The blog
What am I working on? What should I be working on? What do I want to be working on? The questions from Ryder Carroll, creator of the Bullet Journal Notebook, got me thinking. So I took a few minutes and made a list. My answers to questions A & B were remarkably alike. It seems…
“Creativity, like play, can turn an old person into a young person,” wrote Dr. George Vaillant. In his book Aging Well, this practicing psychiatrist and professor at Harvard Medical School went on to define creativity as “putting something into the world that was not there before.” I like that. Makes me think of gardeners or writers…
You’re looking at the cover of my new book, which, hopefully, will be released soon. For today’s blog, I propose a contest. Assuming this gal is at or near retirement, who is she, and where is she going? You can be serious or a little crazy–most of my FB friends are 🙂 There will be…
The blank page—it’s a writer’s greatest curse and blessing. So let’s get the bad news out first. Make no mistake; a blank page is terrifying. “What if I have no ideas?” “This blog isn’t going to write itself.” But we still do it, write, that is. Someone said writers can’t “not write.” Why? Maybe, it’s…
I see aspen trees as a fitting symbol for the retirement years. Last week, I asked the book cover guy if he could include them in his design. Why aspen? 1. On my favorite hikes, one finds aspen high on the mountain. Reach them, and the peaks (read “dreams we have spent a lifetime chasing”)…
I want to be sappy. No, not that way. Psalm 92:14 says those who walk with God can “still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green.” That’s the New American Standard version. The Message translation says “They’ll grow tall in the presence of God, lithe and green, virile…
I’m going fly fishing next week. My friend Jerry is taking me to his favorite stream in Colorado. I don’t have time for this. There are deadlines for the book, one of our rentals is empty and I have a construction project that is behind schedule. But I’m going anyway. Because, ever since I was…
“If I could save time in a bottle,” sang singer-song-writer Jim Croce in his 1972 hit single. The opening line was both insightful and a bit haunting. Insightful because it posed a dilemma we all face. We can hoard money but not time (not in a bottle or a bank). Use it now or it’s…
You can copyright books but not book titles. So, theoretically, I could title my book To Kill a Mockingbird, or Gone with the Wind. And I would get exactly 0 readers. But titles do make a difference. Research shows that good ones get a second look. A reader might peer at the promotional copy on…
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Took our drive yesterday afternoon. Our drive goes south of Canyon on I-27 for about 12 miles; then east on FM 285, past Hidden Falls Ranch, to Wayside; then the road turns south for two miles, then east for another four, where it dead ends into Texas Hwy. 207. From there, we go north to…
My friend Bill is a dealership driver; that is, he drives vehicles to and from Amarillo automobile dealers. It’s a rigorous gig. Last Sunday, Bill drove to Corpus Christi where he picked up a 15-passenger van early Monday; then, scooted back to Amarillo by 4:00 p.m. On Wednesday, he delivered that vehicle to a customer…
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Finally got out to see Amarillo’s Sod Poodles, our new AA minor league baseball team. We lost, but the team has some big bats (sadly, all the home runs came with no base runners). And they have a kid from Mexico who consistently throws 100 mph fast balls (his control needs some consistency, too). I…