It's Thursday night in this little small town. After a hot day of sitting on my porch reading Harry Potter, I am inside, enjoying the air conditioning and cooking supper. I decided to make a chicken casserole as I needed another comfort food. I've also made up a wooden bowl of biscuit dough and will roll out the biscuits and put them into a 500 degree oven shortly. It is going to be a heavenly dinner.
My neighbor, Joyce, came by this afternoon. She had cooked a red velvet cake and brought me two slices.
"Don't think you have to bring me back something in return," she said. "I just thought you would enjoy some cake."
My diet was once going so well, but with my recent zest for cooking and generous neighbors, it is going to hell.
"Have you been writing today?" Joyce then asked.
"I finished chapter one of my memoirs," I replied. "It is slow going, though, as my memories are fuzzy."
"I can't believe you make money off that Internet," she said of my journaling efforts.
"I've only made $2.68 cents today," I replied as I laughed.
I am definitely not getting rich, but it has afforded me a new pair of glasses this month.
As I told Joyce, the memoirs are going slow. My childhood was a macabre tale of depression and I am trying to center around the good memories. I want to concentrate on my vacations at summer camp. A time of coming of age for me. I am having trouble with finding my voice though. I want to capture the innocence of my twelve year old self and my adult voice keeps sneaking into my writings. A much wiser and learned voice that completely throws my tales out of kilter.
Well, let me go get those biscuits in the oven.
12 comments:
(-: congratulations on finishing the first chapter of your book!
Excellent Blogger,
interesting work,
I invite you to visit my blogger.
Greetings,
AKA Carol J. Bowie
How is the other book going? The novel you finished not long ago. Any hopes of publishing?
Whitney,
I am revising certain chapters and still working on it although it has taken a place on the back burner for the moment.
How great to have a parent encourage you. Mine never did. They just laughed and said, "You can't draw. You're like me!"
If you want, Andrew, I can subject you to three little boys to help you tap into your inner youth-believe me, I have no problem dropping them off-I'll be back in a few hours..Rosa and you could handle it. :)
Always,
Crusty~
Hi Andrew,
I've been enjoying your tales. I can't wait to find out what happens when Rosa comes home. I hope I have Internet access at Edisto. I'll have to sneak off if they do, cause I don't want anyone to know what an addict I am.
Think of me tomorrow on my long drive!
Maybe you have read it, but I suggest you to read Rainer Maria Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet".
I truly believe it can help you a lot in your writing efforts.
Good luck, in everything.
Heinlein said once that the only reason he wrote was for the money. That he would bang out a short story, and have his publisher bend, twist and mutilate it. He said in his autobiography that the only book he wrote which was about himself and his beliefs was "Starship Troopers", which he banged out in fourty eight hours of angry rant!
I like to rant on my blog from time to time, but interestingly enough, I seem to have got it out of my system...for now.
I would not presume to give advise on writing...however, like any endeavour involving creativity, you have to work at it. And it always takes two forms...the writing (drawing, or blacksmithing, or whatever) that you do for other people for money, and the writing (drawing, etc.) that you do because it is a great fun hobby.
(Oh and I had a train set as a kid, and spent hours reading Model Railroading and building layouts and painting mountains and fields and such, and someday I will again have one...so I can relate!)
I'll go back to lurking now...grin!
I know I read you were diagnosed with your schizophrenia in college. Did you have any idea that's what it was before that? Would be interesting to see how that all evolved and maybe helpful for other families going through the same. Is there anything the people around you could have done differently to keep you from going through all that time of homelessness?
Pass me a biscuit too please, lots of butter and maybe some honey. It's better to comfort yourself with a little food here and there than other things. Everything in moderation...
Well Written work. Keep up the good work and congrats on your recovery.
just jump in and do it! it will all come flooding back, and you will have plenty of time to edit and reword later.
good luck :)
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