A writer’s ideas: not scarce, but fleeting
Posted on March 14, 2008 | Posted by DM in This Writing Life
Last week I quoted Virginia Woolf’s statement about women writers. I did so with only the most cursory of Google look-ups to get the quote correct, and I confess I had not read the entire essay from which the quotation was taken. My curiosity got the better of me, though, and I did finally go and look up the full text of “A Room of One’s Own.” And found this marvelous little analogy, not about writing, but about those nagging little ideas that come to you but get away before you can fully develop them:
“Thought—to call it by a prouder name than it deserved—had let its line down into the stream. It swayed, minute after minute, hither and thither among the reflections and the weeds, letting the water lift it and sink it until—you know the little tug—the sudden conglomeration of an idea at the end of one’s line: and then the cautious hauling of it in, and the careful laying of it out? Alas, laid on the grass how small, how insignificant this thought of mine looked; the sort of fish that a good fisherman puts back into the water so that it may grow fatter and be one day worth cooking and eating.”
I especially love how Woolf compares her seemingly insignificant thought to being “the sort of fish that a good fisherman puts back into the water…” beautiful! Of course, Virginia’s “insignificant thought” became the basis for her entire lecture on the “unsolved problems” of women and fiction.
In my world, I liken this to the process of collecting ideas for my writing. Ideas for stories, articles, bits of dialog, scenic descriptions… all the odds and ends I’d like to keep track of. Probably a thousand of them dart through my mind each day, but I rarely make time to lay them out in the grass - to use Woolf’s analogy - for real study. I do take one precaution, however, so they never completely slip away from me: I write them down, either in a notebook or on any slip of paper I can grab, then I drop them into a file for future browsing. It’s good mental exercise to go back and look through my notes once in awhile to see how many of these bring back the full original thought… and how many of them get “developed” in a direction completely different from the one originally intended.
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Family health issues take a downturn this week
Posted on March 13, 2008 | Posted by DM in Senior living journey
It has been a tough week in the “senior living journey” department. I have been waiting to hear from our assisted living community with a move-in date (we are getting closer!), but in the meantime, Dad had a relapse of sorts this past week that has left me reeling a bit. I received a call around 5 a.m. Tuesday from his neighbor, who had found Dad locked out of his house, very confused and disoriented, and of course COLD… fortunately he had not been outside too long, as paramedics told me he did not have frostbite, but I realize that this whole situation could have had a very different ending. My dad is so fortunate to have such good neighbors - apparently several of them heard him calling for help and responded with 911 calls, and a couple of them went down to the house and broke the door in so they could get him back inside. I honestly don’t even know how to thank them properly - they most certainly saved his life. At any rate, back to the hospital for awhile. It leaves me wondering if assisted living is going to be the right arrangement for him.
UPDATE: Tonight I got to meet and thank the neighbors in person who helped my dad. It turns out he was outside for more than an hour, not properly dressed. I don’t know how he didn’t get frostbite.
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I feel like crap and look even worse - or - which part of “Walking is good for you” do I not understand?
Posted on March 11, 2008 | Posted by DM in Personal thoughts
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. This winter, we were finally going to make use of the treadmill we’ve owned for the past 10 years. Coming off a summer and fall where we regularly walked 1-3 miles a day, we thought we were motivated. And, I’m sure “ye olde mill” was looking forward to the prospect of being more than a place to hang our drip-dry clothes. As it turns out, another entire winter passed with nary an extra step taken. And this weekend I pretty much sealed the deal when I stacked some boxes on it to make room for my beautiful new writing desk.
Did I mention our tiny house has virtually NO storage? I am not kidding. There is cabinetry in the kitchen, filled with kitchen stuff, of course, and even then I am still forced to keep my pots and pans in the oven. There is one closet in each of two bedrooms. There are two tall, narrow cupboards in the bathroom. That’s it. No other built-ins, no coat closet, no utility closet, nothing else. (Unless you count the unfinished and frequently damp basement.) So whenever I try to declutter, most of what I gather up that has no other home goes into a tub or box and gets stacked at one end of my bedroom. These are the boxes and other containers I finally relinquished to the treadmill’s platform. (Sorry, old girl, maybe next year.)
I mention this because this winter has taken a toll on my health, and the lack of walking is one reason why that’s so. I think I’ve gained 20 pounds… I feel crappy most of the time… I look like hell - pale, ruddy, blotchy… in fact, a friend of mine told me the other day how tired I looked, and I happened to feel GREAT at the time! I am so very, very SICK of the cold and snow, moreso than any other year I can ever remember. I am really hoping we will get back to walking as soon as the weather breaks. It felt good to walk, I had lost some weight (and would have lost even more if I’d done the “salad diet” my husband was doing), and it felt like I’d accomplished something every time we arrived back home.
I have got to get moving again!
