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Posts Tagged ‘persistence’

I recently had an article featured in the Winter 2024 edition of Review Tales. (I’d share the essay but unfortunately it’s not freely available.) If you click through the magazine links, you’ll see my article highlighted in the bottom right-hand corner of the cover. I’m writing about something with which I am all too familiar! “When the Muse Takes a Holiday.”

* Find Review Tales at Amazon and B&N.

I will say that the promotional elements of creative work can be a little challenging. I’ve never been that comfortable talking about myself. 

It’s not about me, I want to say. Art is about us, and the world we create together. 

“It can seem like it’s about, Look at me! Like me! Approve of me!’, but I think it’s really about finding your people. It’s about connections, especially when you grow up feeling different and like you don’t have a community. Through art, you’re able to find that community, which is a wonderful thing.”

Maya Erskine, on why she’s drawn to acting despite “a childhood in which she desperately wanted to blend in”

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Photo by Barry Weatherall on Unsplash

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“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don‘t give up.”

— Anne Lamott

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Photo by peace world 🌎 on Unsplash

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“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

— Thomas Edison

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Photo by Sebastian Knoll on Unsplash

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“We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it as not as dreadful as it appears, discovering that we have the strength to stare it down.”

― Eleanor Roosevelt

Next thing you know, you’ll be ready.

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Photo by ANIRUDH on Unsplash

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For when you’re stuck on a project and thinking that everyone knows how to do this but you. 

Hallelujah! Leonard Cohen’s almighty struggle with rejected song that became a classic

Hallelujah is one of the most famous songs ever written, yet a new film reveals it took Leonard Cohen 180 attempts over a decade to perfect – only for it to be rejected by his record company. Nearly 20 years went by before an animated ogre, Shrek, turned the song into a monster hit.

Is this a little nuts? Maybe, but you won’t always know what’s “worth it” ahead of time. Tastes change, editors are human, and in the end, you’re the artist. Stick to it.

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Photo by Stephen Leonardi on Unsplash

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Because some days it’s nice to be reminded that just because something looks impossible doesn’t mean that it is.

Realistic Catfish Drawing Looks Like It’s Swimming Off the Page

The linked video makes the illusion particularly clear.

In completely unrelated news, I’m almost done with my taxes.

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Photo by Kindel Media on Pexels.com

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Sometimes, there is only one question that matters: Did you quit today?

No, no I did not.

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I always wanted to be able to draw. In high school, I had a friend who was a wizard with a pen. It was a form of magic, really, the translation of life to page. I could just about manage a creditable human eye and that’s it. The eye’s match was beyond me; the second one was never quite the same. I spent a good bit of my time in French class trying to improve (apologies to my French teacher) but eventually gave up and turned my hand to personalized on-demand poetry for my classmates. (It’s amazing what you can do with a hard deadline.)

I was better at the poetry. But I still wanted to draw, at least a little.

Thank you, computer graphics!

I’m not a wizard, but I was able to fill at least some of that gap with Illustrator, Photoshop and the like. And of course I write, another way to translate life to the page.

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In art and life, find a way to do the things that call to you. The path may not be the one you expected, but it can take you to your destination just the same.

My personalized monogram in the style of Tolkien’s glyph.

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I’d like to say something inspirational, something supportive, something that will help you navigate the challenges we’re all facing these days. At the moment, though, I’m coming up a little short.

Instead, here’s an image that reminds me that even in the darkest times, our persistence, our knowledge, and our shared humanity will help us find a way forward.

 

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Hooray, my space pirate draft is complete! At almost 18,000 words, it’s the longest “short” story I’ve written to date. Ok, fine, it’s a novella and I’m ok with that.

I’ll need to go back over it, check a few things, get a degree in orbital mechanics (not really) and answer that age-old question, “Do donuts stay fresh longer in space?” Inquiring minds want to know! In the meantime, the draft is on its way to beta readers.

I like it, hope they do too!

 

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

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