May 2007
In This Issue:
* Address label rant
* Publishing news
* Childbearing question
* Oregon Coast writer news
* Book report
No More 'Free' Gifts, Please!
Just how many return address labels can a person use?
That's the question that struck me as I opened Saturday's mail. Half the envelopes contained labels with our names and addresses on them. Yesterday it was greeting cards. Both came with pleas for money. How much money do they think we have, and how many letters do they think we send? Have they never heard of e-mail?
In the past week, we have gotten cards and/or labels from the Paralyzed Veterans, the Alzheimer's Society, Amnesty International, the March of Dimes, Save the Children, the Cystic Fybrosis Foundation and Doctors Without Borders. It's getting so when I open an envelope and there isn't a free gift inside, I'm a little disappointed.
The Paralyzed Veterans started it off for me years ago. I thought, how nice of them to send me pretty address labels and cards. Sure, I'll send them ten dollars. Then came calendars--big ones and little ones--notepads with my name on them, and stationery with matching envelopes. Well, I support veterans, and having had a quadriplegic uncle, I support people who are paralyzed, so I sent money. But these things started arriving every week. I started rationing my donations. Sorry, not this week, fellows, and no, I don't care to send a prewritten message telling the vets that I'm thinking about them.
Then all the other charities started jumping in. No matter how many bills and letters I sent, I couldn't possibly keep up with the labels. Soon my desk drawer was so full of labels it wouldn't shut.
On the positive side, I never lacked for a greeting card. I'd just go to the overflowing box of cards from the Paralyzed Veterans. But now, with so many charities sending me so many cards, I don't know enough people to use all those cards in my lifetime. In fact, the only cards I have used up are the sympathy cards. With all those people dying, I have even fewer people left to write letters to.
I give up. Please, charities, stop. You're wasting my donations making labels, cards and calendars nobody needs. Plus you're putting the real companies that make labels, cards and calendars out of business. Why go to Hallmark when you've got freebies from the Paralyzed Veterans and the Alzheimer's Society?
Furthermore, if you asked me for money last week, don't expect me to give again for at least a month. Even the mortgage company doesn't expect a check that often. Oh, you say, the amounts are so small. But it adds up.
Enough. More than enough actually. The only folks I write to these days are creditors and all those charities sending me stationery, labels and cards. I think I'll use some of their kind gifts to ask them to kindly stop. Come on, March of Dimes, spend the money on kids not calendars. If the cause is good enough and we can afford it, we'll donate. You don't have to bribe us.
How about if we all do it together? Take some of those free labels and cards and write to the senders asking them to knock it off. Don't enclose a check; it just encourages them. Besides, the price of first class stamps is going up to 41 cents this month. If they'd like to send some free stamps, that would be nice.
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Thank you for letting me sound off. Now here's a stormy ocean picture to take our minds off this frustrating situation.
Publishing News
Well, Stories Grandma Never Told is out, as I mentioned last month. Check my Books + page for details. So far, sales are good. Copies are selling online at my website, www.suelick.com, and also at Amazon.com and a few local bookstores.
Freelancing for Newspapers, my other new book, coming out from Quill Driver Books, has been delayed until June. Grumble. But it will be worth the wait. Meanwhile, if you want to start writing for newspapers, do what I tell prospective students. Start reading newspapers voraciously, looking in every section for evidence of freelance opportunities, and see where you might fit in.
I'm still writing the boomer section for Northwest Senior News. Featured this month is Sandy Post, who just retired as director of Shangri-La, a wonderful Oregon coast organization that helps the developmentally disabled. And no, they don't make cards and address labels. They do make ceramic frogs and seagulls and sell firewood. But those are useful things, and they don't mail them to you with a plea for money.
My Everything But Writing Column coming up this month at the Scriptorium is the first in a series about writers going out on the road. Why? Because sooner or later, a writer has to leave the attic or the Internet and see what's going on outside.
Are Babies Back in Style?
With the two new books almost self-sufficient, I'm back at work on my childless women project. I know it's taking a long time, but it will see print one of these days. Here's an interesting new trend I've just started hearing about: The children of the baby boomers are postponing their careers to concentrate on having children. They looked at their childless aunts and coworkers and their own mothers trying to do everything at once and quickly realized that didn't work. If they want to have kids, they're getting down to business while their eggs are fresh. They can become business moguls later. Maybe they're emulating the many young celebrities who are also having babies. It seems like every other one is either pregnant or adopting a baby from a Third World country. Others are consciously deciding to never have children, rather than sliding into it by waiting too long. Maybe our kids are smarter than we are. That's encouraging, considering they're going to be in charge of the world any day now.
