Here we go!

I've had my first meeting with Marion, who is the lady putting this all together for me. She made copies of all my different Files and sent them to her computer; that way she didn't have to copy them onto disks to plug into USB ports. She will start putting each chapter into manuscript condition and any more revisions will have to be done on those. I am searching valiently for the Cover sketches I made, and haven't found them yet. (I sure put them in a "safe place.") She is going to write to the cartoonist David Fitzimmons, to ask permission to reduce the large poster cartoon he made of me, to add it to the "middle seat". My job now is to go over every chapter, and put it in final shape. She's coming back on Saturday afternoon, to start a website in my name, so that as I approach the deadline to print, anyone who googles my name will be directed to the website, which will include all my Blog site going back to 2017. Today's Zoom with the Writers Group was a talk based on The Four Pillars of Memoir writing. a very good discussion, and I was happy to note that my book follows all their suggestions. Big sigh of relief.

No longer on Facebook

Hi, Everybody! I apologize for the lack of a blog so far into February. One of the reasons is that I have cancelled Facebook, and while it is easy-peasy to join, when you want to get out, try to find "Unsubscribe" anywhere in their information. I have become disillusioned with Facebook: When I told my Writers Group that I was nearing publication time for my Memoirs, they all said I had to increase my "Platform" to reach more Buyers, and join Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Well, we all know who uses Twitter and the lies that proliferated every day to the point that even THEY stopped his account. And I have to confess that unless you just climbed to the top of Kilimanjaro, I'm not interested in where you've been, (Costco?), what you've done (baked sourdough bread?), or whether you got any sleep last night. I'm up until two a.m. every night and who cares? Facebook usually contains old jokes, older cartoons, or inane comments, and I'm wasting my precious time reading it all. Plus, all the Friends of Friends of distant Friends, whom I haven't exchanged an email with in 10 years. And finally, I don't like all the rag-tag organizations Facebook allows on their site. So I had my cleaning lady (she's a genius on the computer) stop vacuuming today, long enough to finally find that magical word "Unsubscribe" and voilà, I'm outta there! So, for those of you who recently DID climb Kilimanjaro, please send me an email and tell me all about it. janicefingado@gmail.com. I'll get right back to you. My holidays turned out to be really busy, along with the capricious doctors's appointments, etc. but I now have some interesting news for those of you on my Blog. I now have a Copy Editor and Formatter, who will be working on all the chapters, turning them into manuscripts. She's a former member of my Writers Group who is now in the publishing business, wants to get my book in proper shape and has given ME a deadline. To have someone who knows you and knows your "voice" is a big advantage, and at the same time be nicely "bossy" is probably the necessary "when push comes to shove" that I needed. My head is whirling with all that I must do, but I have the incentive that I needed to do it. And, to help all of you still struggling with the questions, I'll be forthcoming in future tweets on my Blog to tell you the sequence of what we are doing. It will still be printed by Amazon, so it will be on sale through them and to heck with Facebook. I'm excited. Whew, back to work, Janice

2020 is the new Dirty Word

Hi, Everybody, Happy New Year. In 1967, during the Cold War with Russia, Fritz and I were living in Zuerich, Switzerland. We saw an ad for the "inaugural" flight to Moscow by Swissair, because Switzerland was the only "neutral" country and Russia wanted to open up flights for their planes to fly to. And by now I guess you have grown to know my husband enough to know that that sort of offer was right up his Travel alley. So at Christmas we were the only Americans on a planeload of Swissies on the first flight into Moscow, while, in return, Switzerland would allow an Aeroflot from Moscow to bring Russians to Zuerich. I have written about the entire trip in a long chapter called Moscow Diary for my forthcoming book, so I won't go into any of the interesting details of Intourist's attempts to braiwash us the entire time, but just wanted to lead into today's Blog with something from the New Year's Eve event. After the gala banquet and the entertainment, we returned to our hotel room in the Metropol Hotel, and as we stepped out of the elevator, we were confronted again, as usual, by the dour-faced woman sitting at the desk directly in front of the elevator door. She grudgingly handed us our key, and then in (her) best English said, "Happy New You". Fritz and I laughed all the way to our room. But now, in retrospect, after the year we've had with 2020, I find myself wishing all of you, AND ME, a Happy New You for 2021. I've been re-reading all the Christmas and Hanukkah cards that Marta and Steve received the last month of 2020 with all the variety of stories of how the Covid-19 Pandemic had affected each writer. Suffice it to say that if you have any sense of humor left, you are thinking of phrases like, "What the 2020?" On the other hand, think about reinventing yourself into a New You. Think of the possibilities! What have you wanted to do? To become? To accomplish? To achieve? To reform? To complete? Forget about New Years Resolutions. They are only made to be ignored. Dishonored on the third of January as you sneak one more piece of See's candies from the box that you hid in the freezer, to keep from eating.... Hah!!! And, approaching bedtime once more without having done your sworn 20 minutes on the treadmill with the guilty "Mañana" on your lips. Small wonder that "Mañana" is the busiest day of every week! But the concept of reinventing yourself creates tons of new possibilities. I realized as I turned 94 two days ago, that this year I am going to change from being a Writer to being an Author. That entails getting my Memoirs published. To do that, I have to organize and perhaps revise some chapters, so, fired up with the new energy being an Author generates, I dug out two cartons of already-written chapters, separated them into piles of "Ready", "Need Revising", and "Ideas". Unfortunately, they're all back in one carton, and the carton labeled "Ready" is empty, but I really enjoyed reading all of them over again... And I did organize them. I'll tackle the writing and revising as soon as I get all my jewelry supplies organized. Because my New You wants to recapture the Old You who used to live minimalistically, totally without Clutter. That's on the current Agenda. So with the great plans and the enthusiasm a Great Plan generates here we go, into 2021. First, we halt the Pandemic, then we eagerly greet a new Administration, and with all the good, new "You's" create an atmosphere of love, good will and accomplishments. And that will make a lot of different annual letters this December. Cheers! Janice

