Ask the Author: Gary Moreau
Answered Questions (7)
Gary Moreau
I was born. And in the world next to ours, residing just outside our vision, but within our touch, it, too, was born.
Gary Moreau
Go someplace where there are young people. The energy is contagious.
Gary Moreau
Writing forces you to clarify your thoughts. Good writing leads to better thinking. And better thinking leads to, well, maybe not riches, but an interesting life nonetheless.
Gary Moreau
I will be practical for a moment because if you are hoping to write the passion must already be there. And nobody needs to tell you to stick with it. If you're reading this you've already learned that lesson.
I've written 8 books to date under my real name, Gary Moreau, and a pen name, Avam Hale. And I have penned several magazine articles and a couple of blogs. The two most important lessons I've learned:
1. Make sure there is a market for what you want to write about. Sounds simple enough but I made the mistake early on of assuming that everyone was interested in the same things I am. They're not.
2. Make sure you have a message and that it can be written on the back of a business card. Again, seems simple enough. But when you have a passion for writing, as I do, sometimes you just whack away at the keys without really thinking it through. It all sounds amazingly creative coming out but when the reader trudges through it they just don't see the point. And no matter how good the writing is, if there is no point there is no reason to read it.
I've written 8 books to date under my real name, Gary Moreau, and a pen name, Avam Hale. And I have penned several magazine articles and a couple of blogs. The two most important lessons I've learned:
1. Make sure there is a market for what you want to write about. Sounds simple enough but I made the mistake early on of assuming that everyone was interested in the same things I am. They're not.
2. Make sure you have a message and that it can be written on the back of a business card. Again, seems simple enough. But when you have a passion for writing, as I do, sometimes you just whack away at the keys without really thinking it through. It all sounds amazingly creative coming out but when the reader trudges through it they just don't see the point. And no matter how good the writing is, if there is no point there is no reason to read it.
Gary Moreau
I wake up.
I'm actually not trying to be funny. I write because I love to think. Writing forces clarity of thought and if you want your thoughts to amount to anything they have to be clear.
I am a sexagenarian now and have been a student of life as long as I can remember. My parents gave me many things but their biggest gift of all was an insatiable curiosity. On balance, it has served me well.
If nothing else I have lived an interesting life. And that's not a bad scorecard I've learned.
I'm actually not trying to be funny. I write because I love to think. Writing forces clarity of thought and if you want your thoughts to amount to anything they have to be clear.
I am a sexagenarian now and have been a student of life as long as I can remember. My parents gave me many things but their biggest gift of all was an insatiable curiosity. On balance, it has served me well.
If nothing else I have lived an interesting life. And that's not a bad scorecard I've learned.
Gary Moreau
UNDERSTANDING LIFE: CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING
This is the third book in the Understanding Series and will be published in paperback on September 15, 2017.
This is the third book in the Understanding Series and will be published in paperback on September 15, 2017.
Gary Moreau
Like all book series, the Understanding series began as a single title. I was an American living and working in Beijing, China and struggling to understand the why behind the what of Chinese culture. I knew what to expect in most social and business settings. The differences between Chinese and Western culture were sometimes a source of stress, however, because I failed to grasp the motivation behind the behaviors that were at odds with my familiar Western conventions.
Eastern philosophy and religion are both pretty well documented, so that seemed a good place to start my journey of discovery. And as I sought to understand both, and how they differed from their Western counterparts, I inevitably found myself enwrapped in issues of reason and logic. Aristotle and Confucius, among many others, joined my trek and their whispers eventually led me to the land of duality that is deductive and inductive logic.
And then it clicked. Two is a recurring theme throughout all of life. It takes two to make a pair. It takes two to make a baby. We have two hands, two feet, and two eyes. We experience highs and lows. We are happy and sad. We become ill and get better again. We record our commerce with double-entry accounting. There is sunshine and there is shadow. The workweek has a beginning and an end. We live and we die. We start a thought and then, hopefully, we finish it.
All of a sudden twos were everywhere I looked. And being in China, at the time, I didn’t have to look far to see perhaps the most well known symbol of two on the planet – the symbol known as Taijitu, the Great Polarity, or simply the symbol of yin and yang. In the Chinese worldview they are the two opposing but complementary forces that define the universe and everything in it.