What are the young people in your life doing, procreation-wise? Are they making babies, embracing the childfree life, or not quite sure what to do? I'd really like to know. Email me at suelick@casco.net.
Coast Writing Events
Writers on the Edge held its second annual Haiku Poetry Slam last month at the new Café Mundo. It was so crowded people were hauling wet chairs in from outside and if you had to get up to go to the restroom, God help you, but it was a blast. Our team came in second. That's not bad for writing three-line poems in two minutes outside on a cold wet deck. First place went to the Haiku Thugs. Naturally. And the Walt Whitman MVP trophy was awarded to wonderful musician Joe Jordan, who wrote about his dog peeing on the bed. Great art fueled by great beer.
Next up in the Nye Beach Writers Series is poet Vern Rutsala. He will read from his work on May 19 at the Visual Arts Center. The program starts at 7 p.m. Admission is $5, including snacks and open mic. See the newly revamped Writers on the Edge web site for the year's schedule.
The Oregon Coast chapter of Willamette Writers will host columnist and author Bob Welch on Tuesday, May 8 at 7 p.m. at the Newport Library. Bob is cute, talented and inspiring. We're meeting for dinner at the Chowder Bowl at 5 p.m. You're all welcome to join us. Contact me at suelick@casco.net or Dorothy Mack, dmack@newportnet.com for more information. Also, the brochures are out for the annual WW conference coming up in August. Check www.willamettewriters.com for details. I'm teaching there, but I'm just one of many.
Book Report
So many good books, so little time, but here are a few from my April reading:
Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen, Random House, 2006. Well, it's chick lit and it serves up the "Sex and the City" New York setting by the shovelful, but this is an enjoyable book. I was thoroughly hooked on the story--until the end. Here's the situation: Bridget and Meghan Fitzmaurice are sisters who were orphaned very young and grew up with their aunt. Meghan is a rich and famous TV morning show host, married with a son named Leo, while Bridget works at a homeless shelter and has never married but has a longtime cop boyfriend named Irving Leftkovitz. One morning everything falls apart when Meghan calls a guest a f----- a------ , not realizing the mic is on. Not only is she vilified nationwide and soon to be unemployed, but her husband has just told her he's not getting what he wants out of the marriage, so he's leaving her. She disappears to an island near Jamaica, leaving Bridget to pick up the pieces. Lots of other things happen, some of which are barely believable, but you go along for the sake of the story. The characters are a bit clichéd, and I think Quindlen should have stopped a chapter sooner. The wrap-up chapter at the end ties all the strands much too neatly and forces the reader to move ahead so quickly in time that it's confusing. I have never liked Quindlen's fiction as much as her columns, but it's not a bad way to while away a rainy weekend. If you read it, let me know what you think.
Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids by Christina Katz, Writer's Digest Books, 2007. When Christina pitched her book at the 2005 Willamette Writers conference, the agents and editors jumped on it. The girl knows how to pitch a book. The result, Writer Mama, is a tad deceptive because it's really a guide to freelancing for all writers, not just mothers. One could delete every reference to motherhood and still follow the steps in this book to a successful career. I do wonder if one could follow all these steps with multiple children and if one can really produce serious prose scratching out a few words during naps and soccer practice. But all that aside, Writer Mama is a fun and easy read. Sidebars, helpful hints and exercises are sprinkled through its short chapters. The layout is colorful and snappy, and there's a lot of wisdom packed in here at a surprisingly reasonable price.
Close to Me, But Far Away: Living with Alzheimer's by Burton M. Wheeler, University of Missouri Press, 2001. This is a bittersweet but beautiful book. Wheeler's wife, Kee, is in the late stages of Alzheimer's. He is doing his best to take care of her at home, a nearly impossible task. He takes us through one Saturday, each chapter sharing a piece of their typical day, then going off into a memory or a meditation. Because Kee cannot converse, so much of his time is silent and alone. He takes us on the journeys of his mind, talking about everything from their courtship to golf to the first time he tried to give her a bath to how he wants their children to handle their ashes after they die. It is a very honest book; nothing is smoothed over. Wheeler openly struggles between wanting to take care of his wife and wanting his own life back. But his love for her is a flame that burns on in spite of it all. This book is a real gift.
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That's all for now. I was on call for jury duty the whole month of April. Went in twice, never served, but couldn't plan anything. Thank God I'm free at last.
It's May. The rhododendrons (below) are in bloom. Happy birthday, Dad, Ted, John and whoever I'm forgetting. Happy anniversary to Fred and me (22 years). Enjoy the flowers and the gentle sun. Pray for peace.
Hugs,
Sue
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