Work in Progress

        I am currently working on a murder mystery book. I never thought I would be able to write a lengthy one. I am more of a straight shooter and felt like what do you say besides someone was murdered and who did it?  But in writing this story and it evolving, it has been fun to kind of drop clues along the way, red flags so to speak, until it all comes together to a crashing end. 

I think the hardest part is being objective about what you are writing. I get so caught up in the characters and the story that it is hard to imagine what a reader would be sensing. Am I being too obvious about how it will unfold? Will the story hold someone’s interest? All those kinds of thoughts I try to push to the back of my mind so I can stay focused.  

Writing a blog is easier because it is shorter in length, once you come up with a topic to write about. I think that is why I compiled, in my first book, a collection of my blogs. I thought it would be easy but in actuality, it was an incredibly time consuming project. Rewriting and editing those pieces was stressful; even with my editing and several others, when the book came out, reading it in its entirety I still found mistakes. And by then, the book was in many people’s hands. Oh, to admit we are human is a beautiful thing! 

All this to say, as a reminder, we all have stories inside us. It is just a matter of taking the time to write them down in a coherent fashion. May you find one way or another to let your mind be imaginative! It will help keep you young at heart. 

Pour Me Another Cup!

Writing and coffee go hand in hand to me. Am I alone?  Apparently not, I found out quickly in doing some research.  As Samuel Carlton in Why Coffee Remains the Lifeblood of Writers Everywhere points out (Medium. Com, Sept. 26, 2018) “It’s not just the caffeine it’s the extended stimulation.”  He goes on in his article to give various reasons why coffee seems a hallmark to writers’ toolbox. To quote T.S. Elliot, playwright, essayist “I have measured out my life in coffee spoons.”  Famous writers throughout the ages are known for frequenting coffee shops and then writing with a pen in hand and a coffee cup close by the other one.

I was curious, with all the writers in America, how much coffee is consumed?  400 Million Cups a day which ranks America as the leading consumer of coffee in the world. (e-importz.com/coffee-statistics, 2019) There are greater than 150 Million daily drinkers according to Importz.com.  We are a nation of coffee drinkers for sure!

Now it starts to make sense, you might be thinking, why there are so many coffee chains all over the place.  64% of Americans drink the stuff!  But you might be surprised to learn that 79% still brew at home. (Foodandwine.com, March 19, 2018, Elizabeth Sherman) However, with such a large number of drinkers, coffee shops still have a large market share.

I would surmise that many writers are working from home and brewing their own as I am. That said, I need to refresh my cup!

Dabble with a Drabble

I recently learned about drabbles, a term I had never heard before. Drabbles are short fiction stories that are exactly 100 words. It is a great test, as a writer, of the ability to use brevity of word choice and be concise. Not always is this necessary but when needed, having this skill set is advantageous. I decided to test my ability to write a drabble.

As I sat down and attempted to come up with a subject matter, no fictional ideas came to me. So much of what I write about is non-fiction. I found myself continually coming back to a story I wanted to tell. It was about another writer that has been reaching out and helping me quite a bit in becoming a better writer and more astute. I realized, it may not be categorically a ‘drabble’ but it would give me the experience and practice of writing one. Beyond that, if the story moves me, perhaps it might be more likely to move the reader. So I wrote my piece, confining myself to exactly 100 words with a beginning, a middle and an end per the requirements of a drabble.   I share it with you, my followers. 

The background story is the talented writer friend has suffered with a short coming for over a year now.  This has directly affected her ability to write. She has focused her energy instead on another gift she has which still shows her God given talent to touch others.  

God Can We Make a Few Personal Changes on the Next Go Around

I kind of doubt people, like cats, get nine lives but I am not so sure we don’t get another go around. I have friends that believe that they have been here before. Some swear that they

are experiencing Deja vu, particularly when they hear someone overseas yelling something in a language they haven’t learned yet but distinctly know what is being said to them!  There are other instances that stand out even more clearly making them believe in reincarnation. Let’s assume we do, I want to be prepared to tell God where I think He went wrong with me so that the same mistakes aren’t made. Constructive criticism is always a good thing, right?