When I moved back to the United States the symbol of Taijitu itself was in less evidence. But the concept behind it remained everywhere. I continued to see twos in business, politics, parenting, and friendship. Light and dark. Fire and water. Male and female. Pro and con. Friendly and not. Good and bad. Hot and cold. And, yes, yin and yang.
The earth has two poles. A magnet has two poles. A pole has two ends. An end once had a beginning. And the beginning of anything eventually comes to an end. The finish of one day leads to the start of a new one. A seemingly dead plant comes alive with the arrival of spring. Spring turns to summer. The circle of life turns.
The Understanding series is all about twos. Specifically, it is my attempt to use the duality of reason, deductive and inductive logic, to better understand both the world we live in and the pursuits we engage in while doing so. It is not a series devoted to philosophy or logic, although both can be found in some of the words and between them all for those so inclined to look.
It is a series devoted to the black and white of reality, recognizing that reality always takes on tangible dimension in a broader conceptual context. Nothing exists in isolation. Absolutes are inevitably relative to something. A line bends back on itself to become a circle. All shapes have a center of balance. An idea sparks new ideas. An understanding is both a beginning and an end.
The 3rd book of the Understanding Series, UNDERSTANDING LIFE: CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING, will be available on or about September 15. And I am currently running a Goodreads giveaway for 25 signed copies if you are interested.
The first book in the series was UNDERSTANDING CHINA: THERE IS REASON FOR THE DIFFERENCE.
The second book in the series was published on June 27, 2017. It is UNDERSTANDING BUSINESS: THE LOGIC OF BALANCE. It received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.
Eastern philosophy and religion are both pretty well documented, so that seemed a good place to start my journey of discovery. And as I sought to understand both, and how they differed from their Western counterparts, I inevitably found myself enwrapped in issues of reason and logic. Aristotle and Confucius, among many others, joined my trek and their whispers eventually led me to the land of duality that is deductive and inductive logic.
And then it clicked. Two is a recurring theme throughout all of life. It takes two to make a pair. It takes two to make a baby. We have two hands, two feet, and two eyes. We experience highs and lows. We are happy and sad. We become ill and get better again. We record our commerce with double-entry accounting. There is sunshine and there is shadow. The workweek has a beginning and an end. We live and we die. We start a thought and then, hopefully, we finish it.
All of a sudden twos were everywhere I looked. And being in China, at the time, I didn’t have to look far to see perhaps the most well known symbol of two on the planet – the symbol known as Taijitu, the Great Polarity, or simply the symbol of yin and yang. In the Chinese worldview they are the two opposing but complementary forces that define the universe and everything in it.
When I moved back to the United States the symbol of Taijitu itself was in less evidence. But the concept behind it remained everywhere. I continued to see twos in business, politics, parenting, and friendship. Light and dark. Fire and water. Male and female. Pro and con. Friendly and not. Good and bad. Hot and cold. And, yes, yin and yang.
The earth has two poles. A magnet has two poles. A pole has two ends. An end once had a beginning. And the beginning of anything eventually comes to an end. The finish of one day leads to the start of a new one. A seemingly dead plant comes alive with the arrival of spring. Spring turns to summer. The circle of life turns.
The Understanding series is all about twos. Specifically, it is my attempt to use the duality of reason, deductive and inductive logic, to better understand both the world we live in and the pursuits we engage in while doing so. It is not a series devoted to philosophy or logic, although both can be found in some of the words and between them all for those so inclined to look.
It is a series devoted to the black and white of reality, recognizing that reality always takes on tangible dimension in a broader conceptual context. Nothing exists in isolation. Absolutes are inevitably relative to something. A line bends back on itself to become a circle. All shapes have a center of balance. An idea sparks new ideas. An understanding is both a beginning and an end.
The 3rd book of the Understanding Series, UNDERSTANDING LIFE: CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING, will be available on or about September 15. And I am currently running a Goodreads giveaway for 25 signed copies if you are interested.
The first book in the series was UNDERSTANDING CHINA: THERE IS REASON FOR THE DIFFERENCE.
The second book in the series was published on June 27, 2017. It is UNDERSTANDING BUSINESS: THE LOGIC OF BALANCE. It received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.
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