What do you write?

 (Taken from our family blog, accessed at tabs above, from my post in 2010.)

Ahem.

It has come to my attention that blogs can be used for all kinds of purposes.

  It is so completely obvious that our family's blog is the rosy, perfect facade

 of the peaks of our lives.  True, it's good to let everyone know how we are,

 what is happening (like the Christmas Letters) but there is so much more.

  I've seen so many uses for a blog---family business, venting,

 speaking out on issues...even therapy.  Like journaling.

Which leads me to the question of the day.

So what do you put in your journal? 

 The rosy perfect stuff, so your grandkids

 will think they came from perfect stock

 (and thus feel unworthy, or possibly make them reach higher...)

 or do you tell THE REAL DEAL? 

 I have stacks of journals

 starting when I was 12ish, some with tear stains,

 a few pages with blood on them.

  I've considered abridging them into one perfect personal history...

but this question of authenticity has been preventing progression.

I've always been a realist kind of a person.  Some dislike it, others really appreciate it.

  But I do it for me.

  Being honest and not wearing a mask has been my mantra for years.

  Let's face it, lots of Mormon people wear masks.  And non-Mormon too, of course.

  But as I get older, will I?

The Old Stuff

I was always an artist---not with words, but with colors and shapes. I mostly used acrylics or oils, but also enjoyed charcoal for it's shocking contrast to the white page.

I don't say "always an artist" with a sense of accomplishment or pride...more like "that was my thing." It's what I liked to do more than anything else. This painting of three colorful horses is my reproduction of another artist's work. I loved it because they were obviously depicting three different stages in the life of a woman, and did it using unconventional colors. Or maybe three stages in my life. I see myself as the strong, confident horse in the back, having left exciting, fun youth and child-bearing (sad but peaceful) years behind.

After having an autistic son, a mini-me daughter, and managing a family for 20 years, I have trained myself to use other parts of my brain. Finding time---or making time to access the creative artsy side and paint or draw has been almost impossible. What has emerged, however, with all this planning and raising and teaching and advocating is love of word-arranging. Like you would arrange a half dozen types of flowers into one vase, or choose colors to make a room pop, I now like to arrange words in ways that make you stop and think.

To Blog or Not To Blog...

Yes, I know, this is my blog. But blogging is like, a thing now----should I do it?
 
There are varying opinions on both sides of this question. Here's one:
http://janefriedman.com/2013/03/15/its-time-for-many-experienced-writers-to-stop-blogging/

The author, L.L. Barkat, is specifically talking about writers writing blogs, especially experienced, accomplished writers.

And here's another:

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/15-reasons-i-think-you-should-blog/

The benefits this author, Joshua Becker, has experienced through blogging, and thus blogged about, are compelling, and desirable to me.

Let's suppose I become a more consistent, regular blogger---what would I write about?
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” —William Wordsworth
If anything, my blog would be REAL and passionate, and of course, rambling.

I have a blogging class this weekend here in Bloomington at WWfaC. Maybe that'll make up my mind.

Junot Diaz (!!!) Coming to Bloomington...

Becoming a Writer By Junot Diaz

From Oprah website, http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Junot-Diaz-Talks-About-What-Made-Him-Become-a-Writer

Photo: Nancy Crampton

"It wasn't that I couldn't write. I wrote every day. I actually worked really hard at writing. At my desk by 7 A.M., would work a full eight and more. Scribbled at the dinner table, in bed, on the toilet, on the No. 6 train, at Shea Stadium. I did everything I could. But none of it worked. My novel, which I had started with such hope shortly after publishing my first book of stories, wouldn't budge past the 75-page mark. Nothing I wrote past page 75 made any kind of sense. Nothing. Which would have been fine if the first 75 pages hadn't been pretty damn cool. But they were cool, showed a lot of promise. Would also have been fine if I could have just jumped to something else. But I couldn't. All the other novels I tried sucked worse than the stalled one, and even more disturbing, I seemed to have lost the ability to write short stories. It was like I had somehow slipped into a No-Writing Twilight Zone and I couldn't find an exit. Like I'd been chained to the sinking ship of those 75 pages and there was no key and no patching the hole in the hull. I wrote and I wrote and I wrote, but nothing I produced was worth a damn.