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Link Round-Up, March 11
Posted on March 11, 2008 | Posted by DM in Link Round-Up
Larry and Jan both ask, “what are the places on your bucket list?” I mentioned to Larry in his comments that mine included Bedfordshire, England, Parker’s Cross Roads, Tennessee, and Summerville, Kansas. These are all genealogy-related. I would also like visit the college my daughter attends on her graduation day, wherever that may be… and I’d like to go back to the Carribean sometime SOON. I’d like to ride the Pacific Coast Highway and the eastern seaboard, make a return visit to Manhattan, and maybe do some other sort of multi-state, multi-week motorcycle trip. How about you?
Love, love, LOVE this cartoon about old-fashioned blogging… found and posted by Holly!
Ah, NOW I get it!! When I first read Lori’s post about photographing “more Doodlesprouts,” I thought she had a cute/funny nickname for children, and that she was noticing a trend in kids wearing hats when they get their portraits done. I wondered if maybe it was just a winter thing. THEN I followed a couple links… did a little Googling, and figured it out: “Doodlesprouts” is the blog of two gals who love to knit and sew, and Lori was photographing kids wearing hats lovingly made by Anna and Katie! Very, very cute!
This is so cool… local illustrator Stephanie over at RetroFire did the illustrations of the different dog breeds for this fun li’l quiz at www.dogster.com. I’m a Labrador Retriever, by the way!
And finally, one of my favorite people in the blogosphere - Mike Sansone - is taking a breather from blogging. I wish him well, I wish him good health… and I wish him the opportunity to follow his dreams!
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Tom Bedell retires from Pure Fishing
Posted on March 10, 2008 | Posted by DM in Business news
Tom Bedell’s official retirement from Pure Fishing, the company founded by his father, gave me a moment of pause this week. I met Tom and his parents in 2005 while producing a biographical video for the Iowa Business Hall of Fame, and the story of Pure Fishing is surely one of Iowa’s most endearing business success stories. Tom’s dad, Berkley Bedell, started the Berkley Fly Company in 1937 as a boy in Spirit Lake, literally at his kitchen table, making hand-tied buck-tail streamers that he sold to area bait shops. As the business grew, he hired his high school classmates to assist in production while he went on sales trips around the Midwest, calling back the orders as fast as the kids could make them. He gave up daily management of the multi-million-dollar business in the early 1970’s, and with the help of his son Tom waged a successful campaign for a seat in the US House of Representatives. The company he had started felt his absence keenly, though, and in 1979 when it was on the verge of closing he asked Tom to return to Spirit Lake to take over its management.
That Tom did so is quite remarkable. My five-minute video could not even begin to touch on his motivation for giving up his lucrative political consulting career to take on this task for his dad, but Berkley biographers Larry Ramey and Daniel Haley quote Tom as saying it was purely an emotional decision to help his parents. Whatever the motivation, it was under Tom’s leadership that the company outgrew its financial difficulties and became a true international industry leader. As of 2005, the company - by then known as Pure Fishing - had reached annual revenues over $250 million. Tom Bedell, having quite literally saved the company, transitioned to the role of Chairman in 2003. The Bedell family has funded numerous amenities around Iowa, including betterment projects in the Spirit Lake area, facilities at state universities, and many others. Tom has served on innumerable boards and commissions, notably the Iowa Board of Regents. He’s not only a Business Hall of Famer, he’s also a member of the Iowa Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame.
I can’t begin to do justice to Tom Bedell’s many achievements in this space, but I think he’s got a lot to celebrate.
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A room… er, desk… of one’s own
Posted on March 10, 2008 | Posted by DM in This Writing Life
Virginia Woolf once noted, “…a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is going to write.”
Well this weekend, while I couldn’t really justify taking an entire room, I did the next best thing: I cleared the end of my bedroom where all the clutter gets stored and made room for this beautiful homemade writing desk given to me by my neighbor. It appears to be oak, with a pull-out drawer and a footboard running across the bottom, and cool craftsman-style detailing on the sides. It’s a beautiful, sturdy piece and I’m thrilled to have it! Especially because Kristin and Hollie were nice enough to transport it across the street for me! (Yep, free desk AND free delivery - betcha wish you had my AWESOME neighbors!!)
The cat has already given it his approval, as he’s used it to sit and stare out the window. (That dark blur at the bottom of the photo is his head… he couldn’t resist a walk-by as I was taking the picture.) And yes, that’s my beloved Writer’s Market perched on the desktop next to the blue storage box.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank my DH Steve for carting all the donated stuff to the Salvation Army this morning.
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Surprised by my own post
Posted on March 3, 2008 | Posted by DM in Blogs, Blogging, & Bloggers
Here’s something interesting that happened to me last week. Several weeks ago, I wrote a sort-of emotional post about taking more time to nurture my “writer within.” I almost published it immediately, but then decided for some reason to wait on it. I had gotten a little emotional writing it, and I wondered if it might be the type of thing I’d later be sorry I’d written. So I assigned it a far-in-the-future publish date, confident that I would re-read it before it went live on the blog and would decide for sure whether to use it at all. Then, to be honest, I completely forgot about it.
So on Friday, for only the second time that week, I logged into Bloglines to read my RSS feeds and discovered that I had a new post on one of my own blogs. Funny, I thought, because I’ve only had time to blog once this week. I clicked through, and there was my post about ‘the writer I want to be.’ Oh CRAP, I thought - what did I say here? Anything I wish I hadn’t?
