Feeling nostalgic about writing and missing crayons

Posted on December 5, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”~Tom Stoppard, English writer

I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately.

Maybe it’s the packing and seeing my previous life end up in boxes. Touching these things that are or were precious to me. The Star Wars action figures buried in the basement. The Star Wars lightsaber TV remote. The Star Trek Tribble keychains and Ferengi pens from Las Vegas. My ElfQuest comic books. My college poetry assignments.

I’ve been thinking of writing, or lack thereof with the focus on packing. Do you remember any class in school where you had a creative writing assignment? If so, you may have stressed out about writing that first line. That’s when your teacher would say “Just freewrite,” which meant for the next however many minutes, you wrote whatever thoughts came to mind, without stopping.

Your pen. Remember that? Maybe you wrote with a pencil. Regardless, it was–-and still is–-a stick that you hold in your hand that produces a visual image when pressed down on a surface. I mention this because I don’t think we remember these anymore.

I watched a YouTube video the other day, and the host was a teenager or a girl in her early 20s. She created some art with her hands and then had to write some information down. “My cursive is terrible,” she wined. “I haven’t written in cursive since middle school. Looks like I have to practice my handwriting. It looks terrible.”

First, as a writer or blogger or artist, never apologize for anything you do save technical difficulties or natural disasters beyond your control. Even then, explain don’t excuse.

What made her comment doubly bad was that she made an excuse for not using her talented hands to write. Much of society has lost touch with the tactile, with the real. I haven’t tangled in awhile–-something I miss, and a whole separate topic-–but I do journal by hand. No online diary for me, except for this blog, which isn’t so much a diary as an expression and sharing of thoughts and inspiration. My diary, heck, that first one was a tiny pink plastic book with a small gold-plated lock and the teeny-tiniest key to open those deep thoughts. I write and edit my stories. I use colorful pens to make it more fun. Heck, what happened to crayons?

What book do you recall most fondly from your childhood?
-—A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Your favorite high school trip?
–Cancun, Mexico (seriously!)

What video game(s) rocked your world?
-–Joust, Sinistar, Dig Dug, Mappy and Gauntlet

I have been missing those delightful memories of youth. Seeing them packed away, again, I yearn for the times when I felt young and free and safe. What about you? Is there something you miss from long ago, or just from last year? Times change, but our memories do not.

I want to go home and color.

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How I learned to like coffee

Posted on November 21, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“Coffee is a language in itself.”~Jackie Chan, Chinese actor

I never used to be a coffee drinker, but now I am.

My parents gave me a sip of their black coffee to satisfy my curiosity, and I found it to be a mouthful of burning, bitter dirt.

Then I discovered sugar and cream.

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Haiku Horizons prompt #144: Drink

It was the Thing to be a coffee drinker on film sets. In my junior year at Penn State, I was the production assistant on a senior film, and the crew had early morning hours. I am not a morning person. Let me repeat that: I am not a morning person, then or now. Back then, I had to stay awake during filming, and everyone around me was drinking coffee. I should drink coffee, too, so I fit in and to keep me awake. Black coffee still smelled foul, but others were pouring stuff in it, sipping and smiling.

I followed their lead and added milk and sugar packets into my cup of coffee. That actually tasted good. Another cup, and then a third.

I should mention that I had added at least five packets of sugar to each cup. At least. Plus, I drank all three cups within two hours.

I felt the energy inject straight into my heart. I couldn’t stand still. I had to do something. The only thing I could think of was to walk. I climbed the building’s four flights of stairs. I walked the length of each floor’s hallway before descending to the next floor to do the same thing. After doing that one and a half times–or six stairs and hallways–I was calm enough to return to the film set.

Never again, I told myself. Of course, as I continued to work on film sets, the hours continued to be early and coffee was still the thing to do. Therefore, I drank coffee, but I discovered there were smaller-size styrofoam coffee cups and artificial sweeteners.

And then I discovered Frappuccinos. Now I was writing and journaling in coffee shops. Then I introduced my then-boyfriend-now-husband to Frappuccinos.

I gave up. I gave in. Coffee peer pressure.

Now it’s a social thing. Cool people hang out in coffeeshops. Cooler people hang out in coffeeshops and write. I discovered the vibe of local coffee shops and the consistency from chain coffee stores.  I’ve been schooled in different types of coffees, even how to pair black coffee with matching food to enhance the palate. I’ve been taught the proper ways in which to complain about my lack of coffee first thing in the morning.

It’s the place to meet with folks because there’s always some coffeeshop somewhere that is probably open until the late hours. Remember, I’m a night person. And I discovered decaf.

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A #WeekendCoffeeShare where I remember buying books

Posted on November 19, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

If we were having coffee….

It’s been a long week. Thanks for joining me here at home. What flavor K-Cup coffee would you like? I hope you can squeeze in here at the table. I know, the living room is a mess. I’m not even taking you downstairs to the basement. Packing frustrations. This is take for-ev-ah. The best thing this week is that about 90% of my stuff sold at the Baker’s Studio scrapbook Yard Sale. Made over $130, and I intend to do something me-centered with it.

A massage, maybe? I could use one.

Yesterday my latest Deadwood blogpost published, the latest installment in my series of Coffee Shop Chronicles. Do you mind if I read you my favorite part?

“How many more times will I be this excited about a book series? How many more times will I be able to walk into a bookstore, pick up a book made of paper and walk out with my treasure?  The glisten of a glossy cover. The ruffle of pages flipping through them. The smudgy fingerprints in margins from cheap ink. The triumph of finding what you want. To leave with the treasure.

A purchase.

An actual purchase. Even the smell. I pull it up to my nose, to make sure. There’s that musty, raw dusty smell. Yes. The delicious anticipation. Page One awaits.”

