Five Years a Writer

The writing challenge was  to write the same story four times, with increasingly fewer words.  Read the original post that explains the background here .  My four stories are below: -- Read from the top down to 'reduce' the story with each reading  Read from  the bottom up  to 'grow' the story with each reading Note that each version has a different title that signals the content 900 words A TELLING TALE: Spidey senses, ducks, and big changes —————————————————————————————— —— Once upon a time there was a woman who thought she just needed to try harder and do more in order to succeed in the workplace where she had landed eleven years earlier. It had been a good run, but she was growing bored and she wanted more. More seniority, more responsibility, more respect. More money would have been nice, but money was not the driver. By this point, she had an office with a door though no window. She liked the door for what it gave her — a closed and quiet space in wh...

If September feels like its own New Year, then, for me, October feels like my own "new lease on life" anniversary. Because t wenty-one years ago on October 1, I was let go from the corporate world and, unplanned by me, was pushed down a path that opened a whole new world to me — the world of graduate studies, freelance work and, eventually, teaching.  Being ushered out of the corporate world and into my own brave new world was, in retrospect, a very good thing because I had to learn how to set my own terms and make my own way in the world of earning a living. Which I did.  This summer, my writing group took on the challenge of writing one story four ways: start with a 900-word version, then pare it down to 500 words, then 250 and, finally, just 100 words. I decided to write about  my exit from the corporate world and my subsequent career path.  As I worked my way through the four different story versions, it was interesting to see what I had to take out, could l...

so many dots in the world today drawn by powerful men hard to make sense of them careening through our world how to connect them… dodge the worst of them… live with the picture they draw… a constant challenge some days many days most days I cannot do not the big picture out of focus dots colliding horrific results shootings bombings killings starvation misery hatred grim I skip across the headlines retreat hold firm my own dots aware  appalled  awake ready holding steady  in my own corner writing  connecting  loving looking for a better tomorrow ... Recently, two films gave me reprieve from the day’s headlines.  The first, Downton Abbey: The grand finale . Grand it is — everyone’s story nicely tied up after a couple of hours spent in the company of those well loved characters and their beautiful settings with immense houses, gorgeous clothes, and always-green lawns. A lovely escape.  The second, a documentary about Lilith Fair , the brainchild of Canad...

“'Tis the set of the sails / And not the gales / That tells the way we go” By any measure, 50 years of friendship is something — something to cherish, to nurture, to celebrate. I am fortunate to have a friendship that has endured over five decades. Jennifer and I met in high school (in Edmonton) where I was the new kid, just moved from England, a bit gawky and awkward with my big glasses, goofy hair, and strong British accent. As I recall it, she opened the conversation, I responded, and we have been friends ever since. Fifty years is a long time, but not as long as 72 years. Last Thursday evening, I was in the company of three women who met in 1953 and who remain friends to this day. They were part of the "coronation girls" — 50 young Canadian women, sponsored by Garfield Weston to attend Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in London. They came from all across Canada, meeting on the train that picked them up from west to east. Then the transatlantic voyage on the "Empr...

BACKGROUND : Danielle Smith is the premier of Alberta, a province in western Canada. Her government recently introduced legislation requiring local school boards to remove certain books from their shelves. Backlash ensued and the Smith government has  revised the legislation . We can imagine where this might end... My thoughts are below.  I don't have a photo of my parents' bookshelves. So here is my own shelf of "To Be Read" books: eclectic, including children's pony books that I now read for comfort; my e-reader (on the top) holds everything from mysteries to memoirs, from books on the craft of writing to cookbooks, and more. I can remember moving my finger along the spines of the books that sat on the shelves that lined the living room walls in every house we lived in during my childhood — the same teak shelves, holding the ever-growing collection of eclectic books my parents brought into the house. I was never looking for anything specific. I was exploring. ...

This is my fifth September as a person retired from full-time work. Sheesh. Time flies when you're having fun!  Looking back at how this trip began is wild: with the idea that one day I would retire, followed closely by a public commitment in the form of this blog. I created it in April 2018 but did not post anything until September 30 that year. What fun it is to remember way back then and to review where I find myself today in the fresh breeze of a new September... Paradoxically (or maybe not), while time has flown by these past 84 (!) months, maybe the biggest lesson I have learned is that matters of imagination and creativity can take a long time to gestate, to produce and to share. What, then, fuels me to call myself Writer/Artist, today? Over the years, I have thought about this, wrestled with it, and, finally, come to embrace it; i n November 2023, t he quote below sparked a piece of writing for me on this topic: ARTISTS : Stop belittling your work. Stop using “little”, “j...