Michael T. Miyoshi's Blog, page 11

Veterans Day 2023

Veterans Day is a day to thank our veterans and active duty military service members. And it is a day to think about freedom.

Freedom is not free. It never has been. And it does not matter whether the freedom is personal or national or global. It is always won with blood, sweat, and tears. Always.

It is interesting to think of how we far we have come. We thank our veterans and active duty military personnel because we know the price they and their families have paid for freedom. Rather, ...

COVID Attitude [1]

I think that COVID has given me a different attitude toward sick days.

COVID may or may not be in our rearview mirrors, but looking back, I can definitely see how it has affected me. Yes, I have had it a couple times. Maybe even once before it was even called COVID-19. But that is not what I mean. I mean that COVID has affected the way I think about taking sick days.

I used to think that I had to be at school all the time. I could only miss a day when I was deathly sick. I even worked wit...

COVID Attitude

I think that COVID has given me a different attitude toward sick days.

COVID may or may not be in our rearview mirrors, but looking back, I can definitely see how it has affected me. Yes, I have had it a couple times. Maybe even once before it was even called COVID-19. But that is not what I mean. I mean that COVID has affected the way I think about taking sick days.

I used to think that I had to be at school all the time. I could only miss a day when I was deathly sick. I even worked wit...

Sixty

Sixty. It is hard to believe that I am turning sixty.

I have always said that age is just a number. Or an attitude. It is not how old you are, but how active and how vibrant you are. But sixty? That is old. Or at least it is getting up there.

Actually, I still think that age is just a number. After all, what is the difference between 60 and 59? One. See. Just a number. And I know people who are older and in better health and better spirits than I am. Then again, it is not about comp...

Vulture

My friend and faithful reader, Marc, suggested that I write about how teachers are vultures. Just put things where everybody knows they are up for grabs and they are gone in a flash.

I think that he may have been talking specifically about me. I am usually that guy who takes whatever is up for grabs. Especially free food. Which is a strange thing when you think about it. Just the notion of free food.

Free food is anything but free. Think about it. If you gorge on free food, then it sits ...

Just the Watcher

I am just the watcher when I write stories.

It might seem strange to think about, but I really just record what is happening in my mind when I write stories. I create the characters and put them in situations and watch to see how they get to the ending that I know is going to happen. I might help the story along the way here and there, but for the most part, I just watch.

Which is a strange notion. Think about it. Writers are supposed to be creators. We are supposed to know what is happeni...

Writing Letdown

There is a certain letdown when I finish a writing project, like a tire that has lost its air due to a slow leak. Sssssss.

It may or may not be an apt comparison, but writing can be like a slow leak. At least for me. I have this great energy when I start a project. It is fresh and new. And I can keep that energy up as long as the project is going. But when the story is finished, I see that the tire is flat. All the air has drained out due to some small leak.

Not every project is like...

Hyper-Focused

There are times when I get hyper-focused and concentrate on only one thing.

I do not write for a living at this point in my life. Of course, if you have been reading my blog for long, you realize that there is no way I could be making a living writing. Even if I had sold a copy of each of my books. Which I have not. But even if I had, I would still not be making enough money with my writing to make a living at it. Yes, it is still a dream. A dream that I am working toward, but still a...

Broken Record

When it comes to writing advice, I wonder if I sound like a broken record… record… record.

The only advice I seem to give to people who want to be writers is the following:

Write. Write. Write. Publish. Publish. Publish. Write publish write. Publish write publish. Write, write, publish. Publish, publish, write.

You get the picture. No matter how you slice it…

At any rate, I wonder if I do that with other subjects too. I wonder how often I write about stuff that I already wrote about....

A Writing Series

I feel like I need to write a series of blogs about writing. Or maybe just one post.

I have written a few blog posts about writing. Not tons, but enough to put together a short book. Which I have done. Not that it is comprehensive or anything like that. Rather, it is just a compilation of blog posts about writing. And it is completely out of date. (Actually, I do not remember what I wrote.)

Which is a funny notion in reality. But to be completely transparent, I rarely remember what I wr...