Tag: writing

I hereby resolve…

I resolve to walk through the park as often as possible. Photo by Steve Martaindale

There’s a new Apple TV series we came across a few weeks ago called Pluribus. Very briefly, something (presumably from an extraterrestrial source) has caused all but a handful of Earth’s human population to be calmly happy. They all share their knowledge and experiences with everyone else. We don’t know yet what happened and certainly not what any plans may be, but it is an intriguing tale, definitely not a cookie-cutter show.

The story is built around a woman in Albuquerque who is one of about a dozen people worldwide who did not “join” everyone else and she’s trying to figure out what’s going on and how she can reverse things.

For our purposes here, all of this to get to one point: She has learned the “others” cannot lie to her and she’s trying to use that to her advantage.

Imagine what things would be like if nobody lied to others or themselves while drafting resolutions for the new year.

Several readers pitched in to help draw up a list of resolutions that might not ever see the light of day if people were brutally honest:

I resolve to not make my siblings cry.

I resolve to start cooking more and eating out less.

I resolve to stay away from sugar.

I resolve to treat clerks, cashiers, sackers, janitors, etc. with the respect and dignity they deserve.

I resolve to stop worrying about things I can’t control.

I resolve to spend less time at home on the computer and more time with my family.

I resolve not to yell, provoke, cuss or gesture towards irresponsible drivers who tick me off.

I resolve to totally quit texting and driving.

I resolve to quit smoking.

I resolve to finally get that extra closet cleaned out and organized.

I resolve to keep leaves out of the gutters next fall.

I resolve to not pass up an opportunity to help a friend in need.

I resolve to write in my journal every day.

I resolve to keep my house clean.

I resolve to stay away from heroin and cocaine.

I resolve to cut back on coffee.

I resolve to stop snacking while watching movies.

I resolve to not buy any new fabric or yarn until I finish the project I’m working on.

Good luck to those of you trying to improve yourself in the new year and thanks to contributions from Dan, Hayder, JD, Cyndy, Leah, Connie and Judy.

One more thing

Speaking of lies … everyone knows Donald Trump lies all the time. All. Of. The. Time. The Washington Post kept count during his first administration and tallied more than 30,000 false or misleading claims in those four years.

I’m sure there are fact-checkers diligently keeping count again, but Daniel Dale, a senior reporter for CNN, has taken a different approach. Perhaps you can say he’s been measuring instead of counting. He has compiled what he judged “Trump’s top 25 lies of 2025.”

From falling prices that were instead rising, to cities rotting from crime when they were really relatively safe, to claiming the people of Canada liked his idea of it becoming our 51st state when Canadians are against him more than even Americans are.

But I’m not going through the blow-by-blow … that’s why CNN put the story online for you to read.

Happy New Year!

Old beginnings

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

(Go ahead, take a deep dive into the memories resurrected by hearing that question again. Tell us about them in a comment.)

In my earliest recollections, my father was a firefighter, a popular career choice for young boys, but I don’t remember considering following in his boot steps. What I do remember occurred Tuesday, Feb. 20, 1962.

At 8:47 a.m. in the first-grade classroom of Mrs. Aryless Follis, a hushed group of 6- and 7-year-olds listened to a radio report broadcast over the PA system from the principal’s office. At that time, astronaut John Glenn rode his Mercury spaceship Friendship 7 into space. His almost five-hour ride circled Earth three times, the first American to do so.

Even more exciting was the splashdown at 1:43 p.m. our time. By then, I believe, I had decided to become an astronaut.

Of course, we all know how well such plans of a first-grader play out.

Little League probably gave me thoughts of playing professional baseball, but my limited success on the field appropriately rained on that vision. I had a comfortable relationship with math and did reasonably well in the sciences, so something in those areas seemed likely. Exactly what, I never had any idea.

My mother pitched civil engineering to me, but it failed to build any interest. My father took me on a day trip to the Red River valley, where he grew up, to meet a botanist friend – or friend of a friend – who visited with us and showed me some research that involved grafting trees.

And, undoubtedly, there were many other short-lived prospects I no longer recall.

Have you noticed what’s missing here?

Yes, writing. I never, ever, had any thought about making a career as a journalist, as a writer or editor.

Never.

And that’s in spite of the fact I worked two years on my high school newspaper. Still, not even an inquiring thought about working as a writer.

I started college as a math major. About two weeks into the semester, I pretty much tripped over a Friday night job and came to my senses the next morning with a new career field, beginning as a sportswriter for a daily newspaper.

And THAT, my friends is the point to these 861 words: I don’t know what’s happening next, but I keep looking.

