Tag: Writing

Writing about writing, autobiography, cross posting selected work from other places.

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Writing

Mining Memorabilia

Bankers boxes full of memorabilia.

Like many Midwestern homes, ours has become a cornucopia of stuff. I think about downsizing, and had better get on that or face an estate sale at the end of the line. For now, though, the accumulated memorabilia is the equivalent of a limestone quarry: the stuff of which to build my literary edifices.

Instead of disciplining myself to write a book of fiction in 1986, I continued to collect writings, journals, photographs, clippings, books, musical recordings, posters, and such until they would press hegemony into my 2025 writing space. One book into my autobiography, I am now mining this personal memorabilia to tell my story.

Let’s frame this with a passage from a letter I wrote to a friend:

I got a copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald On Writing from the Book of the Month Club. Though I had little good to say about Fitzgerald before now, there is much of what he says here I find pertinent. I recommend this book; much of it makes sense to me. He speaks of an attic of albums, files and clippings being the bank account of a writer, I look around my study and say, ‘Of course.’ This spring I hope to draw on my account and invest in creative endeavor. Appreciation will come close behind. (Personal Letters, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, April 6, 1986).

I’ve been back and forth with Fitzgerald, but he got this right. The part he missed is the role living memory plays in writing. Sometimes memorabilia can trigger living memory, and that is the point of keeping it. The trouble I’ve found is letting go of it, both literally and figuratively. The best use of attic findings is to allow them to be a springboard for new ideas or a germ of creativity. What writers do here isn’t coal mining. It’s more like panning for gold in California. If an artifact doesn’t present value, we should get rid of it.

Organizing personal memorabilia for use is not a straight forward task. Like anyone, my tendency has been to throw things in a box or folder and tuck them away wherever there is space. As a result, memorabilia is scattered all over the house in a semi-organized mess. The wall of boxes outside my writing space is intimidating and inadequately marked. Boxes are seven high and seven wide, or 49 of them. This doesn’t count the other two walls of boxes, or the trunks, desks, and stashes in the living room and bedroom closet. Since I am following a chronological narrative, it would be best to arrange everything by date order. That in itself would be a too-long task.

There is a lot of writing to be found in memorabilia. That raw material is the easiest to convert to new narratives. Sometimes I quote directly from the past with minimal editing. Sometime I take previous pieces and completely rewrite them while preserving the essence. Either way the presence in the original usually shines through its new use. That’s what a writer wants. By the time I finish book two I expect I won’t have touched half of the memorabilia. If the narrative is good, I’m okay with that.

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Writing

Should I Substack?

Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

I put up three posts on Substack to see what they did. They got a lot more views than the same posts received on WordPress. Is there a future there? I don’t know.

The challenge I face, and many others like me, is to monetize my writing. I have one book done and privately published. I’m about a fourth of the way through a second. I need resources to revise the first book and publish it on major platforms as an eBook, audio book, and on-demand paper book. By the time I get that finished, I should be ready to repeat the process for the second book. Our pensions are presently sufficient to live, yet there is nothing extra for book publishing. I have to raise money to get my writing out there.

The model for Substack seems straightforward. Put your work up, and structure subscriptions so there is a free option, combined with tiered subscription plans that offer subscribers something extra. If I can develop a large following of paid subscribers, I might then afford publishing my two and any future books I might write. I could even publish the books on Substack as a premium benefit for paid subscribers. Details of that could be worked out.

The question is can I develop a following beyond my loyal readers? It’s an open question that’s partly answered by my other public writing… from which I receive plenty of feedback. If anything, my exodus from most social media platforms has increased the number of visitors to this website. But will they convert to Substack and pay?

WordPress offers a pay model, which I haven’t explored. I expect it was to keep up with the Jones’s at Substack. When comparing the two platforms, number of viewers trumps workable software every time. It is Substack or nothing, based on viewers, I think.

Maybe I am looking at monetization wrong. Perhaps I could figure out how much money I need for the two books and do a Go Fund Me campaign. That could work. It seems less complicated than an ongoing subscription project. I could also start streaming on Twitch or another platform that generates income. Whatever it is, I may have to add a fundraising hat to my closet to keep up.

I’d be curious to know reader reactions to this topic in the comments.

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Writing

Back on the Trail

Trail walking on Feb. 25, 2025.

I’ve been back on the state park trail for about a week since the cold snap. The debate in the neighborhood is whether winter is over. The consensus seems to be winter is not finished. I maintain winter never really got started this season. The relatively warm temperatures, consistently, and year upon year, mean trouble for us all regardless of what the president does about the endangerment finding.

I have been reading the news and doing my best not to think about it. Very little is positive. Six weeks into the new administration and I feel strong, ready to upgrade my resistance. However, new shrapnel continues to fall from the sky. Better keep my powder dry a bit longer.

