Learning By Reading

I found a book that looked interesting to me on Barnes & Noble’s site.

A story set in the ’30s and had some element of football in it. So I downloaded it.

Devoured it. The story captured me. The writing… I didn’t spend half my time rewriting the sentences in my head or pondering why the character was acting without proper motivation.

I told Susie, “You have to read this book!”

And, as it was set in the ’30s and had football element to it, she was keen to give it a go.

Two days later she emails. “I’m mad at you! I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. reading that book.”

By now, I’m dying to talk to her about it because it had some fascinating elements. But she halted me from gushing on and on until she finished.

THEN, we had a long talk, breaking it down, decided what worked, what didn’t, why we liked it, how we could learn from this author.

Do That One Thing!

I’ve been buried under an avalanche of frustration due to a software conversion. Have you ever been through one of those? During the first week of the conversion, the phone rang off the hook with questions and snags between the old software and the new.

I know having a sprinkling of gray hair is considered elegant, but I think I grew a whole new patch of gray hair in the last three months. (Seriously, ask my friends).

When we started this conversion I knew it was going to be difficult and I thought I planned accordingly. But I didn’t. Before I knew it, all of my writing time was lost because of the unforeseen problems that developed.

One day in the midst of pulling out my hair – a wise friend asked me.

“What is the one thing you can do to reach towards your dream today? What’s the one thing you can do in order to have forward motion?”

I looked at her at like she was crazy. Certifiable.

“Um, write?”

“Good, then go do

There’s Always a Way

Yesterday I had a 10:00am appointment to record an upcoming radio program. There was just one problem. We’d had a snow storm come through three days before. The whole area was covered in snow and, even worse, slick sheet ice.

I could not get a vehicle out of my community so I did what any dedicated radio talk show guest would do. I decided to walk the two miles to the station.

Big mistake.

I found myself slipping and sliding through slick ice, slushing though snow and walking on top of shrubbery that had been buried when the snow plows came through earlier.