R. Scott Tyler's Blog
September 16, 2023
61st New York Film Festival – Asian Presence 2023
We present the list of Asian films that will be screened at the New York Film Festival which will take place from September 29 until October 15, 2023…
61st New York Film Festival – Asian Presence 2023
February 24, 2023
A Trade with another Bibliophile
I set up a meeting with a friend of a friend, both of whom are writers in the Philippines, to get some book connections here. I’ve never actually met either friend in person so it took me a bit out of my comfort zone, but was totally worth it.
Jahric came to the condo after having worked overnight and we talked for a couple hours about each other’s lives and writing experiences. Jahric has been passionate about writing his entire life and started a boutique publishing company in his college years. At that time it was hard to find available capabilities to print books so he worked with a college thesis printing shop to design and create those capabilities, thus adding a printing arm to his publishing company.
The friend who introduced us, Mark, is a creative writing teacher in his province (Masbate) and has a project to develop a library there. One thing about being a reader since a child is that, at my age, you realize that collecting books your entire life doesn’t work because normal people will run out of space. These days half my reads are e-books or library books. Of course, I still like paper, but it’s also nice to pass them on to others that will enjoy reading them. Mark’s looking for book donations so I brought him some of my favorites to share and Jahric will get them to him.
In addition, Jahric is a huge Stephen King fan and has been lusting after a specific boxed set of his books that was not readily available in the Philippines. So, I brought these over for him. They were heavy, but now he owes me, lol.
After our visit, we exchanged some books each of us have written and had a yummy lunch at RackShack in Circuit Makati.
Getting to know authors and readers in other cultures (which can even include areas other than the midwest in the US) is one of the things that keeps my passion for reading and writing alive. What do you do to feed your passion?
Find links to Jahric’s book site here:
https://shopee.ph/tbcpublications
https://www.facebook.com/TBCPublications/
https://www.instagram.com/tbcpublications/
To see my other posts on family, travel, food, and bookclub, head to:
May 27, 2022
Inspiration coming from all directions
I have been spending a lot of time on a road trip to celebrate and commemorate my retirement (from the office, not from writing). I’m more than halfway through and with 31 days of travel under our belts I have gathered a lot of new inspiration and stories.
The trip began as a Route 66 road trip, which I’ve wanted to do for a while. The Route 66 road trip link gathers all the blog posts for this trip in chronological order. But realistically, a 5000+ mile round trip by car takes longer than most people have available for vacations. I’ve been documenting the trip on my other personal blog site, so if you’re interested take a look!
December 20, 2020
Always Looking Forward
Time is the most immovable physical thing there is, although Einstein’s theory of relativity does say that space-time is warped by massive objects.
If 2020 has taught me anything, it is patience. Not in the sense that “all things come to those who wait” as the English poet, Lady Currie once wrote. More like “have patience, for the world takes it’s own time.”
2020 has been (and continues to be) defined by massive issues, movements, and sentiments. Maybe that’s why patience is becoming a limited commodity. The somewhat odd thing about this year is that almost every massive issue, movement, or sentiment has been accompanied by an essentially equal and opposite massive movement or sentiment.
Polarization abounds and instead of the quite natural bell curve shape of nearly every normal set of responses, the center continues to be squeezed unforgivingly into a barbell shape. Now generally speaking, most every response in nature exists and can be described by a bell curve. The massive center of that bell curve is where most of nature “lives.” When that center gets squeezed into the two ends there inevitably begins to be added pressure to define one end as right and one as wrong, even if each end defines these exactly the opposite.
I’m a firm believer in the nature of the bell curve. When people are divided solidly as in a bell curve on any particular subject there are going to be winners and losers. Massive losers because of the shape of the curve. Massive losers means only one thing…instability. Nature will not abide instability. It will work hard to become stable. I suggest we all make efforts to become part of the solution, rather than defining the other end of the barbell as the problem we are trying to eliminate.
February 22, 2020
Great article about author Gene Stratton-Porter
[image error]
Follow the link below if you have Apple News. Otherwise, check it out in the latest issue of The Smithsonian.
May 11, 2019
Bookish Birthday
It started out as most Saturdays do for me. Quietly, with coffee. But then I heard through the grapevine (thank you Kathy and Paul) that Stephen King was speaking just minutes away from me and the day turned into a literary focused 60th birthday.
To be clear, it didn’t really turn into my 60th birthday. It was already that. And I’ve experienced marvelous greetings, great food at Origami, Japanese whisky, and have plans to see the SPCO tonight (thank you Jim and Diane). But attending Wordplay gave my birthday a decidedly bookish focus.
Because the higher levels of participation for this event were mostly sold out and the weather was great, the crowds promised to be quite large so we took the light rail to the US Bank Stadium station and walked just a couple blocks to the Loft area where so much of the Wordplay action was centered.
I really enjoyed seeing so many authors, local publishers, and small book sellers in one place. It made me realize that there are really so many resources nearby to hone and enhance the writing craft in Minnesota. While I didn’t come home with a box full of books, I did chose one book in particular that had meaning to me. PICTURES OF LONGING Photography and the Norwegian-American Migration by Sigrid Lien, translated by Barbara Sjohom and published by the University of Minnesota Press.
