Sunday gloom

I took my usual Sunday big long walk this morning, and it drizzled throughout. Though it was a light drizzle it was enough to wet my jacket and pony tail, but not enough to soak me through and through. I liked it. I prefer walking when the weather is gray.

Another gray day
(photo by Keith Alan Hamilton

However I had to watch my step. The sidewalks and Strand walkway were slippery. As a matter of fact, as I was walking downhill toward the beach I thought about the possibility of falling. With my husband and son both out of town I pondered whom I would call for help if I fell and broke something. Just then I walked over a sewer cover and slipped, fortunately catching myself before I fell.

But getting into balance was enough to reactivate the nagging soreness I’ve had in my left calf for the last two weeks. I thought I was over it until I attempted a Spinning class yesterday. I was okay peddling sitting down, but after a few minutes of peddling while standing, the pain came back – just as it’s done every time I’ve tried to get back to my favorite aerobic machine, the elliptical.

So if any of you have followed my blog for a while and read about my fitness claim – that I am always pain free – this new malady is blowing my claim right out of the water. Needless to say, I don’t like it.

Okay, tell me to ice, tell me to take an anti-inflammatory, tell me to just rest. Well, I ice, I take Advil twice a day, and I’m committed to stop trying the elliptical and Spinning for the next two weeks at least. Hopefully that will help, because for sure you’ll find me walking to the beach or on the treadmill at the gym no matter what. I’m a believer in working through the pain – if I should have any – and not giving in to it.

Wish me luck.

New photos taken with my cell phone

Keith Alan Hamilton, poet and photographer and creator of The Hamilton Gallery, came to visit from the Boston area a couple of weekends ago, and we toured him around some of our favorite places. Poems to accompany these photos will be posted soon.

Manhattan Beach

Marina del Rey

The Music Center and Disney Hall

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The Getty

My writing life in 2012

Writing became a way to live with my son Paul’s bipolar disorder and to survive his suicide as a result. However, I never dreamed it would become my way of life. I still cannot get through the day without writing something. However, in the last few years it has become more than a balm to ease the pain. It has become a joy and a way to meet and interact with some very wonderful writing friends. 

Like writing, I can never have enough Buddhas
(Richard Stock photo)

With that in mind, I thought I write down a few of the highlights of my writing life from 2012, starting with my first publisher’s decision to go out of business. At first I was indeed devastated and then so angry. She closed down with four days warning and cut off our websites even before that. But the devastation and anger were very short lived. I reached out to a few writing friends – especially Keith Alan Hamilton – and got some suggestions about where to query. However, my dear friend and mentor Mark Shelmerdine came through for me yet again. He suggested Mike O’Mary of Dream of Things and within two weeks after I contacted Mike, we had a publishing deal. And I couldn’t be happier with this connection. He produced paperback and eBook editions, began a huge marketing campaign, and scheduled a group of readings and a radio show in Chicago in September. That gave me the opportunity to meet Dina Kucera, another author on the Dream of Things list. Her book Everything I Never Wanted to Be is a sad and funny and heartwarming tour de force.

I also joined a few other Facebook writing groups besides the couple of poetry groups I have been in for the last few years. The National Association of Memoir Writers, Gutsy Indie Publishers, Write Your Life Story, Writing Wranglers, Rabble Writers, to name a few.  Also through Mike’s suggestion that I join Help a Reporter Out (HARO), I got a monthly “paying” writing gig on a site called Aging Bodies and connected with Meryl Hertstein who created Bounce Back Women and is planning an anthology of women who faced adversity and their bounce back stories. Other writing organizations I got involved in this year are Storylane, Story Circle, and She Writes. Too much for sure, but I’m never without some place to submit my words. Speaking of, I also participate in Robert Lee Brewer’s poem a day challenges in April and November and write to his weekly prompts.

Besides I continue to write for Naturally Savvy, PsychAlive, and Open to Hope, Red Room, and my own blog, plus my regular tweets and posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. I wonder what more is in store for me in 2013. The writing opportunities are indeed endless.

