To dive straight into the Livestream, click below:
And now for the details!
The Planner section dealt with Moss Piglet's (https://www.krazines.com/themes.html) April theme (with the submission deadline the first Wednesday of March) of Westerns. And how, since Westerns aren't my jam, how I was still able to use the prompt but using my own spins on it.
The Pantser section addressed my taking a couple of weeks off to give me space to deal with things both scheduled and not - life got very full there and so I gave myself space to work through it all. I also talked about one way of dealing with a very full life - using multiple notebooks to help keep track of To Do items, creative ideas, and notes for Livestream classes.
To dive straight into the livestream, click the thumbnail below:
The Planner section of the livestream explored the Moss Piglet March issue prompt of "Ordinary Adventures".
What constitutes an ordinary adventure? Adventures are typically extraordinary, so how do we approach an ordinary adventure in such a way that it's an entertaining read?
One way (and the way explored in the livestream) is to imagine yourself, an ordinary person, put into an extraordinary place. My idea was using news coverage of a hurricane and imagining what it might be like to experience the scene firsthand:
I went to the Posh Building to meet with a new accounting client. I caught the first available elevator to ride up to the 64th floor. And my attention was caught by the TV screen playing news of Hurricane Beverly.
As the anchor, a very drenched and windblown Sydney Freelance, described the scenes of devastation, I found myself imagining what it might be like to experience the storm firsthand.
Steve, can you change the shot to watch the surfer ride the tremendous surf?
I find myself both terrified and exhilarated to feel my feet on the board while it runs across the wave. The spray in my face, the wind trying desperately to knock me off, and laughing in the face of Nature is amazing. I can taste the salty spray, the cold of the water, the…
There are reports of people not leaving their homes so that they can protect their neighborhoods from vandals and looters.
Gun in my hand, wrapped in my yellow slicker and boots, I wander the wind-blown streets, trying to keep my property safe from those who would take advantage of the chaos of the storm. My family is safe at a relative’s house but I want to make sure they have something to come back to. I know the police aren’t happy with me but it’s not their house that is at risk. So I walk and I watch and I…
Suddenly, the door opens and there’s the receptionist watching me not get out of the elevator. So I step out, take a moment to remember why I’m here, and go up to introduce myself.
The Pantser section focused on looking beyond my creative process. I viewed my work as part of other people's creative processes and, pulling back even further, as being a part of a more Universal Creative Process. Also, if you consider story not simply as a created thing but instead a living entity, it can influence the creative process (are accidents and oversights simply errors or are they actions by the story to create and edit itself???)
To dive straight into the Livestream, here's the link:
And for anyone who wants the recap, keep reading!
Using the same reframing of how to view a year as we did last livestream, introduce the new guy, 2025
For the coming year, 2025 has a few ideas on how to view the upcoming year:
Guidelines, not Resolutions
Themes and Directions, not Firm Goals
List things I like doing
And from a presentation standpoint, do it from the view of an incoming Executive.
A few ideas then came forward:
Keep doing three things from the prior year
Identify what you enjoy but don’t make time for - aim to do those things more
Couple habits you already do with habits you want to create
Based on all this, I wrote the following story/setup for incoming 2025:
Deep breath. Crack knuckles. Shake things out.
Let’s get started.
As 2025 got ready to take over from 2024, he thought about the kind of year he wanted to create. He wanted to guide things in a certain direction but take into account that things don’t always go as planned. He wanted to set things up so as to reduce stress but still try to make this year better than last year.
So the first thing he did was to write his future self a letter to be read at the end of the year so as to compare notes with what was intended against what actually happened.
Write a letter to Future 2025 about the direction, the goals, and the intentions of the incoming year
And so I wrote this to my future self:
Dear Future 2025 (aka me),
As I ready myself to take on the coming year, that is to say, my namesake, I want to bring to mind and attention ideas and directions I want to highlight.
These items are in no particular order, but they are all important to me.
The first item on my list is to keep on collaborating with Aleesha. I really enjoy how my creativity has blossomed doing these collaborations and look forward to seeing where my creativity goes. And I want to do this work not with any creative goal or use of content in mind but instead for the pure enjoyment of doing the work.