Work’s been well. My two writers groups met this week: the Deadwood annual holiday party this past Wednesday and the critique at Ann Arbor Emerging Writers. I haven’t had much time to read or write or barely sleep with all this packing. I did make time to scrapbook with my dear friend, and I needed a break like that.

That blogpost, it reminded me of the joy of books and bookstores. It’s fun to reminisce like that. Not that I’ve read a book recently, but I have a pile to read and re-read. I’m gathering a box of DVDs and books to take with me should the house sell and we’re in temporary housing. But then I’m gathering boxes of everythings. In fact, I need to buy more boxes at Office Max, so I have to cut our visit short. Before we leave, tell me how your week was.

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ROWing my life away, missing writing

Posted on November 15, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”~Sydney J. Harris, American journalist

Education is learning about yourself.

The Round of Words in 80 Days quarterly challenge continues to teach me about how I work.

1–Complete a good, polished manuscript of my memoir.
2–ePublish 1-2 shorter books

I have not made any time to work on these goals. Right now, my new #1 ROW80 goal is: List Our House. In order to do that, our 10 years worth of house has to be packed and moved temporarily into our rented storage unit so potential buyers have room to walk through the house and imagine it being their own. De-cluttering takes priority over everything else. I like to think that once the house is listed and only maintenance cleaning is needed, then I will relax and have space inside my head to play with words.

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Haiku Horizons prompt #143: Row

3–Get my email Inbox below 500 emails.
4–Get my phone photos below 10,000 pictures.

As much as I want to do this, every day I press the “Mark Done” button on my daily “Delete old photos NOW” Due app reminder. Email is a distant thought. Even responding to voicemails feels an insurmountable task. Those to-dos are optional in my life these days.

5–Pack/toss/donate a whole buncha stuff.

SUCCESS! It hasn’t been easy to Let Go of my stuff, but I am doing this. It feels good to donate my clothes, books, appliances, dishware and more to a charity. I found a great website, DonateStuff.com, where a local charity organization picks up my unused items from my doorstep and turns them into useful items to others. You can go there, too; it’s nationwide. The directors are responsive to email questions and thorough with explanations. I highly recommend them when you’re ready to donate items.

However, there’s still a lot of crap in the house. Not trashy crap but fully-functional, unused clutter crap.

How does this teach me about my work habits? I can focus on multiple things at a time, but I need a running to-do list of tasks on note paper or sticky notes. I kinda knew this, but I’m seeing it in my daily actions, especially when I do my Plan With Me Happy Planner videos on my YouTube channel. Believe it or not, playing with stickers gives me focus. At least it gives me fun and funky to-do lists to play with.

I also cannot focus on multiple things at a time, hence the many to-do lists. The desire to do it all. The guilt of those unchecked checkboxes. I can forgive myself, but only so much at one time.

I tunnel-focus on the immediate, the present. Things like email and Facebook are not that. Other social outlets I miss, namely Instagram. After a week or so, posts disappear from the newsfeed. I miss out, and I miss that. That’s immediate but not present, or vice versa.

I may not be productive in my goals right now, but I am being productive in myself. The latter is more important. I can’t do the former without it.

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Stressed and slothed this non-writing #WeekendCoffeeShare

Posted on November 13, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

If we were having coffee…

Thanks for meeting me here at Starbucks so late. I’ve been wiped out all weekend. Packing for the move has sucked the soul out of me. I’m not writing, I’m not hanging out on social media, I’m not even PokeStopping at my local strip malls. I’m consumed in boxes and paper piles and donations and clothes and bins and trash and more. That’s why I spent almost this entire weekend crashed on the couch, napping, waking only to eat or flip the TV channel. Apparently, my body and soul needed this. I’ve given so little of my time to myself.

Last Sunday, I attended my first Planner Meetup at my Michael’s on Ford Road. For about 3 hours, I played with paper, laughed with others who plan, and completely forgot about my shadowy world of To-Dos. It was unbelievably refreshing. I had no idea how much I missed the World out there, or even remembered that there was a World out there. I can’t find my gift card, so I didn’t buy anything, but paper and stickers are evil. I will succumb.

I found time to write on Monday, and found myself inspired and ferociously protective of my writing time. That chunk between work shifts is my undisputed, never compromised writing time. Surprising, nothing has ever interfered in that. No errands. No appointments. No to-dos. It’s me, myself and my laptop or paper drafts. I worked on some blogposts, none of my books, but I found that when time is precious, I love writing. It’s exciting. I find my passion there. Are you inspired these days to write or anything?

I ruthlessly cleaned out my scrapbooking stuff for this weekend’s Scrapbook Yard Sale at Bakers Studio. It’s The Dollar Table, but I was too tired to set up a sign to attract people over. I also ran out of packing tape to attached a sign to the table. I hope it’s all gone. Money beats stuff I’m not using, even a few dollars. I’ll find out how much sold on Tuesday when I pick up leftovers on Tuesday. Here’s hoping it’s all gone and I made $100 or more.

My husband and I caught the first quarter of the Penn State-Indiana football game before he left for Germany. Penn State won, and I’m glad I woke up for those exciting last four minutes of the game. It’s quiet at home, so it’s nice to be out among people after showering at 5:00pm.

Oh my gosh, they even made a fantastic Café Vanilla Frapp tonight. *sip, sip, slurp*
How’s your drink?

I feel lonely these days. I haven’t worked on any NaNoWriMo stuff, and doubt I will. My ROW80 goals have fallen away. heck, I didn’t even make it to yesterday’s Motown Writers Network meeting. I’m trying to embrace all the things I have here before I move, and I feel opportunity overload. We never appreciate what we have until we lose it. I’m doing all those “we should do this more often” things while I still can.

That’s why I’m glad you joined me for coffee today. Thank you for making me feel connected.

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Choose or choose not; that is the question

Posted on November 7, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“Today I choose life.”~Kevyn Aucoin, American artist

Are you writing right now? Why, or why not?

Have you talked to your dear friend lately?

Did you spend two hours on social media last night?

