Two YEARs (plus) of PASSAGES!
Slow and steady wins the marathon of the creative journey
More than two years gone by since I began this writing and traveling journey and I’ve decided to continue this newsletter.
Why?
I’m still working on the Passages book I’ll be building out from these chapters. Some of you wonderful “patrons” have pre-paid for your Advance Reader Copies of that book. THANK YOU!
I’m really loving the process of bringing “slices of life” to you in the form of these posts. I hope you’re enjoying them, too!
If you joined this newsletter later in our journey… GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING! Finish this post and scroll through to June 2021. There have been many interesting/exciting posts,from pit bull attacks in campgrounds to wolves in Yellowstone, getting caught in a fire in YOSEMITE, catching COVID at Christmas, and many more!
For me, writing and taking photos is a way to capture an experience and distill it more deeply through sharing it with others, and that’s part of the value to me personally of continuing this newsletter.
It probably seems easy to keep up with writing something like this, because these “passages” are easy to read. (That’s a trademark of my work; people say of my writing, from fiction to memoir, that “it was an easy read.”(
I’ve worked through internal objections to the phrase, embracing it as a compliment, although “easy reading” sounds like dumb writing.
Truth is, isn’t easy to write something that sweeps people along with you and makes them forget they’re reading.
Writing memoir, which I define as “making art from life” is one of the most challenging forms of writing there is. I write fiction a hell of a lot more easily and in a way, it costs me nothing to do so. I’ve got no skin in the game.
Writing about life, even a travel newsletter, is like baking a cake out of the grit and stubble of actual happenings and serving it up to strangers, hoping they like the taste.
My literal skin is revealed, warts and all. Talk about “skin in the game”!
Writing is real work and takes a lot of hours and discipline. Many times I’d rather just move on from an experience or travel destination having consumed/experienced it, as we all do. “Yep, that happened. Now let’s watch a movie.” Or take a nap, or just “be” in whatever setting we’re currently in.
But no. I have to write about it. I’ll be honest; Mike doesn’t love this about being married to me, and I don’t blame him a bit.
And yet I have to write. It’s how I make meaning from experience. It’s a constant nagging burn in my belly; it’s my personal purpose and it cannot be evaded without consequence.
So here’s a little about how I do it while traveling.
We have an experience, as we all do, but usually, I’m looking even as we’re doing for what and how to write about it, and often I mull about this aloud.
(Mike says this is super obnoxious. “Never marry a memoirist” is a thing.)
Anyway, I think what happened, jotting quick notes or impressions, usually using Gmail on my phone to email myself dictation as I walk Koa or sit somewhere, staring at the view.
Some of the most challenging times to write about are when “nothing bad happens.”
A destination is fabulous and our experience is delightful. How do I come up with something unique, gripping or interesting about that? It ends up sounding like a travel brochure, and I want to puke.
So that part can definitely be a challenge.
After an experience that seems worth writing about, I let my impromptu thoughts and impressions sit for a few days in draft form.
Then I research likely questions and fill in facts or statistics that I’d like to know if I was the one reading the post.
(How big IS Yellowstone, really? 3,471 mi² in case you wondered.)
Finally, I go through the piece and flesh it out. This part is the heavy lifting. I drag and drop paragraphs, read aloud, add and expand, and try to create a beginning, middle and cohesive end, which is difficult. Real life is messy and seldom occurs that way at all.
Finally, I go through it again, reading for repeated words, a cliched sentence, the mundane and lazy. I have a sense of how words flow in my brain that’s been created by reading so much for so long; it’s an unerring, honed skill. (If you’re wondering how to become a better writer, READ. READ A LOT of everything, especially the kinds of things you hope to write.)
Finally, I comb through the piece again, when I post it on the actual newsletter site. I read through carefully, looking for just the right photos to enhance the text, fine-tuning every sentence.
It’s always later, days or weeks later, maybe years later, when I read a post and enjoy it. I experience the memories of it again, and am GLAD I persevered. Many times I’ve said to Mike, “Thank God I’m writing this, or I would have forgotten all about it!”
