Rothacker Reviews

The Fragrance

This is about striving to become a better writer...

I can give you the flower but how can I give you the fragrance?

I found this sentence in a book about Taoism.  The author places the onus on the person about to receive the flower. It is up to this person to become more sensitive, more alert. He says by meditation we can clean off the dust and dirt that cake our sensitivity. 

I get this. But I was inspired to travel a different road on this thought.

I can write you a story but how can I give you its essence?

There really isn't a clear cut answer to this question. I suspect though, it's much like removing dust and dirt from our writing. Get the first draft out. Then distill and revise, distill and revise. Reach for clarity. Ask yourself if words are getting in the way of your message and then distill and revise more if necessary.

In the end it really is up to the reader. But at least we can give them the best shot at engaging their nose.

A Place of Great Significance That Needs to be Seen

Kyle Cassidy is a photographer. One day he had the opportunity to step inside author Michael Swanick's home office. Kyle thought, "this is a place of great significance and it needs to be seen. It was like I'd cracked open his skull and seen the gears of genius." Kyle's glimpse into genius spurred on his project Where I Write: Fantasy & Science Fiction Authors in their Creative Spaces.

Kyle spends a lot of time thinking about people's environments. Where I Write is a project designed to explore whether or not there is a connection between where writers work and the work itself. Wow! If you're a writer and that last sentence doesn't cause a pause for introspection.

Is your writing a product of the environment where it is written? Is there a connection?

I am including a snapshot of my lair below. At first I thought, "OMG, I better clean it up before I invite ya'll in." Then I reconsidered. It is what it is. I'm going to have to think about that connection, but there is a gravitational pull towards what flies off my fingertips and a sense of place...

One other thing that struck me in regards to Kyle's "...a place of great significance...needs to be seen" is my own reaction to stuff I see and my need to write about it.

Btw, the books you see here are the ones that I refer back to most often, pretty much my babies. The rest are scattered on shelves throughout our house and garage.

Escape From Cubicle Nation

Escape From Cubicle Nation is your personal key to freedom!  Like a weary soul who scraped, clawed and crawled his way across the desert in search of water, I smoked Pamela Slim's most excellent book in search of liberation.  From the tiny molecule in my soul who is standing atop the mountain screaming "no more bosses!" to my entire and collective soul who is getting dry heaves even thinking about Monday mornings, I simply cannot make a more heart felt and direct recommendation: Buy Pam's book today!

Escape From Cubicle Nation is a treasure and as such, I will dip in and review parts of this book with care and reverence.  I will treat it like a fine wine or a seminal Clint Eastwood classic, to be sipped and reveled upon.

Visit Pam's new format at Escape From Cubicle Nation for more info.

Feeding Your Muse

Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451 and one of the most popular American writers of all time, where do you get your ideas from?

Ray tells us where our muse is in the chapter How to Keep and Feed a Muse, in his book Zen in the Art of Writing.  This one chapter is worth the price of the book.  One place our muse isn't, is out there, floating in the wispy ether of never-never land waiting to be summoned by chance, stance or circumstance.

Ray tells us our muse lies within and can come from two different sources.  One is the life that we've lived.  The other is what we feed ourselves by way of reading.  Ray strongly recommends ingesting poetry, essays and books that cater to our senses.  He says to read material written by authors who write the way that we hope to write.  And also not to feel bad about a diet of comic books, TV shows, plays, magazines and film.  Passion is what pulls this all together.  Passion fueled by curiosity to explore and learn from all of these sources.

Wanted muse from Bayroadphoto/laura on Flickr; Three muse by third.eve on Flickr;

Zen in the Art of Writing is a must read!

Mark Twain: Write in Your Books

Reading provides far better creative exercise when we make notes as we go

Creative legend Alex Osborn made that observation in his book Wake Up Your Mind.  Alex goes on to say:

In Albert Bigelow Paine's life of Mark Twain the biographer wrote: "On the table by him, and on his bed, and on the billiard-room shelves, he kept books he read most.  All, or nearly all, had annotations-spontaneously uttered marginal notes, title prefatories, or concluding comments.  They were the books he had read again and again, and it was seldom that he had not hand something to say with each fresh reading."

Photo from M. Godek on Flickr

Writing About Your Writing

Writing down your mission turns your vague hopes into language.  By writing about your writing, you learn what you need to learn.

In his book Writing Tools, author Roy Peter Clark, tells his readers how he learned more about reporting and telling stories from a piece titled "Three Little Words," which he wrote for the St. Petersburg Times.  Prior to writing this article, Roy created a mission statement that covered his intent and purpose.

Isabel Joely Black: Writing Coach

What are the qualities of a good writing coach?

