Life Has A Way

I’ve gotten a few e-mails from visitors who wonder where I’ve been.  Unfortunately, life has a way of intruding on activities that I like doing - like writing.  Over the past weeks I’ve been working out various issues that have surfaced and I have not been posting much - since sometime in janury; however, these issues are being resolved and I should be writing again soon.

A big thank you to all who have continued to drop by during my absence.  I’ll be sharing thoughts, stories and other things that you may also like.  Look forward to reading your comments.  Cheers, Giovanni.

I’ll Be Back

I’ve been away for a while attending to things in the real world.  I’ll be back very shortly to share thoughts, stories and anecdotes with you all.  Look forward to hearing from you.

Giovanni

Update II

Just finished the first draft of "Mr. Simpson & The Wolf".  Took a lot of time because I could only work on it weekends - the inconvenience of having to work for a living.  In any event, I'm going to be publishing it in a few days, and I'd love to hear your critiques.

Haven't been able to post as much over the past couple of weeks.  Real life has a way of intruding .  Will, however, be posting more often as some of the projects I've been saddled with are completed.

Cheers,

Giovanni

Update II

Hi,

The first draft of the second panel of the triptych I'm writing is almost done.  I'll probably have it done by this weekend.

 I experienced something truly bizzare in writing it.  The story revolves around a Serbian refuge from the Balkan wars.  I call him Bojan Vladic.  He was a "White Wolf" and has a passion for gardening - especially flowers.  On Monday I happened across a story in one of the newspapers about Ratko Mladic.  Ratko is a former leader of the "White Eagles" also know as the "White Wolves" (at least during the second war).  He is being sought by the war crimes tribunal and is passionate about gardening.  How life mirrors fiction!

In any event, I look forward to finishing the story and receiving your feedback.

Cheers,

Giovanni 

Update

Hi Everyone!

I've been writting the second part to a triptych; the first of which was Charlie & Emma, for which you gave me some important feedback.  (It is still being worked on).  The second panel is called Mr. Simpson & The Wolf.  I'll post the first draft soon, and hopefully obtain your feedback on it too.  The third panel will take on a science fiction backdrop.  Finally, all three parts will dovetail thematically.  What will tie all three panels together is lost love - at least on the surface of things. 

Unfortunately a little thing called work gets in the way and I sometime have to wait until the weekend to work on my stories in progress.  I suppose this is why many of the great artists of history have had patrons who have supported them so that their work has been their art.  There have been other unfortunates like Irving Layton (Canadian poet) who spent much time as a high school teacher, as well as D. H. Lawrence, who, if I'm not mistaken, also spent time as a teacher so that he could support himself while writing.  Do you know of others?

Refining one's work takes so much time.  In fact, I recently spent a number days during a vacation polishing a piece of writing.

I'm interested in knowing your experiences as a writer.  How does writing (painting, composing, etc.) impact your life while you simultaneously work at another job to support yourself?  I remember once when I was about 24 years old thinking that I would make writing not only my vocation but also my means of support.  The result was not pleasant: I spent a great deal of time wondering where the food and rent money would come from.  In addition, I found it a lonely occupation.  I found it so because I had rented a cabin on Aleza Lake nearby Prince George, British Columbia - and as I wrote the world sped by me.  I quit and returned to teaching English Literature and Language to high school students.

I am interested in your tales of the writer's life - trials and tribulations.  Please leave them here for posting.

In any event, as soon as I have the first draft of Mr. Simpson & The Wolf completed, I'll post it.  I'll do the same for the third story, and finally for the Triptych as a finished work.  Thanks for your feedback.  If you have anything for which you'd like a critique, do send it to me.

Giovanni

Hello

Hi Everyone,

I was away for a couple of weeks engaged in some work that I needed to complete at home.  so I wasn't able to get to YZed.  Good to be back.

Secret Lives

I’d like to invite you to drop in to the other site that I’ve recently launched.  It’s called The Secret Lives of Diaries: http://secretlives.wordpress.com . Here’s the “About” section.

I’d like to welcome you to this community diary where you can submit entries about memories, events, characters, relationships or any personal experience.  Here you can move beyond the closed pages of a notebook by sharing anonymously with others.

The secret desire of most diaries is to one day be read.  I’d like to invite you to confidentially submit, under a pseudonym, entries that you may want to amplify and expand with drawings, photos, videos and collages.  And in so doing benefit from the power of telling a story that you’ve wanted to share.

You may want to write a letter, forgive, confess, vent, or simply tell a story.  Or you may want to share anger, funny experiences, hopes and loves, losses, successes, erotic desires, betrayals and the multicoloured patterns that make up the tapestry of a life.

The reasons for ‘writing it out loud’ will be as varied as the diarists who contribute.  As the entries increase, a picture will gradually emerge displaying a marvellous human face: the written and visual record of a community.

If you have any questions or submissions please send them to Giovanni Vidotto at gvidotto@shaw.ca .

The Abyssal Zone

Today I came across a news article about the absence of sharks from the abyssal regions of the worlds’ oceans.  As I read the report I found myself experiencing it as if it were a found poem. 

I began to read the words “shark, abyssal zone and lack of food” as metaphors and symbols that were evocative of Dante’s Inferno.  These words he saw inscribed in dark characters over the gateway to the infernal realm:

THROUGH ME THE WAY INTO THE WOEFUL CITY,

THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE ETERNAL PAIN,

THROUGH ME THE WAY AMONG THE LOST PEOPLE.

JUSTICE MOVED MY MAKER ON HIGH,

DIVINE POWER MADE ME AND SUPREME WISDOM

            AND PRIMAL LOVE;

BEFORE ME NOTHING WAS CREATED BUT ETERNAL

            THINGS AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY.

ABANDON EVERY HOPE, YE THAT ENTER.

As a dream symbol, the abyssal zone seems like a place so foresaken that nothing which ventures there ever returns: swallowed, shredded, uncreated - the profane comfort of
Black Holes: “Abandon every hope, ye that enter.”   

I found the last paragraph particularly ominous - a foreshadowing of apocalypse.  As you read the broadcast allow yourself to drift into a realm of myth and spirit.  Read it as if you were reading a dream: What does it evoke in you?

ABERDEEN, Scotland, Feb. 22 (UPI) – An international team of scientists says the absence of sharks from abyssal regions of the world’s oceans may mean some species are in danger of extinction.

The findings mean the world’s oceans are about 70 percent shark-free, researchers said.

The oceans’ abyssal zone remains in perpetual darkness at depths below 6,560 feet, with immense pressures of nearly five tons per square inch at its deepest.

It had been hoped that, as man explored deeper into the abyss, new shark species would be discovered. Scientists do not know why sharks are absent from the deep, but suggest one possible reason might be a lack of food…

Suicide Gifts

 

 

A Post I found on a web site…stunning, empowering, affirming!