Why WRITING IN THE CROSSHAIRS? IWSG Post

  https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com

Why the title

WRITING IN THE CROSSHAIRS?

All writers I believe write in the crosshairs.

If you have beta readers and have submitted to agents/editors,

you know the feeling of being in the crosshairs of their evaluations.

Ouch. But no pain, no gain.

But I am thinking of the imagery of the hunter.

He fixes his aim at his target, looking through his scope.

The image is hardly crisp at the beginning. He must adjust the lens to achieve crisp clarity and the best chance of hitting his target.


Writers are like that hunter.
 

At first the image of our tale is blurry.

We tighten the focus with revealing dialogue, vibrant characters, engaging crises, and creative descriptions.

Pacing and plot tighten the image even more. Sometimes we get it with dead-on clarity. Most times we don't.

No one but Shakespeare is perfect. If you don't believe me, ask Harold Bloom or any university English professor.


It is a tricky endeavor writing in the crosshairs.


How do we focus quicksilver humans into concrete mental images?


Take flames. They look like objects but are really processes.

Humans are like that as well. No human actually is complete. He or she is in the process of becoming.


But becoming what? We answer that question with our choices.

But there is more to my title than that.


We all write the movie of our lives in the crosshairs.


That endeavor is more tricky. We don't get the luxury of time to reflect, muse, or ponder at leisure.

Life is a harsh mistress. As we struggle, she flashes us that "beauty-queen" smile:

all sharp teeth and no heart. And in her games of chance, the House ultimately wins.


Like Indiana Jones we must make it up as we go along.
 

We plan and prepare.

Life gleefully throws her monkey wrench into our preparations.

We must write our lives in the crosshairs of illness, accidents, dysfunctional humans, and our own inner demons.

We are all in Life's crosshairs, and none of us know when she will pull the trigger. We just know that she will.


This is what my blog is all about:


How to maintain a measure of grace and peace in the crosshairs of Life.

I haven't figured it out yet.

Let me know what helps with you.

I am currently listening to "Follow Me" from the anime Innocence.

The romance of my haunted, undead Texas Ranger, Samuel McCord, and his immortal love, Meilori Shinseen, seem to linger among those lyrics like the ghost traces of a moonbeam.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1530302722

Here is a music video I think you may like:

EACH TIME HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF, THE PRICE GOES UP

 

On this day in 1885, General George Gordon was killed on the palace steps in Khartoum, Sudan ...

which led to needless more deaths and further European expansion into Africa. 

On this date in 1945, Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz, Poland, revealing the depths of the horrors perpetrated there.

Here is a bit of Mozart to eulogize that tragedy:

The greatest loss, however is what dies inside a man while he yet lives.

the death of genuine feeling that makes it possible to feel the pain or glory of other men than yourself.

WHERE DID THAT THOUGHT COME FROM?

 

I think of my thoughts as tumbling lottery balls rattling around in my mind.

What brings one fact into focus from the blur of so many bits of data churning in my brain?

Just now, for some reason that the ghost of Freud refuses to tell me, Charles Napier came to mind.

In what way?

And I've never been married.

I mean, marriage is tough because you have to deal with feelings ... and lawyers.

And immediately following that thought, the early life of Frank Frazetta came to mind.

Why do you think that happened?

SNOW!

 The 1st fall of snow is not just an event ...

It is a magical event.

You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up in another quite different.

And if this is not magic, where is it to be found?

Two days ago was the third heaviest snowstorm in Lake Charles' history.

I remember the first time Snowfall almost killed me.

Outside our basement apartment window, the snow fell as softly as Mother's tears

You see, in Mother's mind, I was dying.

Detroit was snowed in, no cabs allowed on the streets, no neighbors across the hall.

We were too poor to afford a phone just new to Detroit.

My fever was so high, I burned with it.

She gave me the last of the aspirin, hugged me, and started to rock me in the bed.

"Look, baby ... the snowflakes are winter's butterflies."

https://www.audible.com/pd/Hibbs-the-Cub-with-No-Clue-Audiobook/B00PZJYFO8

And not wanting me to die in the quiet dark of the night, 

Mother reached into her own troubled childhood and began re-telling me the Lakota teaching tales her own grandmother told her at night.