As another item, I want to better react to unexpected and/or unpleasant situations. When I encounter a situation that is unexpected or unpleasant, I will do my best to remember my breath and take the time needed to breathe first before acting. The goal is to not react and instead to act mindfully. And when I fail to remember my breath, I will use that as an opportunity to remember my breath for the next time.
I will try to remember that music is good for my mental health. I will take the opportunities presented to play my loud, obnoxious music when I have the ability to take the time.
One last item for now (because I can always add more to this list) is to embrace my love of learning and of being a math and science geek/nerd/lover. I will continue to read and share things during these livestreams and make references to them in my writing because they are part of what makes my experience enjoyable.
For instance, I’m going to make mention right now that 2025 is the sum of the cubes of the numbers 1 through 9, which I think is really cool.
And that’s it for now. See ya in about a year.
New 2025
Behaviourceuticals
Inc.com ran an article on how overcoming small challenges can lead to greater life satisfaction and, in fact, give the same benefits from antidepressants (and I'll note there are no side-effects!)
“This is our little Morris. He was last seen in the vicinity of a friend’s house just a short swim from our anemone. If you have any information leading to the safe return of our precious child, please call your local authorities. You’ll have our undying gratitude.”
This plea from Morris’ parents echo that of so many fish who are bereft of family members. It’s heart-breaking to those affected by the recurring tragedy that so few take an interest in finding the missing fish.
The casually callous reaction of “If they can’t be bothered to care then why should I?” upon hearing that pictures of the missing aren’t published on the sides of milk cartons ignores the fact that watery environments aren’t conducive to advances in printing technology. But it’s the deliberately mean-spirited placement of those same pictures on packages of frozen fish sticks that really twist my gills the wrong way.
Let’s all work together to defeat this scandalous treatment of all fish. And to overcome the enormous coverup of this situation by the fishing industry.
For anyone who wants to dive right into the Livestream, here's a link to the video!
And if you need some convincing to watch, here's what happened!
Reframe how we usually view representations of a year.
We'll typically view an outgoing year as an old person and the incoming year as a baby, But what if instead it's viewed as a tired executive getting ready to retire and a fresh face is preparing to take over the Chief Executive role?
The outgoing year can then write a final memo talking about Things To Be Proud Of and another list of Things To Be Less Proud Of
By identifying the lessons of 2024, we can help guide 2025!
Realize that the You that made decision(s) that you later regret made the best decision You could make at the time
And we can discharge emotions from events that occurred in the past in a loving, honouring way
Curious? Try a writing exercise - what might come after this?
It wasn’t what I was expecting. I mean, here I am, titular leader for calendar year 2024, with just a few days remaining until the new guy, 2025, takes over, so I thought I’d go check out where I’ll be residing in retirement. I had visions of comfy loungers, spa treatments, martini lunches… the things you’d expect an outgoing chief executive to be entitled to.
What I found was some prior executives crammed into a small meeting room, all fighting for space around a small conference call phone, all speaking at once, and all saying different and mostly conflicting things. I’d always wondered where the advice, the memories, the history lessons, sometimes welcome, came from.
This is where I’m going to be relegated?
*sigh*
It’s not like I was looking for some sort of executive Valhalla fasting hall. Ok… maybe something like an all-inclusive resort. But this? Oh boy, no.
Tea may be the focus but without wood the peaceful setting isn’t possible. The branch knows; it sits, crooked, with fire-hardened ceramics and cast pot nestled in. Lumber fashioned into the supporting table, twigs woven into an underlying mat, stick carved into a scoop, and makes ready the hot water. Savour one but appreciate both.
The Moss Piglet's Moby Dick issue (October 2024) has been out for a while now and I thought it'd be interesting to document what I submitted and talk about what was accepted and what wasn't.
For anyone interested in what Moss Piglet is - check out this link! (The image is from the krazines website and is not a link!)
Before moving on, if you love having a 90+ page magazine in your hands while reading and enjoying art, consider subscribing!
Now to my contribution!
