Tag Archives: book-review

Editing is an Essential Part of Your Life

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OR: Creating the Right Story
OR: Becoming a Warrior
For the last two weeks, I have been a little crazy (Really? You say, only just the last two weeks?) OK, just stop. Take a seat and read further. I sent my final copy of the book to my editor last week, and I have been on Zoom calls with her, my go-to gal! She has helped me capture each story I really want to write, going through all of my Dru-isms—a language of my weird brain that no one can understand, which pops up on every page I have written. I am also submitting it to my spouse, who tells me the truth, even if I don’t want to hear it. I have too much invested in my characters, so even though I don’t like it, he tells me when it gets weird, and I make the appropriate changes.

Having an excellent editor for your writing, who does the job well, helping you fix your draft into the story that you want to tell, into a work of art, is the best friend you’ll ever have in this business. A genuine editor can help you create a masterpiece. A real editor doesn’t try to impose their story onto yours. It’s important to have that to let go of the piece at the end. So, in a few more weeks, hopefully, I’ll have a product that is worthy of publishing.

But that’s not all of this post. Editing your printed work is just one thought regarding this subject. The second is editing for your life. If you could go back in time, how many stupid things that you did in the past would you delete? I think about this all the time (I know, my brain is a shoe box full of memories I wish I could get rid of! Although it does make a good story!) I have tried to forgive, apologize, and move on, but sometimes they are just stuck there. And, when I am down in the dumps, they rise once again for me to revisit. There are hundreds of articles on how to solve this problem, and believe me, I have read them all. But sometimes the only way I can process the negative tape in my head is to just let them go for a short time. I usually physically leave the house and then go for a swim or a walk, and come home to write about them in my blog!

And my final thought about editing is how to edit those nagging pictures of yourself when you don’t feel you have been courageous. (Sans editing tools on your phone!) In my life, I am always the behind-the-scenes person. I am the one who gathers intel and completes a report. I am the one who does the research. I am the one who advises others. In my writing, I am that hero, that action person who fights the good fight. I pour everything into the characters in the book. But sometimes, I wish that I were that person in the front, that warrior-woman within me, making things happen, protesting all the wrongs in public, rather than on paper. But my rational mind says the only way to create change is to help people understand their actions through the pen, versus taking up the sword.

So, stand up for injustice in the world, and for what you believe is the right thing to do in any way that you can. And maybe it’s okay to encourage others to be brave for you, and you embrace your warrior within.

I’ll leave you with these quotes by Kristen Hannah from her book The Four Winds. Add this book to your bucket list!

  • “He used to tell me that courage was a lie. It was just fear that you ignored.” [Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds: A Novel (p. 403). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
  • “Courage is fear you ignore.” [Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds: A Novel (p. 403). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
  • “It wasn’t the fear that mattered in life. It was the choices made when you were afraid. You were brave because of your fear, not in spite of it.” [Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds: A Novel (p. 423). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
  • “A warrior believes in an end she can’t see and fights for it. A warrior never gives up. A warrior fights for those weaker than herself. It sounds like motherhood to me.” [Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds: A Novel (p. 426). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
  • “The world can be changed by a handful of courageous people.” [Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds: A Novel (p. 427). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
  • “History has shown us the strength and durability of the human spirit. In the end, it is our idealism and our courage and our commitment to one another—what we have in common—that will save us.” [Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds: A Novel (p. 453). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]

I love you all on this almost perfect day! Enjoy the coming of fall!

Edward Abbey-One of My Heroes

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“To the intelligent man or woman, life appears infinitely mysterious. But the stupid have an answer for every question.”—Edward Abbey

“Our modern industrial economy takes a mountain covered with trees, lakes, running streams and transforms it into a mountain of junk, garbage, slime pits, and debris.”—Edward Abbey

“The one thing … that is truly ugly is the climate of hate and intimidation, created by a noisy few, which makes the decent majority reluctant to air in public their views on anything controversial. … Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it’s likely that no one is thinking at all.”—Edward Abbey

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.”—Edward Abbey

“Why is it that the destruction of something created by humans is called vandalism, yet the destruction of something created by God is called development?”—Edward Abbey
https://www.azquotes.com/author/10-Edward_Abbey

Edward Abbey (born January 29, 1927, Indiana, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died March 14, 1989, near Tucson, Arizona) was an American writer whose works, set primarily in the southwestern United States, reflect an uncompromising environmentalist philosophy. Abbey’s novel The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975) recounts the exploits of a band of guerrilla environmentalists; both it and Desert Solitaire became handbooks of the environmental movement. The strain of cynicism that runs through much of Abbey’s writing is leavened by a bracing prose style and mischievous wit. His advice was unorthodox: “This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and animals. Stand up for the stupid and crazy. Take your hat off to no man.” And: “Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners.” https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Abbey

I encourage you to read his works, particularly The Monkey Wrench Gang and Hayduke Lives! These two books, along with his earlier work, Desert Solitaire inspired me to move out here. I visited and walked many of the paths he took when they weren’t National Parks. And now we have to engage in our own warfare, and create a grassroots effort to save all of these pathways before they are destroyed. Fight to keep Rangers employed. Keep fighting Abbey’s fight and save our backyards from destruction!

I love you all on this night and hope you will keep reading, keep writing, keep having enlightening conversations, and keep asking questions!

Creating the Story of Your Life

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Today I was thinking about all the people who tell me: “Here is an idea for a book!” or “Here’s a great title for a book!” I smile politely (sometimes through gritted teeth) and say to them: “Thank you, but I have more ideas than I can possibly write about in my lifetime. I encourage you to write about your ideas!” And: “I am looking forward to seeing your book that you’ve written with this title!” Amazing…. So, if you are in the mood to give advice to authors, please think before you speak. The art of creating is not as easy as you think it is, and dedication to finishing any project is a life-long endeavor.