" If I only had more time..."

That was the forlorn lament I used to cry, when I didn't manage to accomplish all that I thought I would that week. Now, for nine months, we have had time, loads of time, and I still don't get everything on my Do List crossed off. Is it really a lack of will power? I don't think so, or else NOTHING would get done. I think it's that every day you wake up to a clean slate, joyfully anticipating a day full of accomplishments, and as soon as you sit in front of the computer, people start messing with you. Have you noticed that there is a lack of efficiency, a lack of responsibility, a lack of reliability in everything that relates to making life a little easier? The Mail Order Pharmacy screws up every order of a necessary drug. The Insurance company "can't find you" in their records. You make an appointment and find out that the van driver doesn't report for work that day till a half-hour after your appointment. You spend three hours on the phone to Tech Support and they give up getting you reconnected to the Internet. And on it goes, one darned thing after another, day after day. And now, here we are: the day we've all been waiting for. I mailed in my ballot the day after it arrived in my mailbox. By tomorrow night we may think that eventually we will celebrate. Or weep. When Fritz and I left the US in 1965 for him to work abroad for Carrier, we left a country where its citizens were still looked upon as Saviors to the rest of the world. Now we are scorned. We count only money as the evidence of Success. Will we ever gain back the trust and admiration of people around the globe? We'll begin to get the answer by the end of tomorrow. Today we're on the brink. Of What?

The Week That Was

When we were living in England in the '70's, there was a popular TV program that later was taken up in the States and became popular here, too. It was called TW3, with the 3 written small, to indicate the TW to the third. It stood for That was the week that was (three TW's) It talked about English politics that week and gave you all the royal scandals - which was the way it stayed in business, I think! Even back in the '70's there was at least one scandal a week which held the public's attention. It was Britain's Saturday Night Live. Well, this past week I had a TW3 myself. I'll set it up for you. Since we are in Open Enrollment, I made an appointment with my insurance agent to change my Medicare Advantage Plan. During the conversation my age came up and she mentioned she had liked the bitter poem I had written a year ago when I had lost my insurance. She said I should publish it. I replied, "Well, actually I have it in Draft form addressed to the Publisher of the New York Times, but hadn't gotten up the courage to send it yet." Then I laughed and said, "I believe in starting at the top!" That evening she sent me an email, saying only "Small steps.." So, partially as a joke, I wrote back, "Okay, I've just submitted it to the Tucson Daily Star." I thought that they might print it in a little column the size of a Letter to the Editor, if they published it at all. Two days later, I got an email from the Editor of the Opinion page, asking me if I had written it myself and that they wanted to publish it. I confessed I had indeed written it and that I had experienced each of the stanzas I had written. (It's titled "When you're an old woman in America" and all about the poor medical system in the States.) The Editor said it would be printed in Wednesday's edition. Since I haven't subscribed to the paper for several years, I advised my daughter to be on the lookoutfor it and to save it for me. WELL: All Hell broke loose! She had chosen to print the whole thing all across the top of the Opinion page and headlined it in big, black letters. And she had gone through their archives and found a photo I had sent for a long article of mine that they had printed three years ago, about the terrorist attack on Barcelona. She had cropped my husband out of the photo and had placed me in the center of the poem, giving my name and age. But what gave it importance (besides the huge black headline) was the fact that David Fitzsimmons saw it, liked it, attached it to his Facebook page with just the message: Read this. Please. David is the immensely popular cartoonist-columnist for the Daily Star, syndicated in 800 papers worldwide, and has 5,000 Followers. My granddaughter in Denver discovered it first because she follows him. In just a few hours, my poem went viral. He had 249 Replies, 65 Likes and 59 Comments. All were positive except for one, who thought I should get a life, but everyone else was congratulatory and told sad stories how the poem related to them and how compassionate they were for all the old women out there. Two actually wanted to start a Go Fund Me website, so I could pay for my eyedrops. (I had NO IDEA, when I wrote the poem, that it would have that much effect on perfect strangers.) I have opened my own Facebook page, but can't figure out how to send a message. I have sent a message to David asking him if he could let all these lovely, generous people know that I'm okay, have insurance again and can afford the eyedrops. Apparently the message didn't go through. But trying to cope with hundreds of messages has taken up my entire week. Furthermore, my computer wouldn't compute for 2½ days, constantly telling me my Internet was disconnected. I spent three hours with Cox on the phone and got nowhere, then called my own Techie, paid him, and he "reconnected" me in FIVE minutes! Besides all this, I had offered to deliver the lecture to my Zoom meeting on Friday afternoon for the Writers Group I belong to and had chosen the Subject to be "Writing Obituaries vs. Back Cover blurbs." Fortunately, I had written my speech on Monday, before all this started. The lecture went well, and they all enjoyed it. (More emails.) So there you have it, Gentle Readers: my 15 minutes of fame. I have changed my mantra from "Be careful what you pray for" to "Be careful what you publish." Janice