Are you exercising or being active in some way?

How are you choosing to feel today?

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Haiku Horizons Prompt #142: “choose”

Most people choose Monday as the day that defines the week until Friday. Me, I usually like Mondays, but I’m having a cranky day. No good, not bad, just a fussiness about everything. My mood has nothing to do with Monday other than it’s the day this is happening. I choose to sink into that, allowing myself to be muddled in all that Monday seems to define. I’m not writing; I choose to swamp my self in boxes, trash bags and packing tape. I haven’t called my friends in days–or is it weeks now?–and I chose to spend my time watching TV or YouTube or outside playing PokemonGO. I haven’t been active on social media in days–or is it weeks now?–because I chose to do things that I don’t even recall now. I haven’t been on my WiiFit in weeks, that I know. My body feels that, and yet I choose not to make the commitment to myself.

I also know that I will get out of this crank, because I choose to allow myself to wallow in it for just so long before dragging myself out of it. That’s not easy. It’s not a habit you can practice. It’s something you have to do, to choose embracing the bad and the good. To choose to be a friend to yourself. I’m a friendly person to strangers; why not myself?  I deserve that much, especially on my now-almost-uncranky Monday afternoon.

Are you choosing to be happy today? Why, or why not?

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My new view of #NaNoWriMo

Posted on November 1, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“The novel is born of disillusionment; the poem, of despair.”~Jose Bergamin, Spanish writer

This year, I free myself from NaNoWriMo convention and snub my nose at what is expected.

Everyone approaches NaNoWriMo differently. This first year I discovered that the month of November was reserved for writers, I was amazed. Who does this? Could I write 50,000 words in one month? Every other writer seemed to be doing it, and I’m loopy for challenges. I jumped in.

Those first two years, I completed the challenge, earning some local NaNoWriMotown stickers and buttons along the way. Those two half-started stories sit in a dusty file on my computer catching cobwebs. They were pushed through for word count, not necessarily interest.

The next two years, I broke away from the expected. I decided not to start a new novel. Instead, I would add words to an existing story. That’s officially a NaNo no-no, but these were my 50,000 words, dammit! In fact, I would write non-fiction if I wanted, not the rule-based fiction novel. I completed that challenge, adding nice stuff into pieces I have yet to complete.

Year Five, I started writing a new story, stalled on it half way through word count, and began a new story mid-month. I completed that, showing how fast I can type under pressure.  It was yet another I-thought-this-was-a-great-idea-at-the-time-but-what-was-I-thinking story. Sloppy words, all 50,000 of them.  Or maybe it was 79,000 words total.

This whole word count thing seems like a waste. However, last year, I wrote a striking sequel to my published humorous crime drama short story, Jimmy the Burglar. I wanted to cheer for the burglar again because I had all these future story ideas flouncing around in my head. I broke it down into the elements that excited me:

WHO–Jimmy the Burglar
DOING WHAT–Stealing from a boutique store
WHEN–After the first story, at night
WHERE–The town is based on Plymouth, Michigan. That’s a hip-n-trendy town nearby with a park and a fountain, two tea shops and a paint your own pottery place.
WHY–Because I wear funky socks, and someone pointed that out to me on my Instagram account.

That story–successfully completed and fiction to boot–is in some stage of draft.  I haven’t worked on it in awhile, but I adore it. I want you to root for the burglar to successfully steal stuff.  He’s a fun character, and I’m always excited to tell his tales.

I planned to continue work on Thief of Socks this month, but we’re moving from Michigan to New Jersey soon-ish. Packing up 10 years worth of house into a storage unit is way more time consuming than I expected. No way I’ll have the time or energy.

Until last night when I discovered an old box.

As a kid into adulthood, I saved every letter and card people sent me. When everyone switched to email, the only way to keep correspondence was to print the emails. Inside that plastic tub were 6 or 7 binders of those printed emails. There’s no way I want to move those. I found separate binders of printed emails between my friend and I back when we emailed daily haikus. If I wrote first in the day, her reply contained my haiku. I’ve always wanted to compile my poems into a chapbook, and this is the perfect opportunity. I’ll flip through binder by binder and type in every haiku of mine I can find. Tedious, time-consuming, but so is NaNoWriMo. Do I have 50,000 words of haiku? We’ll know on December 1.

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Thank you, evil ex-Boss (a nod to Halloween)

Posted on October 31, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“Don’t dream it; Be it.”~Dr. Frank-N-Furter, A Scientist

Thank you for being a horrible boss.

Thank you for driving me so crazed that I quit. Without my day choked by you, I explored different avenues and experiences. I had fun doing what I wanted to do. Without you, I would still be stuck in your darkness. I take advantage of my new-found time to write. And publish. And write even more. You freed me to chase my dreams.

Thank you for micromanaging me. I know what not to do with my family and friends. I support them even when I think I know a quicker, better path. Maybe they get there, maybe they don’t, but it’s their journey at their own pace. So what if the sheets aren’t folded the way I want. So what if my friend hangs up the telephone without long, gushy goodbyes. So what if the dishes aren’t loaded the way I would load them to maximize space. So what if my friends don’t drive down the same street that I would? We get there anyway.

Thank you for belittling me. Did you know I kept a “Kudos Me” file? I performed my tasks well despite what you said, and other people appreciated me. I saved every thank you email and notecard I received in my Kudos Me binder. Someone else valued me, and you taught me to value myself even more. I don’t need your approval to know I did a good job.

Thank you for ordering me around. Oh, the silly things you made me do. My favorite story is that you wanted me to use a particular calculator because “that one adds better.” Your quirks and eccentricities are the fodder for my jokes.

Thank you for being in your office all the time. Because of you, I spent my entire 60-minute lunch hour away from my desk. I walked. I ate outside. I people-watched. I grabbed a coffee on my way back, a treat. My back was warmed by the sun. I sat in grass, and didn’t care if my pants tracked dirt back onto my desk chair. I enjoyed the beauty of crunchy snow as I trudged away from you.  I enjoyed Life every minute of that hour.

