Hello my probably dispersed and disgusted readers!
It has been 3 years since my last post and of course many things have happened in that time span.
I shed over 70lbs and so am much more “svelte” in appearance
Both my adult children moved out for University and so my wife and I are Empty-Nesters
We paid off our home mortgage and are now the ONLY owners of our comfortable and happy house
I’m planning for my retirement – it’s visible within a couple years or so
My wife and I did our first European travel vacation, and found ourselves bitten by the travel bug
I highly recommend River Cruises as the ships are smaller, fewer guests (less than 160) and having the same bed to return to after a long day of excursions is refreshing
Finally I’ve reduced my work week hours in the hopes that my writing career can be nourished along with my mental health
So in a nutshell, that is it. I’m hoping to make a weekly post and also include some images of my office wall whiteboard markings for your entertainment. These I’ve been taking since 2018 and while they are amusing, some I hope are thought provoking and poignant.
I know that it has been quite a few months since I’ve added anything to the Blog and for that I apologize heartfully. I’ve been through a great deal over the last while including contracting CoVid-19 and getting over it quickly. Give me a few days to get my thoughts together and I promise a full recounting of my writing and life journey since June 2021.
Thanks for hanging in there and I’ll be back in just a bit.
Is it just me or is anyone else being plagued with a creative mental block? Has your desire to craft or write been replaced with the need to be entertained? Without consciously making a choice, my hands are being drawn to holding books and reading. Watching movies and bingeing on television series has become a nightly habit with this Blog sitting dormant and cold.
Well I’ve tried to break out of this funk several times without success and until I did one simple anachronistic thing; I handwrote a letter. A single-sided missive only two pages long on a letter sized lined pad of paper but it was enough. Correspondence. A single word meaning communication but not just any type of communication; written communication. And to think a fun mental health suggestion from my day job’s HR department was the answer to my writing rut.
Now that I’ve started, a growing list of people whom I have failed to keep in touch with over the years will be the newest inductees to my pen-pal cohort. And not just any pen-pal cohort but a handwritten one. No tablet screen or computer keyboard will be my canvas, just a simple sheet of paper and a pen. I’m now envisioning my wife’s face when I explain why the entire roll of stamps which should have lasted us for years of traditional birthday cards, was used with my weekly pen-pal mailings. I’m hoping that it will be a smile and not a frown, at least I’m pretty sure it will be.
I leave you my faithful and up to now silent followers (is anyone out there reading this?) with a promise to continue to update this Blog with my successes or failures to communicate with my pen-pal cohort. And with each submission, there will be a “Pandemic Pondering” taken from the wall of my cubicle as I amuse and inform my co-workers each day.
January 6, 2020:
Start the New Year off right! Try something new that makes you feel good, or better makes another person feel loved and cared for…
Be Safe. Be Well. And always remain creative and hopeful.
BMW 😎
If Failure is not an Option, Does non-completion count?
Hello my faithful followers (if there is actually anyone reading this). After almost two weeks, I reluctantly had to withdraw from the online course I had been taking from Coursera. I quite enjoyed working with five internationally dispersed peers on “Writing Your First Novel”. There just wasn’t enough time. Juggle assignments. Complete work critiques. Work full-time. It turned out to be too much for me. Luckily, the course was actually a free one and had no marked assignments. “No Tests?”, you may ask. And you would be correct! The curriculum was twenty six weeks of totally peer evaluated assignments prefaced with video “lectures” by a professor from Michigan State University.
I heartily thanked my friends in the Support group and bid Coursera a fond farewell. Now I am concentrating on my family, my work and keeping safe and healthy. Multi-tasking life is apparently not my forte. Who knew? So it’s back to what I know best – one foot in front of the other.
You will continue to see more current posts as I broaden my horizons with a new reading regimen. Weaning myself from streaming videos as mindless entertainment will be the first step in self-rediscovery. Hopefully the creative juices will flow once more and I will “feel” more like writing and less like escaping!
Get up, make coffee, have breakfast, shower, brush teeth, descend into the basement, logon to work’s remote access portal, monitor the queue for support items, answer calls forwarded to my cell, meet online with my (IT) team members, work on my projects so they don’t slide, sign out of portal, spend evening with family, go to bed and read a few minutes before falling asleep…rinse and repeat. Oh and somewhere in there mix in lunch, dinner, if it’s not too cold a 30 minute walk outside for fresh air and the occasional grocery trip for supplies.