The Plus and Minus

Hi, everyone, Today the world stopped for a minute or two, but I mananged to get it going again. I have a wonderful electric clock which I bought in Kelowna, just before moving back to the States in October, 2009. It had no normally numbered sequence around the outer edge like most clocks. Instead it showed all the numbers fallen to the bottom of the frame, and above the pile of numbers, was written "Whatever". I love that clock! It was to be symbolic of my future life down in Tucson, with my family, my jewelry business, making new friends, finding a beautiful place to live, and getting on with my life. This morning I was starting to answer emails and the cursor suddenly stopped. Couldn't get it to move and I realized that my mouse probably needed a new battery. I keep a stash on hand, so I went to the utility closet and found various batteries, presumably to restart up various parts of my life. I opened things up and took the dead ones out, then picked up the two for the mouse. Oh, dear, I should have taken them out and laid them on the desk in their correct position. Now I had to look for the plus and minus and it was hard to see in the black interior. The same was true of the dead clock. As I struggled to see which end was "up" I finally got them installed. As I reset the time, and started swirling the mouse to watch the Cursor move around my screen, I casually thought how many things run on batteries, much like the way we run our lives. Life is full of pluses and minuses, and if we don't get them in right can slowdown or stop what we feel or think and eventually cause us to run on Empty. But if we choose the positive side instead of the negative, we're up and running smoothly. Nowadays, during the Pandemic, the fires in California, the inertia of Congress, and the rage echoing from the White House, I tend to think of it as everyone having put the battery back in with the minus side. Get the negative out of your lives and turn the battery around. Push it down till you hear a click. Then get on with your lives. The clock will run around and the hands will point to the corect time even without numbers being there. And the mouse will scoot all over the monitor, allowing you to contact all your friends. The past week I discovered from my Writers Group that Yes, indeed, the copyright laws do exist and they forbid my including the contents of any song from my chapters. In which the lyrics of the song perfectly depicted what I was trying to say, but said it much more poetically than I ever could. So that is that, friends; I have to find every chapter that contains lyrics, delete them then try to re-create the meaning in my own words. What a great way to "dull down" a chapter! Oh, yes, I can use the title, but that's it. The complete irony, if not idiocy, is that you can Google the title, and instantly up pops the words, and the several different artists who recorded the gem, So it's right out there for the public to read or listen to. And it's not the composer who gets the fee charged: it's the Publisher! They might grant you permission to use, but you have to pay anywhere from $400 - $900 for the privilege. So, back to the computer, rewrite many of my chapters, and hope I've put the battery in right side up. Till next week, Love, Janice

What I hope to accomplish

Gentle Readers: Now that I'm blogging again I thought I would like to ahow you what I have in mind for my future Blogs. First and foremost, I hope to answer your questions about writing a book, some of the pitfalls to avoid, and to give you some easy rules to follow. Did I just use the word "easy"? The only "easy" part is writing it! As they say, "The devil is in the details." But: You can't get anything published until you've written what you have to say. So have fun if you're writing your Memoirs, dredging up all those details from 70-80 years ago, and chuckling all over again, or maybe shedding a few tears. If you're writing fiction, anything goes and if you're writing a mystery, I'll assume you've got a new spin on whodunnit. As the chapters pile up you move them to a large carton next to your computer desk, and start going through old photo albums if you intend to include photos of the interesting places you traveled to, autograph albums which you had hoped to sell to an Antiques dealer, and also toss in How To suggestions to incorporate into the first drafts of each memory. Since I assume you were already smart enough to have joined a Writers Group at your local Library, they will have torn each chapter apart as you presented them each week, and your next step is to start the Revision Process. Read their suggestions thoroughly. Some writers who have been published think they are the smartest creatures God ever created, and your first task is to acknowledge that fact. Then when you start analyzing each little "e" (written with a curlicue) and see them scattered all over your first draft, accept the fact that you need to eliminate everything that has an "e" on it, and TIGHTEN UP YOUR WRITING. You will probably be amazed at how much more interesting and pertinent your chapter has become. Then try moving entire paragraphs to the beginning, to the end or delete them and see if it "reads" better. The key word here is "flows". Oh, my goodness, these critics do know what they're talkming about. By the time you've made all the corrections, you begin to feel a sense of pride and satisfaction in what you've created. You're becoming a Writer. Hope you're taking notes. There's a lot more to come. Love, Janice