Recession at least provides a hiatus for Muskoka's hinterland
There are thousands of arguments bandied about today, expounding all the live long day why Muskoka needs greater and more diversified economic development. I agree. As a long serving editor and columnist with the Muskoka media, I have always supported the commission to attract more business and industrial investment to the district. So before I'm whacked with the critique that I'm anti-development and unCanadian, it just isn't so. Sensible proportion and the right location are two of my most debated issues for Muskoka's hinterland survival. I won't support development that diminishes our natural assets which fuel our historic and number one industry....tourism. And it's true I'm a big quality-of-life nut, and I live in the rural area of the province because of the embrace of hinterland a short distance in any direction from my front door. I do want my sons and their eventual families to live, work and prosper in our region, so it is without question that I am reverent and adaptable to the necessary change to make opportunities more abundant. While it might read as a contradiction of wants and values, it really has more to do with being careful about what is being attracted to Muskoka, and that progress continue to be in the best long term interests of the environment. I have to remind untutored revisionists today that no matter what numbers you crunch and philosophies sculpted to promote an agenda, truth is undeniable.....our tourist and second home-owner economy is number one in 2008-9 as it was more than a hundred years ago. If we become less desirable as a vacation escape from the urban jungle, we will lose thunderously more earnings than we're experiencing now sparring with the present Bear market.
Although there were a lot fewer folks back in the 1870's, to offer arguments, it was pretty obvious to the pioneer businessman that commerce would improve as opportunities increased. As the historians could explain in great and even burdensome volumes, there have been arguments for economic expansion since the first homestead shanty here in Muskoka.....as elsewhere, when capitalism starts its initial exploratory unfurling.....onward toward the "demand-monster" with the insatiable appetite for more and more and more.
I get a kick out of the poiliticians here who speak in such broad terms about economic development, as if they're the only ones who have ever hoisted and marched forward with that goodwill banner. Every decade in Muskoka's history has produced the glad-handers trying to hustle business opportunity. Some decades and personal efforts have fared better than others. There's simply no end result to the pursuit of economic development. Every modern day controversial development that has had to contend with opposition, draws on the "economic development" heartstring because proponents know it's a motherhood-family issue to keep sons and daughters employed at home. It's hard to argue against a project or development, when some families you know are struggling with unemployment. But there will always be unemployed citizens even in boom times. In the past 20 years particularly "economic development" has been both a boon and a boondogle. Folks selling the virtues of a crappy project on the basis it will create economic opportunity. Then the construction company brings in workers from everywhere else in the province, versus hiring locally because we don't have the skilled labour force they require. It is why they hire key staff as well from outside the area to manage the projects. While there is still hale and hardy economic spin-off having anybody reside, even temporarily in our district, the sales pitches are wild in their estimation of just how well we Muskokans will do, if we buy into selling off the hinterland to the new vested interest.
In Muskoka we have been ripe for the picking and a lot of developers know this all too well. We have bought into a lot of magic potion cure-alls recently about this need to accomodate growth.....and that without new and improved commercial investment, we will whither and become irrelevant. Listening to the developers and their shills is like standing in front of the steam belching, light flashing, roaring old contraption that made the Wizard of Oz seem so frightening and sage with his warnings. Take away the bluster and you've got just another plan to make money....some more grandiose than others but always with the advisory that our community's well being rests on a positive outcome when council finally casts their vote. Most of the time this is done without nary a soul wondering silently or aloud, whether it is actually true or a manufactured hollogram of an imaginary situation; what if we said no, and decided to be twice as prudent about compromising our natural assets....would the world really come crashing down? Is there any truth that we can only survive as a community and a region, if we prostitute ourselves for every last development dime. To hell with the environment. We like the really big show! The forests? Hell, you can plant a new one. Wetlands? Let's make crappy land into better land by draining and infilling.