Let’s be clear about one thing, in general I am not shy. Having studied communications, public speaking has been a big part of my career path. However, God failed to give me the gene of innate singing ability. I have an amazing ear for music, and detect perfect tone, and an appreciation for all genres of music. But the one thing I am lacking is the one passion I so want, the ability to open my mouth and sound like a songbird. Dear God, I know I have the “It” factor and would definitely have that showmanship and touch millions of people’s hearts if only I had the voice I was destined to have. When you created me with the need to turn off the mic when I start to sing, you missed the mark.

Have you noticed all the beautiful feet on the women you made?  I know vanity isn’t something you placed a high prize on after Eve’s antics but with the advent of the sandal for high fashion for women, it wasn’t long before pedicures followed. Shortly thereafter began men’s foot fetish. How come I was left out here and given boat feet?  A size 11 foot for a woman would require a two appointment booking for a pedicure, twice the cost and no matter how good a job was done, it is too much to take in for any man in ‘’just one look’’.  When a man’s mind is on a boat, it is not thinking of a sexy looking woman.  My feet have been bigger than all of my husbands for Father’s sake. (See, I know not to use your name in vain!)

I raised my children as a single mother. I suppose that means I did a lousy job in picking some husbands.  Lessons learned can be invaluable though I can't blame you for poor choices in that category fairly. You created tons of options!  My father wasn’t good at mate-picking either on the first-go-round either. He got divorced too.  He raised my sister and me for a while as a single father.  In a few years, he remarried. Shame though that his new wife hated my sister and I. Could you have made us not a constant reminder of our biological mother? Or maybe, God could you have made her love us both a bit more? Next time, give it a more thought. Being a kid feeling hated many times was not exactly a whole heck of a lot of fun.  It was so apparent we were the step-kids like the ugly misfits growing up. There were some good moments in there but overall feeling as an outsider in your own home was kind of like living in the SPCA waiting to get adopted by a loving family that wasn’t going to hold your genes against you. I wasn't crazy about the clothes from Sears mail catalog, I look back and think I looked geeky. Or maybe I was a nerd? 

This experience though, gave me some insight so that part was good. I developed into a compassionate woman but I have to be honest with you, lighten up on the sensitivity measure please.  It sometimes makes me feel you subjected me to feeling perhaps a little screwed up for life, more so than the rest of the folks I hang out with. But maybe that is why I am so funny. Don’t you think I am funny God? Bet you laugh your ass off when I get to heaven God! Oh and extra thank you for not putting “It is sinful to use the words ass or shit in the Ten Commandments.” 

My children never knew and still don’t know their grandmother, my real mom that is. We didn’t rekindle any kind of relationship till I turned 50 and about then my daughter disengaged from me. Maybe the right word is dumped me. She essentially decided all of my support for her all of her life was done so she no longer needed me anymore so why keep me involved. I think she wanted a friend and not a mom but thank you for not making me that. I am not so sure she’d have gotten to where she is if I’d have been a BFF.  I know she wouldn’t have if I did what my mother did to me, high tailed it out of town with a guy I met in a bar and flip flopped from one to another, living on love, or is that lust?   Her letter to you would suggest you find her a new Mom and maybe I can relate because at times, I wish my mom had been made different too, like one who stayed around like I did!

The irony God, you know, is all those years I was there for my kids making so many sacrifices unlike my biological mother. Close to the same time my daughter dumped me, I really began to notice things changing with my son.  He got so busy in his own life that he didn’t have much time to really be a son anymore. You made me into a burden to him, something that is often forgotten, something that gets replaced with friends, vacations, parties, etc.… Can you make me more fun and worthwhile to my son next go round so I can have enough attention that my ego isn’t bruised?  At 58 I’d prefer to get the attention my friends get from their kids. Thanks though for the forewarning, make friends with my friends’ kids and ask to be adopted or the nursing home is going to be a lonely place with no visitors. As I tell my mother, you left your kids and I stayed with mine and you get to get real old and die with a relationship with yours. I don't get that with my daughter loving me unconditionally and a son that won't come see me like I come to see her. So maybe leaving me wasn't the worst thing she could have done afterall and she should really stop apologizing now.  I am where she was all those years ago.  God, you really screwed that up, sorry to say , from my perspective and my mom's.  Rework the plan next time or make me a total bitch so shit doesn’t hurt!