I’ve also increased my speaking and signing engagements this year – speaking about my book, writing to heal, and writing tips in general – on NAMW, Google+ hangouts, at a couple of Great Los Angeles Writers Society-sponsored writer’s conferences, and a wonderful evening at my synagogue on a panel about surviving tragedies – plus participating in the GLAWS booth actually selling and signing at the LA Times Festival of Books and the West Hollywood Book Fair.

And still there is always work to do. This writing life is way more than just sitting down to write. It is so easy to see my time gobbled up with marketing activities.

Probably why I keep putting my historical novel back on the shelf. That is not to say that I’ve made no progress. I’ve gotten to over 90,000 words this year. Actually I’m not looking to write many more words but to flesh out what I have – why I’ve signed on to take a workshop in revising my novel in February at UCLA extension – one of my first formal writing activities in the new year.

It’s so easy to be a lonely writer, so going to GLAWS meetings and interacting on hangouts and roundtables, and taking classes is always a way to learn and network. And through these kinds of activities I’ve made some wonderful writing friends this year who have generously hosted me and my book during my three-month blog tour and wrote guests posts on my blog Choices. I cannot thank them enough. Makes me feel I’m not so alone – that we all have the same questions, misgivings, and thoughts about our writing. Now I know whom my go-to people are for sharing and give and take. As with everything else it takes a village to be a successful writer. I look forward to more interactions in the new year.

Thank you again, my writing friends. I appreciate and love you so much.

Meet my dear friend, Keith Hamilton, poet and cell-phone photographer

I think I was one of the first to join Keith’s Facebook group Poets, Writers, Photographers, Musicians, Artists, etc., and as such we developed a mutual admiration for each other’s work. Keith offered to showcase my work on his Hamilton Gallery and has been very generous in promoting my work ever since. My husband and I had dinner with Keith when we were in Boston last spring, and we became devoted friends. We’re also talking about collaborating on a poetry and cell-phone photography project. More about that later.

Keith’s style is earthy. He doesn’t pull any punches. And he has a heart of gold – all he wants to do is save the world.

How and Why I Publish

By Keith Alan Hamilton

I’m a Publisher, editor, poet, writer and cell-phone photographer.  I have a mind that fires on all cylinders; I think and think and think about everything, often to the point of mania, which leads to mental fatigue with extreme lows of prolonged depression.  I have thought of suicide so often, I’ve gotten used to it as a part of me being me.  

As far as me as an artist, I have been developing my spiritual philosophy, style of writing (poetry, prose, sayings, etc.) and photography for many years. My words and photos are rooted within the nurturing arms of my hero, my Polish/German mother, who filled me with her willpower and loving temperament. They are also deeply influenced with the character of my Scot Irish grandfather, who was a master storyteller and could hold his audience spellbound for hours on end. My words and photos often reveal the cultural flavor representative of where I was born. I was raised in the USA, a small place called Freeland, Michigan.

If I were asked to describe my style, I would say it embodies the everyday spirit of a Norman Rockwell illustration, a sort of raw Mark Twain individuality and the perfectionist mannerism captured in an Ansel Adams photo. It is my hope that my everyday style, that unique flavor tasted within the emergence of my words and photos, will appeal to a broad spectrum of people around the world.

At Keith Alan Hamilton.com, I am an online publisher who provides the creative spirit greater distribution and readership over the Internet free of charge. The two websites I publish online are The Hamilton Gallery and NatureIQ.com.  They are what I call living documents (works of art in progress).  It is my vision to create over the Internet, a freely accessible publishing environment by way of a flip book technology.  Online, people can view (free of charge) the evolving creative process of my artwork, as well as other artists featured (a networking collaborative of Poets, Writers, Photographers, Musicians, Artists, etc.).  Why? I am a firm believer that creativity breeds creativity and the more creativity that is shared with others, where people observe and experience the entire creative process from start to finish, will benefit all humanity. By seeing the struggle to bring forth works of art the people of the world from young to the old too, will be inspired to be more creative themselves. They will be encouraged to bring forth works of art in word and image to be shared with others, which will collectively provide positive change for all humanity.