• A passion for writing
• An active imagination
• A deep love of writing
• A love of art
• A proven track record
• A degree of sensitivity
• Inspirational
• Creative
• A desire to see others flourish
• Intuitive
• Compassionate

Absolutely.  And Isabel Joely Black is everyone of the above!  These characteristics are clear and evident in her writing and communication. After doing a little research on Joely, it is clear and evident that others feel the same way too. 

Joely Black is an incredibly intuitive and generously supportive writing coach.  The progress I've made with my writing struggles since I've been working with her have been remarkable.  Diane Whiddon-Brown, author of Outdrivingmyheadlights.com

Read more from Diane here.

I was so excited when the opportunity arose to work with Joely as my writing coach.  I was feeling very stuck and uninspired before we began working together.  But she is so excited about writing and the art of living creatively that it is impossible to remain stuck around her for long.  Working with her has helped me give myself permission to relax, and to let go all of the rules I was making up about how writing was "supposed" to be.  Jenny Ryan, author of Using My Powers For Good.

And for good measure visit with Alex Fayle.

Now everything that I've told you about Joely is just there.  It's there in black and white for all to see.  But I need to tell you something else about the girl that is there.  It's something that is not necessarily in black and white.  But when you read her words you can just feel it resonate throughout your body.  Isabel Joely Black is thoughtful.  And if I am looking for a writing coach, that's what I'm looking for first!

By the way, if you are in search of a fantasy novel about a young woman on a journey of self-discovery, bent on learning right from wrong, and set in fantastical world...with an occasional dragon, search no more.  Visit Joely's most excellent work: AMNAR THE AWAKENING.

Mary Pipher on Writing: Be Brief

Mary Pipher, in her book, Writing to Save the World, says, "Our goal as writers is to convey to readers the greatest meaning with the most precise images and the fewest words."

Mary also says, "Your desire to communicate originates from some internal combustion of intellect, heart and experience."

I reviewed Mary's book last year.  The intention of today's post was to extract two quotes from Mary's work that have the potential to pierce through the white noise of Twitter traffic and inspire those of us who love to write.

This is a great book and I highly recommend that you engage yourself with it...that is, if you love to write.

What's Up With The Alien Dave? Part IV

The heavy hatchet of censorship tried to get us...

From day one to the last day that AREA51HVAC.COM was alive, an air of positiveness coursed through our code.  Although, due to various articles written about us, our names were publicly associated with the site, we never once mentioned our real names online nor did we ever mention the company that we worked for, until the very last day.

Large companies did not take the time to understand what we were all about.  Fortunately, industry consultants, journalists and small company owners did.  We worked for a very large company.  When news reached upper levels of management that I would be attending a national trade association event, they approached me and said that I was not allowed to talk about AREA51HVAC because I was going on their dime.

Can you imagine?!  I was only attending this event.  I was not a speaker or involved in any other manner than that of trying to enhance my knowledge.  Needless to say, I not only talked about A51, I passed out book markers with our information.  And, in the largest attended seminar of the event the facilitator, unknowing to me, did a segment on our site!

The industry-wide corporate attitude towards Web sites like ours reflected a reluctance to entertain new ideas, to learn, develop and grow.  It was very frustrating. Although there are progressive organizations like the Service Roundtable, that do push this industry forward, the backwoods mentality still persists.

I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have worked with Tom and Steve on A51 and for the relationships that we developed and the doors that were opened.  The Starship screams through space today, terrorizing the boundaries of status-quo, at least within my mind.

What's Up With The Alien Dave? Part III

...and so we built a Starship.

Although sitting around the Campfire was a cross-pollinating experience chock full of learning from different corners of the HVAC industry, it was passive.  We needed to mobilize and move forward.  Here's how the Starship did just that:

She travels at speeds beyond human comprehension. Her size fluctuates according to occupants. Her structure is metamorphic, ever-changing as it incorporates the new technology and business ideas of those on board. The Starship Cruiser is a vehicle built to vaporize boundaries and limitations. She will take us to the very brink of our imaginations. And with but a glimpse of visions to be, she engages the afterburners…………….blasting us forward, screaming to shatter the barriers of conventional thinking and complacency. How can a ship accomplish such noble tasks you ask? Because her fuel is the collective passion of those on board. The passion to learn, share knowledge, information and ideas. Through this collaborative effort she reaches destinations impossible for one human being...or Alien.

We had a blast!  Just three guys who wanted to push our industry forward.  We gained a small amount of notoriety within the profession and were being compared to other online trade businesses.  (we didn't make money from our endeavors).  And then later on that year, the Man paid us a visit.  He brought with him the heavy-handed hatchet of censorship...or tried to.