The Artdog Quote(s) of the Week If you’ve been following my blog this month, you know I’ve been struggling to balance a range of unusually urgent demands on my time. As January draws to an end, I can close the book on several of those tasks, but the underlying challenge persists. I always have a lot to do. Don’t get me wrong. I like it that way. But it makes me vulnerable to overload, if I need to take on extra stuff. Whenever I can, I try to anticipate when I’ll be most…
The Artdog Quote(s) of the Week We’re closing in on the end of November, and also the end of NaNoWriMo (National Novel-Writing Month). All month I’ve posted things to encourage writers, whether or not they’re specifically participating. But for all who are participating, this week you go into the homestretch. The toll that project fatigue exacts You’re so close! But sometimes, as we near the end of a long project, exhaustion sets in. Especially if you’ve been extending yourself to make your goals, you may be short of sleep or creaky from bending over your…
The Artdog Quote(s) of the Week In Friday’s post I made the point that people won’t fare very well if they have no purpose in life. But where and how can they find such purpose? For your consideration, I offer a very short discussion, in the form of somewhat-dueling quotes. Pardon, Your Holiness, but that seems a bit short on practical details. Could you please elaborate? How do we get to happiness as the purpose in our lives from where we are today? That’s a bit clearer,…
I’ve been trying to wrap up my final draft and get it to the last editor since the beginning of December. My plans were clear, my goals laid out with pristine exactitude. Yeah, that. The details–although I’m sweating them currently–don’t really matter to the big picture. What does matter is that at any moment something else WILL demand my attention. So instead of a long, wordy post I thought today I’d offer a handful of thoughts on interruptions. This topic yielded a multitude of cartoons and…
I’m writing this post from the edge of Table Rock Lake, in the Hollister, MO area, at a resort managed by Bluegreen Vacations called Paradise Point. I’m enjoying a mini-writing retreat there with my friend Dora Furlong, who set up this trip. Here’s the view (across an arm of Table Rock Lake) from our balcony at Paradise Point. Neither of us is officially participating in Na-No-Wri-Mo, but both of us are trying to make progress on our current projects. And what a beautiful setting for our efforts! The physical beauty of the land…
I hope Mr. Escher was right, because right now I’ve got a big, chaotic pileup of things that I’ve had on “hold” for weeks on end, and now it’s time to deal with them. So far, producing order hasn’t been all that lovely a task. Why the pileup? Because something had to give. For these last many weeks, my primary focus had to be consistently, obsessively, compulsively, on One Important Thing. I spent the weeks between Fourth of July and Labor Day this year embarked on a massive…
I’ve been wanting to round out my mid-week “Social Justice February” posts with art–and I’ve found the perfect “poster man” for the topic. He is Ricardo Levins Morales. You may find that you recognize his work, but even if you don’t I hope you enjoy it. Trayvon Martin-Ella Baker I had seen this image before, but never knew who the artist was. Posters have a long history in art. They haven’t always been appreciated for the art form they are, of…
A much-belated Artdog Quote of the Week! I’ve been playing a little more than I “should” this week (always with the “shoulds” [insert quiet groan here]. You’d think I’d learn). Last week, I finished my final editing pass on Going to the XK9s. It’s the (eighth draft of the) first novel in my planned “XK9 Series.” I sent it off to my editor, took a deep breath, and . . . OMG! Really wanted to get going on the next…
The Artdog Quote of the Week On this Labor Day, I wish both relaxation and a moment of thought to all of you. I know that in this country there are many people who think labor unions are the worst thing possible, so for you folks, here’s my trigger warning. As a teacher who will forever be grateful that my labor union went to bat for me when I was being unfairly treated by an employer, I have a very…