You notice something missing from the description of my new “normal” work day? Exactly. Writing! With only a tiny sliver of time where I’m doing any reading. This is outrageous and cannot continue!
So how to break the cycle? I’ve puzzled over this infinite loop of artistic non-creativeness until my puzzler was sore (all kudos to Dr. Seuss and “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”). Then just the other day it happened. A solution arrived in the form of an email. An online course company (Coursera) was offering a 26 week course – “Write Your First Novel” – for FREE! So I’ve jumped in with both feet, signed up with the Michigan State University instructor and – I’m already behind on my first week’s assignments. It’s okay. I can catch up, my online Peer Review group is there to keep me honest and I will help them out in return. Support and a Focus, exactly what I needed to break free. I know that there will be stumbles, trips and falls but with luck and the muse to assist me the writer’s path stretches on before me.
Stay tuned as I journal this endeavour and throw in a self-help suggestion that I’ve discovered for working at home as we all navigate this new “normal”.
Sadly I have succumbed to a head-chest cold and spent a good deal of my day so far in bed. This is despite all precautions; washing my hands like a surgeon, soaking in hand sanitizer and wiping my keyboard, mouse and phone down with Lysol wipes. What started as a slight sore throat has culminated in the frog-throat voice, stuffed head and dry cough of a full blown bout with Rhinovirus. Considering my day job as a Computer Technician visiting dozens of desks with their questionably clean keyboards and mice, it was bound to happen. I just wish it had been Later as opposed to Sooner! Labelled as the “common cold”, this personal affliction is entirely uncommon in its ability to slow me down and affect my daily routine. No wonder with the current worldwide epidemic of CoVid-19 (Corona Virus), the folks disaster-prepping their 5+ cases of Kirkland TP looked anxiously my way at every cough during my usual weekly supply run at Costco. As I sit here at my freshly sanitized keyboard, it struck me that this should be an opportunity to jot down some truly wordsmith worthy notes on the human condition for my next article lead magazine submission. Not so Much. The best I can muster is a few minutes pouring out my current state of discomfort in this Blog post.
Beset with aches, pains, coughing and a runny nose I’m heading back to bed to recuperate as we have company coming this weekend for a dinner party and I have to be non-contagious before our guests step in the front door. My family will most likely send a Hazmat team to clean my desk area once I’m safely ensconced in my bed under some warm covers.
Here’s wishing you all continued good health and suggesting a quick investment in hand-sanitizer stock!
It’s been over a week since WordBridge 2020 in Lethbridge and I should be updating you on my adventures in that windy Southern Alberta city. Friday morning (Feb. 7, 2020) I sat in the basement Good Times Comedy Club for one of the pre-conference workshops on memoirs, while the actual writing conference was most of Saturday in the Lethbridge Public Library downtown. This year I had an even better time than in 2019 for several reasons. Foremost was the much warmer weather and the chance to meet my favourite Canadian science fiction writer, Robert J. Sawyer. He even signed my copies of his novels (“End of an Era” and “Calculating God“) while we waited for online video session to start. I discovered over the day that Robert is an outstanding public speaker and knowledgeable on many topics besides writing, as well a being a bit of a computer techie.
Okay, I’ll dig into the juicy details..
The Memoir Workshop highlighted the differences between literacy non-fiction and other genres of writing. The presenter, Elizabeth McLachlan, has published 4 books and during the session she lead the attendees through a 20 minute Memories Exercise. A great tool for memoir work, we had 20 minutes to try and fill out 100 lines with short journal style memories. Not easy to complete and only a handful actually got past 50 lines. I wish that there had more time to work on it, but it can be finished later while working on addition research for Dad’s Biography.
Starting WordBridge 2020 was my favourite thing, a Slush session! All attendees were offered an opportunity to submit a page from their latest manuscript (double spaced and size 12 font) to be read aloud to the room as well as the panel of editors. As each panellist listened, they lifted a hand when “something out of place” or flawed triggered their Editor Sense and normally stopped them from reading any further. Once 3 hands were raised, the reading was stopped and the panel explained why they raised their hands offering corrective suggestions to the anonymous submitter. Due the large stack of pages received, a second Slush scheduled for the afternoon as the organizers had discovered last year that this portion of WordBridge was the most popular and greatly anticipated by all registered in the conference.
