The Latest Happenings
▣ How do I define the soul of a writer?
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On September 9th I'll be speaking at Bristol Village in Waverly Ohio on the subject of: The Soul of a Writer. I'm deciding what to say on that subject. Of course each writer's soul is different and unique and people have many different reasons and goals in mind for their writing. What do most of us have in common?
Ideas clammoring to be expressed.
An active imagination and inner life.
Sometimes a desire to be heard by others, sometimes a desire to express self to self for better understanding.
A desire to entertain self and others by telling stories, creating an alternate world.
A desire to imform or help others with self help types of books.
▣ Bits and pieces of writing/ Moments in time
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I'm looking back at things written in the past and deciding whether to preserve them or not. I have hundreds of things written on scraps of paper, things that might or might not be worth keeping. They are brief thoughts or ideas that I had at a moment in time. Below is one:
Cliches
Speaking, of relationship problems
her friend said,
"Well he's not perfect, but you have him
For better or worse."
"No", she said, "I've not made that vow,
His choice,not mine.
It's for better,
or not at all!"
▣ Write what you know
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Do most sucessful writers write what they know?
I write what I know plus about things I must research. So I write what I know and what I can find out.
At a writing group we were told to write what we know about a quadratic equasion. I wrote:
I know that the word or prefix quad usually means foru and know that equasion may refer to something that is equal to something else. I believe but am not certain that this a mathematical equasion.
I believe I shouldn't be writing about it since I know nothing.
Write what you know, but you might not know it all going in.
▣ Dream Writing
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Not a dream piece of writing but writing from a dream.
I wriote the following from a dream I had.
For Memoirs writers: Write about a memorable dream that you've had.
▣ Lines from songs
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I have a writing assignment for a group I attend. The assignment is to choose a line from a song and use it as a prompt. This will be my random thoughts on that subject:
I’m never gonna dance again, guilty feet have got no rhythm
Frank stumbled in panic, his guilt found out. He’d paid someone to disable his figure skating competitor and now, here he was, unable to perform himself. The pain that must have screamed through Joe’s leg, now screamed in echo in Frank’s own muscles.
“You’re ok,”
He tried to calm himself with words, knowing that the pain he felt, the stumbling and clumsiness that he didn’t seem able to control, was all psychological in origin. Into the arena he sped on skates that seemed too slippery and to have a mind of their own. He performed the first half of his routine with little grace but he hoped the judges wouldn’t notice now that they didn’t have Joe to compare him with.
Zip, zip, over the ice he sped and then started his signature spin. This time the spin went on and on and he thought it was a good thing until it spun him into a dizzy unconsciousness.
He woke to whispered voices and downcast eyes.
“What’s wrong,” he shouted in a voice that sounded like a shovel grating on ice.
“I’m sorry,” a white coated man said. I saved your leg, but you twisted it so badly, you won’t ever be able to dance again.
The words of that song pounded in Frank’s head, pounded also in his feet and legs as he remembered, Guilty feet have got no rhythm. His guilty feet throbbed in agreement.
You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run
If only he’d remembered that song when he was in the midst of the heist, Jonathan thought, he’d have folded up and run away. As it was now, he was nursing two arms that had required extensive surgery followed by skin grafts and a lot of pain.
On that bright sunny day his friends Bobby and Austin had been at the beach in an isolated spot with him, just hitting the waves and catching the rays, when
“I’ll bet there’s some beer in there,” he told the others. “Let’s get it.”
No one had objected and so all three of them had headed for the cooler. Bobby was the first to open the lid. Inside was an array of beer and sandwich makings. The beer was what attracted the boys, however.
“Let’s take the whole thing. There’s nobody here to stop us,” Bobby said.
Jonathan grabbed on side of the cooler and Bobby the other.
“I can’t wait for a nice cold beer. Nice of that guy to leave it for us, wasn’t it?”
Crack, crack, bullets whooshed across the sand and Jonathan dropped his end of the cooler, staring in shock at his mangled wrists. The bullet had gone across the handle of the cooler hitting both his wrists. He screamed and fell to the ground as more bullets spun toward them and Bobby was hit in the shoulder.
Pain and fear caused Jonathan to faint he guessed, because he was awakened by the paramedics who’d been called. The nightmare that followed, having to explain to his parents that he was a thief, as well as the police, the pain, the doctors, surgeries, and all left a scar inside him as well as on his arms which he’d never be able to use normally.
“Yes,” he reflected, “If I’d only known when to fold them, to tell my friends ‘I’m outta the game’ and walk away early I’d have avoided all this. Now I have a permanent reminder for life.”
▣ Whispers/ Poetry's Motion
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Zip Collins is hearing whispers in the trees, the wind and in the waves of the water at Rocky Fork lake. My new venture is going pretty well with 10,000 words last week to start it.
I'm waiting for input to finish my final rewrite of Shattered Hart.
Have been reviewing some poems constructed from poetry in motion. For those who don't know there are about forty words in a hodgepodge of letters. You take each of those words and move them to construct a poem. You can only use what's available, can't add a word. Below are some writings thus constructed.
▣ Melungeons
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- Tags:
- Melungeon, Bible
- winning
I've been studying the Melungoen people for about a year now. I started looking into this when I considered setting a novel at Carmel, Ohio. In Carmel there were a group of people called the Carmel Indians or later Melungeons. Mulengeon is a term for people who are said to be tri-racial isolates usually mixed blood of Indian, White and Negro. A remnant of Shawnee indians stayed in the Carmel area and a group of Melungeons from Magoffin county, Ky came to live and work in the area around the time of the Civil War.