Want to talk about stubborn? I kept at it for five straight years. Five damn years. Every day failing for five years?..."

(follow link above to read more.)

Junot Díaz's novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead) won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008.

I'm a Writer!

Recently:

I have nearly completed a sequel to 2013 Noble Literature winner, Alice Munro's short story, Post and Beam. It is about the continuing lives of her characters, Lionel and Polly. I have contacted Munro's publisher's assistant to see if this is legal and asked a question or two. I have also requested permission from the Alice Munro Festival organizers to enter my short story into their writing contest.

I have revised and submitted 4 short stories and my first poem for grading at IU. Of these, I am in love with 2 of the 5 pieces. One of the others will become a novel, which I will continue to work on, one is meaningless, and the other is mediocre at best.

I'm surprised by my poem, meaning I didn't expect to write a poem that was not trash and that I liked. It evokes a bunch of emotion (as does my favorite short story) which I deem as way more important than following all of the poetry norms.

I am also surprised by how nervous I am at people reading my stuff. It's very similar to displaying paintings or drawings for critique. I care a lot less about the grade I get, but yearn for feedback.

I have decided that I would love to create paintings that reflect my stories/poems, and when compiled have prints of these works alongside the writing. I have yet to research any authors who have done this in the past.

Favorite Author: Toni Morrison

February 18 marks the birthday of beloved American novelist Toni Morrison. To celebrate not only the day, but also her life and legacy, here are seven key quotations from the author's work. (Biographile)

The Bluest Eye (1969)
"There is really nothing more to say — except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how."

Song of Solomon (1977)
"Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can't nobody fly with all that shit. Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down."

"If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it."

Tar Baby (1981)
"At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. No record of it needs to be kept and you don't need someone to share it with or tell it to. When that happens — that letting go — you let go because you can."

Various Interviews and Speeches
"Anger... it's a paralyzing emotion... you can't get anything done. People sort of think it's an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don't think it's any of that — it's helpless... it's absence of control — and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers — and I need clarity, in order to write — and anger doesn't provide any of that — I have no use for it whatsoever. I can feel melancholy, and I can feel full of regret, but anger is something that is useful to the people who watch it... it's not useful to me." From an interview with Don Swaim (1987)

"I believe that one of the principle ways in which we acquire, hold, and digest information, is via narrative — so I hope you will understand when the remarks I make begin with the first sentence of our childhood — that we all remember — the phrase: 'Once upon a time.'" From her Nobel Prize Lecture (1993)

"Passion is never enough; neither is skill. But try. For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul." From her Nobel Prize Lecture (1993)

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013

Alice Munro

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 was awarded to Alice Munro "master of the contemporary short story".

http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1973

 

Austin Clarke: Canadian Author, born in Barbados

It Was Bound To Happen

Yesterday was the first day, since I started back, that I felt awkward, and embarrassed by how old I am. Sitting on the hallway floor in the Ballantine bldg, waiting to go into a gen ed class... It just hadn't occurred to me until then to feel inadequate because of my age. I had been feeling like it was a very cool thing. And it's not the academics (except qualifying for future finite math), I'm doing fine. It's probably my blasted hormones. I feel good about it though, because everybody has insecure moments, right? This is not something that haunts me daily. Six weeks into the semester, and just one off day? I'll take it.
But that off day is not fun.

Converting docs to pdfs

Creating PDF documents from Word documents

If you have already created your word document then you don't need to scan the printed document, you can do the following :

Option 1

• Open your document in Word
• Save your document as a web page
• File > Save As, choose Web Page (*.htm; *.html)
  
• Exit word
• Open Adobe Acrobet Reader
• Start > PWF Programs > Utilities > Adobe Acrobat
  
• Open your newly created web page in Acrobat Reader
•  File > Open
• Change Files of type: from Adobe PDG Files (*.pdf) to All files (*.*)
• Select your document from its saved location
• A window entitled 'Download Status' will open giving you information about the conversion process from Word to PDF, once converted your document will open in Acrobat Reader.
• Please note that this method will include file details in the header & footer of the PDF document.
• Save your document

Option 2
This method envolves creating a postscript file which is then converted to PDF format using Acrobat Distiller.