Even on this blog, I’ve recently struggled to find a purpose or, more exactly, a method to fulfill a purpose. I’ve been fighting that internal battle the past few years. Then, not unlike tripping into my first news job, I came across a letter from 1998 that lit up my path with a million candlepower spotlight.

Jack Maguire was a noted Texas historian and author who also served 20 years as executive director of The University of Texas Ex-Students’ Association, and nine years as executive director of the University’s Institute of Texas Cultures in San Antonio. He also wrote or co-authored nine books, more the 750 magazine articles, and more the 4,000 columns.

My newspaper was one of his subscribers and, though I never met him, we communicated by letters and telephone enough that I was comfortable reaching out to him for advice during the early years of my newspaper column.

It was his response that I came across the other day:

“I agree with your goals for ‘A Texas Voice.’ You want to make readers think and remember. Certainly, you accomplish that. I particularly enjoyed your column on having cardboard boxes as a kid. And the one on dentistry. Both brought back vivid memories.

“The personal essay has become a highly marketable piece of writing today. … Those who can write such pieces have it made – and you certainly can. So why don’t you focus on this area? Let every column be a ‘slice of life’ (either past or present) … Whether it was only yesterday or many yesterdays ago, your aim is to inveigle the reader by talking about a common event that will make him say: ‘You made me think’ or ‘remember’ or both.”

Thank you, dear reader, for your indulgence in allowing me to share these flattering words that mean a lot to me. If you’ve not figured it out yet (or, perfectly understandable, you don’t completely trust what you think I’m about to say), I am refocusing here on dancing with the one who brung me, with a tip of the hat to Darrell Royal.

Tomorrow’s post will update y’all with some significant changes in our lives. Hope you can sleep well tonight worrying about what it might be.

One caveat

OK, many of you are thinking, “Does this mean an end to your political postings?”

Yes … and no.

My intent is to not focus on politics, to not make it the lead topic of the post. I’ve grudgingly come to the awareness that anyone who still believes in and supports Donald Trump is blinded beyond my ability to help them understand. However, I may close out my columns with a short entry like this one, using it to relate something I feel worth sharing, political or otherwise.

The Reporter and…

Let’s name some characters

Every JP Weiscarver book I’ve written has come about in ways that distinguish it from the others.

For the eighth, instead of writing right off, as has often happened, I felt it more important to get a better grasp of where it was going. Actually, a better grasp of how it would get there. And I decided I really wanted to have the title nailed down first.

I’ll reveal that after we name six characters in the book.

Another first! While I’ve held competitions to name one or more characters in every book, I’ve never done it this early and certainly not for six of them.

First, be aware I’m not deeply interested in background stories; most of those are already lined out in my notes. That being said, feel free to contribute anything you’d like, particularly personal tidbits, as I might work them in somewhere. All of these characters will play sizeable roles in the story. I suspect each nomination will include names for both husband and wife. Suggest names for one couple or up to all three.

Here’s what I’m looking at:

No. 1, female, married to No. 2. Semi-retired. She retired after 20 years in the Army as a unit supply specialist. After that, she wrote romance novels.

No. 2, male, married to No. 1. Retired private detective. Think real world PI, not the TV type.

No. 3, female, married to No. 4. Mostly retired nurse, now working occasional short stints to keep current and make traveling money.

No. 4, male, married to No. 3. Retired middle school principal, a self-proclaimed expert on suspicious actions. “I don’t believe you’re telling me the whole truth.”

No. 5, female, married to No. 6. Retired mall gift store manager. With years of managing teen-age and young adult employees, she understands where No. 4 is coming from.

No. 6, male, married to No. 5. Retired after having numerous different jobs. Most recently worked six years as a security guard. Now really into gardening.

The payoff

As always, those who submit names I use will be acknowledged in the book and will receive an autographed paperback when it comes out.

Submit your suggestions in the comment box here, post it on the Facebook post, message it to me, or email it. Carrier pigeon would probably be too late.

Why are we here?

Why are we here? No, I’m not speaking of deep philosophical matters … that’s for other days … but examining the purpose of this site.

While I originally conceived it to display information about my series of novels — “The Reporter and …” — I fully intend to unload, and upload, all kinds of information. There will be pieces from my days as a weekly newspaper columnist, photos and thoughts from my time working in Antarctica, Yellowstone and exciting places yet to come. And I can never get away from offering up commentary on what we come across in our day-to-day lives.

My greatest desire here is to stimulate conversation, so please converse and goad your friends into participating. (One warning: I will insist, as well as possible, that we stay on topic with each post and that we do not delve into stirring up hatred. I’m kind of sensitive to that.)

Image

Now, let’s have fun.

Oh, the photo? It’s looking over my wife’s shoulder at Lake Livingston north of Houston. Why? Well, it’s cold here today and the image made me feel a little warmer.