Have you ever been on the rocks? It’s a nautical term. Specifically it originated as a sailing term. It means that you can’t maneuver in any direction other than into peril. Specifically, the wind is such and the gear is such that you are heading for a reef or rocky shore and you do not have the time, skill, manpower and wind to save you from an assured wreck.
I’ve been there. Well, I mean, I’ve been in a situation where nothing I could do Read more
“The most exquisite paradox: as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all. As long as you want power, you can’t have it. The minute you don’t want power, you’ll have more than you ever dreamed possible.” ~Ram Dass
As writers, sometimes we want so badly to be published, that we will do just about anything to make that success happen. What ultimately happens is that we get stuck on a gerbil that’s spinning so fast, we can’t get off.
I have a simple goal: I want a writing career.
Unfortunately, it is not as simple as quitting my day job and writing the damn novel. Other things factor into a writing career, besides having money to pay the bills. In 2021, as a writer, it is essential to have a social media presence, network with others, be searchable on Google, be knowledgeable and experienced with the craft of writing, have an agent, have a publisher, and the list goes on and on. It is endless.
Is a writing career something I can do alone?
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A recent visit with a forever friend has resulted in a new collaboration; we are going to start writing together this fall. That is, come up with story ideas, contribute to writing and editing and hold each other accountable.
We had not seen each other for more than ten years, keeping in touch only sporadically through email and Christmas cards during that time. She returned to our hometown this summer to sell her family’s home so we got to hang out before her return to British Columbia.
It is one of those friendships where no matter the time lapsed between visits, we pick up where we left off; an example of the old adage, ‘Make new friends but keep the old. The new are sliver, the old are gold”. Sharing mistakes, adventures and naivete as teens and twenty-somethings provides lasting bonds.
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It was late in the year of 2019 when the novel Corona virus sent a ripple of alarm through the medical communities of the world. By March of 2020, what should have been a social and ruckus maple syrup season, with families gathering in our bush-lot to boil sap down to a sugary goldness, became a solitary event; my husband and I alone but for a few precious brave stragglers, as we watched the world close up its shutters. Glued to our cell phones for closure updates and case numbers, the generator humming outside, wood crackling and sap bubbling, we could hardly imagine what was to come.
I was so naïve. I foolishly thought the break would be a welcome relief. I stewed in my secret joy, believing I was going to achieve so much with this lock down. I was going to finally have the time and bandwidth to WRITE. I would finish editing my second novel, find an agent, polish up my fourth novel and practically go on tour with all my new brilliant material. Read more
I have been thinking a lot lately, actually ruminating, about my method of creativity. It occurs to me that I write blogs, memoire and psychological reports in basically the same way. I always have to draft something in long-hand, then let it sit for a minimum of 24 hours or sometimes days or weeks. Until now I always labeled that as procrastination or laziness. But truly I get too much done every day for those nouns to be accurate.
I know that my mind has always gone a mile a minute as they say. When I was a little girl, age 7 or so, I would hide under the covers and use a flashlight to read after being told by my parents to turn out my light. By the time I was 13, I would lay awake until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning listening to U.S. Radio Stations playing rock and roll. It is any wonder I was late for school 4 out of 5 days a week? When I was in University I ‘pulled-all-nighters’ in order to cram for exams or write essays. And my grades were always good provided I was interested in the subject matter.
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My phone emits a blaring warning: A tornato has been spotted in your mobile area. Take immediate cover.
I go outside to stare at the sky. It’s not windy, not even raining. I check the weather app and news feed: A tornado has touched down twenty kilometres away from our home and is heading toward us.
Yes! I’m going to Oz.
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As I write this, I’m sitting on my verandah, watching a Monarch butterfly dancing around the milkweed in my front garden. Read more