I wish you would have fired me so I could have collected unemployment. You denied me that reward.  That’s why you’re my evil ex-boss, and I don’t miss you one minute of my days.

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A fabulous #WeekendCoffeeShare with friends, football and Frappes

Posted on October 23, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

If we were having coffee….

Thanks for coming over to my house today. I hope Keurig coffee is okay today. Excuse the mess on the table, but I hosted my annual Halloween Crop at Casa de la Hirsch last night, Friday and Saturday, actually. Everyone was here late last night, but they left before the end of the Penn State football game.

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When Penn State kicked the balls out of #2-ranked Ohio State–footballs, that is–my husband and I were pumped. With all the Starbucks closed that late hour–even the one in Arborland–we couldn’t get our traditional Celebratory Frappuccinos. We went out at 12:30am and got Celebratory Frappes at McDonald’s. Chocolate sugar rush, alumni pride and game replays of that awesome end of game quarterback sack doesn’t make for an early bedtime.

*Yawn* Nor does it make motivation to clean up after scrapbooking. My once neat pile of everything is tossed in that corner so you have room to sit. No, it’s no problem. I always have fun decorating the table, giving goodie bags, and all that. This year, I found black plastic roses at the dollar store. Some bouquets even had some dark purpley roses mixed in. Distinguished Death–love it!

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My Deadwood Writers met again in the café. We’ve got one more meeting there before the annual holiday party, and then I don’t know where we’ll be. The Ann Arbor group is also moving at the end of the year. The bimonthly meetings are now the first and third Mondays at a different branch of the library system, newly remodeled. I work on Mondays, and missing that sucks. I love my Monday work shifts most of all, and I would never give them up. I’m bummed that the meetings are now more inconvenient.

I guess with all these changes, it’s a good time to be moving. I’ll miss this in-person writing interaction, because I don’t know if I’ll find anything like it wherever we end up in New Jersey. The scrapbook store Scrappy Chic is closing at the end of the month. The customer service there was terrible and the employees were snooty, but two art groups I was active in met there. They’ve disbanded because there’s no regular meeting space. I have the potential to gain as much or more as I’ve lost here with the move.

Speaking of, it’s a lot more exhausting to move than I thought. I expected that packing up the rooms would be a couple hours, a few trips to the storage unit and poof! All done. Going through my scrapbook room, I can’t work for more than an hour in there before becoming overwhelmed. How do I get rid of things? How do I have time to organize when so much needs vacuuming and cleaning. That’s not even counting the time packing up the stuff in closets and cabinets so things look spacious for potential buyers. Just when I think it’s under control, a new pile of stuff landslides into me.

I have had absolutely no progress on my ROW80 goals. That’s frustrating, but that is my reality. I wasn’t overshooting when I chose them. I didn’t realize how much I would sacrifice for this move.

1–Complete a good, polished manuscript of my memoir: Nope.
2–ePublish 1-2 shorter books: Again, nope. I said I’ll hold off on this until November, but I don’t know where I’ll find that time.
3–Get my email Inbox below 500 emails: Again, no time. I did have it down to 953 earlier this week, but then the weekend hit.
4–Get my phone photos below 10,000: Nope. Not even going there.
5–Pack/toss/donate a whole buncha stuff: Yes, actually. As time goes on, it’s easier and easier to let go of stuff. It’s either toss now or dump in a box now. Packing clutter to get it out of site is not necessarily the best use of my time on the other side.

On a final note, I signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. I’m really not sure what I’ll have time to do, but once everything’s packed up, I may surprise myself.

How was your week?

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Defending my #ROW80 progress, or lack thereof

Posted on October 17, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“Without a struggle, there can be no progress.”~Frederick Douglass, American author

I must be super-progressing because I am super-struggling.

I had no idea how much time it takes to pack up a 10-year-worth-of-stuff house. My scrapbook room: yowch! My writing materials: how do I organize them so I don’t lose them in the move? My books: let’s not even go there. And all this does not include the cleaning. Our house is going to look better for strangers than it ever did for us.

My editing goals for my memoir fell away into the nothingness. I haven’t touched the manuscript this week. I planned to edit so I’d have a critique piece for Wednesday’s Deadwood Writers meeting, but there’s already an overflowing queue of at least four pieces, so I don’t feel too bad about missing that goal.

I’m finding balance to be a struggle at the start, which leads me to a bit of discouragement. How will I catch up? Heck, how will I start? Here’s the progress, or lack thereof, for my Round 4 goals:

1–Complete a good, polished manuscript of my memoir.
Like I stated above, a big ol’ nope.

2–ePublish 1-2 shorter books
I will deal with this in November. Our house will be listed November 1st–yes, it will be listed–so much of the overhaul cleaning and boxing will be done by then.

3–Get my email Inbox below 500 emails.
They’ve jumped from 986 to currently 1,044, but there are a flurry of replies in an email thread that I can delete once I make time for my email.

4–Get my phone photos below 10,000.
I have this daily reminder “Delete old photos NOW,” which is meant to remind me to randomly pick a day and delete a few pics. I did that the first 2-3 days I started this ROW80. That was 14 days ago.

5–Pack/toss/donate a whole buncha stuff.
Working on that as I pack. I’m signing up for a scrapbook yard sale in November where I will dump all my stuff I am no longer using. The Dollar Table. That’s what I’m calling it. Everything $1 or less. Let’s face it: no matter what the initial cost, getting $1 and not moving it is worth it if I haven’t touched the paper/pen/Stickles/ephemera/mini album pack in several years. I will not miss it. I can buy a replacement on the other side if I need to.

It’s tough to let go, to let go of all of that. The writing time, the extra photos, the paper memories. Maybe that’s my real, overall goal this Round 4: letting go.