I submitted three pieces:
The Right Whale Was the Wrong Whale (accepted)
Ishmael's Epilogue
Tonight Only
The Right Whale Was the Wrong Whale (a song parody)
Herman Melville went to London to publish his book
At the manuscript illustrators didn’t bother to look
To see what type of whale the author thought
would be best for the story that should be sought
So the book was published with lovely cover art
and sent to booksellers ready for sales to start
Which is when it was noticed there must be a tale
To explain why the cover featured the wrong whale
The book was showing a Right Whale
But Ahab hunted a Sperm Whale
So the Right Whale turned out to be the wrong whale
What a whale-y tale-y fail
To the complaint Herman’s lawyers sent
Threatening suit over how the cover art went
The illustrators responded in an angry letter
That they knew the public’s appetite better
The book illustrated a Right Whale
But Ahab raged against a Sperm Whale
So the Right Whale was never the right whale
What a whale-y tale-y fail
While the hope was for customers in droves
Reviewer copies ended up in their stoves
After Melville’s death the book found acclaim
But while he was alive, it wasn’t the same
The book never showed the right whale
The Pequod is chasing the wrong whale
Ahab’s leg was taken by the White Whale
What a whale-y tale-y fail
Let’s just read the book, let it set sail
With a yo-ho-ho and frothy mug of ale
When I started writing this, it quickly went from a prose microfiction to a poem. It was only after I wrote the first chorus (and realized that's what it was!) that it turned into song lyrics.
Ishmael's Epilogue
Pray call me Ishmael still - Ishmael the former schoolmaster, Ishmael the occasional sailor, Ishmael the sole survivor of the Pequod, the whaling ship that now rests at the bottom of the sea along with the full compliment of its crew. Perhaps aside, of course, from its doomed captain, Captain Ahab, who was noosed and lashed to the Great White Whale, Moby Dick. Even now that great Leviathan, with harpoon jutting still from its side, may swim and thrash in pain with his deceased foe, a grisly trophy, and unwanted companion, until that great Fish’s dying day.
My surviving of that adventure, of clinging for a day and a night to the coffin that had been made for my friend, Queequeg, and converted into a life buoy during the voyage, until my rescue by another whaling ship, had, for a time, cured me of my need to seek the sea whenever the same damp, drizzly November in my soul would arise. But, as too often happens when tragedy becomes a distant memory and pressing cares of the day override softly spoken vows to not try Fate again, I found myself signing onto a merchantman due to depart the following day. And from whose sailing I was absent.
It’s still unclear to me what transpired between adding my name to the crew list and the scheduled departure of The Siren Song. I have a hazy memory of drinking ale with the Second Mate of my new ship, of becoming ill, and of lying cold and still in a dark alley. I may even have heard the mate say “Ill fortune poisons a ship”, but my ragged dying breaths made my hearing unreliable.
(Author’s Note - this is the UK version of the Epilogue. In the US version, it’s revealed that Ishmael murmurs these words to an attending nurse at a local hospital before succumbing to the presumed poisoning).
I wanted this to follow some of the elements within the actual novel, Moby Dick. It's why I start with "Pray call me Ismael still" - it makes reference to that famous opening line and I hope it sets out what I'm trying to accomplish.
The style also tries to follow the opening paragraphs of the book.
The Author's Note is a play on the history of the book - the UK version of the book had the very ending bit edited out which showed that the Ishmael, then the sole survivor of the sinking of the whaling ship Pequod, being rescued by another ship. In mine, the UK version edits out the fact that Ishmael was heard and heeded by an attending nurse.
Tonight Only
There’s a district in every major city where seedy and salacious meets affluent and refined. A place where the rich buy their drugs of choice, find an hour or two of companionship, and enjoy entertainments frowned upon by polite society. To the uneducated eye it’s all tawdry and gaudy, but to those familiar with the scene, there are palaces of exotic arts where performers are lucky to perform and only select patrons are able to enter.
Richard makes a comfortable living traveling to these exclusive venues; he makes more in tips in one night than most people see in a year. And when his stage name is on a theatre’s marquee, a fleet of expensive automobiles bringing well-heeled customers can be expected.
You know his stage name, although probably not in this context. But when Richard first started performing and needed a name that would be both memorable and utterable in public, he abbreviated both his hometown of Mobile, Alabama and his first name and put them together: Moby Dick.
It doesn’t hurt that his anatomy is appropriately sized to match.
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