Chasing Dreams Needs Passion

When I was a child I dreamed of being a dancer.  I wasn’t choosy.  In my dreams my feet would fly as I choreographed tap dance routines or flew across a stage with fine-tuned ballet skills.  A well-known young dancer lived across the back alley of our neighborhood, and occasionally I would quietly lift the lid of their family trash can beside the garage and peek into it with the hope I would find a discarded pair of ballet slippers.  I was never successful at that 1940s version of “dumpster diving” and my dreams of becoming the next Ginger Rogers were dashed early on by my battle with weight.  And, by the time I got smart and turned that around I was chasing another dream—writing a novel.

My writing career was primarily non-fiction writing—news releases, radio public service announcements, family communication, and my book Wellfamilies, published in 1990.  In the midst of all that research and meeting deadlines I never escaped from my dream.  So, when I finally wrote my first novel, Corporate Prince, the protagonist was, naturally, Phillip Groton, who shifted gears and chased his dream and a mysterious CD around the world to a poor African mission.  Yes, Phillip was wealthy and could afford to turn his back on the family business and start a new life.  But, while strategically important, chasing dreams is not always about having the financial resources to make it happen.  It’s more about the magic word needed to turn any dream of value into a reality—PASSION. 

 

Articles appear everywhere today with stories of entrepreneurship and small business startups.  The “up” side of a “down” economy is that layoffs and the whole tangled web of unemployment often are the catalyst for people to move ahead on their own.  Loss of a job, shaky job security, budget cuts, or simple boredom often ignite long-dormant dreams and, when unquenchable PASSION fires up the chase, those dreams can become a reality. 

I am awed by the imagination shown in some of the small business development I see.  “What are they thinking?” is my reaction to some, while others provoke a “Why didn’t I think of that?” reaction to the ingenuity.  But, one thing I know.  If they have PASSION for their idea, they will find a way to make it work.

 

Do you have a dream to chase?  What’s your PASSION?  Writing is my PASSION and every book I write is a new chance to chase my dream. 

Now, let me hear about yours.

Terri Clamons, author
Corporate Prince, ebook at synergEbooks, amazon, and The Kindle Store

The Toy Room, ebook and paperback at wingsepress and amazon, ebook at The Kindle Store

Visit my website at http://www.terriclamons.com

Where were the "Tech Toys" when I needed them?

My kids tease me and call me a geek or a geek wannabe – at least I think they’re teasing.  But I may be and I’m proud of it.  I am most definitely not a luddite, who is defined as “one who opposes or avoids the use of new technology.”  Oh no!  What in the world are luddites thinking?  And missing!  I am not as savvy as I would like to be, but my thirst for more tech knowledge is there and the journey toward more skill is very exciting. 

Now, that being said, I also admit that some days my bytes are full.  The glut of knowledge available to those of us on the tech information pipeline is awesome, exciting and, at the same time, staggering and overwhelming.  (My published essay, “My Bytes Are Full,” on my website at http://www.terriclamons.com will make you laugh at me and at yourself.)  As I admit in the essay I am definitely on the technology highway, but I am driving an older model that threatens to crash if not turned off, cooled down, and rebooted occasionally.  

With three books published (also described on my website) and working on a new adult mystery and two children’s stories, I love the technology available to me in researching, writing, and publishing.  But it’s the “everyday” stuff of my life that reaps huge rewards from our advanced technology – advanced from my perspective, as I already said, since I’m moving through life as a “vintage model.” 

 

In my essay I point out that six tech developments have become commonplace and taken for granted since our children were small.  I consider them ideas of sheer genius, and suspect some were developed by a housebound geek wannabe living in a cold climate with small children.  Let me test these items out on you for a moment.  Then you can comment and let me know what you think. 

