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5.30.2012

The Amazing Never-Ending Project List

I thought, erroneously, perhaps, that as we work our way through a writer's to-do list, said list would, by nature, get smaller. Oh, foolish me! As I complete my writing projects I seem to find more showing up, especially those projects that relate to previous projects: rewrites, new or deleted scenes, &tc. This is all right, but I have new projects I'd like to get to. And, yes, I used projects three times in one paragraph...

5.25.2012

Be Big About It

If I perceive a slight by someone I know and love, my first reaction is to give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps I misunderstood or, in the case of email, perhaps I'm reading something they didn't intend to imply. It's difficult to read expressions and tones of voice on the internet after all. After that, I wonder if I said (or wrote) something that they misunderstood.

In friendship, it has to be someone's place to be big about these things; too many people fly off the handle far too easily and feelings get hurt in our wake as we plow through these situations, functioning from fear and ego.

If, after all this has failed and I see that the slight was intended, either consciously or unconsciously, I ask myself, "Is this so bad that I need to rattle our friendship over it, or is this one of the many times I need to shrug and allow them their bad day, physical pain, illness, stress, etc.?" I don't feel that bending like this for the people I love threatens me in any way. I'm not that fragile.

If I didn't forgive my friends, I wouldn't have friendships that go back 50 years, I'd be a lonely, bitter person clutching petty slights instead of embracing people who have enriched my life in so many ways. I must afford them some off days.

Friendship is so precious--to cheat it so thoughtlessly is a punishment in and of itself and we rob ourselves of an opportunity to grow and evolve one step higher. But then, I am a Libra, and we're always weighing everything in our scales.

I have been blessed by friends who forgive me and give me the benefit of the doubt in return. This note is just to thank you for being my friend.

5.21.2012

Busy, but not with Writing

It started when we went to Dr. Kielbasa's house on Saturday evening for the first cookout of the season. His garden is always beautiful, and he has become my gardening guru, but I've never seen such beautiful hollyhocks in my life. They're 9 feet tall with perfect blooms and lush foliage. I came home obsessed with improving our exterior here at Bookends Cottage...

5.16.2012

Too Many Projects?

I've found myself in the perplexing condition of having too many projects waiting on my ever-growing "to write" list. And others keep coming to me, too. So many books to write, so little time. The trick is to figure out my priorities; timing is everything in such a rapidly changing and evolving market. The thing is, I can't write something simply because it would be expedient or tactical, I have to feel the project. I have to have to write it because not doing so would cause me some sort of insufferable, catastrophic inner pain. This is probably why I'll never be on the New York Times Best Seller List...

5.09.2012

Yes, I'm Bragging

It's that time of year. It's that long-awaited season when one can make it through a busy intersection without having to sit out two traffic light changes. A time when there are fewer sirens and when cars driving by outside aren't accompanied by wall-rattling ba boom-boom, ba boom-booms. A time when one doesn't have to wait 35 minutes to get a table, nor plow through the supermarket aisles with the deftness of Captain Cook wending Endeavor through the Great Barrier Reef. The students have left town...

5.01.2012

In Praise of Luxuriant Language

"I like words—strike that. I love wordsand while I am fond of the condensed and economical use of them in poetry, in song lyrics, in Twitter, in good journalism and smart advertising, I love the luxuriant profession and mad scatter of them too. After all, as you will already have noticed, I am the kind of person who writes things like 'I shall append a superscribed obelus, thus'. If my manner of writing is a self-indulgence that has you grinding your teeth then I am sorry, but I am too old a dog be taught to bark new tunes." Stephen Fry in The Fry Chronicles, an Autobiography...