Yesterday I planted the second tray of seedlings: spinach, celery and arugula.The seeds were from 2022, so I’m not confident of the germination rate. I ordered new ones which should arrive next week. The spinach and arugula should show quickly whether or not they will germinate.

I have been working on my book daily for the last week. Mostly, the word count is going down as I edit a chapter about the period 1985 until 1987. There are some instances when a quote from my written journal or papers is appropriate. More often, I’m find such texts to be the basis for new writing. As I progress through the book, I believe I will use quotes as a starting point for a draft instead of using them as an actuality that nests in the narrative. This is especially true when I have new insights into what that 30-something man was thinking from a privileged viewpoint in 2025.

Today is the “buy nothing” day and I hope to keep my credit card in my wallet. If I can’t go a few days without buying anything other than emergency items, then what have I been doing the last 70+ years?

These daily blog posts are helpful in getting the writing fluids flowing. The next major change in my intellectual life will be when it is warm and dry enough to work in the garden and yard. Since I missed planting garlic in the fall, that will be the first crop to go into the ground: as soon as the ground dries enough to till the soil. Today we are not there yet.

These days have been the best part of winter. I intend to use them as I can until spring truly arrives.

Cup of black coffee on Feb. 27, 2025.
Categories
Writing

Summer Arrives

Sawdust from the Peach Saplings
Summer came today...
Cool, windy, clear.

On the weathered picnic bench
I sawed limbs,
fallen during the storm,
into firewood.

A child stacked logs
on the deck,
near the gate
leading to the driveway.

~ Written while living in the Calumet 1988-1993

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Writing

A Chimney Sweep Swept

Photo by Nick on Pexels.com
Black Coat, long cut, with a red flower in the lapel. Top hat rounded, and in good shape.
He hung it on the vacuum tank while he worked.
Come in.
Where is the fire place?
Move things around so there is room.
Lay out the cloth.
Bring in the drum-like vacuum pump,
Rods and brushes.
Move things out of the fireplace
Sweep, lights.
Point out problems with fireplace.
Clean up gear.
Take out gear
Sweep hearth with a hand broom.
Everything is done methodically.
Ford pickup with cover on back, ladders on top,
though he did not use them.

~ From 1984-1985
Categories
Writing

Beauteous Pigmentation

Photo by Anni Roenkae on Pexels.com
I bud with the maple tree
	this Spring.
As insignificant as we seem,
	come summer,
	we shall grow, 
and make manifest our promise.

Come first frost…
	our colors will change,
	our pigmentation turns beauteous,
	as experience will become this adult body
	into which I’ve settled.

As our days are spent,
	whether as bud or as autumn leaf,
	we bring ideas to fruition.

And despite the promise of this Spring,
	I regret all I have now
	is this bud
	on a maple tree needing pruning…
	In a yard someone else has landscaped.

~ From 1984-1985
Categories
Writing

Harvest of Photos

Local Harvest CSA. Pepper harvest in 2015.

My farmer friends are lining up customers for the 2025 growing season. February is the time folks sign up for a community supported agriculture share and there is a limit to how many shares each farm can produce. I used to belong to a CSA yet no longer need one. My large garden usually produces enough good stuff to serve our family. I wish them a productive and profitable season. This photo is one taken after I harvested bell peppers to take home, process, and freeze.

Part of writing an autobiography involves photographs and art work. The visual arts convey something much different from narrative text. In An Iowa Life: A Memoir, the first volume of my autobiography, I included a single photograph of me as a toddler. In volume two, I may include more than one, depending upon the expense. The book is not available to the public at present, but may be once early readers all provide feedback. Here is the cover with the photograph:

The way I used photographs in volume one was to describe something based on them, using my narrative to control the meaning. This is important because we don’t want to distract the reader from the energy of the narrative by introducing a photograph that can be interpreted in multiple ways. By describing photographs, instead of inserting them into the text, we can better guide readers.

Part two begins in 1981, a time when I took many film photographs. I keep the prints in boxes near my writing space, and in a few photo albums we made. I don’t know how to process them, yet at a minimum, I will get them out and look at them. There are a host of projects one could create with old photographs. A couple of days ago, I cleared access to the piles of boxes where the photographs rest.

I had a flip phone with a camera and took this photo of Senator Barack Obama on Sept. 17, 2006. The video of that year’s Harkin Steak Fry is here. It was one of the first digital photographs I took. The quality is not the best, yet it records the moment.

Obama at the Sept. 17, 2006 Harkin Steak Fry

Obama is in the rope line after he gave his keynote address. You can see Chet Culver and Tom Vilsack behind him. I shook his hand and was surprised at how genuine he was in our brief conversation. He had quite a handshake.