Let’s hear a cheer for the Cell Phone!  Where were you when my children were small, my husband was traveling, and I was the chairman of the school carnival and Vacation Bible School the same year?  Really!  Luddite friends declare my cell phone dependence puts me at risk of an intervention?  If so, bring it on.  I’m the one in line right behind everyone in my family and most of my friends.   And, I just have to ask, “What are you folks thinking who don’t have cell phones or don’t use the ones you have to make your life safer, more efficient, and connected? “  I’ve even abandoned my paper grocery list and use my phone’s notepad to keep track of our needs.  And texting is second nature to me to stay in touch with my family – and it now includes my two oldest grandchildren.  No, I don’t have a “smart phone.”  Not yet!  Just think of the possibilities there.  Hmm.  I’d better move on and avoid some friendly luddite revolts.

Email is next on my list.  Today it supports communication for every activity I am involved in as a leader or follower.  Email would  have kept my generation in better touch after we tossed our caps into the air at graduation.  Once it was available, I made up a lot of lost time and what email started, social networks continue.  Kudos to FaceBook, Twitter, Linkedin and GoodReads in my life.  What took you so long?  Mark Zuckerberg, you and your Harvard classmates were two generations too late, but I’m glad you finally got here.  

The cordless phone was welcomed into the lives of all free-spirited geek wannabes like I am and is now rapidly becoming obsolete with the disappearance of land lines.  With a cordless phone I could have diapered a fussy baby while getting updates from my husband trapped at a crowded airport in some far off city or dusted the whole house while catching up with a friend on the opposite side of the continent.  While we are applauding the cordless phone I must add voice mail, which would have been so helpful when phones tethered to the wall with cords were not answered because of busy lives and my loving arms rocking babies. 

  

Would you believe that a garage door opener is next on my list?  How much easier my life would have been when I was the age my children are today.  I don’t expect my Texas friends or Southern California family to understand this.  Until you’ve lived most of your adult “car driving” life in the north (seven years of it in Michigan or northwest Ohio) you can’t imagine what it’s like to climb in and out of the car into a foot of snow to open and shut your garage door.   It’s just one of life’s simple pleasures, much like the drive through pharmacy.  Is there a reason why drug stores put the pharmacy in back where you have to trek through with sick children to get their prescribed medicines?  Is the architect Cruella deVil?  Even today I might choose to drive through for a prescription refill instead of spackling and blushing my vintage face to do the required walk to the back in a little more style. 

Before I invite your comments, I will add one more idea I thought was ingenious, but it never seemed to get off the ground.  That is grocery.com.  Again, cost-wise this is not a service I would have subscribed to regularly.  But it would have been welcome during annual visits of bronchitis or strep with two feet of snow on the ground, temps below zero with 50-mile-an-hour winds “whipping across the plains,” and Dad out of town – again.  Do I need to say anything more about this great idea?

Get on board, all you luddites out there.  Most common tech tools are not toys.  They make our lives better -- more efficient, safer, and, most of all, FUN!   Now, please tell me what you think!

Terri Clamons, author
Corporate Prince, ebook at synergEbooks, amazon, and The Kindle Store

The Toy Room, ebook and paperback at wingsepress and amazon, ebook at The Kindle Store

Visit my website at http://www.terriclamons.com

Remember the Journey

Yes, I’m a writer.  My mystery/suspense books (with a smidge of romance), Corporate Prince and The Toy Room, are published and already available at amazon.com or The Kindle Store.  Writing is hard, and often lonely, work.   I’ve been writing, in one way or another, all of my life.  But I’m not going to blog about why writers write.  It’s kind of like explaining why runners run, painters paint, gardeners garden…  You get my point.  We’re all “driven” in some direction, and, as a writer, I am truly driven to write.  But, when I wrote non-fiction or news and worked against deadlines, I found it less satisfying, less fulfilling.  Now that I’m writing fiction I’ve discovered a new enthusiasm for my work, and I know the reason why.  I have a confession.

