Quitting Your Day Job to Write at Home

In today's Oregonian (Aug. 31), mystery writer April Henry writes about her experience of quitting her day job to write full-time at home. As one who has done just that more that once, I found her story of the "dream" and the "reality" hilarious (and ever so true):

What really happens when you quit your day job

Unlike April, virtually all my writing from my home-based office has been non-fiction. She took her "leap" home from her corporate job after writing six novels. I took my first leap home to write nearly 30 years ago when I was in my mid-30's. I joined the technical writing business my wife had started and together, we made a great success of it writing computer-user manuals for large corporations in the Chicago area. It was fun and sometimes exhausting. And it made parenting little boys a bigger challenge plus stretched our marriage to the breaking point.

One of the first "realities" I learned very quickly about myself was that I needed to "leave home" to be able to work at home. I needed to get out of the house in the morning and walk to a neighborhood restaurant for my morning coffee (and journal write about my life before starting any writing on work projects). Over the years, I've done variations of that morning ritual. Today, I go for a morning walk for daily exercise and just watch my mind "roam" wherever it needs go as I notice my surroundings (without writing anything down!). I start working on writing projects shortly after I get back home (actually, I usually read and respond to email first). Sometimes, I take my laptop to a coffee shop to write first drafts amidst the clatter and chatter. But I need the solitude and silence of home to edit and finish my writing projects.

Do you write at home? What works for you? Did you find that "reality" didn't exactly match your "dream" when you quit your day job to work from home?

Quitting Your Day Job to Write at Home

The Work and Art of Writing

Sunday's Oregonian (Aug. 24) had a piece on writing by the "metal cowboy", Joe Kurmaskie, who interviewed authors about their writing process. A fun read. Yet the subject seems to be a perennial (and serious) question for writers or people "thinking" about becoming writers. Take a look: The work and art of writing: muscle vs. muse

After over forty years of writing for a variety of media (which included many, many days of waiting for my "muse"), I come down strongly on the side of "muscle". What does my muse have to say about that? Could be a long wait! Meanwhile, keep those keys clickin', Todd.

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The Work and Art of Writing

Writing Book Reviews

One of my monthly assignments is to write a book review for our city magazine, Springfield Connection. Thankfully, I get to select books of my choice for the reviews so I'm always writing about books of interest to me.

Even so, I find it challenging to write just 500 words about any book I've read. My hope is that I capture the essence of the book and convey enough information for a readers of the review to decide whether to not to spend time reading the book. So far, I've reviewed only non-fiction books but plan to review some fiction and poetry in the future.

Here's a sample of my latest book review (others featuring Finding Our Fathers, The Mature Mind, The Last Lecture, and The Legacy Guide are available in back issues of Springfield Connection and on my website):

My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor

By Todd Peterson

The human brain. It’s mysterious. And it’s marvelous!

Our brain contains about 100 billion neurons. It consumes a quarter of the body’s oxygen and most of its calories. Yet just weighs about three pounds.

Our brain is the seat of consciousness, thought, memory, and emotion. It is the control center that regulates bodily activities, receives and interprets sensory impulses, and transmits information to our muscles and body organs.

But what happens when the brain is injured? In My Stroke of Insight, neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor tells about her personal experience and remarkable discoveries about the brain.

At the age of thirty-seven, Taylor experienced a massive stoke in the left side of her brain. The brain scientist observed her own brain deteriorate over four hours as she lost her ability to recall any of her life. She could no longer talk, walk, read, or write.

It took Jill Taylor eight years to recover from her stoke. What she learned during her healing journey has implications for every human being, not just those who suffer a stroke or other brain injury.

Taylor’s stroke damaged the left hemisphere of her brain – the language center, home of the ego, the rational, time-oriented “left mind.” She experienced living from her brain’s right hemisphere – her “right mind” that remembers isolated moments, thinks in pictures, and perceives the “big picture”.

Taylor writes that “to the right mind, no time exists other than the present moment, and each moment is vibrant with sensation. Life or death occurs in the present moment. The experience of joy happens in the present moment. Our perception and experience of connection with something that is greater than ourselves occurs in the present moment. To our right mind, the moment of now is timeless and abundant.”

The two hemispheres of our brain not only perceive and think differently neurologically, they “demonstrate very different values based on the types of information they perceive, and thus exhibit very different personalities. My stoke of insight is that at the core of my right hemisphere consciousness is a character that is directly connected to my feeling of deep inner peace. It is completely committed to the expression of peace, love, joy, and compassion in the world.”

By recognizing the differences in the right and left mind, we can lead our lives with a more “balanced-brain approach.” We have more choice in how we think, fee, and behave when we are clear about which side of our brain is processing different types of information. The author describes how to connect with the deep inner peace that resides in the right side of our brain.

From her experience, Taylor believes “the more time we spend running our inner peace/compassion circuitry, then the more peace/compassion we will project into the world and ultimately the more peace/compassion we will have on the planet.”

Ultimately, all the difficult work Jill Bolte Taylor did to recover her left hemisphere functions has made possible the sharing of her right mind discoveries. (Her speeches and interviews are available at www.drjilltaylor.com).

My Stroke of Insight is a fascinating look at the human mind, an inspiring guide for people recovering from a brain injury, and a gift to everyone seeking deep inner peace in their lives.