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Big News and writing on this #WeekendCoffeeShare

Posted on October 9, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

If we were having coffee…

Isn’t this new coffee shop great? Thanks for meeting me here. After months of the orange Coming Soon banner outside, u1 Café finally opened last week. Since I work next door, I’m over here a bit. I didn’t even have to ask for this cup; they know my order already. It’s quiet in here–in fact, this is the busiest I’ve seen it–and I hope the word gets out about them. See that fireplace over there? You know where I’ll be sitting come the winter. Heck, by next week I’ll probably want it turned on. Try the medium blend. I know it’s the House coffee, and house coffees are often the twist-off-cap bottles of wine in restaurants, but this one is pretty good. Beans roasted here in Michigan.

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I hope you don’t mind that my husband’s joining us. He just got back from his first week at his new job.

Oh? Didn’t I tell you? We’re moving to New Jersey. No, no, we’re not moving immediately. He’s working in his Michigan office, traveling as needed to his NJ office, while we look for a house and prep to sell ours. Y’know, after 10 years, we have accumulated what can only mildly be put as a lot of crap. Where did this all come from? I know, I never stayed current with scrapbooking my events. There’s just too many of them, and since I print every photo I take and save every napkin and ticket stub, well, that’s a hot mess.

I like using that term, “hot mess.” It’s overused, but I still love it. Totally explains life and crap in my Michigan house.

My finger PT continues, and it feels like it’s working. I can actually touch things with pressure on that side of finger. They’re working on the sensitivity not the strength, but I don’t know why my finger is still a bit swollen. I see my doc at the end of the month, and he’ll tell me how this has all worked out.

It’s a friends-over-coffee week. Today it’s you, Tuesday it was a coworker. That was one of those “we should do this more often” things that I should have done more often.

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It’s also been a writing week. My Deadwood Writers group is being kicked out of the Livonia Barnes & Noble. The bookstore needs our space–so they say–because they’re setting up new merchandise. This week there were four comfy chairs in a square there. Yeah. Right. I know. We met in the loud café to critique our work. It was a pain in the…! The next day was my Ann Arbor Emerging Writers meeting. The first Thursday of the month is a workshop, and I got more out the fiction topic than I expected. Yesterday was the 2016 Rochester Writers Fall Conference. I got something out of every workshop I attended, except the keynote speaker. I could tell he was a university professor by the way he lectured us during lunch, not talk. My friend and I left to chat in the hallway. A much better use of our time.

How was your week?

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Will I lose my writing groups when I move?

Posted on October 5, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.”~Hubert H. Humphrey, American politician

I need not have worried about losing my writing groups when I move away.

Last week, I informed John, the moderator of my Deadwood Writers critique group, that I’m leaving sometime in the next six months. What were his thoughts regarding my participation? After all, I’m writing for our group’s blog, editing bloggers there and submitting pieces for the group’s critique. Did he want me to step back? Did he need someone close by to be an effective contributor to the group? He’s the moderator, and I respect his input. Should I stay or should I go?

He said the best thing possible: “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want. You’re a part of our writing family.”

Family. I found it deeply touching that my contributions are valued. I’m a part of something more. He still wants me involved in whatever way I feel comfortable with, even though my physical presence will not be present. “We’ll keep you on the listserv for as long as you want,” he said. Yep, I’m there until he and the group chase me away.

I wonder if he heard me sniffling.

Through some communication error, I’m not on the presentation schedule for November’s Motown Writers Network meeting. I would have loved the practice of speaking in front of a group, but it’s not a big deal. I’ll attend and learn something new instead. I apologized to the organizer, Sylvia, about the mix-up and told her about my move. She welcomed me to all future meetings and tentatively put me on the calendar for March 2017. Perhaps I’ll still be around. Who knows?

I told the moderators of the Ann Arbor Emerging Writers group that I’m leaving. Co-moderator, Alex, tweeted to me that she hoped we could stay in touch. Hey, that’s what social media is for: creating a network of families.

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Launching into #ROW80 Round 4 with a deep sigh of writing

Posted on October 3, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”~Oprah Winfrey, American entertainer

It’s that time again: writing success or failure?

I started these A Round of Words in 80 Days challenges last year at this time. I was so out of my league back then, thinking “I got this” when that was so far from the truth. My goals for Round 4 for 2015 were broad and undefined, or perhaps they were more un-actionable than anything else. I forgot about the whole thing, posting sporadically when the mood hit or when I discovered my notes in my writing folder. It was a sloppy mess.

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Snufflet and Finse tweak year-end goals, planning ways to make them achievable

I’m too stubborn to et that go. I jumped into Round 1 this January. I learned. I failed. I joined Round 2 and Round 3. I succeeded. I struggled. It’s been a painful 240 days.

Now, one year later, I like to think I have a handle on things, at least for what I am comfortable accomplishing. My goals have narrowed, timeframes shortened, breakout tasks more manageable. Let me show you.

For this last quarter of 2016, my ROW80 goals are:
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1–Complete a good, polished manuscript of my memoir.
Not necessarily a final, edited version, but something decent that I can take to an editor for feedback. Right now, my scribbled words and notes within the text resemble a branch-strewn yard after a windy rainstorm.

2–ePublish 1-2 shorter books
This is something I may focus on in November. I have rough, scratchy drafts of two pieces typed in my computer files: haiku chapbook and Zentangle thoughts and reflections. It’s the start, sometimes the hardest part.

3–Get my email Inbox below 500 emails.
Don’t gasp. That number would make me twist and shout.

4–Get my phone photos below 10,000.
Yes, that’s another number you read correctly. Decreasing to that is certainly doable, but there are multiple behind-the-scenes steps that take time to complete. In 80 days…yeah, maybe, with some focus and planning. I’ll see how the first few weeks go.

