Month: February 2017

History doesn’t write itself. You’ve read that before from me. Visionary people create history so that others can write about it. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Jesus Christ, Charlemagne, King Henry VIII, Christopher Columbus, King Louis XVI, Napolean Bonaparte, Queen Elizabeth I, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Czar Nicholas II, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, General Patton, Franklin Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandi, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Boris Yeltsin, and countless unknown NASA engineers and workers. They all had a vision of how the world should look. Not every action take by these, and others, were positive, but they worked hard to achieve their vision.

What vision of the world do you have? How would you change this planet? It’s possible. It’s been done before. It comes down to how much passion do you have in your vision. An old Cherokee proverb comes to mind. Inside each of us are two wolves. One good, one evil. Both are fighting for control of our actions, thoughts, and speech. Which one wins? The one you feed the most. Are you feeding your vision or is the random thought buried among other thoughts.

Are you living the life you envisioned? What is feeding your passion? How are you changing the world? And don’t worry about writing it down. That’s for others. After all, history doesn’t write itself.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what I’m reading. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read.  I’m still reading Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

Readers love great characters. And they don’t have to be great by the definition of the word. They can be flawed, comical, abusive, sheltered, submissive, crazy or the hero. That’s why it’s always sad when the great characters dies at the hand of the author. We bring life to our characters. We give them back stories and flaws. We put them in bizarre situations and watch them triumphantly claw their way out of danger. And then we kill them. Remember the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones?

Sadly, death happens in real life. 151,600 people die each day according to ecology.com. When it happens to someone you love, you only care about the one. When the loved one of a friend dies, you need to be there for your friend, regardless of how serious the friendship is. Many years ago I did not follow my advice and missed a chance to show how much the friendship meant to me. It’s a regret I’ll have for a very long time.

I’ve heard the hardest thing for a parent to do is to bury one of their children. I have no children of my own, and there is no way I can relate to the experience. Going off the observation of a recent rosary for a 19-year-old man from my church, I would have to agree it is the hardest thing a parent has to do.

History doesn’t write itself. It leaves behind the raw emotions a talented artist could use to create a masterpiece. It opens the door to faith in a merciful God, ready to comfort a grieving family. What could be more historical than that?

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what I’m reading. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read.  I’m still reading Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

Once again, I searched on Flickr for photos for this week’s blog post. Today’s photo comes from Michael on Flickr. He took the photo November 2, 2013, at Heron Pond, Southern Illinois. I have not modified this photo. I’m not familiar with the swamps of Illinois, but this one photo makes me curious. How many states advertise their treasures of hidden nature? Just think of some of the beautiful things that are out there to see.

My first book, which comes out in May 2018, takes place at a bordello in the swamps of Louisiana. I blogged earlier about researching your local nature areas that are similar to where your story takes place. This photo is a prime example of that.  The bald Cyprus trees rising out of the water, the yellow leaves in the background, the brown leaves at the top. All this makes for a wonderful description of a swamp. Yes, it is not Louisiana, but it’s a swamp. If you live in Springfield, Illinois and cannot journey all the way to the swamps of Lousiana, visit Heron Pond and describe its beauty.

As a writing exercise, write a flash fiction story that takes place in the swamp at Heron Pond. Then write it again, but change the location to the desert southwest. It’ll be a different story.  It’s one of the beauties of writing: moving an existing story into a different environment and exploring all the changes. When the location changes, so does your story. History doesn’t write itself.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what I’m reading. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read.  It took me just over two months to read Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body by St. Pope John Paul II. I read through the Paladins of Shannara short story trilogy to round out my week.  I reviewed all four books on Good Reads. Today I’m starting a trilogy by Scott Meyer. The first book is Off to Be the Wizard. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.