Journalism

I used to be a medical writer and a creative writer in the ad business. Then I became President of a marketing communications company and had multiple divisions reporting to me, including the main ad agency, a PR group, and the web development group. I became dangerous as I got to know a little about everything.

Immigration and the concept of home

It's a long time since I made an entry. Christmas and New Year's Day were gentle this year, and I spent most of January in the US with my niece and her two children, a newborn infant and 2.5 yo, both boys. It was busy and lovely. As a result, I haven't been writing much, although I did manage to enter the Nine Dots Prize competition. It's a project of Cambridge University Press. The subject this year was right up my alley. The question to answer was, "Is there still no place like home?" Naturally, since I've been thinking about this for a lifetime, I had my thoughts pretty well defined. I had to provide a document exploring the topic and how I would approach the writing of a book on the subject, including sample chapter titles (which I had already outlined in a book proposal several years ago and was able to refine), as well as a rationale for why I will be able to complete the writing in seven months. Suffice it to say, I had sufficient evidence to present about years of working toward deadlines.

I love books

Prizes

In the world of literature, winning a prize can propel that masterpiece into a flurry of activity and recognition. Books that may have been overlooked entirely, are now jumping hot off the shelves. I was looking at the short listed books on the Man Booker Prize list over the years since 1969 when it was first instituted. I was astounded by how few of the names of winners I recognized: Hilary Mantel, who won twice, John Banville, Yann Martel, Margaret Atwood, Roddy Doyle, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Salmon Rushdie who went on to win the Booker of Bookers for the best of the best awarded in an anniversary year.

I was astounded when I first learned that publishers pay to get their books on the lists of prize contenders. I had thought the process was pure. But nothing is ever that pure, is it? Someone has to run the prize process and so there are costs involved. But to have to pay to be considered is somehow distasteful. Like bribery.

Cats, books, reality and Edward Gorey

Fascinating read in this week's New Yorker magazine about Edward Gorey whose books I loved when I lived in NY.  I was truly amazed to learn how much I had in common with him. Books and cats are both really important to me. I have five cats at the moment and thousands of books with which I cannot part. I also often wonder if this world we live in is real or sort of a rendition of Twilight Zone. Are we mechanical beings created for the enjoyment of some extraterrestrial being? I have often thought about how strange humans are in construction. To learn that someone else seems to think similarly is alarming, as it might be true after all.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/10/edward-goreys-enigmatic-world

My muse was a feminist

I just recently came across this quote from Joseph Conrad, possibly my great great uncle, whose work I adore and whose style I am studying in earnest as I take on a literary challenge. Thanks dear Uncle Joe. Your family considered itself Polish living in Ukraine. Mine lived in the next village over and considered itself Ukrainian living in Poland. In either case, I am happy to adopt you as my muse as I embark on this new challenge, a historical fiction story about my family's migration during WWII. I hope I can live up to your example.

Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.

- Joseph Conrad

Historical fiction

Human art

Yesterday, out of the gloomy grayness, I started writing my mother's story again. Called 'The Unwilling Immigrant', it's the story of wartime migration. This time, I am writing it from scratch as a historical fiction piece. I didn't know I was going to start writing. I just did. Surprise, surprise. And Joseph Conrad is declared my muse.

'All roads are long which lead to one's heart's desire.'

- Joseph Conrad

Meanwhile, tomorrow morning I will attend a workshop supported by the Arts Council called A Poem in a Morning with Alice Kinsella at the Linenhall in Castlebar. I will perhaps finally learn what poetry is and whether some of what I've been writing is indeed considered poetry.