I chose the Things You Should Know session after the Slush with a discussion on starting writing, self versus mainstream publishing and tips on keeping writing and making contacts in the creative arts world. Three guest authors gave precis on their writing experiences and career decisions as writers with families and regular jobs. Dealing with and finding good editors as well as taking chances in your writing life were focal points.
The pre-lunch session, Flattening the Learning Curve, was on Self Publishing by Mark Leslie Lefebvre. The ZOOM online video connection began with a few technical difficulties, luckily Robert J. Sawyer and myself managed to overcome them successfully. He then moderated questions between the attendees and the remote presenter, adding some of his own queries and personal experiences to support and engage the participants.
After lunch, the second Slush consumed the entire allotted time with many positive critiques and supportive suggestions from the panel of editors on the submitted selections being read aloud. Unfortunately the session ended with many entries unread, but the panel asked for the remaining submitter email addresses and promised to read and critique each one after the conference.
The last session of the day I attended was a panel discussion of the topic, Storytelling vs. Beautiful Words. A panel of four writers (including the invited keynote speakers) debated and discussed the best balance between a great story and purple prose. A happy medium was best explained with examples from their own careers, and the session was well received as I talked with other attendees at it’s conclusion.
An hour after the conclusion of the main conference, nearly 50 of the attendees arrived at Mortar & Brick (a local art gallery) to meet and listen to the two keynote speakers over snacks and beverages. Why the Big Five Publishers are Becoming Increasingly Irrelevant was discussed quite eloquently by Robert J. Sawyer on how to avoid the boiler-plate contracts which greatly favour the publishing companies over writers. The second keynote speaker Thorsten Nesch, a German-born local writer, talked about his creative life as well as presenting a riveting reading of My Totem Came Calling, a book he co-wrote with Zimbabwean author Blessing Musariri.
All in all WordBridge was a well organized and exceptional writing conference and I’m so pleased that it is now an annual event for the Lethbridge community.
Thanks for hanging around for this long winded summary. I’ve returned invigorated and ready to set definite writing goals for this year so that becoming a published author happens in 2020.
Logan…BMW…8-)
Suddenly it’s February 2020. A new WordBridge Conference is upon us!
Welcome! I have returned to my Blog and will be updating it on a more regular basis.
It’s surprising what a simple New Year’s resolution can do to get your creative juices flowing once more.
I will be trying to get out a new entry each week, so that all those many followers out there (Yes I know that someone has to be out there reading this!) will have something to look forward to reading from my new topics list. I’ll be starting off with an entry next week after I get back from Lethbridge Alberta and the 2020 edition of WordBridge on Feb. 8th. This year one of the keynote speakers will be Robert J Sawyer, one of my favourite Canadian science fiction writers. His works can be found at https://www.sfwriter.com/. If I’m lucky enough to be able to talk with him at the Snack & Chat session after the conference perhaps I can convince him to sign my copies of two of his novels, End of an Era and Calculating God.
Well so long for now and I’ll be expounding (okay a $2 word got slipped in) on the WordBridge Conference, and maybe sharing some tidbits from my mother’s current bookshelf. She was my first book pusher when I was a pre-teen and then as a teenager, always expanding my selections with works from her own bookshelf.
Well it’s been several months and surprise I’m still not finding time to work on my book.
Surprise! Life happens…
In addition, it appears that the shaded world of bad actors ( polite company doesn’t call people names like Hackers! ) has been pounding on the gates of my simple writing Blog at all hours of the day or night.
If I can at all give kudos and a shout-out to the folks at WordFence then here it is – Thank You!
Grazie, Buenos, Gracias, Danke, Merci, Arigato and every other linguistic version of Thank You!
Simply put your organization and plugin for WordPress serve as a virtual “Great Wall of China” for we simple bloggers, keeping the Barbarians from over running our virtual homes. It is unfathomable to me that someone in Vietnam, France, Russia, India or Poland would feel it necessary to try repeatedly the login account of Admin or many other strange variants of default access accounts for WordPress on my blog to gain illegal access.
