Category Archives: Magazines

Bible study, books, critique group, family, home improvements, Magazines

Getting Rid of Some Books

1 Comment
This was an okay book, not great. Not sure of its truth. Will never read it again, so it’s gone, today added to the sale/donation pile.

Our efforts at dis-accumulating continue. Perhaps not as fast as needed to do a downsizing in this decade, but we make a little progress. The last month has seen the old postcard collection acquired in the mid-1980s, having been left behind in the house we bought, for $115. But the buyer wanted me to ship it to Houston and so didn’t want the small, steel cabinet. I was able to sell that for an extra $10.

Then Lynda decided she was willing to part with the Gulf War memorabilia she brought back from Kuwait in 1991. They were supposedly Iraqi items. I listed them on Facebook Marketplace, not being sure they would sell. After one price reduction, a mom contacted me. She wanted them for her son (maybe a teenager), who loves military stuff. We were able to arrange a transfer that was convenient to both of us.

But really, the big thing we need to part with is books. For a bookiphile, that’s like cutting your wrist. But we have to do it. Despite the number of books we’ve gotten rid of, we still have at least 2,000 books in the house. I gave one away at writer’s critique group last week.

One book obviously isn’t much; we need to do more. In our living room is a built-in bookcase.  We are going to have to dismantle this to repair some water damage that appears to be from improperly installed flashing around the chimney. We have already removed some books from the lower shelves and piled them, to prevent them from being damaged and allow the bookcase to dry from a little moisture found.

As Lynda and I discussed it, she suggested that we get rid of a series of Bible study books that are shelved on that built-in. We went through one of those books together, and started a second. They aren’t bad books. I learned something from them. But when you have 2,000 books, and need to unload at least a thousand, I agreed with her to put those in the sale/donation pile.

I then suggested we also get rid of two books from the built-ins, the two books in The Bible Code series. We read these aloud together. They are an easy read because the books are not long, are well-written, and have lots of illustrations of where the Bible may have a code in the books of Moses. I say “may have” because, while the writer makes a good case, I’m not fully convinced it’s true.

At first Lynda balked. She was more accepting of the Bible code than I was and thought more of the books than I did. But then she agreed with me that we read the books, got something from them, and with all the other books in the house we were unlikely to read them ever again. So she agreed to get rid of them. I’ll move them out tomorrow.

I also have a fairly large set of magazines about World War 2 that I got from my dad. I had intended to read them, but it looks as if I never will. I have them listed on Marketplace and lowered the price twice. I think I’ll do so again and see if they will sell. Also on the getting-rid-of-block is my collection of WW2 history books. They are all good. If I had a shortage of books I would probably read all of them again. But, with a book surplus and a shortage of years ahead, I think they will also go up for sale.

Six Bible studies, two Bible codes are a long way from 1,000 books. A good sized box of magazines, and perhaps ten war books are not much. But it’s a start. I’m hoping over Thanksgiving, when our children are here, we will be able to take some time to go through a few things and, with their encouragement, get rid of some things we haven’t done anything with since the 1970s through 1990s.

And that will be a good start.

books, Magazines, memories

Library Memories Part 4: Asheboro, NC

Leave a comment

This post continues in the series of my memories of times in libraries Earlier posts are: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

I learned a lot from reading Congressional Quarterly in the library.

In 1984, after returning to the USA from Saudi Arabia, we settled in Asheboro, North Carolina, instead of Kansas City. Asheboro, the seat of Randolph County and then was a city of less than 30,000 people, stretched out along a highway. In the downtown district was a very nice library.

Our children were 5 and 3 when we moved there, and many times in our four years in Asheboro did we take them to the library. That meant a lot of time spent in the children’s section. I think the number of visits increased as they became young elementary school students.

But it was in the adult section that I made two discoveries in this library. They weren’t, perhaps, quite as mind-opening as the atlas of the universe in Dhahran, but they led to other things.