About Estanatlehi, whose love was warm but whose touch was cold.

But she must be near, for I was shivering so.

https://www.amazon.com/Hibbs-Cub-Clue-Roland-Yeomans/dp/1519762151/

She came up with the name "Hibbs, the cub with no clue."

Mother pointed to the frosted window and swore she saw him clinging to the tree feet away.

She tweaked my runny nose and said that meant I was going to get better, for Hibbs watched over all sick children.

I must have believed her, for I got better. 

My favorite toy was a stuffed bear ... who I kept until the house fire

I thought of Hibbs when I saw the heavy snowfall this Tuesday.

For a little over $5, you can get the audio book of little Hibbs.

By the way, Mother later showed me the claw marks Hibbs left on that tree.

Believe what you will.

SOMETIMES THE M IS SILENT _ THOUGHTS ON JAN. 20TH

 

George Burns born on this day in 1896

"Beware following the masses -- sometimes the "M" is silent." 

- George Burns

On this date in 1327, Edward II was forced from power by his wife and her lover, Roger Mortimer.

He is known for the saying, "An unfaithful wife is a pain in the arse."

 

Understandable since he was executed by having a red-hot poker inserted into his anus.

On this date in 1841, China cedes the island of Hong Kong to the British with the signing of the Chuenpi Convention.

Why were the Opium Wars fought?

China did not want to buy opium from England.

Politics. Gotta love it -- unless you are Edward II or China.

On this date in 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt is the 1st president 

inaugurated on this date per the new 2oth Amendment.

On this date in 1958, Elvis receives orders to report for duty in the Army.

Would Edgar Allan Poe have CONFIDENCE in our past Government? Thoughts on Jan. 19th

 

Born on this day in 1809

"I have great confidence in fools; 'Self Confidence' my friends call it."

 - Edgar Allan Poe

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MYWXYLM

 In THE RIVAL, Poe is a major character, and you discover who was the inspiration for Annabel Lee ... and how Victor Standish dies.

Born on this day 2 years earlier than Poe.

"Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to keep one." 

- Lee

It is well for Alice Wentworth that the General was not in THE RIVAL, for he loved to flirt.

On this date in 1993, Fleetwood Mac reunites for Presidential Inauguration. 

Speaking of inaugurations, Robert Frost

attended the inauguration of John F. Kennedy at the age of 87.

It has been suggested the bitter cold of the event led to the illness that resulted in Frost's death.

On this date in 1953, Lucille Ball gives birth on the screen ... and in real life.

Let's go to the "Way Back Machine" for the last thing of note on January 19th:

"I'LL DRINK TO THAT!" and other paved roads to Hell _ Thoughts of Jan. 16th

 

On this date in 1919, the 18th amendment, which established prohibition, was passed in the US Constitution.

Prohibition made the Mob acceptable by creating a huge demand for illegal alcohol, 

which provided gangsters with the opportunity to make enormous profits. 

This led to the rise of organized crime in the United States.

Prohibition ended in 1933 with the ratification of the 21st Amendment. 

However, the Mafia continued to grow and expand into other rackets,

 such as loan sharking, prostitution, and gambling.

 

In 27 B.C. on this date, the Roman Senate granted the title of Augustus to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus,

 marking the beginning of the Roman Empire

and the Pax Romana --

the fist of steel in a velvet glove.

On this date in 1547, Ivan the Terrible, became Tsar of Russia.

And he was a piece of work -- check the above video.

In 1991, the Persian Gulf War began on this date.

Many "Monday Morning Quarterbacks"

argue that the war was primarily motivated by securing oil interests

 and did not adequately address the underlying causes of conflict in the region. 

Stalin once said, "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."

On that note,

On this date, Bill Cosby's only son, Ennis, was murdered in 1997 while fixing a flat on Interstate 47.

And to end with a bit of beauty ...

Kate Moss was born on this date in 1997.

But there is sadness to her fame, too.