Friday Love 'em and leave 'em

For a dyed-in-the-wool author, nothing is as dead as a book once it is written. She is rather like a cat whose kittens have grown up.
Rumer Godden

Letting go of the past is as easy as walking away. I think that is why I write. It allows me to process all of my past actions, thoughts, and realities so that I can create a new reality with each time my hands begin to channel my mind onto my computer screen.

When I write I am creating a manifestation of a new way of looking at my world. It is nice to share that with other people. Sometimes in the meanderings of my life and thoughts comes something that I never expected. I find that as my inner world immerges into the outer world that I see on my screen, there are subtle changes in the life that I share with others.

I often think that when I write I am channeling something from other dimensions and spaces that most have only dreamed about but never considered to be a possibility. I often find that what pops onto the screen is nothing that has ever crossed my mind before and thus is a gift from some diva from the cosmic stream of consciousness trying to find a voice in a vortex of evolving change.

I am driven to amuse me and in the process sometimes others are amused or bemused and sometimes confused but ultimately what I do, I do for me. When I am done with these thoughts and ideas what others choose to do with them is up to them. I am a cold-hearted lover that once I am satisfied I move on to another love affair within my mind. A love affair that is fickle and seduced by the whims of consciousness that has been offered a tidbit from an infinite well deep beyond the limens of the five senses. My love affair is an affair of the sixth sense and infinite dimensions.

I sometimes say that I am a slash and burn writer, but it may be that I am a love them and leave them kind of writer. But when the winter of my life is finally upon me it will be nice to look back at the children who were born of my passion for words and ideas. Hopefully that golden time will be many, many eons from my present expression.

If you have been thinking!

If you're thinking of sending me books to be autographed, please don't. ~ Ursula K. LeGuin

Ahh, to have that sense of self-importance or level of success that one no longer has to offer to be accommodating to one’s audience. I personally would love for you to send me a copy of my book to sign for you as long as you pay for the return postage.

I am lucky in that I don’t have to walk ten blocks down the hill to the post office and then walk back up the hill ten blocks carrying books that people just adore and want my signature. I just send my husband to the post office.

My latest book is called Life with Mother: a Journey of Love, Death and Rebirth. You can read an excerpt from the book at http://lifewithmother.com and you can get a good deal from Books-A-Million or you can send me the money, save some postage, and I will autograph it and send it to you.

If you have been thinking about sending me a book to be autographed, please do.

Among Friends

Lao Tsu wrote something to the effect – keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

In the year 2000 I published a book with a person that I thought was my friend and someone whom I could trust. It was just after the book was released and it was time to publicize it that my mother came to live with us and I became a 24/7/365 end-of-life caregiver. It was hard for me to concentrate on publicizing the book because I was worried about things like keeping my mother comfortable and alive.




My friend kept pushing me to do things to publicize the book that I thought were unethical and just wrong. It came to a point where I was about ready to go nuts … a short trip anyway I can assure you. She said give me all the royalties to the book for a year and I will take over the task of publicizing it. Now my mother may have given birth to a slightly eccentric child but not to a fool. I refused to give up my rights.




The next year I found out that my friend had taken out parts of the book and republished it under another title and her name alone. I was not mentioned or credited as the original co-owner of the copyright and that the book was a derived from that book. I learned from this experience that sometimes those who are closest to us and appear to be friends in fair weather will become enemies when it comes to money and fame. I find it very hard to forgive and forget this incident even though in my heart I don’t think that this friend thought she was doing anything wrong even though according to US copyright laws she had broken the law. Did I do anything? Not much I was to busy helping my best friend spend her last days on earth. Did I learn anything? Yes. Never write a book with a friend and always hire a good editor.

Deadly Weapons

My good intentions are completely lethal.
-- Margaret Atwood

There is no more deadly weapon than the kindness of friends and family. In kindness they give us advice or warn us or try to make us feel that we are making a mistake. More dreams have been killed by kindness of the well-intentioned than by the cruel critique of a stranger.
The dreams of the younger and the older are precious and lead us into the future with optimism. Sometimes just the turning of the head and an uplifted brow coupled with a smile that indicates tolerance for another flight of fancy is the hardest boundary to creativity.
The artist must be driven by only one muse and that is the one that resides in one’s heart and head that hears the warnings and suggestions of family and friends with an internal translation device and thus retains the ability to move on with the creative process.
When you think about what is the greatest book ever written, realize it hasn’t been written yet. It may be the one that has been hidden beneath the good intentions of friends and family to keep you from pursuing your dreams. There is no age limit on the creative process. If your dreams have been hiding from the kind intentions of family and friends who fear that you might succeed and change, perhaps it is time to draw a more deadly weapon and that is the pen. Write the first words of that great work that is waiting to be born from your heart and soul.