On May 3, 2008, I bought my first digital camera and took this photo after opening the box. Once I entered the realm of digital photography, the number of images exploded. Cameras in smart phones changed how I looked at photography. Now I take many exposures of a scene and then pick and edit the best one. There is no additional cost for multiple exposures and device memory seems unlimited.

My first photograph using a digital camera on May 3, 2008.

This has been a roundabout way of getting to the topic. In figuring out how to address photography in part two, I need to:

  • Find all available photographs in our house.
  • Look at them and set aside the ones I can use in the narrative.
  • Pick a small number for inclusion in the book.
  • While I look at them, I need another photo project in the works in which to use them. Posting on social media is one. Making specific albums, both paper and digital, is another. I might enlarge and frame a few of them. Each requires a significant investment of work.
  • Reviewing photographs should help make my picture-taking better. I hope to be cognizant and thoughtful in this process. I hope to be a better photographer.
  • My storage system has been good in that few have been damaged. Determine how to store them going forward.
  • I need to get rid of some of them. I don’t want to pass along photos that are meaningless to whoever inherits them.
  • I will read or reread a couple books about photography. In particular, The Photographer’s Eye by John Szarkowski, Photography and the American Scene by Robert Taft, Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy, On Photography by Susan Sontag, and others. If you know of a current book about photography, please drop a comment with the name and author.

At the beginning, this project is hopeful. It should be a fun year reviewing the images of my past and recalling the living memories behind them.

Categories
Living in Society

Ask Better Questions

Mariannette Miller-Meeks hosting a telephone Town Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo Credit – Miller-Meeks weekly congressional newsletter.

On Tuesday, Feb. 4, Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks hosted a Telephone Town Hall with an estimated 15,000 participants. I listened to the whole thing. If one can filter out all the MAGA assertions, such as “As we know, January 20, 2025 was the beginning of a new golden age in American history,” there were things to learn about the job she is doing on our behalf. I wrote about this previously. The MAGA talking points were wearying yet we must persist.

Whoa buddy! Improvement is needed in the questions asked during the event. Let’s start with a good question to set an example:

Hi. Good evening. Thanks for taking my call. I had a question about H.R. 809, which basically prohibits Chinese ownership of agricultural land here in Iowa and the rest of the country. My main concern about this is this was introduced back in 2023, I believe, and it still hasn’t been passed. Where are we at as far as that goes? And what are you looking at as far as, you know, furthering this cause?

This is the kind of question we all should be asking. It references a specific bill and a specific issue: Chinese ownership of agricultural land. The caller explained their concern and asked the congresswoman for an update. Well done!

Now here’s a problematic question:

Thank you. I’ve been very concerned five years. I’ve been very concerned. Five years ago, the government budget was 4.5 trillion. Now it’s $7 trillion or over that. And I’ve noticed what the government’s using that extra money for is shamefully discriminating against Americans based on race. I’m concerned that they’re using USAID money to fund coronavirus research in China and give our adversaries weapons of mass destruction and fund it. I want to know over the next four years, if we think we can rightsize the federal government, if we can fire the people that have been, you know, hired and just wasting taxpayer dollars on things like work from home and how you think the best path to achieve that is?

This caller appears to live in a media bubble that consists of FOX News, News Max, The Blaze, and One America News Network. It’s a free country and people can spend their time and attention how they will. It would be a good thing to ask about increases in the federal budget and how that money is used. The statement, “I’ve noticed what the government’s using that extra money for is shamefully discriminating against Americans based on race” comes directly out of left field racist talking points and detracts from the effectiveness of the question. This is a case where if the caller sat down at the kitchen table and wrote out what they wanted to ask, they would seem less like they were in a media-induced trance.

Not only conservatives have been marinating in media bubbles.

Hi. I had a question. I was concerned about, you talked about, you know, putting America first. You talked about this is going to be an age of national security, but I’m very concerned about our national security. There is an undocumented immigrant that was just granted clearance to a lot of really confidential data. Um, Elon Musk has overstayed a student visa, and he’s not here legally. And so I’m very concerned about that. You you spoke earlier about caring a lot about illegal immigration. So, um, you know, I’d like you to elaborate more on your previous answer, um, because that seems like a contradictory statement. 

This discussion appears to have come from the timeline of someone’s social media. The caller does not identify the undocumented immigrant who was just “granted clearance.” Likewise, hate him as we do, Elon Musk is a U.S. citizen. If one is to call into a public town hall meeting, set the socials aside, and like I recommended for the conservative caller, sit down and write out what you want to ask. Get the facts straight. Be brief, be brilliant, and be done. I believe it would be more effective and might help get actual answers.

It is unfortunate participants in the call had to wade through the poorly worded questions and the congresswoman’s ideological answers to access useful information. In some cases, callers just wanted to make a statement. All I’m asking is please do your homework and think before opening your mouth to speak in public. I know I’m better off when I do.

Categories
Living in Society

Making a Stand

Government issued boots.