5–Pack/toss/donate a whole buncha stuff.
My husband and I are moving soon. Within 6 months, that is, which feels soon enough. After 10 years in our Michigan house, I have accumulated what I can modestly call “a ton of crap.” That has to go away, not packed in boxes for a move across the country. This is the broadest goal, but it’s more the idea of “Let it go.”

I’m pretty excited about this because it actually includes writing goals this time. There’s still the unfinished blog stuff from 2016, but all that is in a holding pattern for the moment.

If you want to see others’ goals, there’s no blogsite I can direct you to. The whole community has moved over to Facebook–the default dumping pit for groups to gather–so just do a search there to find them.

Stay here with me to follow my failures…and successes.

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Big News about writing and life

Posted on October 1, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“Move out of your comfort zone; you can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable.”~Brian Tracy, American author

Now that it’s officially official, here’s the Big News: we are moving to New Jersey.

More correctly, we are moving back to New Jersey. My husband and I met in NJ at the turn of the century. From there, our life together moved to Delaware and then to Michigan. As of October 1, he accepted a new position within his company at corporate headquarters in NJ, so we’re heading back to the East Coast.

Thank goodness we remain in the right time zone.

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Leading up to that, September 2016 was a good birthday month. Those memories include:

• Friends and scrapbooking

• Sunsets and Swarm Mayorships

• Painting pottery at Creatopia

• Steve King and the Dittlies in Kellogg Park

• Birthday massage at Spa Agio

• Two Penn State football games and lots of ice cream
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Some of these activities will be the last time I do them.

We’re not moving right away–he has a flexible schedule right now and we have houses to buy and sell–but I’ve begun saying goodbye and doing all those “we should do this more often” things.

We both have a Michigan bucket list of things we want to do. There’s eating at Cariera’s Cucina Italiana again, which is the first restaurant we dined at in our house-hunting adventures here. A friend mentioned that Mill Race Village in Northville was a good place to hunt PokemonGO critters, so this could be a PokeDate while the weather is still good.

My list includes several coffee shops, particularly Anthropology Coffee in downtown Detroit. I hope I don’t love it. I want to revisit Goldfish Tea in Royal Oak to relax, read or write there. Or do all three.

Losing my writing groups and network of writerly friends breaks my heart. I hope to find new groups and connections out East, but while I’m here, I’m taking nothing for granted, especially these treasured folks. If something is going to be the last time I do it, then I’m gonna make it a damn good experience.

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Tossing #ROW80 Round 3 onto the backseat: it has ended!

Posted on September 21, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.”~Abraham Lincoln, American president

I’ve participated in A Round of Words in 80 Days for a year now and have yet to accomplish even a subset of my goals, but for once, I don’t feel failure.

“What will make me happy to complete this summer? Catching up and keeping up.” That’s what I wrote back on July 5, the beginning of Round 3.  Here’s what happened with my 6 goals since then:

ROW80-CircleBadge

Goal #1–Update my blog.
No draft posts; Let go of old posts; Finish all Pages (for now); Migrate older posts to new site.

This did not happen, not at all.  I’m a packrat.  I knew this from my clutter in my house, but I didn’t realize I did that in my writing.  There are too many half-started posts that I think are publish-worthy.  Are they outdated?  Are they good?  I don’t know how to organize these, and I’m scared to let my good writing evaporate into the Ethernet.  “Letting go” is something I must to work on.

Goal #2–Deal with 5-10 emails/day: 5 new and 5 old.

Nope.  Not even close.  As I write this, I was down to 996 emils to review, but I haven’t opened my inbox in 6 days because I took a trip to Penn State.  The best I did was get it down to 736 one day.  That didn’t last long.  I’m still viciously deleting emails, but now I need to get all ninja with my inbox and attack it with a lightsaber.

Goal #3–Deal with my phone photos: save, print, delete.

This is even more of a hot mess today.  I ran out of memory space last week to tape a video for my YouTube channel.  I had to delete old videos to make enough room to finish the last 3 minutes of my project.  And yes, I automatically typed “tape” instead of “film” in a throwback to my VCR-camcorder days, and I am keeping it there.  I officially let go of it on July 31 and postpone to the future, that vague future where I want things to just magically fix themselves without my work and effort.  Yeah, right.

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Goal #4–Maintain current social media schedule, revise/update as needed.

Okay, this was somewhat successful.  I developed a schedule, and when I kept to it, social media interaction increased.  On the days or weeks I missed a deadline or got caught up in something else, I felt lost.  Maybe my social media calendar is too aggressive?  Maybe I need to restructure my time?  Using my Happy Planner on my new YouTube channel, All Things Bookish, has made me aware of how I’m using and not utilizing my time.  Seeing it in writing has added awareness.  Doing things like the weekly Haiku Horizons challenge has been fun.  I need more fun in this life I write.

Goal #5–Keep in touch with friends and family through phone calls and letters.

Surprisingly, I did this more than I expected.  I had a tentative schedule–more of a reminder, really–of when to call whom.  I love talking to my family and friends!  Voices bring memories.  Letter writing has been a fun throwback to my pen pal days of yore.  I found and made time for this.  I’m glad.  It keeps me sane and grounded.

Goal #6–Write: current WIPs; edit drafts; new stories; and just for fun
I also let go of this on July 31.  I had too much to do to catch up and feel accomplished to even think about “writing for fun.”  That’s sad.  It’s like catching up on past due assignments just to fall behind again with current projects that then become past due.  It makes me dizzy to think about it.

The quarterly writing challenge has not been productive for me, even as I revised goals and tasks.  Round 3 was no different, and I’m glad it ends tomorrow.  Now I can focus on what I learned about myself before Round 4 kicks in on October 3, 2016.

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Beyond social media: Like yourself

Posted on September 7, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.”~Albert Camus, French philosopher

Are you kind to yourself? Probably not.