He (grudgingly sometimes) agrees.
Not long ago I listened to the audiobook of OPEN ROAD, the memoir where I began travel writing. So completely did I move on from experiences in the book (such as a surprise spirit journey led by a squirrel at Emerald Pools in Zion) that I’m flooded with memory and emotion. I’m grateful that I disciplined myself to write about the natural world I love when it’s changing so rapidly and much will eventually be lost.
I’m reminded again of the value of what I’m doing. Writing is my personal purpose and adds meaning to my life. Many will never be able to do what I’ve done, walk where I’ve hiked, jumped off the cliffs I have lept from somehow survived.
But if writing is my purpose…Why have paid posts at all, then?
Because a worker is worth his/her wages. I am a professional writer. I write full time, and I support myself and my family through wordsmithing the page.
Who am I?
Ah, the ultimate question of life. I knew it would roll around one of these days for deeper contemplation!
Many of you came to this newsletter as fans of my books, but some of you signed up recently with no clue about my background; you just liked what you read here, and I’m thrilled about that! Yes! *fistbump* Thank you!
Who am I? I’m a 58-year-old former therapist (LCSW) who wrote my first crime mystery novel (also free on all book retailers, HERE!) back in 2010, and eventually, through writing lots of books, was able to leave her career in mental health to embark on a far riskier one as a full time creative writer. My memoir about growing up a hippie on Kauai, Hawaii, in the 1970s, tells more than you want to know about me and you can check it out HERE.
I’m also the wife of one big love for the last 37 years, the mother of a grown son and daughter, and the grandma of two darling babies. I love nature and animals, especially my neurotic little rescue dog, Koa (whose fear of everything, everywhere, is only slightly outweighed by his devotion to me.)
I travel, I wander and wonder, I make art, and I read.
I have chosen this mode of sharing my work via Substack (along with writing books) rather than pitching magazine articles or creating content on websites, which is the traditional professional nonfiction route.
But do not be fooled: creating a good weekly “easy read” essay (on any topic) takes a lot of time.
I thought it might be helpful for you to know that this newsletter is “extra” writing on top of my usual daily fiction goal, which is 1-2 chapters a day on whatever book I’m currently working on. Many of the creators and bloggers on this platform ONLY write their column.
Even so, I want people to be able to read ALL of the content I write in this newsletter. It’s more fun to have comments and responses and dialogue! That’s why ALL POSTS are free the first two weeks. I want lots of people to read them!
(“Does a book or essay exist if no one reads it?” 📚 )
But we gotta eat. SO:
Monthly subscriptions are only $5, and an annual one is $50 for access to ALL posts.
“Founding subscribers” get to pick their own support payment over $50, and they will ALSO get an Advance Reader Copy of the Passages memoir when it comes out, and their names mentioned in the book with personal thanks!
If you’re a free subscriber now, YAY! You get to read everything as it’s written!
When the following week’s essay comes out, the previous one will be locked, and only available to paying subscribers.
I hope this assists with two things: helping the paid part grow, supported by those who can afford to and want MORE, while allowing others who may not be able to support, also read and participate.
Let me know your thoughts about this.
And, if you’ve been on the fence about a paid subscription…now’s the time!
Thank you, mahalo, grazie, gracias and merci beaucoup in advance!
And for those who’ve invested in a paid subscription: THANK YOU. Mahalo! Grazie! Merci, and gracias! You are the wind beneath my writing wings.
All of you who read make it worth doing by being here with me along for the ride, wherever the work takes us, for another year.
(hit the ❤️ if you agree!)
Being a writer is a challenge and I appreciate great writing. It’s a trip away in my mind and you do a great job of it. Keep it coming. I’ve told you in the past how I struggle to think up things to write about in my artist posts. I can only write about my joys and experiences! Hope other folks like the flavor as you say.
The best part is the people you meet because they seat you with others at the tables for 4. We laughed and we made new friends for life. In addition to myself we met two reiki practicitioners and will keep in contact.