Cancer was a shocker in my life. I think I'd have liked to keep my breast. But I do believe that it has helped me stay motivated to work for this crummy disease that takes so many beautiful people, and not so kind people. But a life is a life, they are all worth trying to save. And  you know how much work I have done trying to save them. Can you help me make even more of an impact next go round?  I have a few friends that died too young. I would switch places with them so they could have hung around longer with their kids. They had kids that so loved them and just bawled like their entire world ended when their mom died. I think I would have rather switched places with them and not see their kids die abit inside. I know, your plan is the plan. And their death and their kids keeps me fighting and I have made an impact, but geez, is there another way to teach lessons than having women have to cut off body parts?  Pardon the pun but it feels like a booby trap that just ain't funny God. 

And in the pet’s category, what were you thinking?  Yes, God finds homes for all his beloved animals that need one. But why couldn’t I have a good one, a calm one, not ones that should be on Prozac. My last two dogs are ones that act like they came from the shelter and were abused instead of coming from a breeder as puppies to a loving home, mine!  What could be more loving and stable than me?  Nada more perfect place! Now I have a puppy that eats body parts off of stuffed animals like the last dog.  Isn’t that much like animals in the wild?  Can I have a pussy of a dog next time please?

I want to be rich. I don’t give a damn about being famous. I want to travel around the world, see different cultures and see all the cool stuff you created. I am not satisfied just meeting the kooks you created here in the United States. I want to meet the weird ones elsewhere!  I want to give to the tons of worthwhile organizations out there that no one bothers with that do so many good deeds and go so unnoticed and unfunded. I want to do the work that, if Jesus had been funded, he would have done. Yep, I want money so you can whisper in my ear when I prayer, put the dough here, let the bread multiply here so at the end of the day, I can still feel rich but for the right reasons. I can then hop on a plane and know someone else is super excited and thrilled too. That is the stuff that lights my fire!

Can I be surrounded by sincerity and leaders that care about humanity and the compassion of all of your people or is that asking way too much?  Maybe I pushed the limits on that one since you give freewill. If so, I will back off. I just hate seeing the folks that have the power use it only to enrich themselves and their buddies that are rich and powerful and let others suffer. I know this disappoints you too, people following false leaders with not very good intentions. Also, it sure would be an added plus if friends and people treated each other kindly and with respect for who they are. Why is accepting differences and diversity you created so hard for some people? Do they not see their differences?

God, all in all, you have done a damn good job with my life. Your plan, as its unfolded sure has had a lot of ups and downs, and lots of pylons, my word for hurdles. I know I have banged into a few. Sometimes my driving needs some help, I am directionally challenged!  But when I look back at the journey, every path you took me on led me to a destination that made me smarter than when I took off.

When I look at myself, I am far richer for having gone on this path, the least traveled path and by far, physically and in my own quirky way, less perfect. So maybe I need to reconsider, should I ask for a redo at all?  Aye, maybe I will leave that call up to you after all.  Your master plan is what it is. I rest easier knowing you are in charge instead of me. If I was, hell, who knows where I would land up, probably in heaven a lot quicker actually!  And you might not be ready for me yet!

Out of Touch Blogger!

Author: Jeanette Lynn Dundas

Attending a Book Signing show recently reminded me of how negligent I have been in writing my blogs. I apologize wholeheartedly to those that follow me. It is a matter of making the time, not finding it as time is there if you make any task a priority.

Writing is a passion of mine, though I lack the list of credentials I see on many bloggers page. At times it shocks me that so many follow me but then again, I am not impressed by

college educations, what someone’s title is. No, I am impressed by who they are now, how they give to others and what lessons they can teach me on my growth journey. So perhaps I touch a few of those qualities in you, the reader.

Finding material is only hard when you have a mental block.  The world is full of exciting things to write about and most of us live high on emotions so that generates plenty of dialogue to capture on paper.  And, lately for me, I have been scrutinizing every topic I want to blog about wondering if it will hold anyone’s interest but mine.

