Commitments

A MySpace friend shut down her account to focus on the "Real Life." It had taken me several years to finally take the plunge into blogging. For me, writing is a slow process, and so during the time of writing entries for the Encyclopedias (Encyclopedia of Anthropology; Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Society; Encyclopedia of Time) I had opted to postpone blogging. In this day and age it is practically a given, that if you are a writer, then you should have a blog to keep the buzz going about your work. I've visited various blogs by authors. A really famous author like Stephen King can write about whatever, and whenever he likes. The ones on the rise are more market oriented, and strive to keep in the public's notice. Sadly, my blogs are far from regular, and certainly not marketing magnets.

Jobs, "life partners", children, community commitments have ever been an author's aberration. This modern world affords many distractions for a writer: TV, Movies, on-line searching, e-mails, on-line community, cell phone, twitter, texting etc, etc, etc. Is there a way a writer can divide the time in able to meet writing commitments while trying to stay abreast of all of the extra curricular writing? This is the quest, to stay balanced in an ever diverting world.

Jane Austen - led a non-eventful life (is the famous quote). Yet, in the biography "Jane Austen, A Life" by Claire Tomalin, it is clear to see that Jane led a Very eventful life. Living within a very active family unit, and caring for aging parents, traveling to distant family, balls and parties, and frequent visits from friends and family (both near and far), can be trying on a writer. It is not as easy to get back into the "zone" when the usual routine is upset. Jane's neice Fanny noted how her aunt would laugh and jot something down, then get back to her work (it is surmised to be needlework). This rings an accord with a practice of mine; I am a great buyer of notebooks, I'll come across these notebooks from years gone by and see a story idea started, writing or art project listed out, and book ideas scribbled here and there. There will be dialogs, or brief outlines, parts of poems, brief descriptions. Sometimes I'll come across large envelopes filled with jotted notes, ready to be started, as well as other info that will help with the story. It was noted that after Jane moved from Bath to the Chawton house that she started writing again (after a near decade of apparent abstaining from writing). It just may be that Jane had been keeping notes for her books, little ideas here and there, so that when she finally had the time to write, there was a bountiful resource to work from.

I've had to make a recommitment to my writing. It can be difficult at times, when there are a plethora diversions and disctractions, that writing can continually put aside; to the point where one might realize "I used to be a writer." Now I too, have had to put something aside in order to be more focused. I had joined a Native dance group Kuteeyaa; and had even gone to a performance (In this picture, we are preparing for a performance at a Salmon Festival). But the realization that "X" amount of hours would be taken from me, not only for performances, but the practices, and personal practices to memorize the songs, really hit hard. There is a part of me that looked forward to once again be a part of my culture in this experession, for the drum calls to me; and there has always been a secret desire to dance with a mask (oops, it's not a secret anymore :^). Well, perhaps in the future.

So, it's back to writing... And Gunulsh-Cheesh Ho-ho to the Kuteeyaa dance group, for allowing me the opportunity to be a part of your magnificent dance group, I miss you guys already!!!

Hu-Haa,
Pamela

Words, Dictionaries & Thesaurus'

For as long as I can remember, words have been a source of delight. Funny words, long words, multi-meaning words. Just the sound of a word can make it special. I loved how my dad would say "Indubadibly" for yes, or when something really agreed with him. My son Simon who loves specializing in tongue twisting in his rap/hip-hop songs is also a word enthusiest and has put 'Indubadibly' into one of his songs. I like how large words can become a secret language, when answering someone (especially in a debate of sorts) and the meaning escapes them.

Becoming a writer has brought my attention to a whole array of words. When working on my poems about the totem poles (before they were designated for "Legends in Wood, Stories of the Totems), my poems rhymed. The length of these poems were from 5 to 9 pages long. At first I would write out the alphabet and got through the possible rhymes. It wasn't long before a rhyming dictionary was aquired. Rhyming Dictionaries opened up a whole new world for me, for now I was searching from another spectrum, the ending vowels. When looking for a rhyming word for Eagle, of course is regal, but also "gregal" (a rare word) meaning "pertaining to a flock," which fit perfectly for what I wanted to say.

Quite a few years back, I was watching a movie, a "beau" was waiting for his date to get ready, and he noticed her dictionary, and that a few words were underlined, he mentioned it, and she said that whenever she comes across a word, she underlines it. So, he turns a page, and another and another, and everywhere he looked were underlined words. After that, I started underlining words. This was a great way to reinforce a word when looking up another word and reread any words that have already been underlined. For Thesaurus', I'll underline the word that I also found as an alternative to the word looking up.

One day, or should I say exactly on 11/16/96, I took my word searching hard-core. With the Unabridged Webster's Dictionary given to me by my father, I made 24 bookmarks, and labeled them from A - Z. The idea was to read a page a day, write down the date of reading page, turn the bookmark to face the next page to read. Then, with a yellow book mark, put that in the next alphabet to read. So, on 11/16/96 I read the first page of A. On 11/17/96 I read the first page of B, etc. Well you would think that I've read the entire dictionary by now, it turns out that life gets in the way, but it has kept me on track with my goal, and I have finished reading the X chapter!!!

Reading the Dictionary in this way has assisted me in writing my entries for encyclopedias. I'll come across a word that is "Rare" or "Obsolete", and knowing that it is up to us writers to keep words flowing, so I'll put in some of these words. On "Canada, First Nations" in The Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society, I stood my ground to have "yare" (to repond quickly and truely, to be prepared) in describing the horses in comparison to the dogs for travois pulling.

When reading the Dictionary, Thesaurus, or other dictionaries like The Dictionary of Social Sciences, my entries would be ever in my mind. The words would represent themselves as different Point of Views to my entries.

Do I love words? Indubadibly!!! So.... go out there and use all of the rare and obsolete words you can, and bring them back to life!!!