• Open your document in Word
• Create a postscript file
• File > Print, tick the Print to file option in the Print dialogue box and click ok
• Name your file and choose a location to save. Your document will be saved with a PRN extension
• Exit Word
• Open Adobe Acrobat Distiller
• Start > PWF Programs > Utilities > Adobe Acrobat Distiller
• Open your saved PRN file
• Choose a location to save the PDF document

ALWAYS CHECK THE CONTENT OF THE CONVERTED DOCUMENT  

World Lit Canon

Home-Spun Narratives
*Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro
*Buddha's Orphans by Samrat Upadhyay

Immigrant Tales
*The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
*Open City by Teju Cole
*There Are No Elders by Austin Clarke
*This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
*That Blackfella Blood Sucka Dance! by D. Bruno Starrs

Note To Self...

Back To School.
Things that worked. Things never to do again.

Cello Concerto in G Major

Move productive time to morning, and laundry, etc, to later in the day. Brain can't function after 4pm. Plan my day. Also, more evenings with fam, not readings for the next day.

Don't trust that the bus driver will arrive on time. Leave lots of time to get to class early.

Bring water, snack, umbrella, gloves, hand sanitizer, mints, kleenex. Even if you think you won't need them.

Headphones on the bus, mandatory.

Do not sit sideways or read on the bus.

If not sure if heading in the right direction, use navigation app/compass.

Not everyone wants you to talk to them.

About Me Blog (World Lit)

What is your major and why did you choose it? I am a junior, majoring in English with an emphasis or minor in Creative and/or Professional Writing. At the end of all that, I plan on getting a certificate to teach secondary education. I choose English because I am absolutely drawn to words! I’m compulsive about editing. I can’t help but count the grammar and spelling errors in everything I read. I choose Creative Writing because I enjoy painting a picture with words. I choose professional writing because… why not? Best job in the world, to write for a living. Lastly, I choose high school English teacher because I want to try to make those classes enjoyable and fun for the students. For every type of personality, for every interest, there is a book. Everyone should love reading. Where have you traveled in the world? In 1997, I lived in a small town near Wiesbaden, Germany, on the Rhine River. My husband was getting his International MBA from Pepperdine in California, and his second year he went to The Business School in Oestrich-Winkel. We lived in Eltville, a town with famous vineyards up on the hills behind the old castle and church. We took walks down by the Rhine River, which borders the south. In the morning, we would walk to the bakery and buy fresh pretzel rolls, called Laugenbroetchen, or just broetchen. Before leaving for Germany, I took a seven-week course on speaking German, which helped a bit. We attend church there, and though I didn’t understand but a few words, the music was lovely. Also, for vacation while in Germany, we traveled to Venice, Florence and Rome, Italy, and Prague, CR. What country would you like to visit and why? I would love to visit Norway. The fjords with small towns look amazing. My husband lived there for two years, and he is passionate when he talks about it. We look forward to taking our kids to Europe, to see where we lived and visited, and to make new memories with them in new places. My son went to Mexico City last summer with his school, and I would love for him to show me around there someday. What area of the world would you like to know more about and why? I am open to learning about any location, really. I enjoy the history (if it is taught by a passionate teacher or tour guide,) the food and the culture. If I had to choose one place, I would love to know more about the regions and small towns of Italy. Walking around the tourist areas of Venice, for instance, is lots of fun, but cutting through back streets and alleys where laundry is hung out the window and children play in the streets holds my attention much longer.

The Danger of the Single Story

This is a fantastic TED talk! I can't wait to read her book, The Thing Around Your Neck. Here's the link:

http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html