The answer is yes. Many times the articles I have written that I have put the most thought

Dan Alatorre - Author

and energy into do not net the greatest statistics of readers. It is usually that impulse write that comes straight from the heart that seems to spread over social media much quicker and to a larger audience.

So, with that said, I will try to stay back in touch! 

Veronica Gliatti

Innermost Thoughts,Your Life as it Happens....Dear Diary & such...

Being a journal writer is an uphill battle for me. I have a tendency to go through dry spells. I seem more motivated when things aren’t going smooth, when I feel like I need to hit my knees and pray. Then, I have more to say, require more of a therapy session and thus, want to grab my journal book and get one for free. And, what does journaling actually do but force you to think and reflect. It is a stop and listen to yourself moment that hopefully creates an aha moment for free! 

 The experience of journaling is the cathartic act of allowing oneself to free flow think and capture it in writing. Communicating to yourself with no fear of judgement is liberating. It is not worrying about punctuation, grammar or spelling also. That slow can frequently slow down the process and interfere with your train of thought.  It is letting the hostility out without having the ugly confrontation that can often backfire.  It is telling someone where to go without mincing words but in a private safe place. It is having the great comeback that is never really said, days or maybe even years after the fact.  It is wrapping up the torn pieces possibly of your broken heart, a fragmented life and dysfunctional relationship.

Too many times, words get in the way of moving forward in your life. Once said, uttered by you or someone near, they can’t be erased nor their initial impact. Putting them down in a journal and releasing the feelings and your thoughts gets them out in a visual mirror and forces you to somewhat listen to yourself also. It is kinda like taking out the garbage and lightening the backpack of life’s stressors.  

Journaling can be as as simple as having coffee with a friend kind of conversation and catching up with the day. It is answering “How am I?”  It is “What did I do today” and “What is making my life incomplete?”  It is the mundane in other people’s lives perhaps but the stuff that makes you wonder makes me feel down or just day dream. Work it out awake, with all your senses in the solution.  Detail how you are changing.  

Family secrets can often be found in a journal’s pages. Put words to horrors, to discoveries, to missed opportunities, to tragedies. This is liberating for the soul and creates a history of life, of the life and times we live in. Your story may be someone else’s and it may, one day, help someone else get through.    Don’t carry the past into tomorrow so release it in a way you aren’t forgetting it, are documenting it if you need to reflect on it but are working through it. You are freeing up your energy and spiritual life to live in the now. The entries on pages of a journal ensure the legacy is left of once was.

  

 Giving praise to God through a journal is an incredible way to devote our prayers also. Many times prayer at the end of the day eludes people because the minute they hit the pillow sleep overcomes them.  A quick visit with a pen and paper is a super easy way to create your blessing list.  What are your top attributes as these are gifts to not only you but to the world.  Don’t ever let God think you take these blessings for granted. Let him know what you are trying to do to develop them and share them with others.

Soul searching is often most sincere when it is done alone. What are the riches that define your life?  Write them down so those that follow you know what you set out to do.  Prayer is communication; writing is a form of effective communication, even to God, thus the Bible. Document your thoughts, your questions, fears and faith issues. You may discover they are answered, simply in the writing process!

Time is slipping away. You are one of the millions of stars God gazes at daily. You are tasked with living fully this life you are given with all its ups and downs and curves along the way. Make sure your life experiences are captured in some way for others to learn or experience part of you.  So many things in life go left unsaid, unknown and when you are gone, they are buried.  Your life can’t be defined by a tombstone. Take pictures, journal or find some other way to make your statement about your life. Just maybe it will be a new beginning, starting with a “ Dear Diary. “  The rest of us can’t wait to hear about it, about you!

Jump into You and Fly

I use to think only a few have talent in art. As I have aged, I realize art is self-

expression. Thus, no art is really wrong or right, it just is. All art is a form of

representation of a person’s self-expression. And we all have a right to express ourselves. In the realm of art, everything is acceptable. There are no holds barred. Your spirit can come alive and soar.