A recurring theme in my personal journals is the following:

We must all recognize our two feet standing squarely on the ground. (Personal Journal, Iowa City, Iowa, June 29, 1983).

What does that mean? Since I left home to attend university, my life has been one of self reliance. I intend to stand on my own for as long as I can.

Today, I’m thinking of friends whose life is impacted by the new administration and its unlawful cutting of government programs. I’ve been spared much of the current pain because I rely on government programs as little as possible. This round of cuts, the two main ones that support me, Social Security and Medicare, have been spared the knife. During a Feb. 4 telephone town hall, my Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks said, “(President Trump’s) instruction to us as well is that there are no cuts to Medicare or Social Security.” Check with me next year to see if that continues to be the case.

I received a government paycheck twice. When I served in the U.S. military and when I worked at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry.

My 1975 enlistment in the U.S. Army had everything to do with how screwed up the military was coming out of Vietnam. I asked myself, if regular people didn’t step up and fix the mess, who will? I stepped up and did what I could to make the military better. While my colleagues tried to convince me to stay in, I finished my enlistment, got out, and finished my graduate degree with money from the G.I. Bill.

When I took a job at the Dental School, I was seeking employment to support myself as a writer. The University of Iowa is by far the largest employer in Johnson County and my prior military service put me a step up in the point system they used to select candidates for jobs. I met my future spouse there and once we married, it was time for employment outside government work.

Among my friends and their families, many work for the government and are caught in the current, illegal federal funding slowdown and cuts. Some have invested heavily in the jobs they hold, with degrees, with tenure, and with a commitment to place. I empathize with them.

I’m glad I left my government jobs, and to be honest none that paid well enough to support a family was ever offered to me. It’s not like I was looking.

I’ll admit we need the government for things like utilities regulation, road and bridge building and maintenance, financial regulation, public water standards, research and development of new treatments for disease prevention and cures, and more. Self reliance goes only so far. I could get along without all these things, yet it would be a poorer world. We join together for enterprises bigger than ourselves. Abraham Lincoln once said, “The legitimate object of government is ‘to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves.'”

I paid taxes since 1968 and have been happy to do so. I served four years as an elected official to help provide emergency services for the community and maintain local cemeteries. I volunteered in our neighborhood to help provide a public water system and wastewater treatment. Now our government needs to make wealthy people pay their fair share of taxes. I don’t see many rich folks out here doing volunteer work. What’s fair for one is fair for all.

Although I have two feet standing squarely on the ground, I know it is good for society when we bend down and lend a helping hand to those who need it. Together we can find resilience. I hope we will.

Categories
Writing

Writing My Way Out

Morning sunshine along the state park trail.

As part of the resistance, the machinery of a Republican government will be clanking in the background no matter what else I am doing, even as it needs improvement, maintenance, and breaks down intentionally. I am doing my part and want to do more. I also have to move the rest of my life forward.

It is important to write my way out of 2025 and this post outlines how I intend to do it. One word at a time, one post after another, emails again and again until a flood is unleashed. I worked all my life to do this, so there is no stopping now. The carpentry of my life dovetails with the rest of society even less since Jan. 20. This post is about writing in this new, broader context.

A cleanser from my journals:

Here in my basement I continue to make preparations, to write what I believe will provide the basis for change in the point of view of American life. The change from “the other” to the recognition that we are all part of the whole, of the one, that there is no other, just the one. (Personal Journal, Iowa City, Iowa, May 26, 1983).

I am 31 days into a streak of daily blog post writing. I expect that to continue, but it is not compulsive (I hope). I make a post to get daily words flowing in an organized manner. Correcting and revising each post, then hitting the schedule button is its own closed sphere of narrative. Some are better than others, and that is to be expected. The hour or two spent posting is like turning on the lights in my shop. I can immediately see better.

Equally important are the emails I write. Email is a dying art form, with text, Discord, Reddit, social media, and other venues taking more of our time and writing energy. In emails I work through things on a variety of topics. Each has a recipient potentially giving feedback. I spend a lot of time on a single email because it has import not only in answering someone’s inquiry, but represents an attempt to make more generally cogent and applicable statements. The group of people with whom I engage in the email is diminishing.

Finally there is the book. Doing the math, I need to write about a chapter a week, leaving time at the end of the year to pull everything together. That would present me with a draft for final editing and potentially publishing in 2026. The key at this point is when I get in a groove to keep writing until I have written it out. Hopefully such grooves will present themselves frequently. I drafted the first six chapters, so I’m about where I need to be today.

Recently two cable guys were at the house to fix a problem with the internet service. They wanted to see where my computer was, so we crammed into my book-lined space and stood there chatting. Not many people besides family enter here. It is my hideaway from the ubiquitous politicization of our lives and poor governance by Republicans. It is my safe space until I write my way out.

Work Space is More Like a Bivouac