Observations From Hadleyville: BRAVE

Saturday, October 22, 2011

BRAVE

I went to the Southwest Writers Studio in Glorieta, New Mexico, this past week. After several years of setbacks in my writing and personal life I had withdrawn from writing in all but saying it out loud. I went to the Studio hoping for a jump start to this stalled career. Yow. After an amazing week, I'm charged and moving. On the drive home today I listened to Nicole Nordeman's "BRAVE" and decided it was the theme song for my fresh start. I hope you'll listen to it and find a blessing, too.

1 comment:

Iris Houdyshel said...: I love the song "brave"! Thanks for posting on you blog again, I missed it!; October 23, 2011 at 11:36 AM

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WORDS OF WISDOM FOR WRITERS

The secret of becoming a writer is that you have to write. You have to write a lot. You also have to finish what you write, even though no one wants it yet. If you don't learn to finish your work, no one will ever want to see it. The biggest mistake new writers make is carrying around copies of unfinished work to inflict on their friends.

I am sure it has been done with less, but you should be prepared to write and throw away a million words of finished material. By finished, I mean completed, done, ready to submit, and written as well as you know how at the time you wrote it.
-Jerry Pournelle

WHAT'S THIS HADLEYVILLE THING?

Those of you familiar with Mark Twain’s works might recognize my blog title. As Samuel Clemons grew older, he became increasingly disillusioned with humanity. Towards the end he began referring to the Damned Human Race; employing the secular and religious epithet at one stroke.

I find I’ve not reached that level of despair myself. I still believe in redemption and I still see signs of nobility even among we fallen, damned creatures. So, I could not bring myself to call this blog “On the Damned Human Race.” I do however, resonate with another of Clemmons stories; “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg.” And viola, there you have it. “Observations From Hadleyville.”