Going Within: Part ―Writing

For all of us, whether we realize it or not, this COVID 19 has caused us to "go within" to discover new and interesting things about ourselves, our environment, our existence.

For me, part of the isolation has led me to revisit and strengthen some of my writing abilities, my collecting talents, and my love of solitude. In this blog, I will discuss my writing. In the next blog, I will discuss my collecting. In a third blog, I will look at solitude.

I just completed a short memoir called, Counting Down the Yardstick: A Reincarnation Memoir in which I talk about an experience I had many years ago with past life regression, visiting who I was in previous lives. Some won't believe in this possibility and many will have their doubts.

I experienced it and totally believe in reincarnation, the ability to visit these lives, and that who I am today consists not only of everything I have experienced in this life but also in many others. The book will soon be available on amazon.com, barnesandnobel.com, and lulu.com. I will post their availability.

It was fun putting the experience into words. Every morning I spend a minimum of one and a maximum of three hours writing. Some time is spent writing these blogs. I didn't count the number of hours it took to complete Yardstick bet I'll bet it took days and days.

The book jacket description is as follows: In Counting Down the Yardstick, a Creative Non-Fiction Memoir, Michael takes you on a romp that begins in the1600s and continues to the present. He visits five past lives, with the help of David a Past Life Regressionist. The lives include: Italian Baker, Carmelite Nun, Midway Carny, Towheaded Boy, and a Midwestern Farmer’s Wife. A sixth story, a sort of autobiography, is about Michael’s current life, his current incarnation.

The next project I picked up what something that was begun in 2011. Chris, a nephew of friend John, and I picked up a correspondence via e-mail which lasted two years. He was in college at the time and we would see each other on and off over the years at holiday functions at John's house. Our relationship strengthened if only because at the time I was a poet/writer and he was doing a lot of writing as well. Should I call him "an aspiring" writer? 

Anyway, in the way of a book by Rainer Maria Rilke, Conversation With a Young Poet, I got the idea to compile Chris' and my two-year communication into book form. 

This is the book jacket description: This book is a compilation of e-mails, conversations between two writers seeking comfort, solace, and safety in sharing their work, ideas about writing, and life philosophies (and aren’t those really all about the same thing?) 

One of the writers is younger, developing his personhood, studying for his undergraduate degree, trying to discover and/or determine who he is in relationship to the world. Between studies and social life, precious time must be eked out to write. Self-confidence is being developed and at times dashed. He doesn’t want to be told what to do or when to do it and in some ways thinks he knows everything.

The other writer is older, experienced, no longer trying to discover but is rather trying to refine who he is. Degrees and professional experiences and successes are in place, free time is more than available to write. Life experiences have helped him develop his attitudes and beliefs. Day to day life still gets in the way but for the most part, life is settled and he has plenty of time to write. Being older, however, he does wonder if he is becoming a curmudgeon, getting set in his ways, unwilling to bend, not wanting to change or learn something new, becoming lazy.

I expect Relationship to be ready before Christmas. Meanwhile, I have been motivated to pick up on a number of writing projects which have been collecting dust on the metaphorical shelf. 

I have at least a dozen children's picture book stories completed. I am not an illustrator so if (when) I find an agent or publisher, it is their job to assign one of their illustrators to the project. The work for this project is not in "the writing of it," but rather in "the promotion of it."

That job is a tedious one including finding who might be interested in my kind of children's stories, writing inquiry letters, waiting for replies (which often do not come,)  and promotion of the writing to convince a publisher or agent to pick me as a client. 

When I spent my two-week residency at the Ragdale Foundation, having won a juried application scholarship in Creative Non-Fiction Writing, I created a project called, The Museum of Michael's Mind. It consisted of spending the two weeks organizing previous writing and doing some new writing as well which included short stories, essays, dream interpretation, life observations, experiences, poetry, etc. 

Subsequently, I pulled all of the Dementia/ Alzheimer's writing dealing with my walking alongside my life partner, Gregory, on his path with the disease and began a memoir called Gyroscope: An Alzheimer's Love Story. Need to get back to that.

Also, need to look at the rest of the "Museum of Michael's Mind" and see if any of that work might do well in another form of personal memoir.

Not necessarily a "writing project" per se but other projects include getting back to already existing works: "ALZHEIMER'S: A Musical Love Story", "ALZHEIMER'S: An Opera Love Story", "ALZHEIMER'S: The Dialogues", and a few others.

You might say that I have been making good use of my months of being in semi-self-quarantine due to the COVID 19 pandemic!