It Has to be Somethin' Koo, Kinda Krazy.

It Has to be Somethin' Koo, Kinda Krazy.

Paula was an aspiring writer. She had a few little things published, and of course, thirsted for more. For what, she really didn't know. Paula knew for certain that she would write the "Harry Potter" of the Northwest. Her friend Carry said "And we want you to!" There was of course the illusion that she was on unemployment, and there was some sort of Depression going on. It was amusing to her how there was a buzz that this was a Recession. But really, this is the Depression of 2010. It would take a lot to really feel like the depression as it was in 30's. For the difference is in accordance with enlightenment. Just as a piano scale, we start at a low note and progressively go higher, we grow, and learn, and improve until... Bamm we hit a bottom. It was great though on the way up, a little ego building "I can do this, I"ve found my style, I know now what works for me. Wow, it is such a beautiful life, such a 'guru moment.'" Then, numerous challenges arise. And, any one of the infinite negative responses may ensue to where a bottom has been hit, but it is higher than the last "low note." Kinda brings a different meaning to the term "a new low."

We'll this society has done just that, it's raised itself in technology, raised in organizations and funds available, raised in conscienceness to where our fall has left us just a little higher. And so, a generation or so from now will talk of the Depression of 2010, and how we lived in denial and thought it was a recession. We had our cyclic 'Guru Moment,' fell, and am building back up. So, how to get out of this?

The money is out there, it is just the peicing together of words to attract the buyer who will find value in it and enjoy reading it. And what to write about. Paula was sure that if her writing tended toward Jane Austen, there would be someone from the village who would say "Duuu...she's trying to act like a 'White Girl'." Although she started her literary career writing about Native life, non-fiction, did it always have to stay in that vein. It was fun having a variety of Euro blood, it gave a girl a chance to say "Oh my god, my great-grandfather came from England, I wander if our family and Jane Austen's ever met?" There were so many interests pulling at Paula, it was just a matter of deciding which way to go.

The popular message is to "follow your bliss," "do what you love," "let your work be your vacation." Messages like this seems to keep echoing down the ages. But how many actually try it out.

Paula's son Christopher walked in. "How's the job search?" Knowing that when he was doing job searches, he would go in there (the net), made his three searches and get out. But his mother would take hours. She didn't like searching and would start each day with a game of spider solitare, just to relax before diving in you know.

"Terrible!" As she finished putting a few touches on her latest blog. It was suppose to be a scholarly, literature, "gonna be a big writer" blog, but it turned out to be a spot to throw in odds and ends.

"Well... back to the real world!"

She closed down the page, and started on her job search... again.

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

Discovering the Story of the Totem

"Discovering the Story of the Totem"

my latest blog concerning the researching my book:
Legends in Wood, Stories of the Totems

on: blogs.myspace.com/thlingit

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!!!

15 Minute Rule

Somewhere in the 1980's, I was reading my subscription of Guidepost, by Norman Vincent Peale. There was a story that had stayed with me all these years. It was about a person visiting a man who was telling about all that he had done to his house, and all that he has yet to do. It was an enormous amount of work, only to find out that he works on it 15 minutes a day, no more, no less. And, although the person then applied this to reading the Bible, I have implemented this for various projects in my life since.



When beginning my work on "Legends in Wood, Stories of the Totems," It was not too long after my accident (on the freeway, stop and go, traffic stopped, guy behind me didn't). There was a burning desire to illustrate the totems of Klawock, and get down the stories into poetry form. Some days I would get home from work and just have enough energy to eat dinner and go right to bed, I was in sooo much pain. With the 15 minute story in mind, I had decided to work on my project everyday, even if it wasn't 15 minutes, even if I only had enough energy to shade a little bit more on a drawing, or just a few words on a poem. And my original poems rhymed, and were 5 to 9 pages long. It amazed me that I had accomplished not only the poems for "Legends..." but I had also made a poem "The Potlatch Before Christmas" at the same time, and then submitted that poem and won a prize with it in the poetry division of the first annual art show of the "Indian Art Northwest," at Portland OR in 1998.

So, now that I've written for 3 encyclopedias, and have just finished a 7000 word entry of "Inuits" for "21st Century Anthropology" that will be published in 2010, and my "Legends..." book has gone out of print and I have another publisher, it's time to get to work! I have a notebook for my project, and devote at least 15 minutes a day on this project. Should there be time later to work more, I work more on it.



But, there are lots, and lots of ideas that I want to publish, and have agreed to work on. These other projects have their own notebooks, and I set the timer for 15 minutes on them. So, that when I finally finish with "Legends...", I'll at least be started on the other projects, and take up the one that is next in line, to be the one I'll focus on. With the encyclopedias I just worked on one entry after another until they were finished. I was lucky to squeeze "Transformation Masks" into the schedule.

So, I'm looking forward to an even more productive writing schedule! Fingers crossed :^)

Have a Great Week-end,
Pamela