Uncategorized

Monday 05 February 2024             Revision isn’t always cutting a paragraph or an entire section from a written draft.  Revision doesn’t always mean adding or creating new content.  Revision can be rearranging parts of a text to other places in the draft, inserting them earlier or later in the draft.  At first, this form of […]

Monday 29 January 2024             It happens.  A written draft section requires no cutting, adding, or rearranging.  The draft section needs no further alteration.  It’s actually good.  The draft then can proceed to the next phase of the writing process: editing.  Although this assessment seems to be a productive and even a happy one, this

Now that the first serious draft of my Katyn manuscript is complete, I now begin the next stage of the writing process: the revision.  Revising one’s written work is both exciting and daunting.  The etymological roots of “revision” are “to look or see at again,” “to visit again,” and “to look back.”  The word history

Friday 12 January 2024 This past Tuesday (09 January 2024), King Arthur (my book editor) and I completed the first major editing of the Katyn manuscript.  I know, I know… I typically publish my blogs on a Monday; however, this important news is too good to wait for Monday.  I’m thrilled with this achievement, and

Monday 08 2024 When people ask me to describe my writing process for the Katyn manuscript, I chuckle first not because what they said was funny, and I laugh not because the question is silly or unreasonable.  “How will they react when I tell them writing the book was like experiencing an exorcism, several of

Monday 01 January 2024 I don’t walk the dog.  Laska walks me.  Sure, she benefits from our daily walks: exercise, stress relief, joy.  She glories in nature’s splendor.  The curious and familiar smells charm her.  The plushness and sensation of green grass delight her.  All these joys of nature improve her well-being, but I must

Monday 25 December 2023 The dream started in March 2023 and ended in mid-May 2023.  This dream would repeat daily.  At first, I was uncertain why I was dreaming that a hooded, spirit-like figure was guiding me, or was it impelling me, through a long beige-colored hallway of numerous locked doors.  During each dream session,

Monday 18 December 2023 “If you’re going to finish the Katyn manuscript by July 15, 2023, you need to make some sacrifices.  You need more time to write,” I insisted to myself.  Once the Spring 2023 semester of teaching was over, I committed myself to finishing the manuscript.  The previous year, I demanded of myself

Monday 11 December 2023 After too many bouts of writer’s block, I determined I would be—no, must be—finished writing the Katyn book manuscript by December 2022.  Gingerly during Spring 2022, I reviewed the then current state of the manuscript.  I still needed to write many chapters.  What I already had wasn’t enough.  I didn’t even

MONDAY 04 December 2023 How dare I stop writing this eulogy?  How do I even stop?  And yet eulogists have done so, and, hence, I, too, must finish.  But how?  Steve’s life defied a simple conclusion, resisting a neat, tidy wrapping up.  He always discovered another deeper insight: patience, I think, was his greatest virtue.