Just the facts...

by Karen Dums

I've been working on a little non-fiction piece. It began as a poem and seems to be morphing into a series of essays. Written works will often do that. Take themselves on a path the writer never envisioned.

It's like this: I've lived in a small town nearly all my life. It's not a new idea that it seems to be in a state of decline, I've harbored that thought for a while. Now it wants to burst out onto the written page. I'm not sure about that. Not sure at all.

Writing fiction can be easy. We "make shit up" and no one gets hurt. When we're writing about the real hurt can happen. There can be fallout. We must be very careful.

So. Do I want to continue working on this piece?

The answer: an unequivocable yes.

Wish me luck.

Hard to say good-bye

By Karen Dums

Fellow Guild charter member Peg Zaemisch has taken a job that will take her away from the environs in which our writer's group exists. For five years she has been a voice of wit and wisdom, both at the writing table and aside from it.

I will miss her quiet speech.

I will miss her gentle humor.

I will miss her regaling us with a tale, anecdotal or pure fiction, that could make me roar with laughter or reduce me to near tears (I'm NOT an easy cryer).

I will miss her.

Then there's the pushier side of me: She's in the midst of penning a wonderful novel and I soooo want to be there to hear it complete. I sooooo want to be there when she receives word that an agent or publisher has picked it up. I soooo want to hear the joy in her voice when she gets the contract that is absolutely positively coming. I soooo want to be a part of her work in progress. It's been such a joy to watch and hear it unfold to an amazingly interesting point.

I will miss it, but not as much as her.

However.

Being unemployed is an unhappy circumstance. Thus this little voice inside of me keeps whispering "send her off with love,  with best wishes, with some semblance of joy".

She has obtained a job in the newspaper business, a business she has long been a part of.

She will reside closer to her beloved grandchildren.

Both those things make her happy.

It follows then that those things make me happy.

Loss of her weekly presence does not.

But...

"If you have other things in your life—family, friends, good productive day work—these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer."
                                                                                         - David Brin

You are set to be rich indeed my friend. Good luck from your "uppity a/k/a third story" friends.