Essays Archives - Page 2 of 10 - From the Write Side

Resolutions — A New Sense or a Nuisance?

Ah, the pressure of a new year...the overt or subtle messages from friends, family, the media to change your ways, make a fresh start, replace old habits with new ones. Do I or don't I make that list? Some days the desire to simply 'be' overshadows everything else and raises questions. Why must I push myself forward? What do I hope to accomplish in this moment? Do I need to always be chasing after something more? During December, I spent much of my online time [...]

By irvinjgdm|2022-01-01T14:50:08+00:00January 1st, 2022|Essays|0 Comments

The Importance of Reviews

As the year 2021 reaches its conclusion, it's feel like the right time to nudge readers toward reviewing the books they read. The publishing world has become reliant on the numbers game...how many books sold, how many Likes clicked, the number of positive and negative everything. Your simple rating of a book can power an author's career or sink it for the foreseeable future. Why do writers always ask readers to write a review? Because our success in the business side of this art and [...]

By irvinjgdm|2021-11-30T13:05:37+00:00November 30th, 2021|Essays, inspirational|0 Comments

A Thankful November

Amid the difficulties and ongoing problems we confront as individuals and as a society, there is much to be thankful for this year. Speaking from my writer persona, my newest novel, a venture into the genre of romantic suspense, relased in October and I have a wealth of events coming up. Please check out the Events page for specific information. I'd love to see you at one or more of the book signings scheduled. I'm also thrilled to receive permission to observe several classes [...]

By irvinjgdm|2021-10-31T23:55:26+00:00October 31st, 2021|Essays, Uncategorized|0 Comments

October Song

A sense of hunkering down settles over the house. Cool mornings cede passage to warm afternoons, the heat rising and falling like the tide. I feel the yawn of summer, the way the earth withdraws beneath the smokescreen wisps above the pond. On the horizon, a large brown heron throttles westward, determined to make land before the sunset drops its carmine and purple veils. The dark comes early, sometimes like a curtain at intermission, sometimes hidden behind clouds that glower sternly as they slip across [...]

By irvinjgdm|2021-09-30T16:22:58+00:00September 30th, 2021|contemplative, emotive, Essays|0 Comments

An Attempt to See Clearly in the Fog…

In May I had surgery on the muscles in my left eye to correct the strabismus that has dogged me since before and after my brain surgery on the torturous blood vessel rubbing against one of my cranial nerves. (Yes, that is the official wording on the MRI analysis...torturous!). I also had the cataract removed. In August, the surgeon completed the trifecta by implanting a new lens in the right eye. Wow! I can see to infinity and beyond...if infinity is the sky above the [...]

By irvinjgdm|2021-08-31T14:52:01+00:00August 31st, 2021|Essays|0 Comments

PANTSING THROUGH AUGUST

If I have learned anything over the past eighteen months, it is the simple fact that life can change in unexpected ways in the space of a hiccup. Making plans to travel, sending deposits for tickets, and planning to attend conferences, may or may not work out. Yet I persist, penciling in dates and researching airplane flights, trusting in the belief that things will work out as they should. In other words, I'm an optimistic pantser! Is this any way to go through life? Let's [...]

By irvinjgdm|2021-07-31T17:32:38+00:00July 31st, 2021|Essays, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Are We Really Back To ‘Normal’?

As I sit to write this post, Independence Day beckons. News stories about picnics, gatherings, and fireworks abound. How comfortable do we feel moving among a crowd when we know so little about the health and vaccination history of the people crowding around us? I confess to a bit of trepidation, yet I have already stepped out, joining other writers for an event in Columbus June 24. Almost everyone removed their masks, and the atmosphere was one of celebration and thanksgiving. We the people were [...]

By irvinjgdm|2021-06-30T13:17:11+00:00June 30th, 2021|Essays|0 Comments

Slinking Into Summer

OMG, it's June...summer sun, sweat, sandy beaches, sweet tea, and Slurpees...this year a languid slide replacing the frenzy of the regular routine...remember bursting from the schoolroom doors, cheering the arrival of the long vacation? With all things virtual that have filled our days, how, I wonder, will it go this year? Now, I do live in Ohio, so counting on normal on any given day is a little like playing craps. You shoot for a temperature point and hold your breath. This Memorial Day Weekend [...]

By irvinjgdm|2021-05-31T15:33:31+00:00May 31st, 2021|Essays, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Don’t Stop Believing

As I write this note, the two-inch snowfall melts outside the window, and the weatherman predicts temps in the twenties tonight. I have covered all my tender peas, lettuce, and spinach, but my heart quails at the prospect of losing blossoms on the tulip pear or on the pansies in the window box. Still, beneath the coverlet of white, spring trembles, preparing to begin again the rites of renewal and growth. And then that song plays in my head..."Don't stop believin..." I step away for [...]

By irvinjgdm|2021-05-01T23:13:23+00:00May 1st, 2021|Essays, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Between You And Me: How to Dialogue Effectively

How are you? That much-maligned conversational opening has evaporated this past year, along with all the pleasantries that human interaction used to bring. I may not be typical, but the most contact I've had with others revolves solely around the virtual arena of Zoom and like platforms. I've missed the give and take of personal interaction during the past year of isolation. Face to face in the real world allows me to interpret facial reactions, gestures, body posture, tone, wording. An emoji is not fluid [...]

By irvinjgdm|2021-03-31T17:04:39+00:00March 31st, 2021|Essays|0 Comments