The first was the magazine Congressional Quarterly. I had never heard of it before. It is (was; the name and format of the magazine may have since been changed) a reporting of Congress’s actions, and other things related to our national government. It may have been a weekly magazine then. For sure it was at least monthly, not quarterly as the name suggests.

While the kids were engrossed in their books, I would sit with CG and read for hours. Well, we didn’t really stay in the library for hours, but I could have. How interesting I found this publication. It seemed to me to be balanced politically, neither pro-Democrat nor pro-Republican. I learned much from its unadorned pages.

Dad at the truck-mounted mobile unit of the “Stars and Stripes”, putting out the Combat Edition in Italy.

The second discovery was a large book—coffee table book size—about the Stars and Stripes military newspapers. Readers of this blog will know that my dad set type for the Stars and Stripes in Europe during World War 2. Yet, we kids didn’t know that in the basement was a steamer trunk full of those S&S, sent home during the war and preserved by my grandparents then passed on to Dad.

So, I found this book of the S&S, which consisted of copies of the newspapers along with narrative about the newspaper. I skimmed it in the library and was fascinated by it. When we were preparing to drive to Rhode Island one year for a holiday, probably Thanksgiving, I checked the book out and brought it with me. Dad looked at it with less interest than I expected. But we had a good conversation about the S&S. Dad was glad that one of his children took more than a passing interest in what had been most of his war service.

That was in 1985 or 86. Fast forward to Fall 1990. Kuwait was now behind us, I was spending a couple of weeks a month in Boston working a temporary job while the family stayed in NC. On weekends, I drove to R.I. to spend time with Dad. Somehow in our conversation the S&S came up. He said, “Come with me. I want to show you something.” He led the way downstairs and showed me the trunk with the newspapers. He said, “When I croak, these are yours.”

Dad died in 1997. Lynda and I drove from Arkansas to Rhode Island for the funeral. One reason for driving instead of flying was to be able to take the S&S back with us.

So, my obtaining the Stars and Stripes from Cranston RI came about probably because of time in a library in Asheboro NC. Like I said, perhaps this isn’t an earth-shattering memory, but it fits with my current theme. Thank God for libraries.

Magazines, Writing

Turning Off The Ideas

Leave a comment
Lincoln and Darwin. I can think of books and articles galore. Alas, they will never be written.

Dateline 9 Aug 2020:

I take a break from my regular blogging plans for a post to discuss a new phenomenon about my writing life and career. Well, it’s not much of a career, what with the few sales I have, but I’ll still call it a career.

I began this year starting each month posting my goals, and at the end of the month (or start of the following) posting how I did relative to my goals. This ended as life went in unpredictable directions and other pursuits pushed writing mostly aside for a while. I see light in life’s tunnel, however, and am close to getting back to my novel-in-progress.

So what is the new thing that has popped up that’s worth a blog post?

One of the things I’m trying to do to reduce clutter and downsize our possessions is look through the magazines we have accumulated and saved but probably never read. On shelves in the basement storeroom are between 750 and 1,000 magazines. That doesn’t include the National Geographics, which are probably another 500. I looked through these recently, counting a portion then estimating the total count on hand. I could be off by a hundred, I suppose.

Why do we have all of these? The Geographics are sort of understandable. Accumulated in the 1990s, all used, mostly from yard sales, we have about twenty years complete and many, many duplicates. I want to read these, as NG is a class magazine, very educational. When I inventoried these about ten years ago and discovered we had more duplicates than full years, I put them in inventory and kept them on the shelves. Yes, shelves, for we had enough NGs to fill three shelves, the duplicates taking up close to two of them. I suppose I thought I would have a use for them, perhaps in my writing. But now I see that I don’t, so I will be getting rid of them. Hate to simply trash them, so I hope to find a place to donate them or maybe sell them.

But I prate. Most of the other magazines on the shelves are not keepers in my mind. I’m not sure where Lynda stands on that. A few may be of value, and a few are keepers (such as the many years of WW2 history magazines my dad accumulated; I’d like to read them some day). These take up another two shelves. I would love to see those gone before long.