I wanted to add info about this history into the background of my novel. However, before I wrote the novel I had in mind, I did another, Shattered Hart, set in West Union, Ohio and Morgantown, West Va. I put some background info about the Melungeon people in that book as well. I'm now working on Whispers set in Hillsboro, Ohio and it will use more of the information from my Melungeon research. I lived in the area when I was a child and knew these people who I didn't see as any different from myself.
▣ Winning
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What does it mean to win? I explore this question in the piece below. I remember an old poem that explored the question also. This must be an important question for me since I keep coming back to it.
For Memoirs Writers: What have you won in your life? Did you try hard to win it or was it easy? Did it make your life better?
▣ Whispers is coming on the wind
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I have started Whispers now. It is set in Hillsboro and is a sequel to The Smelly Man. I started on Saturday and I'm on Chapter four now. So far, moving right along. It had to make way for other things I'm doing and now it's to the front of the line. I have until the end of the year to finish it. I've been a little worried because I've been so late getting started.
For any of my readers who liked Zip Collins from The Smelly Man, as I did, he's back. This time he's trying to solve the murder for which his son Boyd ahd been imprisoned.
Meanwhile, Shattered Hart is being read by my readers. When they are finished I'll do my final re-write.
For any memoirs writers: Write about someone or something that has kept re-occurring in your life. A person who keeps turning up like a bad (or good) penny. A situation that has repeated itself.
▣ Shattered Hart is coming
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My new book set in West Union will be coming soon. It's out to my readers now and I have to wait for their feedback but will have that soon.
Meanwhile I'm getting ready for Whispers set in Hillsboro. I should have started it but havent' yet. Will have to write fast to finish it in five months.
The story below was written from the prompt Pay Heed...what else. Hope you enjoy it.
▣ Back again after much procrastination
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I've been working on re-writes to Shattered Hart. I did three re-writes and have now put the manuscript to my readers. Meanwhile, I wrote some in my memoirs which I do in between novels. Today I started to create the characters for Whispers in the Mind which will be a sequel to The Smelly Man and which will be set in Hillsboro, Ohio.
I know it's been a while since I've posted anything but hopefully I'll do better now.
For Memoirs Writers: What have you procrastinated about? Is there something you put off that had dire consequences? Is this a major problem for you? What delay caused unforseen results?
▣ Short Story for a writing group prompt
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This is a story writen for David Bells group but never read to the group as far as I can remember.
▣ Using Ohio cities for character names
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We were told to use city names for characters and write a short story. This is mine in the space below.
Meanwhile, the book Dream Buster set in Chillicothe is now available at Amazon.com.
The book Shattered Hart set in West Union is in the re-write stage.
I'm working on my memoirs since I'm at an in-between stage.
▣ Children's Stories
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Our writing group had a speaker last week who talked about writing children's stories. I wasnt' there but was to write a story about two children in conflict who resolve the problem on their own. I'm including the writing I did for this weeks assignment. havent' written anythng for children in a long time.
For Memoirs Writiers: Write about a conflict between yourself and another child when you were 8 to 10 years old.
▣ Updating my Readers
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I forgot how to update my website but I can tell you here that Dream Buster is finally out and available at Amaxon.com. The book is set in Chillicothe,Ohio and is my first about a serial killer. I've been trying something new with each book. I'm currently re-writing Shattered Hart set in West Union. It was my first book that had historical significance. Still I did it in the present with my protagonist investigating the past. Sometime soon I need to do a book that is set in the past.
The book prior to Dream Buster was Bite of the Serpent. With that book I did my first sequel (Tempest Rider) and also my first and only who dunnit.
I'm thinking that the next book will be another sequel. This time the sequel will be to The Smelly Man set at Bainbridge but the new book, probably called Whispers will be set at Hillsboro.
▣ Dream Buster out finally!
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Finally after months of problems of one type or another, Dream Buster is finally available at Amazon.com. it went live two days ago and I still need to find a way to add it to my website. My computer hard drive crashed during this time and then another part of the computer caused it to be in the shop for a bit among other things. Meanwhile, I've written the first draft of Shattered Hart and I'm ready to start to do the re-writes of that soon. Monday, I think.
For today's post I will add something I've written in the past and hope to get back in sync soon. Waht you will read below is a fictionalized version of something I remember from childhood. The first part is true, the second part used to show how memories can be used to make decisions today.
▣ Learning new things.
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I'm looking at different ways to set up websites now and how to do so and maintain them the least expensively. All this technology is a learning curve that I've been neglecting to round but finally I decided I must do what I must do.
I love to learn new things but when I'm busy I hate to stop what I'm doing to learn something. I want to do it all simultaneously. That is why I don't have a laptop comuter. I've never used one and not sure how to write on it and then transfer the writing to my main document. I'd have to stop writing to learn how to do that. Maybe for my birthday I'll buy myself one...that's July.
For memoirs writers: What new thing did you resist learning? What happened? Did you learn it, did it work out for the best?
▣ Writing to a formula
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For our next writing assignment we are to write to a formula.
In the center is the story problem. Mine is a woman is scared when a burglar breaks into the house.
We are to list the following and work it into our story:
Intuition
Feeling
thinking
All five senses
A decision, a saying, an action
Who, what, where , when, and why/how
See my story below:
▣ Last Weeks Writing Assignment
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We had created a character in class and were to develop a story around the character. In my case I had a picture of two people who looked as if they might be homeless and so that's the crux of my story.
Memoirs Writers: Have ever known a homeless person? What stories can you tell about that situation?
▣ Writing Prompts keep your skills honed
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I value writing prompts so much that I give them to myself if I'm not in a group where someone else gives them to me.I think it keeps my skills at their highest peak and helps me to bring out ideas that lurk unnoticed in my mind, things I'd normally never realize were there. below is something I wrote based on the line This is your last chance.
For Memoirs writers: Did you ever have a last chance at something? Did you accept it or do it? Why or why not? Was your decision a good one?