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Writing Book Reviews

Why Read Poetry Aloud

In my reading of the Friends of William Stafford newsletter (Summer 2008), I came across a startling observation by poet Li-Young Lee about reading poetry aloud. He was responding to the question "Do you think it's important to read poetry out loud and if so, why?" (from a member of the audience at Poetry Downtown in Portland):

... I think of a poem as the musical score for the instrument that is the human voice. The human voice speak only on the exhalation breath, which is the dying breath. Because poetry packs a lot of meaning into a few short words, it could be said that reading poems aloud is about making our ever-approaching deaths more meaningful -- that reading aloud exercises our dying breath and gives it increased vitality ...

One of my favorite things to do is read poetry out loud and I especially enjoy reading William Stafford poems at our local celebration of the poet's birthday each January. Everyone in the audience has an opportunity to read one or more of Stafford's poems (or one of their own in remembrance of the poet) in front of the group of usually 25-50 people.

Years ago, I recall "practicing" reading poems I selected out loud before going to the celebration (I suppose to reduce my fear of bumbling in front of the crowd). But in recent years, I've chosen to just silently read through several poems ahead of time and select a few possibilities for my reading. At the celebration, I make my poem selection based on what feels right in the moment, go up to the lectern, look out at the audience, and read a poem aloud "for the first time." That's when I experience the vitality of the "dying breath" that Li-Young Lee described.

Do you read poetry or prose aloud to people in your life? To a large audience? Let me know your experience and your reaction to Lee's observation about reading poetry out loud.

NOTE: Li-Young Lee's newest collection is titled, Behind My Eyes. His lovely poem, To Hold, is reprinted in the Friends of William Stafford newsletter. It contains the lines "One day we'll lie down and not get up. One day, all we guard will be surrendered."

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Why Read Poetry Aloud

Writing About Elders

One of my favorite assignments is to write stories about people who've lived 80 years or more. I enjoy interviewing elders and hearing their life stories (see more at my Creating Your Life Legacy website). Recently, I was assigned a story for Springfield Connection Magazine about an 85-year old writer, Milt Cunningham. I had read many of his weekly op-ed columns in the Springfield News (closed in 2007) and looked forward to having a lively conversation with him.

Here's the story I wrote about the man whose "bones are made of Big Horn granite," published in the August 2008 issue of Springfield Connection:


Milt Cunningham: Springfield’s “Big Horn” Wrangler of Words

By Todd Peterson

“I’ve always said my bones are made of Big Horn granite,” Milt Cunningham declared with a lilt in his voice. The 85-year old native of Wyoming grew up in the Big Horn country where he worked as a ranch hand and logged in the mountains with horses.

“Way back ... when I was ten years old ... I recall playing with language, making sounds with words like playing scales on a piano,” Milt said. “I wrote lots of doggerel and limericks.”

Over the years, Milt Cunningham has written over fifty short stories, many more limericks, and a novel. Most people in Springfield know him from his 16 years of writing feature stories and op-ed columns for the now defunct Springfield News.

Milt and his wife Kathleen moved to Oregon in 1955 to go to college. At the time, they decided to buy a temporary home while completing their Master’s degrees at the University of Oregon. Today, fifty-three years later, the couple is still living in that “temporary” home in Springfield.

Both Milt and Kathleen became teachers of language arts. Milt first taught at the old Coburg School and then moved on to Thurston for 22 years. He retired from teaching in 1985 and has focused on his writing ever since. Kathleen became a college teacher, an artist, and a poet as well as the “best and severest critic” of her husband’s writing.

Of his years of writing for the Springfield newspaper, Milt says “I morphed from a feature writer to doing mostly political writing. The editorial page became my bully pulpit (like Teddy Roosevelt) where I could reach lots of readers and hopefully change some minds.”

Milt spent about ten years writing his novel, Where Trails Cross, published in November of 2007. The book is a 512-page tale of life in the Big Horn Mountain area of Wyoming in the 1850's.

In the “Afterword” of his novel, Milt notes the impetus for his story: “For many years I have thought about the men who decided to move their families to Oregon or California against the wishes of their wives, and because of that decision lost them all on the way. Often they all died in the same catastrophe: from drowning or the ravages of cholera, small pox, or some other illness. Usually the men married again, often very quickly by our modern thinking. Part of the reason is that people needed each other to survive.”

Milt goes on to say “But I always wondered how a man could live with himself, knowing that his wife and children had all perished specifically because of his decision.”

After several years of dealing with health issues, Milt Cunningham characterizes the “golden years” of his life as the “rusted years.” Married nearly 60 years to Kathleen, he says “that’s a long time to live with a man like me!” And a long time for Springfield readers to enjoy the prose and poetry of the man from Big Horn country.
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For a copy of Milt Cunningham’s novel, Where Trails Cross, please call him at (541) 746-4185.

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Writing About Elders

More on Writing About Artists: Bob Keefer on Mark Clarke

One of the many pleasures of living in Eugene-Springfield is having an excellent daily newspaper. The Register-Guard is a family owned newspaper, surviving into the fourth generation of the Alton Baker family. After growing up on reading The Minneapolis Star & Tribune (when they were morning and evening newspapers) and later working as an intern at the paper, plus several years of reading The Chicago Tribune, I appreciate great newspapers.

Last Thursday in the weekly R-G Arts Section, arts editor Bob Keefer wrote an exceptional story about one of the Northwest's finest artists, Mark Clarke. Having written many stories about local artists over the past year and a half, I especially enjoy Keefer's talent at capturing the essence of the artist and his art.

To see more of Mark Clarke's art, visit the Karin Clarke Gallery website.

More on Writing About Artists: Bob Keefer on Mark Clarke