Proceeding...
[image error]Me and Mr. Faulkner It’s been over a year since I last posted an entry in this journal. I apologize for that. Web stats indicate this blog gets checked a good bit, so it seems somebody out there is looking for something from me.
Honestly, I stopped making entries here when world conditions and events became too bleak in 2018. After a hopeful start for that year, I soon found little to be hopeful about and didn’t want to make just one dark post after another. I did make a post in June about Anthony Bourdain soon after he died. His death moved me, I think, because I took his work as an inspiration of food and travel. Beyond that, I felt overwhelmed.
“So are things better now?” you might ask. At the level of world events and conditions, no. Things are much worse. At the intimate level of family, friends, and personal work, however: yes. There is hope for the individual. Viktor Frankl said a person can at least suffer well. That’s no small thing, but at this point, we can still do more than just that.
I won’t go into politics or philosophy here. I mean for this to be a kinder, gentler restart. So let me just lay out a few points of how I want to proceed, and we’ll see where it takes us (we are traveling together, after all).
In recent months, I’ve put a lot of emphasis on the literary. That comes mostly from my efforts to build up my writers group (after losing members) and from the book reviews I’ve been doing as an exercise for years now. Both efforts have yielded some good results and positive feedback that I’m glad of, and even find surprising. I think, somewhere, I hit a channel to a wider audience that has responded. It seems there are still a lot of people out there who enjoy the stimulation of reading.
For those literary lovers, I’ll keep posting reviews, centering on the Arbordin Park Press site (Ray-Views). Also, Amazon invited me into their Vines program (to review items in that program; I will concentrate on books). My hope was that they would place soon-to-be-released books in my queue. So far, I’ve only found one I wanted to read and review. It was a YA novel called, Caster. Otherwise, I haven’t seen any books in my Vine queue that appeal to me.
So I’ll keep doing the Ray-Views and post commentary on other literary/entertainment subjects as I come up with them. I also want to include some help for aspiring writers, sharing what I’ve learned. I have started a series of blog posts in that vein and the first has appeared on the South Carolina Writers Association website: The Petigru Review . My intention is to write more such posts.
My local writers group continues to be a big help for me and, I think, for the other writers in it. I want to see it evolve to produce work from the lot of us that people will find interesting and helpful. I see our main vehicle as being our newsletter, Chapter Three , which is a chronicle of our group’s activities. I would like to grow it into an eclectic sort of compendium of links and articles of commentary, micro-fiction, and such—something a non-member might enjoy reading.
As for this journal, I’ve kept it for years, though erratically. At times, it has gotten quite dark. I want to continue it as a place of personal commentary (for public consumption), though hopefully, I can keep it at some level of inspirational. But whenever there are heavier issues to consider and share, I’ll do it here, if I do it anywhere.
I’m not big into social media, but I do post links on Facebook when I come out with a new review, blog post, or want to share an event. Some people like to follow Facebook, though I find it awkward and too controlled. I’ve discovered Twitter and will post stuff there, as well. Of course, Twitter is a vehicle for much political commentary. It may be where the world’s political discourse happens these days. My tweets will be mostly literary. If you want my views on issues, you’ll more likely find them in this journal.
I welcome comments, but I don’t intend to debate commentors. Debate on the Internet can quickly become contentious gridlock and I don’t want to spend my life on such. I want to help and uplift as much as I can. I won’t promise not to be irreverent in the process, however.
The wider world can be perplexing, inspiring, beautiful, ugly, frightening, and even unspeakably evil. So how can I offer commentary without touching on all of the above? I think I can’t. All I can do is promise to be honest with my readers and share as much inspiration and insight as I am able to muster, and we’ll see where it takes us.
Honestly, I stopped making entries here when world conditions and events became too bleak in 2018. After a hopeful start for that year, I soon found little to be hopeful about and didn’t want to make just one dark post after another. I did make a post in June about Anthony Bourdain soon after he died. His death moved me, I think, because I took his work as an inspiration of food and travel. Beyond that, I felt overwhelmed.
“So are things better now?” you might ask. At the level of world events and conditions, no. Things are much worse. At the intimate level of family, friends, and personal work, however: yes. There is hope for the individual. Viktor Frankl said a person can at least suffer well. That’s no small thing, but at this point, we can still do more than just that.
I won’t go into politics or philosophy here. I mean for this to be a kinder, gentler restart. So let me just lay out a few points of how I want to proceed, and we’ll see where it takes us (we are traveling together, after all).
In recent months, I’ve put a lot of emphasis on the literary. That comes mostly from my efforts to build up my writers group (after losing members) and from the book reviews I’ve been doing as an exercise for years now. Both efforts have yielded some good results and positive feedback that I’m glad of, and even find surprising. I think, somewhere, I hit a channel to a wider audience that has responded. It seems there are still a lot of people out there who enjoy the stimulation of reading.
For those literary lovers, I’ll keep posting reviews, centering on the Arbordin Park Press site (Ray-Views). Also, Amazon invited me into their Vines program (to review items in that program; I will concentrate on books). My hope was that they would place soon-to-be-released books in my queue. So far, I’ve only found one I wanted to read and review. It was a YA novel called, Caster. Otherwise, I haven’t seen any books in my Vine queue that appeal to me.
So I’ll keep doing the Ray-Views and post commentary on other literary/entertainment subjects as I come up with them. I also want to include some help for aspiring writers, sharing what I’ve learned. I have started a series of blog posts in that vein and the first has appeared on the South Carolina Writers Association website: The Petigru Review . My intention is to write more such posts.
My local writers group continues to be a big help for me and, I think, for the other writers in it. I want to see it evolve to produce work from the lot of us that people will find interesting and helpful. I see our main vehicle as being our newsletter, Chapter Three , which is a chronicle of our group’s activities. I would like to grow it into an eclectic sort of compendium of links and articles of commentary, micro-fiction, and such—something a non-member might enjoy reading.
As for this journal, I’ve kept it for years, though erratically. At times, it has gotten quite dark. I want to continue it as a place of personal commentary (for public consumption), though hopefully, I can keep it at some level of inspirational. But whenever there are heavier issues to consider and share, I’ll do it here, if I do it anywhere.
I’m not big into social media, but I do post links on Facebook when I come out with a new review, blog post, or want to share an event. Some people like to follow Facebook, though I find it awkward and too controlled. I’ve discovered Twitter and will post stuff there, as well. Of course, Twitter is a vehicle for much political commentary. It may be where the world’s political discourse happens these days. My tweets will be mostly literary. If you want my views on issues, you’ll more likely find them in this journal.
I welcome comments, but I don’t intend to debate commentors. Debate on the Internet can quickly become contentious gridlock and I don’t want to spend my life on such. I want to help and uplift as much as I can. I won’t promise not to be irreverent in the process, however.
The wider world can be perplexing, inspiring, beautiful, ugly, frightening, and even unspeakably evil. So how can I offer commentary without touching on all of the above? I think I can’t. All I can do is promise to be honest with my readers and share as much inspiration and insight as I am able to muster, and we’ll see where it takes us.
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