Some of us that relish various art forms were not blessed with amazing skill, we were not given that artsy fartsy gene.  However, usually, if you explore and try out different things, there will be an area you excel in and find your work enriching to your soul.

In college, I learned a lot about the art of writing. Anyone with a college education can attest to the fact writing is required. Included types are literary critiques, term papers, open essay, and yes, in my case, even journaling and diary dream interpretations.

Some of these dream diaries, as they were called in a graduate level class on Freud and the Interpretation of Dreams were shared in small groups. Wow, I thought I had a vivid imagination! Some of the dreams of my classmates were so bizarre it was hard to look at them without my eyes wide and my jaw dropped.  I was grateful I was only required to interpret mine.  But that type of writing was educational actually. Dreams, at service glance, don’t make sense, when you are documenting them.  In writing about them, we were all forced to write a stream of text with no real flow, no story line, not a beginning or an ending.  It was difficult, at first, because we all wanted to embellish our words, put a line between all the dots.

The journaling in this class taught how to write uncensored, true free-flowing writing without there being traditional writing rules in place.  I challenge you to try it sometime. Write or draw or sing, whatever art form you prefer is, without a plan in mind.  What we learned is the more we practiced it, the better we got.  We begin to learn that our restrictions we put on ourselves daily limit our ability to imagine. This has a far reaching impact because it limits our imagination and our creativity.

In reality, we can’t fly, we can’t be on center stage, etc..but in our dreams we can. We may not be able to paint using every color imaginable but in our subconscious at night, with no sensors in place, we can.  We can paint the world! 

Finding a way to express what lights your fire inside is important. It adds a new dimension to you. Never get so busy in life that you don’t allow yourself cathartic releases and to pursue some of your internal spiritual passions. 

For me, frequently, it comes in the form of writing. Even when I was a young child with a limited vocabulary, I wrote. When I have a disagreement with people, I have always found writing easier. Ask my husband, he has been on the end of many letters I have written him even with us living in the same house!

Writing allows you to free flow your thoughts without interruptions. When we communicate, we gauge what we say off of, to a large extent, our viewing audience. Comments from others and non-verbal signals affect what you are going to say and how you express it, your word choice, and your delivery.  This is also true of artistry of many types. Half of the time is spent thinking about how it will end, the picture, the song, the dance, the sculpture instead of savoring the moment and just trusting it will come to an end on its own without you overthinking it.

Putting thoughts on paper, opinions, feelings, etc.  gives complete leadway to express oneself, much as a painter faced with an empty canvas and an array of colors and possibilities begins a portrait. Others perceptions change the way we walk, talk and our level of honesty. Try picking some art form and putting blinders on others viewpoints and impressions.  Just please you.

My writing may not be good, it may not spark an emotion in everyone but it feels wonderful to me. And when I read it back, I see the real me clearly, in the tone, the word choice, the topic.  Oh, I have read many of the great writers’ pieces. I have friends that work professionally as writers and their words are impeccable, their grammar and their style is much easier to follow than mine. But, I am not trying to be them, nor the literary award winner.  

My hope is that, in sharing my reflections, it touches someone in some special way. If is makes someone think, it has accomplished something positive. If it doesn’t, that is okay too. No one has to read it if they don’t want to.  However, I do get feedback that some of my writings touch people; honestly it is so special to me!  It is made more special because I am expressing myself as I truly am, as unfiltered as I can be.  Who doesn’t like making a difference in the life of others just be being themselves?

I challenge you to find your niche, that art form you would enjoy trying but

were afraid to do for failure.  Those things you have thought about finding time

for but know, if you do, you will not be the best, you will not be rewarded with monetary gain and maybe you won’t grab a mention from another soul.  Do it because it feels good, it spreads your wings in a new direction and that, in and of itself is liberating!

I remember a friend telling me she always wanted to be a singer. Her husband finally bought her a karaoke machine so she could be a superstar. Does she sing well, ah, that is a matter of opinion. She is not trying out for a reality show, nor singing on a stage. She is simply singing in her living room for herself. And when I heard her one time, it was invigorating!  Now it is your turn.