Someone asked me this weekend what I do for fun. As you might suspect given my rather plain, and somewhat driven nature…I write for fun. There’s nothing like being in that zone where you’re in another world--a mixed up kind of creative, fantasy, memory place that becomes a story.
Writing isn’t always that place. Sometimes writing is work, it is holding your own feet to the fire to create when you don’t feel creative or produce when you don’t feel productive. There’s no one here to fire me, no one to report to except the unknown reader I try so hard to win over.
I don’t spend all my time writing. I do eat and sleep…sometimes at my keyboard, but not often. The rest of my life I call research for writing. This weekend I checked off a couple of those “I’ve never done that before” items. I joined the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) on Friday. I had thought to do this years ago and somehow never got around to doing it.
Admittedly I had an agenda this time. I may have to ask for help…yeah, I know it surprised me too. I am about to launch a new publishing company in partnership with a friend. I want the business to be recognized and certified as veteran owned. The post commander has offered what help he can give toward that goal.
While there at the VFW, I was persuaded by my friends to take the karaoke stage. Honest, I only had two beers. I had sung in public before, but this might be the first time of my own volition. Before y’all ask…the song was Play Me.
Saturday was an occasion for another first…Octoberfest. I had never been to one and was off to Cullman, Alabama to deliver flyers to Berkeley Bob’s for Open Mic 2. Octoberfest was going on and so I stopped in for a look and to listen to Oompa-calypse play some polka. Unfortunately, no great German food was on hand, I really wanted some good sauerkraut and bratwurst.
At some future date, perhaps a karaoke-singing vet will face life in a post-apocalypse world with only a polka band to aid him in saving what’s left of the world. It’s all fair game when it’s time to write.
Maranatha
Comments