So many good things in this issue, I should read it again. I may do that before it goes to recycling.

But I need to get to my point. I looked in my closet about two weeks ago, and my eyes were drawn to an upper shelf. There, tucked between notebooks, were a few magazines. “What are these” I said out loud. I pulled them out. One was the September 2007 issue of The Writer. I obviously picked this up at a bookstore. I’ve been reading it slowly, an article a day. While I’m gleaning much good information and many tips from it, once finished to recycling it will go. The other was a 2009 issue of Smithsonian Magazine. The cover story had to do with Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, who were born on either side of the ocean on the same day in 1809; it was a 200th anniversary issue.

I took this mag to the sunroom and have been reading it along with a book during my afternoon reading time. The magazine is excellent, the articles all of a high quality and educational. One was about channel/river pilots who guide large cargo ships from the ocean into the mouth of the Columbia River, a dangerous transit. As I was reading, an idea for a novel about this came to me. Another article followed the Freedom Riders and what had happened to many of them since those days of their brave actions. Immediately an idea for a novel, and an article, came to me. The magazine had several other interesting articles—plus, of course, the highlighted articles about Lincoln and Darwin. With each article a writing idea jumped out of the pages.

I finished the magazine Saturday afternoon. I left it on my book pile table when I left the sunroom, but that was an oversight. The next time I go back out there the magazine will also go straight to the recycling box.

How can I do this when I could use the magazine as the basis for books or articles?

Very simply, I have made the decision that I have enough writing ideas, for book-length works, in the queue that I shall never run out of ideas. If God gives me strength enough of mind and body to write for another twenty years (when I turn 88), I shall never run out of ideas. If I keep up my recent writing history of two books a year for twenty years I will not run out of ideas. If I up my production to three books a year and am able to go twenty-five years I will not run out of ideas. Why, therefore, should I accumulate more ideas?

The new ideas may, perhaps, be better books that what I already have lined up. Maybe, but I don’t think I will shift to new things until I finish the things already programmed.

I see the many ideas for writing projects I’ve accumulated as being similar to the great number of possessions in our house and directly analogous to the more than a thousand magazines on shelves. Much has to go. Writing ideas may be a single sheet in a notebook, or a computer file in the cloud, rather than bound paper on a shelf, but they are still clutter, and I’m at the point in life where I don’t need to add possessions, I need to reduce them.

So, good book or article ideas, I’m sorry to do this, but I am suppressing you. I’m driving you out of my mind. I’m not adding you to a notebook or file. Sorry, but you’re gone. Now, I ask God to give me the strength to reduce the clutter of ideas and see many of them become books.

Engineering, Magazines

More on Magazines

2 Comments

I wasn’t quite as caught up on reading my magazines and newsletters as I thought I was. One day this weekend I saw the book bag I had packed for our two summer trips. In it was one volume of The Annals of America, which I use for history article and essay ideas. Also in it were about five mags/newsletters I had taken on the trips but never read. So I put them back in the mag pile, along with two others that have arrived since I wrote my last blog post. Maybe I’ll read and finish one tonight. I’m way ahead of where I expected to be on my current book.

But my mag piles at work seem to be growing. I didn’t think I received that many. I don’t subscribe to a lot, but some come to me as a result of having attended a conference and visited a booth and been put on a mailing list. Then there are three or four that the chairman of the board sends me. I try to go through something in a mag every day, but still never catch up.

Because these are piling up, and because magazines were on my mind, I decided to go through my piles and make an inventory of what comes my way, and how many issues per year.

Arkansas Asphalt News – 4
Stormwater – 6
Environmental Connection – 4
Geosynthetics – 6 (gonna ditch this one soon)
Grading & Excavation Contractor – 6 (this one as well)
APWA Reporter – 12
CE News – 12
Journal AWWA – 12
Erosion Control – 7
Standardization News – 6
Opflow (newsletter) – 12
Pollution Equipment News – 6
Missouri PE newsletter – 4
Kansas PE newsletter – 4
Arkansas PE newsletter – 4
Arkansas Drinking Water Update – 4
Land & Water – 6 (not sure I’m still subscribed)
Water Environment & Technology – 12

If my non-calculator math is correct, that’s 129 mags a year, which I should get through in 220 or so working days. No wonder they are piling up.

