Refurbish/ Make Better

While walking down a street in Huntington, Long Island, Billy Joel stumbled upon an old piano set out on the street to be thrown away.

Ever “The Piano Man,” Joel stands at the piano and pounds out a rag-time tune. 

 Man, that piano SANG!

To the untrained eye, that instrument was useless.

But “The Piano Man” knew better.

He said it was perfectly good—just needed a new finish and a tuning to come back to life.

 

 

I’m using Joel’s philosophy on a couple of my books, taking old worn-out content and giving it new life. 

 

Right now, though, I need to take a walk to stretch out my legs, but I was so anxious to tell you what I just completed that I’m writing first. 

 

After you’ve gone through clean-up the books and then placing them on Kindle, it’s time for cheers, not that it is so hard, but glitches happen, and formatting gets thrust into the wrong places. And for some reason (you know computers have a mind of their own), I ended up with hyphens in my words where they didn’t belong--remember-brance, exot-ic, set-tled. What the heck?

 

Do you do this? You and the computer get cross-wired. The computer, its programs, whatever it is, changes your formatting, as well as your font type and size, and my dear computer won until 2 A. M. this morning.

 

I won at 4 P.M. this afternoon.

 

Woohoo. 

 

I thought perhaps you could relate.

 

You can cry on my shoulder. I’m here.

 

A new romance book will be coming out, all new and fresh and happening in Italy. The working title is Where Destiny Leads.

 

If you are a writer, here is the book for you: Grab a Pen and Kick Ass by jewell d. (Me) If you don’t think I’m so hot, read the books I list within the book, They’re hot! They’re the best.

 

Click on the image of your choice:

 

 

If you like a romance book, check out The Girl on the Pier. The Girl on the Pier is a painting, not the heroine, but there is a hero and a heroine, and a love story, and a world-wide search, and a mystery. Why in the world were there two paintings with the same title? And why would a customer offer an exorbitant sum for one of them? And ha, I got Africa is there, and Paris--makes me drool.

 

Both are available on Amazon.com. IF you have Kindle Unlimited, they are free.
 

I’m off for my walk, and I’m grabbing Husband Dear and dragging him along.

See ya,

Jo

 

The End

 

Steven Pressfield, (The War of Art, and Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t) writes this:

"My demons were about finishing. Until then, I had gotten to the 99-yard line on every project and compulsively blown them all up. I couldn’t get to THE END. I couldn’t ship, to use Seth Godin’s perfect term.

"There’s a legend about Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, many more) that as he got close to the end on a novel he was writing, he would start getting up earlier and earlier in the morning to work on it. First it was six o’clock, then five, then four. Finally he’d have to move out of the house, check into a hotel, just to keep from driving his wife crazy.

 "Michael Crichton was smart. He knew that as he approached the moment of truth, of  shipping, of exposing his creation to the world, his inner Resistance would ramp up its intensity, trying to sabotage him, to keep him from reaching THE END.

"So he upped his own intensity. I didn’t know Michael Crichton, but I can imagine his self-talk during those final do-or-die weeks. No doubt he lashed himself like a Marine drill instructor. He encouraged himself like a highly-paid coach."

There is something about overcoming resistance, that is procrastination, and completing a project that is satisfying even if nobody wants to read it. (Bite your tongue.) 

The Sh*t, Pressfield is talking about is your crappy stuff. Keep going until yoiu get good stuff. I don't know any other way, except keep going. The successful ones have never given up.

Rejections? Yep, you'll have them.

My daughter told me about a TED talk she heard where the speaker knew he had problems with rejection, so he set himself up for 100 days, a rejection a day.

I have to find that talk. He was very creative in his asking. One was walking up to someone on the street and asking for  $100. Another was asking a hamburger joint if he could have a refill on his hamburger--you know, like they give refills on Cokes. Finally when he asked if he could plant a flower bulb in their back yard, the person asked why? That gave him a chance to explain his process. .

Hey, I'd say yes on that one.

 

A Gift

 "You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually, you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”

 — Octavia E. Butler

 

Isn't it odd that we are told that we have a gift to give, and I have said it and believed it? And with that, we think that perhaps some creative endeavor will be our pathway to success and livelihood. And so we begin, we work at it, and sometimes we get better. Sometimes we make a sale or get hired. Often, we fail. 

 

In come the thoughts: I'll never make it. I'm not good enough. It's too late for me. I've worked for 30 years and have nothing to show for it except a pile of crumpled pages and dashed hopes.

 

All those nitty, annoying and ridiculous thoughts we tell ourselves. 

 

Maybe the test isn't how many times we fall. It's how many times we get up. Cliche'? Yes, I know, but pertinent.

 

I use writing as a beginning point in my discussions of creativity because that's my venue. However, if I were a painter, I would probably start at that. Writing, however, is something everyone can do. It doesn't have to be creative writing or poetry, or you don't have to be a blogger or a novelist to write. Journaling is a way to take another look at an event, sad, happy, whatever. Happy event? Relish it. Sad Event? Lay it to rest. 

 

"Morning pages" (Julia Cameron's term) can clear the debris that is standing in your way of a fruitful, pleasant day. It is writing out those nitty, whining thoughts that like to circle your brain. It is putting a period at the end of a sentence.

 

You can gripe all you want on the page—remember it's for your eyes only. Just get it out. You will put a smile on the muse's face. 

 

"And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right."

 — Ray Bradbury