 1,820. At 50, you have 1,300. At 60, 780. At 70, 260!
On one hand that is a lot of weekend choices to make. On the other hand, how many of your weekends are either planned for you, you are forced to do something unexpected, or they just slip by without a thought? It kind of scares me that 15% of my weekends went by and I could not tell you how I spent them. Was I productive? Did I write as much as I wanted to? Did I enjoy them? Or, did I waste them?
Don’t get me wrong here. I don’t plan my entire year of weekends in advance. However, I have started to question how I spend my weekends. Before I agree to tie up a weekend, I think about how else I could spend that weekend. I do plan a few weekends a year based on hunting seasons, archery or master gardener events, and fishing openers.
I know enough to understand that life will throw unexpected things at you (Please refer to the first group of weekends above). I am glad that I was able to be there and support my family. It was my choice to be there. In my opinion, I used those weekends wisely. The point is, you get a limited number of those precious days when you don’t have to be at work trying to make a living. How many you have left is a mystery. Remember, we will not all be granted 3,900 weekends. How you choose to spend them is up to you. I intend to spend a lot more of mine sitting on the deck at the cabin, writing!
How are you going to spend you next 52 weekends?
Up North
I’ve been “up North” as the natives like to say here in balmy Minnesota. 
Little cabin by a good lake.
Good fishing
Quiet
Cool breezes
Afternoon naps
Merriam-Webster defines vacation:
1va·ca·tion
noun, often attributive \vā-ˈkā-shən, və-\
1: a respite or a time of respite from something : intermission
2 : a scheduled period during which activity (as of a court or school) is suspended b : a period of exemption from work granted to an employee
3: a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation <had a restful vacation at the beach>
4: an act or an instance of vacating
Vacations are a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, as the cabin was a recent purchase, we spent a good deal of time working to clean it up and make it our own. This did not leave a lot of time for writing. However, “think writing” was in abundance.
I had a boss once who twice a year went to Cancun on vacation with his wife for a week each time. During his “vacation” I would receive almost as many emails from him as I did when he was actually in the office. Really? I asked him once what his wife thought of his sitting in the hotel’s business center working while they were on vacation? His response was, “She was doing the very same thing.” Wow! Don’t you wish you could spend $7,000 to $12,000 to go to an all-inclusive resort and spend a week sitting in the business center with you significant other sending and reading work emails?!? I finally told him that if he sent me any emails while he was on vacation, I would delete them unread. It did not help.I left that position before he realized that life is too short not to take a break and enjoy what you have worked so hard to attain.
Before you start thinking that all I did on my vacation was fix plumbing issues, move furniture, hang pictures, wash dishes and do yard work, let me say this. I sat on the deck, drinking a snazzy beer, glass of wine, or Irish whiskey on the rocks at least an hour every day. The good news is the cabin is now in shape for relaxing. The bad news is we may only have a few weeks left of decent weather before the north wind says, “Time to head south.” We will enjoy it while we can.
Do you have a little retreat to escape the rat race?
Liebster Award
Cassidy Cornblatt AND Sara Flower were kind enough to nominate me for the Liebster Blog award on the same day! The winning lottery numbers are…..
Translated from German, Liebster Blog means “Dearest Blog”. Thank you Cassidy and Sara. All Blog awards seem to have rules attached to them so here they are for the Liebster.
The Rules:
- Answer the eleven questions your nominator posed to her/his nominees
- Write eleven questions to pose to your own nominees
- Pass the award on to eleven others
Here are my answers:
1. Why are you a writer? Because I already tried to sing and dance! Seriously, I have always been a storyteller. I just decided to go from verbal to written word.
2. How do you come up with your ideas? Keeping an open mind and day dreaming…alot!
3. Where is your favorite place to write? My home office or on the deck at the cabin.
4. What do you do besides writing? I have interests that would fill up a legal pad. However, the ones that get the most of my attention are archery, fishing, knife-making, gardening, and reading when I’m not creating business continuity plans at my full-time job.
5. Is writing a hobby for you or a career/career path? It is a hobby that I am trying to convert to a career.
6. Do you think writers should have to be decent editors of their own work? I believe that I have to do a good job of editing before it goes to my test readers to ensure they can focus on the areas I need help with. The cleaner the MS is prior to them getting it. the better it will be when they finish with it.
7. What do your friends/family members think of you writing? They are supportive and helpful as alpha readers.
8. Do you have any inhibitions when it comes to writing? Yes. Writing sexual scenes are awkward and difficult to get right.
9. What type of main character do you prefer to write/read about? Characters who have had a difficult time with life but have achieved some level of success. They still have major flaws that cause them no end of grief as they tackle the challenges of the main plot.
10. Do you prefer writing or reading? I am leaning toward writing as I get better at it.
11. How often do you write? This is a tough one. I try to write something every day. For sure, I write a few times a week.
Here are my questions for my nominees:
1. What is your favorite POV to write in? Why?
2. What are some favorite objects that share your writing space?
3. What do you do besides writing?
4. Dogs or Cats?
5. How often do you submit work for critique to your writer’s group?
6. What are your favorite books in your genre? Outside your genre?
7. When writing, how do you connect with a character that is your polar opposite?
8. Why do you write in your chosen genre?
9. If you could sit down with a famous author for an hour, one on one, who would it be and why?
10. Do you read more or less than you did in High School?
11. What do you enjoy doing when not at work or writing?
The following Blogs are excellent locations for advice, ideas, and humor. I admire and respect everyone of them. (I have left a few others off this list only because they were nominated with me as well.)
My “Dearest Blog” Nominees are:
http://shannonhowell.wordpress.com/
http://annewoodman.wordpress.com/
http://beanovelist.wordpress.com/
http://scottweberwriter.wordpress.com/
http://lsengler.wordpress.com/
http://4amwriter.wordpress.com/
http://robincoyle.wordpress.com/
http://carliemacullen.wordpress.com/
The Thunder Rolls
I have never thought of myself as a poet. In school we were forced to read, write, memorize, and recite poetry. I never felt comfortable with it. There always seemed to be too many rules, rhyme, meter, flow. I was not that interested in writing back then, mostly sports and girls.
Last week during my writer’s group meeting we were asked to write a Haiku. After it was explained to me, I gave it a whirl. My kind of poetry, short sweet and to the point. But still, not something I felt compelled to do on a regular basis. Then something strange happened.
A few days ago, I the following piece just seemed to flow into my head. It’s the first poetry I have written in thirty-five plus years.
Souls stand on a concrete pond
The pond poured into perfect four-foot squares
A dual river of steel runs through it from horizon to horizon
The thunder rolls
Light and bells ring in its coming
Out of the morning mist the steel serpent slithers
Following the river, it seeks to find the waiting souls
The thunder rolls
The steel serpent screeches as steel crushes steel
It stops as if looking to feed. Its many maws open wide.
The souls rush into its body as it hisses and breathes
The thunder rolls
Finally sated, the steel serpent shutters.
Sluggishly, as if too full to move it begins to slither forward.
It gains speed as it leaves the concrete pond and rushes toward the horizon.
And the thunder rolls.
You never know where or when an idea will hit you. Just be open to what the world has to offer. Have a beautiful week.
Tales From The Hare 