For the more important mags, I try to read them closely. Many articles and news items are of importance to my work. Heck, even most of the ads have information in them about products I ought to know something about.

So they pile up. I get through at least one article a day. Some days I do more, even a whole magazine of the lesser important ones. I think, because I’ve been diligent with these as of late, the piles are actually a little shorter than the were at the beginning of the summer.

Right now, I’d better close this and see where I left off in the May 2010 issue of Erosion Control.

books, Magazines, reading

Reading Magazines

Leave a comment

Last night, about 9:45 PM, I pulled a book off the reading pile and began reading, mug of coffee at the ready. I’m sure I’ll give a report on it, 510 pages from now. For the last three weeks or so I’ve been concentrating on reading magazines. On the end table between Lynda’s and my reading chairs, we each have a stack. Actually I have two. One is a stack of books; the other a stack of magazines and newsletters. I tackle each as the spirit moves me. Actually the stack of books is not my reading pile. It is the current book I’m reading, plus a Bible or two, and maybe a study book. My reading “pile” is actually out of sight, on a bookshelf in my closet.

The magazine pile is quite varied. I only subscribe to one magazine, Poets and Writers, and that’s a one-year experiment. I’ll see in February if I’ll renew it. But we get lots of other mags or newsletters. There’s alumni magazines from the University of Rhode Island, the University of Missouri, the UoM College of Engineering, and I think Lynda may get something from the University of Kansas. We get a magazine twice a year from our timeshare organization, every month from our rural electric cooperative, and one a month from AAA. They pile up.

Then add to that the newsletters: Prison Fellowship, New Fields Ministries, our water utility, Focus on the Family, the Bella Vista POA, the non-official Bella Vista newsletter (almost a mag), and a couple more. These pile up as well. Lynda gets a couple every month from various stock trading organizations, though those may be more “buy our service” type of ads rather than true newsletters. I also classify as “magazines” things such as annual reports from insurance companies and stocks. We get a few of those.

Then add the mags we pick up at thrift stores, yard sales, or the recycling place. That one is amazing. When the magazine box is full, you have your pick of hundreds within reach. Conversely, when they’ve just emptied the box, you can’t reach any. We normally come away from there with just about the same number that we drop off. The National Geographic I’ve read recently came from there—though we’ve got years of the Geographic on shelves downstairs, waiting for me to get to them.

I try to read them all. Why? I feel like I’m probably missing something if I don’t read them. They come to me to impart knowledge, maybe even wisdom on occasion. How can I simply trash them? Certainly what I pay for I’m going to read. Every page. Even the ads. Those that come free I might skim. Oh, wait, most of those I actually pay for. The cost is just hidden in the utility rate or the overhead of the organization. The ministry newsletters are always interesting. New Fields is an organization of Russian-Americans who provide a wide range of Christian ministries in the countries of the former Soviet Union. They do a great work, including much humanitarian work.

So for the last three weeks, when reading time materialized, rather than go to my reading pile I grabbed something off the mag pile. As of Monday night the mag pile was left with only two things it in. One was something from Blue Cross Blue Shield that I just didn’t feel like reading. The other was the timeshare org mag, and that is almost as much sales pitch. So I felt caught up and grabbed the book from the reading pile. While it’s a rather large book, it will feel good to get back into that kind of reading. At ten pages a night and a few more on the weekend, I should finish this around the end of September or early October. By then another ten to fifteen magazines should have piled up.

Magazines, Writing

Waiting for the Other Shoe

2 Comments

That’s a horrible cliche, I know: waiting for the other shoe to drop. But that’s the way I feel today. My reason for saying that is that today I took a big step in terms of writing assignments. I applied to an on-line magazine for a writing position. It appears it can be part time, and either replace my Suite101.com writing or go along side of it.