There were several key elements that drew me to this purchase. Number one, I am solidly one-half Norwegian, thanks to my mother. And thanks to so many in her family that are interested in genealogy, I can trace my roots back to Norway, as well. Number two, in my opinion migration has been, and I hope will continue to be, the structure on which the United States was built. Unless you happen to be Native American Indian, every single one of us is the descendant of an immigrant to the United States. And almost all of those immigrants came here looking for something better. Sometimes it was life or death. Sometimes it was simply a better life for themselves and their offspring. Like it or not, we (those immigrants) are what has made America what it is today. Saying that immigrants bring nothing but trouble is a woefully uneducated lie and slamming the door closed and saying “enough” will forever change who we are in a devastatingly unproductive way. The world is nothing without change; we all must move with it or get run over as it moves on without us. The final reason I was drawn to this book is because the University of Minnesota is my alma mater. Even though I didn’t graduate with a degree remotely associated to writing, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for the institution that shaped my youth so much.
I want to say a big thank you to the Loft, who worked so hard to make this event happen. I’ve taken classes there over the years (don’t blame the teacher if you don’t like my stuff, lol) and met authors that have helped me move my writing forward in so many ways. It’s an honor and privilege to have an institution such as them so close and so available.
April 30, 2019
Boracay Pink Squad
In BORACAY PINK SQUAD – Keychain Sunset, Bruce, a retired and widowed American from Portland, Oregon, joins a tour to the beautiful, white sands of Boracay Island in the Philippines. He is fulfilling a bucket list beach vacation he and his wife had prior to her illness, as well as reacquainting himself with the Asian culture he enjoyed during his travels as a development engineer in a large American manufacturing company. Instead of total relaxation, he gets caught up by fire dancers, the dark web, and murder!
Well it took me longer than anticipated to get this short story off my desk, but I’m happy to say it’s finally here and it’s ready to go. This is my first new offering leading to a book of short stories I have planned to publish for a while now. I am excited to say I have several other ideas floating around in various stages of development.
I hope you enjoy, but as usual, I’m very interested in your feedback no matter what it might be.
At the moment you can only find this story at Smashwords, where I have all my other stories published as well. Take a look at my author page while you are there. In the coming week it will also be available through Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, B&N, etc.
October 8, 2018
Short Stories are Life (Lifer?)
Remember the horror story you lived through three years ago (or 3 months ago, 30 years ago, whatever)? Maybe everyone survived, maybe not, maybe it brought about a new normal, maybe it spawned a fresh hell. How about that past love story? Or the current one? Maybe there were or are a lot of tears involved, and undoubtedly there are days staring off into the distance listening to some healing or hurting song until you can repeat every stanza word for word, even if you can’t keep the tremolo out of your voice when you sing along. How about the ghost story in the darkened closet with your siblings? Adventure at band or Bible camp (that turned into…love story, horror story…)? A dream or nightmare?
Maybe it’s more appropriate to say that life is a bunch of short stories put together in a sometimes seemingly random pattern.
My next writing journey is a group of short stories. Some are brand new, while others I feel like I’ve been working on for years. My goal with these stories is the same as it was with my past three novels. To entertain you, the reader. In the process, I would be thrilled if I tickled your imagination or sparked an interest in different cultures and places, as travel has always been my most intense inspiration.
The first short story I’ll release (very soon) is titled BORACAY PINK SQUAD, Keychain Sunset, inspired by a beautiful white sand beach island in the Philippines that is an interesting combination of entertainment and corruption. If you would like to be notified when it is released, follow this link and sign-up at the bottom of the page to receive an email notification when I release new books and stories.
My original three books are also still available here, so if you don’t have them yet…well, what are you waiting for?
August 2, 2018
It is Only the Middle
Views are all about perspectives, am I right?
The top of a hill looks different when the sun is shining versus when it is capped by dense fog or even roiling black storm clouds.
The ocean appears vast when you’re up to your eyeballs in water, but not so much when you’re standing in knee deep water on a sand bar.
Life is like this.
At 25, looking forward, life spreads out as far as the imagination lets it. The world is our oyster. No matter how much money we have, whether or not we have health insurance, savings, or own property, it’s all there for us to taste, conquer, observe, or drink deeply.
At 60 not so much. Now things matter. Or at least we’re told they’re supposed to, but do they really?
When a gentle late summer rain falls on a nearly dead husk of wheat that husk of wheat has amazing recovery ability, even though it’s still fragile. It doesn’t change from over ripe wheat waiting to be harvested into green, swaying rye, in the prime of life, but it again looks for the sun and smiles.
If the rain is spotty, the wheat fails again, because on it’s own it has no option but to be wheat. With the rain, it can at least think of itself as tall a green and swaying in the breeze again.
Bring on the rain, drink deeply.
July 31, 2018
From the beginning
You knew everything. There were no lies, no hiding. Yet this was returned with shade. You told me what you wanted, when you wanted to tell it. And then only bits and pieces. Enough to get by till the next time. Years of acting hurt when I questioned, mad at not being trusted, as you were busy being whatever you wanted to be behind my back. You said you were alone, but in reality you left me alone constantly. Never available, too busy with a million stupid things meant to keep me away from you. So committed to me that you could not take a couple of hours out of 6.5 years to look at some of the most important outcome, all inspired by you, from me for that entire time. Now you say it’s over and only one of us is devastated. For me there are no options, for you, I hope you find what you need. But you have cut a piece of my heart out that will never heal, it will bleed me dry and I have no one to blame but myself.