We tell ourselves…
I’m not a good writer, we say. I’ll never be published/finish a story.
I’m not good at sports.
I’m f_ _ (as in, overweight).
I could be so much more productive.
I’ll never be…
I should be…
I want to be…

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Haiku Horizons Prompt #133: Bend

I’ve said all that and more at some point in my life, and that’s a shame. I don’t regret it, I’m just sad that I ever thought I wasn’t good enough.

We can all bend from what we think are our rigid thoughts. We’re better than we think we are.

We Like so much on social media, why can’t we Like ourselves for once?

I can.

I will.

So can you.

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Did you know Smurfette had plastic smurfery done?

Posted on September 5, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go onto other things.”~Walt Disney, American cartoonist

Cartoons are the foundation of Life.

I forgot about that until I came across this post in my WordPress feed. The author discusses her discovery of the Star Trek animated series and impressions of it. She asks boldly in the title: Hey, Did You Know “Star Trek: The Animated Series” Was a Thing?

Yes, I did. I watched them as a kid and own the DVDs.

Yes, they are as horrible as the concept implies. Yet, I love them, and not in the I’m-a-devoted-Trekker-and-therefore-love-everything-about-Star-Trek way. I forgot about the clever plots and the character cameos–albeit few–that make the series tolerable. Actually, I think an episode binge-a-thon would make a great drinking game.

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What childhoods are made of

The post made me nostalgic for all the cartoon series I grew up with that helped me grow up. First, just waking up at 8am to catch the start of Saturday morning was an accomplishment. I’m not a morning person now and never was back in the Sugar Smacks days. I was lucky to wake up at 8:30am for the Snorks, which I adored more than its popular companion series The Smurfs. I wished the two shows had been switched in time slots; I was usually up by 9am, catching the last few minutes of Snorks.

Snorks are underwater creatures that I found more engaging that Smurfs. A quick online search revealed why I thought that. The main Snork, Alistair, is an scientist and inventor. Casey, the main female Snork, fights bullies and is an artist. Tooter can only speak in toots which helps him communicate with sea life. According to Wikipedia, his mother has a lisp.

Who does that in cartoons?

Other characters were equally intelligent and well-developed: Daffney acts in plays and creates artwork; Dimmy learned ballet to improve his athleticism; Corky has medals from heroic actions; and Occy is the pet octopus who plays instruments to sold-out crowds. And these are just the main characters!

Damn, I have rush out and buy that series now.

My birthday is Friday. Things that make you go hmmmmmmm….

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What an unusual yet great character name!

I watched Dungeons and Dragons, a series based on the cult dice game. This I own on DVD. Not only did I like the game, but the quests the characters went on involved bravery and intelligence to complete. There were two female characters in the show, both intelligent, and one was African-American. I mention that only because I don’t recall diversity being prevalent on Saturday mornings, let alone strong females.

Did you know Smurfette had “plastic smurfery” done to change her from the short, black hair, annoying creature made by Gargamel to a real Smurf. So…the only way to become a “real” female is with blonde hair, blue skin and long eyelashes?

My husband reminded me of his favorite show, Looney Tunes, which I liked, too. Bugs Bunny may have been snarky, but there was some serious brain power going on there. Maybe it came from eating carrots. I always pulled for the Really Rottens to win over the Scooby Doobies or the Yogi Yahooeys in Laff-A-Lympics because I root for the underdog. The two good-hearted teams won far too often; The Really Rottens won twice throughout the series.

Star Blazers was a weekday anime soap opera, one I rushed home from school to see. Among its many themes, the show contains a love story, death, jealousy, funerals, renamed historic world events and alcohol references. It cemented my love of sci-fi and taught me a bit about accepting tragedies and struggles in life as the crew travels light years distance to obtain Cosmo DNA to save Earth from the radiation attack by Gamilon. This was 1979, folks. Think about it.

Who does that in cartoons?

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Coffee, beach balls and World’s Greatest Ribs this #WeekendCoffeeShare

Posted on September 3, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

If we were having coffee….

Glad you could meet, especially now that I-275 North is open. I like this Orchard Lake Rd. Starbucks because it’s another Clover location. I can’t stay too long. I just came from a Saturday work shift subbing for someone with Labor Day plans. We don’t have any, so why not? We drove up here to have lunch at Ginopolis. Why?

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We’re a sucker for signs that read “Best in the area” or “Awesome Eats,” so when I showed my husband the sign for “World’s Greatest Ribs,” we had to go. The Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce is what they’re famous for. The sauce is deep and rich, smoky and sweet, and it’s well worth the praise on the sign. There’s a wall of photos inside from famous visitors attesting to that fact. There’s a lot of local Detroit athletes, you’d expect, but there’s photos of Bob Hope–saw him twice!–Burt Reynolds and Dionne Warwick. You should definitely go. The cornbread tastes baked like a vanilla muffin.

What did I do this week that was writing-related? Well, I’ve been pseudo-productive there. I told you last week that I tore apart my ROW80 goals to just one: my blog posts. I wrote some current posts and had a ton of fun doing that. My live freewrite post against Writers Block was an incredible exercise for me. It’s scary, but you should try it if you dare.

image I’m making peace with the fact that I’m going to have to let go of some past blog stuff if I want to keep that schedule moving forward. Frustrating. I like to finish things. Obsessive, I guess, or my inner Virgo.

Speaking of, my birthday month started Thursday, and we saw Finding Dory at the Penn. If you haven’t seen it, bring tissues. The last Music in the Park was last night with the usual closing band, my favorite Steve King and the Dittilies. They mix pop, rock and oldies with jokes in between songs. Someone brought beach balls to the park, so there were about two dozen beach balls bopping around the crowd all over the lawn. The whole crowd was into it. Nothing says fun like beach balls.

Oh, look at the time. We’re going home to watch the first Penn State football game. Next week, we’ll be watching in person. Since my birthday is Friday, I wanted to see the game against Pitt, the first time they’re on our schedule since…well…since I was in college. The game’s in Pittsburgh, my childhood hometown, and the hotel I found is unexpectedly along my old neighborhood’s bus route. So fun!

