Posts filed under ‘Walt Trizna’
WRITER’S IN THE CHESTER COUNTY, PAOLI AREA. HERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO NETWORK AND EXPLORE WRITING ISSUES.
Recently, I joined this writers group. Meeting at the Paoli library every Thursday, I have found it to be a source of sharing with fellow writers. Something all writers need.
Come join us and learn who we are and learn.
FREE WORKSHOP for WRITERS by WRITERS
Saturday, August 20, 2016
12:00 to 4:30 pm
Paoli Library Meeting Room
18 Darby Rd, Paoli, PA 19301
You are invited to join us for a workshop that is designed for proficient writers and authors to learn from one another in an experiential and peer-to-peer forum. This 4½-hour workshop will be broken into two sessions:
First session: 12:00-2:30 pm. Full group session.
Break/Network 2:30-3:00 pm. Please bring your own food/beverage.
Second session: 3:00-4:30 pm. Small group sessions.
The first session will focus on the writer’s completed goals and lessons learned along the way that can help other writers:
Objective – Each person can speak for up to five minutes about successes and/or difficulties in areas specific to their writing experience followed by up to five minutes Q & A. If speaking please come with prepared notes.
In the second session writers will break into smaller groups according to genre and/or a specific goal for the workshop.
- Genre
- Editing
- Publishing
- Self-publishing
- Blogging
- Public speaking
- Marketing
- Distribution
What to Bring: A brief summary of your work/projects, in order for others to understand your interests and the main goal you wish to achieve in this workshop.
Please RSVP to: Melanie @ s.j.hart@comcast.net
Space limited to 20 due to size of room. There will be no waiting list. We hope to see you there!
REMEMBERANCES: A MEMORY OF MY CHILDREN
My then wife, Joni, and I were playing work tag. She began work at Chester County Hospital at 3PM, and I left my research job at 3PM. Our girls spent minimal time at the babysitter’s home. After going to the hospital and searching out my wife’s car, I transferred their car seats and picked up Annie, 4, and Lynn, 2. Annie was always the big sister during those times, sharing her knowledge of the world with Lynn. One day, as I listened to them talk buckled into their seats, I heard Annie say, “You know, Lynn, there are people so poor that they don’t have a pool.”
I silently chuckled to myself. We have an in ground pool. The reason I found this amusing was that until I went to college, I lived in a house with no running hot water and no bathtub or shower. How the times of my life have changed.
Another experience fondly remembered is Annie drawing on post-it notes and hanging them in the room which is now my study. These were Annie’s drawings. She then brought her little sister into the room and asked her if she would like to buy any of them. They all had a price on the post-it note.
Innocent Lynn said, “I’ll take this one, and this one and on and on.” At the end of her selection Lynn handed Annie imaginary money.
Annie looked at Lynn and said, “This is reality. No imaginary money accepted.”
I don’t remember how the incident ended, but it is an incident I will always carry in my heart.
POEMS & FLEETING THOUGHTS: THE MIND AND HAPPINESS
The world may
Deny happiness
If you are able
To think.
CRITICS
I’m working on a short story, Cliff’s Note, recently rejected but with a good comment and helpful suggestions. I have a rewrite and decided to try the story on my roommates.
First I tried the story on Sammy (Samantha). Here is her response, not good, but she wanted to get close to my work.
Jpeg
Next I looked to Millie for an opinion, hoping for a more positive response. After pondering their reaction, I decided I had more work to do.
POEMS & FLEETING THOUGHTS: A WRITER’S PLIGHT
A WRITER’S PLIGHT
You sweat,
You agonize
To provide words,
At some point after submitting
Time past with no response
You ask yourself,
‘Is anyone fucking listening?’
A writer’s life
Is a lonely one,
You may have friends
Others involved
With the same mission,
But when it comes
To work
You are alone,
POEMS & AND FLEETING THOUGHTS: MUSINGS OF THE ‘1%’.
These are random thoughts, judge them for what they are. I will never reach the lofty level of the ‘1%’, but I feel they make great fodder for stories, how they got there and who was destroyed along the way?
Here are my questions.
What do the ‘1%’ do with their time? Do they send it appreciating their wealth, or crave and work for more? Or do they relax, appreciating the world they created and the world around them? Do they still have the drive to go on? Finally, is their wealth a curse, denying them of the ambition they once had.
Now retired, I struggle to maintain a position in the middle class. But I am naïve, thinking that accomplishments mean more than wealth.
I pray that my kind is not dying.
RANDOM IMAGES: THE COMING STORM
I’m presenting a new category, mainly because it doesn’t fit with anything thus far presented in this blog. If you enjoy it, let me know. If you hate it, let me know, my skin is thick.
Day draws down as the beach empties, time to relax for the evening. Once at your beach rental, you sit on the sheltered porch and recall the release of tension the day has provided. Beer, cocktails and sodas are offered to those tanned and burned friends sharing this vacation day.
With the evening meal done, you all return to the porch and appreciate the view. Costal grass along with elegant birds provide a picture-perfect image.
Looking to the south and west you note dark clouds closing in. Flashes build within their ominous presence and dull thunder signals an approaching storm.
The turbulence of life is echoed to you as the storm draws near.
POEMS & FLEETING THOUGHTS: SPLITTING WOOD
SPLITTING WOOD
On a crisp
October day
I once split wood
The entire afternoon,
Never tiring,
Never straying
From the mission
To keep winter warm,
Now,
Many years later
Walking is sometimes
A chore,
But I remember
Those October days.
WRITERS CROSSING THE LINE
While attending a dinner with a friend, his wife said, “Glad you have a hobby like writing.” My then-wife saw me bristle and understood why. This incident occurred some time ago but not forgotten.
At the time of this event I had already been published and aware of the agony associated on being a writer on the quest to being an author. I have pondered the issues of writing and differences of the title as writer as a hobby or writer as a profession and arrived at the following conclusion.
My thoughts are these. As I went for putting words on paper to attempting publication, I felt writing could no longer be deemed a hobby after experiencing the rejections, multiple times of my work. After some thought, I realized writing can be a pleasant pastime; that some write for the sheer joy of the experience. Never seeking publication, only enjoying the mind wandering to places they would never have considered. Simply enjoying the process of creativity.
Writing is a hobby until you decide to publish. It is then you crossed the Rubicon. There is no going back. You crossed the line from hobby to profession, and God help you. For unless you are extremely talented, a writing gem hidden from the world, you will most likely experience rejection. The words you consider magnificence will push upon the brick wall of reality.
But if you goal is to become an author you will experience a level of doubt and rejection you never anticipated. But someday, if you carry on, your work will find a home and you are on the road of being an author. The difference between writer and author is perseverance.
You made it!
You’re an author now and the years of writing as a hobby are behind you.
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