The magazine is for the construction industry, both buildings and infrastructure, and includes engineering topics. They pay very well for on-line writing. If accepted, and if my articles pass muster, I could make some real spending money through this site. They have several types of articles to write, of varying lengths and for different payment. I don’t know how long the evaluation process will require, but at midday, Wednesday June 16, 2010, I’m optimistic.

So why am I waiting for the other shoe to drop? It seems that every time I try to ratchet up my writing activities, something gets in the way. My time gets usurped for things that must be done. My CEI work suddenly increases. I’m expected to do something else. Computer crash, car crash, home repairs, etc.

It is predictable. If I try to increase the time I spend on writing, something will come into my life that prevents my doing so. I have wondered if this is God’s way of presenting closed doors, an indication that writing is the wrong direction for me to go. When I put writing aside for a time to do some other needed item, nothing ever interrupts my doing that item.

So we’ll see what happens. Maybe this e-zine won’t accept me. Maybe I’ll get into it and discover it’s not as lucrative as it appears. Maybe I’ll find it’s not a good site to write for after all. We’ll see. If the other shoe does drop, I’ll fall back on one of my standard comforts: Retirement is only 7 years, 6 months, and 14 days away.

Documenting America, Magazines, Writing

Platform, Part 2

2 Comments

My last post was about the somewhat new-fangled notion that the unpublished writer needs to bring a platform to a publisher before the publisher will consider the wannabe writer–platform being defined as credentials and/or a ready-made audience.

In that post I talked about my newspaper column idea as a platform-building effort. As I say that, I don’t mean to suggest that would be a dreary task. I love studying those old documents, and the eighteen columns I’ve written have been a true joy, as was the studying for the next few to be written. My fear has always been that, once the column is functioning, whether in one newspaper or a hundred, it will sap all the time I have in my schedule for creative writing, leaving me no time for fiction or non-fiction books. I suppose if it did, I’d still have my writing, and it would be writing I’d enjoy. I should end the discussion and consideration there and just do it.

Another pathway to platform exists for me, as suggested by many writers and editors. Not for me only, but for any writer climbing the publishing mountain. That pathway is writing for magazines before trying to publish books. This could be non-fiction articles or short stories. Magazines abound, and are looking for material one a regular schedule. They tend to be more open to new writers than are book publishers, and the lead time to get something into print is much shorter. As far as reaching people, most magazines have a larger circulation than the number of books that a first time book writer will sell.

Moreover, writing for magazines gives you references, experience with editors, experience with deadlines, honing of writing skills, evidence that your writing has value, and perhaps a few fans who will be looking for your book.

I’ve written some articles for engineering magazines. This pays well, but doesn’t actually build credentials or fan base for creative writing. I’ve written two short stories, one that is highly polished, and for the last month, off and on, I’ve conducted market research to try and decide where to send this. I’m probably one or two hours of final research away from having five or six magazines to send this to.

Thinking about other things I could write for magazines, I stumbled on an idea. A couple of weeks ago I was at Barnes and Noble in the evening, taking advantage of my wife being out of town to drink a large house blend and just enjoy an evening with writing magazines (I bought two). As I put the mags I didn’t purchase back on the rack, I looked a little to the left and saw two military magazines, both of them about World War 2.

The idea hit me: I have a trunk in the basement full of copies of the Stars and Stripes, the army newspaper that Dad worked on in Europe during World War 2, which he mailed daily to his parents for keepsakes. Couldn’t I use material in them to write an article, or two? Yes, and the perfect first article came to mind immediately. When the newspaper staff was working on the VE Day edition, it was Dad who chose the headline: “It’s Over Over Here”. Surely there is an article in that. Surely that trunk, full of 65 year-old newsprint, holds other things I could write.

So I’m brainstorming how to craft my article. Then I’ll research the magazines and see which ones would work best. I’ll pitch the idea to the mag(s) before writing the article, and see how that goes.

A small first step on the freelance road. Might it be successful as a platform-building measure? Stay tuned.