By allowing artists the opportunity to showcase their artwork, be published through this flip-book technology at my web sites, free of charge to them, over a freely accessible medium like the internet, a larger audience of people can experience, view and read their style of artwork. Many artists, me included can get published at a relatively moderate cost today; however, many of us are not promoted and distributed to the point where our creations can be viewed and/or read by others on a large scale. Many artists are not as concerned with getting rich or being famous, but rather if their work, their creations are being widely viewed and/or read, shared and enjoyed by others. That is my heartfelt hope, my vision in forming this collaborative of the best artists in the world, is that they get widely distributed for the lasting benefit of humanity as a whole.

Keith’s links:

The Hamilton Gallery  ~  Online: an Artist Collaborative of Words, Images and more..... http://www.keithalanhamilton.com/navigate.html

NatureIQ.com: Let’s Survive, Not Die!  

http://www.natureiq.com/

My online book Nature  ~  IQ: Let’s Survive, Not Die!  Will be published in print by Inner Child Press before the end of the year.  http://www.natureiq.com/intro/Default.html

My Youtube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFaYylHp_4k&list=HL1350750235&feature=mh_lolz 

Introducing my guests

For a change of pace I’m going to devote the next three weeks to the voices of other wonderful and experienced writers and publishers. I’ve asked eight people whom I’ve either met personally or online to tell you about their writing, publishing, and marketing experiences.

I feel so fortunate that they have agreed to be my guests here on Choices. I hope you will keep coming back for more and more. You’ll find the information interesting and very helpful to your writing lives.

Here’s my guest lineup in order of appearance:

Sharon Lippincott            November 26

Sharon is the author of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing, knows she's been successful. Her insightful questions and observations have challenged people in many areas for decades. Today they are primarily aimed at students in her lifestory and creative writing classes along with readers of her blog, forum posts, book reviews, and other publications.

Kathleen Pooler            November 29

Kathy is a writer and a retired Family Nurse Practitioner who is working on a memoir about how the power of hope through her faith in God has helped her to transform, heal and transcend life’s obstacles and disappointments: divorce, single parenting, loving and letting go of an alcoholic son, cancer and heart failure to live a life of joy and contentment.

Mike O’Mary                      December 2

Mike is founding dreamer of Dream of Things (my publisher), and a writer of essays, fiction, drama, and sketch comedy. He says, “I started Dream of Things because I wanted to find ways for us to work together more often. I also hope to make a lot of new friends and to work with many of them. Dream of Things is a place where other “dreamers” can share their ideas and stories and have fun in the process.”

Deborah Kalan                 December 5

Deborah says, “It feels great to send my words out to the universe and hope that something I say, some group of words or stack of sentences might affect someone in a positive, reflective way. That’s when I know if I’m asked ‘what do you do’? I can casually and with great confidence say, ‘I’m a writer.’”

Cheryl Stahle                    December 7

Cheryl, author of Slices of Life: the Art and Craft of Memoir Writing, is a memoirist, writing coach, teacher and author. She has set as her life mission to help people tell their life stories using her years of experience as a writing coach combined with a slightly off-center perspective of the world.

Keith Alan Hamilton     December 10

Keith says, “I’m a publisher, editor, poet, writer and cell phone photographer.  I have a mind that fires on all cylinders; I think and think and think about everything, often to the point of mania, which leads to mental fatigue with extreme lows of prolonged depression.  I have thought of suicide so often, I’ve gotten used to it as a part of me being me.”  

Sonia Marsh             December 13

Sonia is a “Gutsy” woman who can pack her carry-on and move to another country in one day. She’s a motivational speaker who inspires her audiences to get out of their comfort zone and take a risk. She says everyone has a “My Gutsy Story”; some just need a little help to uncover theirs. Her story, told in her travel memoir Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family’s Year of Gutsy Living on a Tropical Island, is about chucking it all and uprooting her family to reconnect on an island in Belize.

Doreen Cox               December 16

Doreen’s first book, Adventures in Mother-Sitting, is a memoir of her three years as a full-time caregiver. The experience as her mother’s caregiver offered the ultimate spiritual adventure, bringing to the author bittersweet lessons related to trust, faith, unconditional love and compassion.