Walk with me to the car. I’m sorry to drink and run, but tell me how your week’s been.

Here’s where you can find everyone else’s ROW80 updates.
Finish the Weekend Coffee Share with these folks.

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A writing exercise: Is looking back looking backwards?

Posted on September 1, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“A woman’s mind is cleaner than a man’s; she changes it more often.”~Oliver Herford, American writer

Have you ever reviewed your life one month at a time?

The Photo365 app–for iPhone, definitely, maybe Android–gives me that opportunity. Take a photo a day, attach or upload it to a calendar format and look back at the end of the month for a complete picture of what you accomplished that month. It’s easy to be reminded of subtle and simple forgotten parts of your month.

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Welcome to my August 2016 in review

There are a lot of apps out there that do this. What I like about this is:
1) It was free as a Starbucks download.
2) You can put up to 5 photos on each day; however, only one picture shows as the signature image. I can click on the specific day to see if I added more photos, thus reminding me of additional adventures.
3) You can create a postcard of the month to automatically mail anywhere.
4) You can add photos months later if you’re catching up or find a photo you forgot about.
5) You can create a photo book directly from the app.

I haven’t taken advantage of all those option, but they’re there if I want.

What does my month show? At a glance: creating art with friends and family; my happy, blooming plants; an unexpected obsession with Pokémon GO; coffee and writing adventures; Swarm accomplishments; and peeks at upcoming life changes.

So I’m spontaneously trying an exercise. That’s right; you’re reading this live and unedited. As an unexpected continuation of my post about Writer’s Block, here’s an exercise I’m doing: I’m writing one sentence about each day’s image to attempt to create a story at the end of the month. I’m not going to edit this in any way. Let’s see if I can create something compelling out of context.

Pardon me while I reheat my coffee. Okay, here I go. This is scary.

—START—

“Wow! That’s a lot of coffee,” he said.

I curled up under the tree in the plaza, my favorite place to sit. “I guess so. I’ve been here 15 times this month.” I thought back to the writing seminar I just finished. The sun was setting over the plaza, which made me feel tired. “I guess I’m just a coffee shark.”

“Well, Happy Anniversary to use,” he said, raising his cardboard coffee cup. It’s a shame he’s not using a for-here mug; cardboard can be recycled, but what a waste to the environment. I didn’t clink-clunk, I stared at the chess players at the table across the way. The yoga dancers in the center of the park. The uniformed police walking around, making sure these people didn’t upset the quiet of the quaint little town. Dogs on leashes, of course. Businessmen going off to Happy Hour at Corner Bar, the hip and trendy place to gather. I heard it was full of snakes; you know, the lawyers, investors and studs who hypnotize you into buying what they’re selling.

With a sigh, I replied, “Yes, Happy 10-month Anniversary to us meeting online.”

My friend recommended the service, thinking I was too lonely or lost or pathetic to venture out on my own. She was right; the only daily contact I had was with my mailman. The guy I saw every Tuesday at 6pm at the dry cleaner always intrigued me, punctual or perhaps time-obsessed. He and I had short words, a conversation of three words: “Hello. How’s you?” He looked 22 years old, but his clothes he had pressed were the suits of a businessman, perhaps one of the businessmen going into Corner Bar.

My guy and I, we painted the town with date nights every Friday. That included meeting in this park, officially, drinking coffee outside while the weather was warm. The sun was setting, and the trees were getting darker and shadowy. It was time, time to share the gift I got him, the tickets for us. This was a sticky situation. It would be like hitting a brick wall, yet still smiling and glad you did it.

“Here’s a going away present,” I said, pulling the bag out of my pocket. “The two football tickets you bought for us; I won’t be going with you, ever.”

I stood up and felt free, surprisingly alive. I had stored my emotions too long–9 months and three weeks, to be exact–and it was time to celebrate with ice cream, walking away and not looking back.

—END—

That took me 21 minutes, 47 seconds to write. I wonder if I edited myself because I knew I was doing this for publication here. I wonder how much I was influenced by the actual locations where the photos were taken. It’s hard to pull life out of context. It all starts with the first sentence.

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Who knew word count tightens & excitens your writing?

Posted on August 31, 2016 by DWHirschAuthor

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”~Anthony Robbins, American author

Sing along with me, folks: Pro-crastin-a-a-ation’s making me wait.

I waited until the last days to compile my entries for the Rochester Writers’ 2016 Summer Writing Contest. After all, this will be easy: cut n’ paste and all done. Boom!

I was unbelievably over word count.

I tightened my original 136-word micro fiction to 84 words. I forgot how vibrant words have to be to do double duty. Does “dim” refer to the lighting in the room or the main character’s attitude? Is “crinkle” a sound or does it refer to the second character’s facial features? Read what you will out of those words.

My two entries in the First Page of Novel category were 356 and 837 words, respectively. How the h-e-double-hockey-sticks was I going to cut those down? All of my words were vital to conveying the scene. How could I destroy my precious baby and still entice the reader?

I hadn’t touched these unpublished stories in months, and it amazed me how much more exciting they were when the fluffy bunnies of words were removed. I didn’t need to describe the details of the contents of a letter. One brief conversation exchange summed everything up without repeating it in ho-hum humdrum. The character in my second story didn’t need to say over and over how annoyed she was with this other person. One offhand comment, one brush of body language and one related thought exposed my character’s feelings in tight, tense text. Both entries came in at exactly 244 words.

Hey, I’m pretty good at this writing thing.

Seeing the possibilities of what these stories can become, I’m excited and reinvigorated with them. Have you experienced this? I’m amazed as much as I want to palm-slap my forehead duh. Faced with that mandatory word count, I made all my stories dance with excitement. Here’s trusting the judges to recognize my writing brilliance when they read it. I’ll let you know in October.

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