I will continue to use your tool as I re-jig my time-life schedule in order to get back at writing, and I will continue to applaud your efforts and cheer your success.
Hello All, I’m back from the frozen southern reaches of Alberta. I spent my youth leaning against the west wind around Lethbridge and never did like the added windchill it lent to winter temperatures.
WordBridge was the first writers conference held at the Lethbridge Public Library. The event was well attended and during the many conversations with my peers, I found that indeed the world is a small place. Most had heard of my surname (Pittman) and knew several of my numerous relatives from the area.
Several sessions were enjoyed by all and the audience participation was definitely appreciated by the hosts and sponsors. The Slush session where anonymous first pages of manuscripts were read aloud had so many submissions that over 10 papers could not be read due to time constraints. The 5 person panel was very vocal and pulled no punches as they critiqued each authour’s work. Mine was the last submission to be read aloud for the panel and audience, and unsurprisingly they only made it halfway through the page. I was expecting this after hearing the comments for the previous slushes so I wasn’t crushed to hear the criticisms, only slightly maimed…8-)
I thoroughly enjoyed the day spent indoors out of the -25C temperatures endured by those hardy souls seen entering the Library to escape the cold and to search out a good book to read. I have several pages of handwritten notes and feel invigorated and ready to start editing my NaNoWriMo novella and add the numerous extra pages required to complete it.
Hopefully I will be able to attend the the Calgary Writers Festival – When Words Collide – August 9-11, 2019 at the Delta Calgary South. I’m following the agenda looking for the best sessions to attend. Maybe I’ll see some of the WordBridge attendees there as well!
That’s all for today. Until my next post, I remain your humble servant.
I know that it has been some time since I’ve posted to my blog, but as usual the adventure known as LIFE has interfered with and postponed my “best intentions” until now.
I’ll do my best to give an update of happenings for me so that the next post can be a great deal shorter and more succinct.
I participated in NaNoWriMo in November 2018 and I won! Okay this is a competition to write 50,000 words in a single month (30 days), which I did! The final count that I submitted was 50, 174. I found out that some seasoned and published writers have problems competing and some fail to meet the word count goal. Here’s a PDF copy of the spiffy certificate awarded to those who win by the NaNoWriMo organization…NaNo-2018-Winner-Certificate
I had placed Dad’s biography on the back burner for the last while, but shortly another contact campaign of emails and phone calls will begin as I get the Research Train back on the tracks.
A short Op-Ed piece is also in the works, stay tuned for more details.
I’m also on my way soon to my very first writers conference ever! WordBridge is happening in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada and I will be attending. Future Blog posts will include information on how it went and what I learned.
It happened! I got a reply a couple of days ago from someone with stories and memories of my Dad!
Surprise…it was my 1st grade teacher, and I couldn’t be more pleased. She left me a long a detailed email, so now I have my first “external” research information item for my novel.
I’m icing an injured knee at the moment, but still working on the newest task on my To Do list – capturing all the old business cards that Dad collected over his life. These rectangular windows into the life of Ron Pittman include; friends from within the Alberta Fish & Game Association, local and provincial business contacts and members of several community and government organizations that he belonged to or worked with, like the Alberta Barley Commission
Good thing I have a handy and useful business card reader app on my iPhone. A quick pic, a short scan and “voila” my list of contacts will have grown by one more important person and their phone number. These are older and passed to Dad long before email addresses became the most important item on the card. The unlimited Canadian long distance calling feature of my Shaw Phone will soon be put to the test.
This is what it sounded like after sending off MANY emails, posting an online survey on my blog site, as well as writing a request for all of my many Facebook friends on my “wall” to visit the blog site…
…the long silent drop of a stone down the dark well…
…a scattering of ticks as it grazes walls…
…and then…
…Nothing?!
Okay, so I’m a bit disappointed. But as a beginning writer I had best settle into a “wait and see” mentality and patiently grow into the silence.
Well yesterday I finally sent out the first wave of emails to folks that I hope have some memories of my dad as I start my detailed research into his life. Rejecting the mundane chronological life history found in most biographies, I will instead document Ron Pittman using an anthology of short stories. After all, he was known for always having a story to tell on most subjects…8-) Now to cross my fingers, cringe and post the same information seeking message on Twitter and Facebook. This is sure to be fun…Not! BMW…8-)