Turns out, there is nothing I would change. If anything, the sentiment is even more relevant to me today because life continues to get in the way of writing. Even blogging!
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Becoming the writer I want to be
Posted on February 29, 2008 | Posted by DM in This Writing Life
Remember my post from the other day about the Writer’s Market reference book? And then the one about wanting to visit my childhood house because I might be unhappy with the present?
Well, further reflection on those recent bits of self-reflection have led me to a pretty important realization: I am a writer, but I’m not yet the writer I want to be.
The writer I want to be looks back on a writing career - not on a marketing, or a public relations, or a business communications career.
The writer I want to be holds a volume in her hands (fiction? non-fiction? it matters not) with the word “By” just above her name.
The writer I want to be feels like a writer - not like a cubicle dweller.
Remember my other post - the one about all the businesses I’d thought about starting? I think those may have been roadblocks. Roadblocks I was throwing into my own path, because I was afraid that the true path might lead to failure, or toil without gain, or something else undefined but awful.
All of this means that I’m hereby vowing to become that writer. I’m going to stop thinking about being a t-shirt printer or a junk-shop owner, and start thinking about how to become the writer I want to be. Because that’s what’s in my soul. It’s who I’ve always been. And I think it’s time to get out of my own way.
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K-12 artwork sought for Des Moines Arts Festival exhibit
Posted on February 26, 2008 | Posted by DM in Art & Artists
My daughter had her artwork shown in the Nurturing a Student’s Vision (NSV) exhibit a few years ago. It was a special point of pride for her to see her picture hanging in the NSV exhibit area, knowing how many people were able to see it. If you have school-age children in the area, I encourage you to contact your school’s art teacher and ask them to submit their students’ work for this special honor.
The Des Moines Arts Festival is now accepting submissions for student artwork for the Des Moines Art Center’s Nurturing a Student’s Vision: Celebrating Artists K-12 Exhibition (NSV), sponsored by Hubbell Homes. Student work submitted for the NSV exhibit will be displayed at the Des Moines Arts Festival on June 27-29, 2008, in Western Gateway Park, and after the Festival at downtown Des Moines’ Central Library.
Artwork from students in kindergarten through high school attending schools in the Heartland AEA 11 (Audubon, Boone, Carroll, Dallas, Guthrie, Jasper, Madison, Marion, Polk, Story and Warren counties) will be featured in the NSV exhibit, highlighting the creativity and diversity of Central Iowa students. Last year, the display showcased 338 students from 91 schools, and provided thousands of Iowans the opportunity to enjoy artwork from some of the state’s youngest artists. In addition, a jury chooses work from five participating students to be made into banners that accompany the display on-site at the Festival.
Art teachers interested in submitting student artwork for NSV can download Official Guidelines and Student Art Entry Form at www.desmoinesartsfestival.org/nsv. Four pieces of work per elementary or secondary school may be submitted. Completed entry forms are due via email to the Festival by March 7.
All participating student artists receive a Certificate of Participation, a Des Moines Art Center Student Membership, and are honored at the Visionary Artists Ceremony at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday, June 28 during the Des Moines Arts Festival.
Hubbell Homes hosts a reception for NSV participants on Sept. 11, 2008, at 6 p.m. at Des Moines Central Library. At the reception, all participating schools will be eligible to win one-of-five $100 awards for art supplies, two students will receive Des Moines Art Center scholarships, and one student will receive a family membership to the Des Moines Art Center.
For questions regarding the Nurturing a Student’s Vision program, please contact Kelley Crosbie at Kelley.Crosbie@desmoinesartsfestival.org.
The Des Moines Arts Festival is presented by The Des Moines Register, founded by the Des Moines Art Center and produced by Downtown Events Group. The Festival is sponsored by Prairie Meadows, Principal Financial Group, GuideOne Insurance, Meredith Corporation, Mercy Medical Center and U.S. Cellular.
For more information on the Des Moines Arts Festival visit www.desmoinesartsfestival.org.
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Narcisse under fire from school board
Posted on February 21, 2008 | Posted by DM in Schools & Education
For a full report on the February 19 school board meeting, visit Around Des Moines.
Take 13 minutes and watch this whole school board discussion about Jonathan Narcisse’s frequent radio diatribes about the quality of board leadership.
Video from Channel 12 Educational Access, posted on the Register’s website:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080220/VIDEO01/80220033
Superintendent Nancy Sebring begins by taking issue with Narcisse’s recent insistence that graduation rate data was incorrect and that staff was misleading the board and the public. Other board members then pile on, expressing their dissatisfaction with Narcisse’s public criticism of the board. It ends with one board member proclaiming Narcisse to be putting other board members, students, teachers and the public in danger because of the “non-stop death threats” he says he receives.
What are your thoughts? Are Narcisse’s criticisms on target? Are his tactics fair? Is Narcisse beginning to effect ‘change from within’ by challenging the board in this way? Or is he merely serving to unite the board against himself? What’s the likelihood that the school board will soon be considering a new rule that forbids board members from participating in ‘talk radio’ programs?
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