Jul 052016
 

Never mind that the June 21st solstice marks the change of seasons. Everyone around these parts knows summer “officially” starts on July 4th (July 1st if you’re Canadian). Shorter workweeks, longer days, summer movies (blech) and summer television (much better). Sure you could binge-watch the conventions (and I know you will, despite any warnings I could issue. Go ahead. Democracy at work and all that). There are other, simpler pleasures I’d like to recommend. Below, a small and highly personal list of things that can happily occupy your time.

READ THIS:

Charcoal Joe coverCHARCOAL JOE by Walter Mosley: I can’t think of a more consummate storyteller than Mosley. His Easy Rawlins books are studies in craftsmanship: suspenseful, well-paced, long on detail and short on excess. His ruminations on the black experience in America are unmatched among fiction writers and his evocation of particular time and place unparalleled. Even if you don’t care about any of that, you will still be entertained. Read them all or just this one.

WATCH THIS (television division):

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt logoI started watching “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” on Netflix and I can’t think of a comedy I’ve enjoyed more. It’s a valentine to  resilience and to New York. Not all the  jokes land, but the wit is prodigious and adorned with flashes of brilliance. Ellie Kemper is so darned likable, Tituss Burgess is the eighth wonder of the world and watching pros like Jane Krakowski and Carol Kane will make your heart sing.

WATCH THIS (movie division):

Eye in the Sky logoRent “Eye in the Sky” starring Helen Mirren, the late, great Alan Rickman, Aaron Paul and many other fine actors.  The movie defines suspense thriller; in the silent spaces between the action, my stomach ached from the tension. Underrated, IMHO, it’s a superb if deeply disturbing exploration of the politics and the personal involved in conducting long-distance, drone-operated warfare.

WATCH THIS (advertising division):

Check Molson Beer’s heartfelt tribute to being Canadian in 2016. No wonder everyone wants to move there.

LISTEN TO THIS:

I know “Hallelujah” is overdone but have you heard it sung by a chorus of 1500 backing the sublime Rufus Wainwright?

In a recent interview, master songwriter Paul Simon, 74, claimed to need fifteen hours of sleep these days. He’s clearly packed a lot in during his waking hours, given his tour schedule and his smart his new album, “Stranger to Stranger”.

DRINK THIS:

cucumber lime drinkCucumber Cooler: Combine mint, lime, gin and sugar to a shaker or closed container and shake vigorously. Then throw in cucumber slices and repeat. Leave out the gin, it’s just as refreshing. Other fun ideas are here.

EAT THIS:

taboulehTabouleh is a great summer dish and tastes great the day it’s made. On the other hand, it tastes even better the next day. As a side or main course, for breakfast or dinner, it’s healthy and truly satisfying. Just click on the link and you’re on your way to a simple, no cook tabouleh recipe.

DO THIS:

Sit outside with a book, take a walk without your phone, talk to strangers, talk to animals, think, breath, enjoy.

We’re off for the summer to read, relax and create some art of our own. Feel free to check out the rest of the site. See you in September.

Mar 292015
 

All my life I’ve been trying to communicate. The funny thing about wanting to say something is that no matter how articulate you become, how presumably skilled in getting across your point, you may never feel you’ve nailed it. I’d guess most writers are plagued with the impulse to make themselves understood. I know I’ve been that way since, well, forever.

old fashioned little girl illustrationI wrote my first short story when I was six. By the time I was sixteen, I decided music was the medium and wrote all sorts of original songs, including music and lyrics for school productions. After graduate school and a short stint on Capitol Hill, I was slaving away as a “singer-songwriter” before falling back into the less glamorous but more lucrative career of public relations. Along the way and relatively late in life, I got married. I was forty.

A dozen years later, he was killed in the 9/11 attacks. Impelled by the need to express my sorrow and find my healing, I wrote. The very public death of my husband along with thousands of others gave me a platform. I produced essays, editorials, speeches, delivered via major outlets. I was fifty-two.

I then wrote a book about post-9/11 contemporary culture. Because I Say So: Moral Authority’s Dangerous Appeal, published in 2010. I  also began publishing on a now-defunct platform called Open Salon. Two years later, another book I wrote was published about my search as a skeptic for a version of hope I could believe in. Hope in Small Doses was published in 2012, when I had just turned sixty-three.

After nearly three years of practicing on short stories, some of which were published and many of which were not, I published my first novella, Don’t Move, a suspense thriller. Now I’m working on a novel.  I’m. . .well, you do the math.

Second chance vocations, avocations and passions are all the rage nowadays with organizations like ENCORES and AARP promoting opportunities. A recent New York Times article focused on people finding (and defining) success “well past the age of wunderkind.”

Silver linings.

I have yet to discover whether I have a literary career ahead of me. I’m occasionally appalled to find my chosen field so very crowded. Everyone is a writer; really, ask anyone: they will tell you they’re writing.  #amwriting is a more popular hashtag on Twitter than #amreading, which begs the question: are there any readers for all the writing being put out there?

No matter—well, most of the time, no matter. I’m human after all, still searching for a way to be heard above the din. Age has possibly made me a little less competitive, though, I never really was.

And I’m financially secure enough in my retirement that I don’t need to scramble for $50 in order to supply “content” to some website that makes no distinction between good and not so good writing.

Good writing—including my own—is paramount to me. I delight in putting words on paper but I’m a deliberate sort. Although I’ve written dozens of essays and short stories, I not a “high producer.” Not only that, I’m a very compact writer—I say what I have to say in a few lovingly crafted and carefully edited words.  Industry standards say 40,000 (sometimes 50,000) word count is the necessary minimum for a non-fiction book and 80,000 words for a novel. E-publishing and even improvements in printing, along with varied delivery systems allow us to blur, if not challenge those numbers.

Good, because I’m not about to spend ten years on a novel.

Age is not just a number; it’s reality. I have fewer years ahead of me left to write and possibly fewer than most of you. I fight some anxiety about having the time and the cognitive ability to send into the world a decent number of thoughtful, interesting and above all entertaining things to read. Writing helps, though; it gives me purpose and focus.

Age may make you wiser, but in my case, not less sensitive. I sense my age may make me irrelevant to the world at large, until I turn eighty-five and turn out a book and have everyone ooh and ahh and say, “Isn’t that amazing! At her age!” probably while I’m in the room and can hear them saying it.

Oh well. I need writing and I hope to discover that writing needs me.  So full speed ahead.  BTW, I’m almost cool with my impending role as elder writing statesperson, should that be an option. Almost.
mellow Nikki with computer