Archive | February, 2023

New Beginnings

27 Feb

I’ve been working very hard over the past several years to work on my writing with an eye toward publication in a number of different periodicals as well as creating books and screenplays. Writing has always been my true calling, but up until recently, I’ve felt like I had to please other people or work in “mainstream” jobs in order to make ends meet. To some extent, the latter is still true. I’m job hunting for work in several areas, and I plan to be employed again by the middle of March. However, the primary goal is to make a living as a writer, and so I decided to make a promise to myself to write five hundred words a day, minimum. That starts right here with this blog.

The main goal is simple: Write five or more posts a week, Monday through Friday, and preferably as early as possible in the morning. I plan on covering a variety of topics, but the idea is simply to create a habit of writing every weekday. I reserve the right to have weekends off if I need them, but if all goes well, I may find myself writing seven days a week, which is just fine with me.

Some of you might be wondering why this is so important to me. In a nutshell, writing is the first thing I want to do every day I get up in the morning. The desire to write follows me throughout the day by reminding me of stories yet untold that I’ve recorded in my journal. At the gym I might skip socializing in the swimming pool during water aerobics because I’ve had an idea for a screenplay that needs retooling. And at bedtime I’m thinking about superheroes and the various ramifications of having superpowers. In summary, writing matters, and it’s the one form of employment I feel most qualified at doing, despite having over twenty years of experience in medical and general transcription.

It should be noted that the five hundred words I write a day might not all be in the blog but rather spread out throughout the day in various projects. In addition to writing essays, fiction, and screenplays, I also enjoy writing on a website called Quora. You can find me on there answering questions and maybe posting a few of my own. I look forward to hearing your responses to my writing should you choose to leave comments, and you can also hold me accountable if I don’t make a posting on a given weekday. See you soon.

Facing My Fear of Failure

3 Feb

What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?

I’ve known since the age of four years old that I was meant to be a writer. When
my brother and I were much younger, we both loved to listen to our mother read to us.
Eventually I told her that I wanted to start telling my own stories. She would
write down what I said, and I would get very upset when she wouldn’t put the
right words on the page. Later on, our mother would create “books” for me by
stapling together a few sheets of typing paper, and I would begin writing my
thoughts and stories down. (Yes, this was long before the age of personal
computers, and it wasn’t until high school that I would take typing classes,
which to this day I have never once regretted doing.)

The thing that was so unusual about my writing, especially according to
my parents, was that the punctuation and spelling were perfect. No one knew how
I was doing this at such a young age, and it was a strong indicator that
despite my facial paralysis, I wasn’t at all intellectually impaired, despite
what doctors had told my parents several years earlier. My uncanny facility with
language led to me being placed in the talented and gifted program at school,
which is one of the few places I thrived in for quite some time.

The thing is, I’d dealt with a lot of people underestimating me, especially
during my younger years. This impacted how I saw myself, of course, but worse
than that, it meant that I couldn’t trust my own voice. Even though I had the
support of teachers and others who could see my potential as a writer, it took
me many years to realize that I had something of value to say. Thankfully, in
the past few years through a number of different circumstances, I realized that
I wasn’t living the life I most wanted and began to write again. My blog in
particular is an ongoing project that is meant to be the centerpiece of a
number of activities including acting, singing, public speaking, and of course
the writing itself.

Writing is its own act of defiance and helps me face my fear of failure. Each day I
sit down to write is a day of repudiating that fear and making sure I don’t
give in to doubt or insecurity. Some days I may simply not know what to write.
On other days, several projects may clamor for my attention all at once. Sometimes
I’ll go onto Quora, a website where people pose questions and get answers to
them, and jot down my own responses to various inquiries. The point is to keep
writing and eventually find my own voice, regardless of what my insecurities
might be trying to tell me.

 

 

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It’s Complicated

2 Feb

I’ve been a member of the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus for over 30 years, joining in 1992 straight out of college. I’ve also been privileged to be a member of our subgroup, Cascade, several times over the years. Cascade is a smaller ensemble of singers who perform both at our regular concerts as well at for outreach events. Cascade will be performing their next concert at the Alberta Abbey, 126 Northeast Alberta Street, Portland, OR, 97211 on February 11 from 8-10 p.m. The description of the concert as well as our website information are below. I hope you can make it.

From the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus website:

“Let’s face it – sometimes Cupid’s arrow misses its mark or strikes the wrong target, love’s rosy path hits a bramble patch, or the planets simply fail to align. Taking a chance on romance can feel like a fool’s errand, but we plunge in headfirst anyway. Come fall in love with Cascade all over again as we explore the many moods of this thing called love.”

Tickets can be purchased at the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus website: https://www.pdxgmc.org/concerts-tickets/

From Impossible to Possible

1 Feb

Hi folks. In my latest piece, “From Impossible to Possible,” I talk about defining an impossible goal and why it’s important to keep striving for success even when the end result seems far from attainable. The article is on Page 36-37. Enjoy!

Voices! January 2023