Can't think of a New Year's Resolution? Try this...

I read a list of people who have died during 2021 and I read some articles on what they did with their lives. They got me thinking (ouch!). I tried to imagine (not very successfully) what a eulogy at my funeral would convey to others about me. Bit worrying really. Maybe we should all write our own eulogies!

★New Year’s Resolution for you to try: ★

Write your own eulogy as it would be now and factually correct. Then write it as you would like someone to give at your funeral. Are you on track to be that person? How about making your New year’s resolution to be to start living so that it comes true.

Well, that should keep us all out of mischief for a while, unless of course you fancy living a riotous life!

In December’s blog post, three authors answered the question “Why do you write?” Here are three more answers (more to follow in February).

Kathleen Buckley responded:

I can’t not write. My favorite school assignments were essays, book reports, and research papers. By the time I was in junior high, I was writing stories. Even in the periods when I wasn’t writing fiction (because I felt I would never produce anything publishable), I wrote: procedure manuals for my job, long, chatty letters to friends, an essay on my move to New Mexico, a presentation on 16th century Spanish clothing. Then I self-published a novel about a dumpster-diving adolescent loner. It was not a success but taught me a great deal. So did another novel, though it never quite jelled, about a career criminal.

Finally, I decided to write a historical romance in the tradition of Georgette Heyer, my favorite writer in that genre. She would never write another, having died in the 1970s, and I missed her wit and her attention to the flavor of the Georgian and Regency periods. Some readers seem to enjoy my books and that keeps me writing.

To find out more about Kathleen’s books, follow this link to her Goodreads’ page and you’ll see just how much she has contributed to our enjoyment.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Dale Lehman responded:

My father wrote fiction, poetry, and essays, although most of it never saw the light of day, and at least one of my more distant relatives (a great uncle of some degree) did, too. He wrote a partially fictionalized account of our ancestor Adam Lehman's great migration from eastern to western Ohio in the early 1800's. In an introduction to that work, Dad wrote, "The Lehmans have always been storytellers." I'm happy to carry on that tradition.

I love the storytelling process, and of course I hope others like the tales I spin. That's all the reason I need. I've never set out to illuminate the underlying contradictions of the power structures imposed upon unwitting dolphins wandering lost in the tragically warming oceans of the world (or whatever). Sure, the occasional message or moral may creep in, but my first and primary concern is always telling a good story that people will enjoy. If I can do that, I'm happy.

Dale is another writer who has contributed much to our enjoyment, to find out more about him and his writing follow this link:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Rick E. Norris responded:

I enjoy entertaining people in various ways. I have been playing guitar since I was six and writing music for over ten years. I know I get joy when someone entertains me, (my favorite type of entertainment is visiting the Magic Castle in Hollywood where magical shows are done consistently). Writing the novels and writing the music for the novels is just an extension of my attempt to bring joy into other people's lives by entertaining them. The other reason that I write the Christian Fantasy genre is that my novels have hundreds of citations to the Bible. Though they are fictional, and written in a different context, people are actually reading Scriptural quotes. As one Monsignor told me, "You are enticing your readers to read Biblical passages in your books." In this vein, the writing is just an extension of my Bible teaching that I do from 1-2 hours each day as an online missionary and in person every week.

Here is the link to Rick’s profile where you can find out much more about his interesting life:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

And thank you, Rick, for your recent review of Immortality: This Is Probably a Novel on the mighty Amazon.
~

I wish you all a happy, healthy and successful new year and may you enjoy trying to write a brilliant eulogy about yourself and becoming that person.

Hmm... impossible?!

Well, here’s some easier stuff to tackle. Try doing some of these ideas several times until they become a habit:

Donate food to your local foodbank

Pick up other people’s rubbish and bin it

Garden for the birds, bees and insects

The leaflet I got these ideas from also suggests we smile at everyone we see but that could get us into all sorts of trouble, so maybe stick to birds, bees and insects! Or choose your ‘stranger’ wisely.

I hope you have some better ones to tell us about.