A few days later, we board our flight to the close by Medical Island of Malaysia: Penang. It’s time for our annual checkups, and it won’t hurt to get to the bottom of exactly which type of ghost is inhabiting my back this time around. Besides, it’s been far too long since we’ve been on any
Source: To Penang, Malaysia With the Spine of A Grouchy Old Lady
Reinvigorated by his time on the water, Andrew kills it with the remainder of the keel bolts and has old melted out and new melted in, lickety split. It is not long at all until we are putting the finishing touches on and scheduling the slings to attempt the big install. But fi
Source: The Moment of Truth, By Sonrisa
The morning after he tried to melt my heart out, Andrew returned bright and early with a tense look in his eye. “Yo, ho, ho, Captain!” I greet him. “How’s the mood today?” But, he is still in no mood for merry chatter. “Melting the bolts out is the easy part, Sonrisa. Let’s see if I can get th
Source: Broken Dams and Broken Dreams? By Sonrisa
One hot and humid afternoon, Andrew laid aside his practice torch and decided to meander over to the yard office to shoot the breeze with the yard crew. I hear his flip-flops snap away, growing further in the distance until I see him chatting with Adrian – the resident electrician and mast
Source: The First Cut Is The Deepest, By Sonrisa
I belong to a number of Facebook groups related to writing. In some of them, I see questions I haven’t asked in years, Questions so basic that DON’T THOSE PEOPLE KNOW ANYTHING? comes to mind. Then I remember myself. Sometimes I drop a bit of advice, and often when I do it is appreciated (given a like or two, at least.) Thing is, I’m still not a famous, self-sustaining writer. Hell, I’m almost seventy, and I’m still aspiring to that (keeps one young, I’m told.) Great, but that means, that, while I can give advice to raw beginners (Speak Engrish, Troop!?) I still need a lot of help myself. And I have learned a few things over time.
Number one: nobody knows how you should proceed in your career. People who tell you what to do should pay attention to their own lives, and let you figure out yours.
Two: that’s not to say that you can’t learn from others’ experiences. You can, but never try to be them. Or even like them. You are you, and that’s fantastic.
Three: you will not be an overnight success. If you are, you’ll spend the rest of your life being unsure of your actual talents. As opposed to if you work hard for years and finally break through, in which case you will spend the rest of your life being unsure of your actual talents. This is called “Imposter Syndrome.” Get used to it.
And number zero: Know the rules like a professional so you can break them like an artist. (Pablo Picasso) Rule zero because it is the most important.
There, now you know everything you need to know to be a famous, self-sustaining writer. You’re welcome.
With each of my Boaterfly Projects in various states of destruction and reconstruction, Andrew felt he had enough keel bolt strategy thinking time. He’d made his decision about how to take my old bolts out and put new ones back in. Option One – Sand Casting Before we’d hauled out, we
Source: Practice Makes Perfect, By Sonrisa
With the silicon bronze bolts on order, Andrew felt like he bought himself some time to make the next important decision: how will he remove and replace my old bolts? While he works on making this final call, he sets to work resolving my “Boaterfly Effect” projects. What is a
Source: The Boaterfly Effect, By Sonrisa
If you want to know where that picture was taken, look it up. You have all the information you need.
As a student of the French language, I know that ‘mémoire‘ is a word for ‘memory.’ (So is souvenir.) It can also mean a token, something to remind you of a place, that sort of thing. In English, memoir is a book about one’s experiences. It’s not a biography, although there can be a lot of biographical information in a memoir. With all that said, and, having bought “Memoir Writing for Dummies,” I am endeavoring to write a memoir. I don’t care if it’s ever published, though. I’m writing it because I’ve noticed that the best books are the ones where the author is totally involved in the story, in a way the reader can sense. (Not literally, we leave that to Vonnegut.) Since I aspire to write REALLY GOOD STUFF, I am using a memoir as a way to get to know who I really am. Sure, you can pay some shrink to help you, but as I write pretty good anyway, I figure this will be cheaper. (Hey, I write gooder than a lot of people, anyway.) 🙂
So far it’s almost 70 pages long. One page per year, more or less. Well, now that I put it that way, I think I have some more writing to do. Let me know if you’ve ever done a memoir, particularly if it was for self-discovery. Okay?
Ciao!
My story has been on pause for the last while. No one seemed willing to write about what was going on. Part of the reason is because of our computer debacle, sure, but another large part is because we didn’t know what kind of story we would be telling until we got a little bit further into the pro
Source: This Sailboat Has Lost Her Keel! By S/V Sonrisa
Where have we been for two weeks? What is going on with Sonrisa? Are you ever going to post a blog again? Are you ever going sailing again? I know! I know! For months now I’ve been nursing my computer along. Just when I would think it was finally good and dead, it would buzz back to life with
Source: The Great Computer Debacle of 2019