Here are some of my weird beginnings of late. So many ideas for so many tales that haven’t been told. I’d love to hear how your story goes with these beginnings!

  • These contributions to the dangerous and fascinating subject of ….
  • With the door shut…..
  • As a junkie craves a fix, ….
  • Walking around the rooms differ so completely, like growing up in a fairy tale. One room has a southwestern theme, so many Indian prints, and southwestern woven fabrics on the futon. One room has leather couches and Japanese calligraphy. And of course there is the baby’s room with Winnie the Pooh. This house won’t make Decorations Quarterly, but it is very lived in and full of love. (Walking around the house one day when Kiddo was little)….
  • Flies do indeed have internal clocks….
  • It happened one day, almost by accident….
  • In the ways only cats were given….
  • I’d had a series of unfortunate jobs….
  • The walls of my memory divide the thorns from the roses….
  • You realize, of course, he’s going to turn 14 someday and rebel against all of your religious patter….

We all have stories to tell and we desire to be heard. Stories don’t have to be tragic or angry diatribes. They can be magical; tales we told our children. They can be mysterious, scientific or science fiction. They can be soulful. They can be beautiful memories that might seem common to the individual. But to the people who read them, they can inspire a new generation of storytellers.

There are only so many days to put it out there in our lifetimes. Wouldn’t it be great if we wrote these beautiful thoughts down every day that we live to pass on for generations?

I love you all on this beautiful day and hope you write about your wonderful dreams of how we should live in the world.

Marvin Harris: Insights on Culture and Evolution

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Marvin Harris (August 18, 1927 – October 25, 2001), was an American anthropologist born in Brooklyn, New York City. He grew up a poor kid but joined the army when he was old enough, and fought in WWII. The GI Bill enabled him to attend Columbia University. As a result, he received both his MA and PhD in Anthropology from there. He later became the department chair. He performed fieldwork in Brazil and Portuguese-speaking Africa before joining the faculty at Columbia. He later went to the University of Florida where he was the Graduate Research Professor. He was a prolific writer in his field. Harris was among the few faculty leaders who sided with the students when they were threatened and beaten by the police in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He was highly influential in the development of cultural materialism and environmental determinism. Harris was known as “one of the most controversial anthropologists alive” (Smithsonian Magazine).

Harris’ observations in this introduction of his book, Our Kind: The Evolution of Human Life and Culture, made me read the entire book back in the early 1990s, and re-visit it today. Here are two thoughts to ponder for our modern-day dilemma.

“What part of the human condition is in our genes and what part in our cultural heritage, whether jealousy, war, poverty, and sexism are inevitable, and whether our species has a chance to survive?” And,

Educators have heated debates “…about what it is that anybody must know in order to be considered an educated person….” Harris states that historians and literary celebrities create “definitive lists of names, places, events and literary works guaranteed to lift the uneducated out of their…ignorance.” Harris’ reaction is that they focus on the achievements of Western societies and “…are silent about the great biological transformations that led to the appearance of our ancestors on earth” which “endowed our species with a unique capacity for culturally constructed adaptations.” In other words, they “…ignore the evolutionary principles that shaped the social life of our species after our ancestors achieved ‘cultural takeoff.’”

To put it more succinctly, the abstract for this book states: “Before consciousness formed and toolmaking began, before speech was learned and cultures were established, before religion, society, politics, and war, came a simple evolutionary change: One primate, our common ancestor took a single upright step. So began our family history. The story of ‘Our Kind.’” https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1989-98292-000

In the conclusion of my book, Discover the Life You Want to Live, I ask the reader to change the course of their lives by breaking their hidden boundaries and become comfortable in the world (of change). I ask people to cut through all their artificial barriers, have a social conscience, and understand their place in the universe. And finally, I ask them to create the desire to contribute and seek cooperation, and take personal responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions, and share this idea with others.

I am asking everyone to calm their anger and wake up and stop speculating about the future. I am asking everyone to do what they need to do to create change in their community right now, to create this cultural takeoff at the grass roots level. Head up a writing campaign and send in the letters to your representatives when you feel strongly about inequities and present your ideas for change in a logical well-thought out letter. I am asking everyone to create a better life and support those in need.

It does not take money to act with kindness and love to everyone that surrounds you. Recognize chaos but RISE UP into your own positive position of power.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and what your action plans are to make the future shine bright in everyone’s life.

Embrace Your Path: Lessons from My Personal Journey

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In 2012, I wrote and published a book called “Discover the Life You Want to Live.” (It is still available for purchase on Amazon.com if you are interested). Although it needs editing and updating, my message is still relevant to today’s challenging times. I called the book a Standard Operating Procedures Manual for Adult Mentors. I asked readers to engage in a discovery process to understand the life they wanted to live. I talked about my life and legacy and what I wanted to pass onto my child.

One message that I want to reiterate from the book is this line of thought:

Throughout my life, I have tried to have the attitude that we are all equal and everyone is at the place where they need to be at any given moment in their lives. If we constantly compare ourselves to those who are more successful, more glamorous, or more part of the popular crowd, we lose sight of why we are here on this planet. It should not be a contest. If I look around, I can see others better off than I am at any point in my life. They do not owe me anything. I do the best that I can with the life I have been given. I work one task at a time and make the best of that given moment. We are all in control of our own thoughts and our decisions lead us to our destinies. We are who we are, and we will get to where we need to be when the time comes. It may be a harder road than others, but we must own that path.

So, for today:

JUST BREATHE! Take a walk. Learn one new thing each day. Engage with one new person each day. And, keep writing!