 

I’m not a destination or goal person.  On the way to my goals I stray off the path regularly.  I’m a lover of the journey and the process in everything I do, and that includes my writing.  The finished product does not dominate my work satisfaction.  When I’m done with a book or essay, it’s the people and events contributing to my story along the way that impact my life and reinforce my genuine joy of writing. 

It’s no secret that women are frequently more focused on the journey.  Men typically keep their eyes on the goal or destination and don’t, as the age-old saying goes, “stop to smell the flowers.”   To prevent a gender war, I will point out that a good share of women live lives of rushing from project to project, activity to activity, meeting to meeting, and never stopping to deeply appreciate the people or places surrounding them.  Likewise, I know many men, who stop along the way and permit themselves to be side-tracked by the journey and its wonders.

What causes people to ignore the journey? 

You see, to the frustration of my family and friends, I’m the one who stops to “smell the flowers.”  I smell them, sit in them, pick them, and if I don’t recognize them I Google them when I get home.  When I go to a meeting and see a printed agenda I choke up, because I’m the one who bores my friends to pieces talking about the interesting people or things I saw along the way.  When Fred and I plan a trip I choose two-lane, blue lines on the map far from the Interstate system while he maps the quickest, most efficient way to reach our goal.  I’m famous for, what our children have always called, Mom’s “long cuts.”  I often seek a different or new path to routine destinations, such as checking out another part of town (and frequently getting lost).  I go out of my way to use a favorite bridge across the river where I can spot “tubers” and kayakers.  I love passing a friend’s yard where roses are in full bloom, then grabbing my cell phone and calling her to applaud her hard work.    

My third novel, Cocaine Campus, is a work in progress.  My effort toward organized chaos finds my page of characters on the desk beside me, next to the carefully structured outline of the story.  According to his book, On Writing, I attempt to write Stephen King’s suggested number of pages each week.  Yes, I do have disciplines that define my goal.   But it’s my journey to the book’s completion that nurtures and defines me, and you won’t find me sequestered alone in a quiet room with no windows.  My work space is a sunroom where a wall of windows allows the outdoors to be my companion for the trip.  Here I can change my route occasionally and move my laptop to the other side of my desk, to the couch, or to the deck.  I can turn my desk at an angle so I face the windows to watch the birds when they come to the feeder in the morning.  I monitor my flower garden on the deck, and George Strait, Willie Nelson, or Brad Paisley serenade me from my boom box to enhance my journey.

Do you have things to do, places to go, people to see, children to raise, careers to develop, meetings to convene, a trip to take, a job to find, money to save?  Like me, do you have a book that begs to be written?  We all have important goals to attain, destinations to reach.  But, please, please don’t miss the journey!  It’s the journey that makes us what and who we really are when we finally reach our goals.  

Terri Clamons, author
Corporate Prince, ebook at synergEbooks, amazon, and The Kindle Store

The Toy Room, ebook and paperback at wingsepress and amazon, ebook at The Kindle Store

Visit my website at http://www.terriclamons.com

“Here I come, ready or not,” I call to my grandchildren when we play Hide and Go Seek Tag in the back yard.  That’s the way I feel today as I launch my Blog and invite all of you to join me in sharing stories and interesting events through which we learn and grow – and laugh, especially at ourselves. 

“Create a blog,” friends have been telling me, but I avoided it until today.  “You’re a writer, so you should be writing a blog,” they all insisted after my second book was published.  “Not until I have a list of fifty items to write about,” I laughed and ignored them. 

So, now I’m sitting here with a list of over fifty things I want to discuss with you all.  One thought or idea each week takes me almost to a year.  Wow!  This may not be as hard as I thought. It sounds like fun to me, and I hope it will be fun for you all out there.  Do the words spirals, dogs, trains, luddites, swinging, write girls, and grandchildren sound like adventures we can all enjoy together? 

 

I hope so, because “Here I come, ready or not.”  Get ready to speak up, and I’ll see you next week!