The problem in the District of Muskoka for people of my ilk, who prefer development on a sensible, manageable, sustainable level, is that local politicians are simply too eager to accept development in the name of progress without truly appreciating the consequences to be faced in the future. While the City of Toronto is facing an amazing array of crime situations, pollution, traffic congestion, infra-structure dilemmas, and congestion issues constantly, we know this to be the acceptable carnage that comes with a region's economic engine.....yet they want more and more and more without fixing what needs to be fixed.....what needs to be improved about humanity's rights and privileges here in this vast Dominion. It's the glorification of city life which makes its way to the hinterland and what used to be a city dweller's retreat, is becoming an arm of the urban scene itself. We are becoming a suburb here in Muskoka and our proximity to Barrie and Toronto is now pounding the crap out of our open spaces. What could we have done about it? First of all, the glad handers in local politics over the past ten years, simply couldn't believe all the good fortune in economic development. The box store influx. What could be wrong with this? Give us more and we will be great! Or something as ill thought out!
Acceptance has meant an opening gate for everything else that looks good on paper, and steadily rings the municipal coffers. But the double edge sword is that old saying....you've got to spend money to make money. As the District deficit attests, there's a big price attached to progress. What could we really afford? What have we over-spent? Do we still have the magic means? No! Just the defecit for a long time to come. But has it been responsible for the citizens of Muskoka who have a great appreciation for their forested/lakeland situation. There's a lot of opposition, a large number of naysayers....but unfortunately the will to fight every project the municipality tells us is good for what ails us.....well, we would be fighting constantly. And when you do this, believe me, the "yes" side of everything progressive and greed-laden, can do a lot to trip you up.....the community boycott. I've been at the heart of many protests against development, and I'm quite familiar with the blackballing protocol. As an old reporter for the Muskoka media, I've never given up on investigative practice and I know full well those who are pulling the strings locally and how they get even with trouble-makers who force projects to the Ontario Municipal Board. Let's just say opportunities kind of dry up as the word gets around that "oh, oh, it's that Currie again......you know what to do now......show him why it's not nice to object." Many citizens who have done so....and got involved with protests against specific large-scale projects have faced various forms of intimidation and disrespect, and many knowing this potential outcome, and needing jobs and their businesses to succeed, simply retreat knowing this to be the politics of a small town.
I have heard so much bullcrap over the past five years about the need for more urban and regional economic expansion. When you confront, for example, someone with a vested interest in real estate locally, by suggesting hundreds of new houses have been built on spec....by speculators, and speculating developers,....the mood turns real chilly fast. If you ask local politicians if there has been any significant speculation here by developers in the past half decade, and the defence commences. "What speculation? Where? Not here? Not in Muskoka. Every house built here is to fulfill a housing need, they argue. Okay, call it what you want but the truth is Muskoka is being consumed by speculation......not by the opening up of business as such but the fact that sprawling subdivisions are plain and simply unnecessary to support the local population now and for quite a few years into the future. But the operative phrase here is "Build it and they will come. From Toronto, Belleville, Oakville etc. etc. So they have, and then some. Now take away those folks who bought a second and third house as an investment in their own community. Take away the folks who have bought these homes for summer only, retiring south from three to six months each year. Consider how many are used as rental income properties until the market strikes upward and they can sell for a huge profit. Hey this is just capitalism in a hale and hardy democracy fulfilling the plan. Accept this darn old near recession situation where houses are selling less per month for lower prices, with an inventory of many months of dust-gathering listings. So did we build too many houses? You certainly won't here that from a local politician unless a reporter asked for a comment off-the-record.
The problem is that local elected officials operate in the "now" largely and as far as being visionary, well, that's not their strong point. There isn't a thirty something person in this region who should be surprised by the economic downturn. There shouldn't be an elected representative in these parts who couldn't have recognized the signs.....so just how high can real estate prices go......before something was going to pop. With an high number of economically challenged citizens from the get-go, and food banks needing all the support they can get to tend the hungry, here we were so proud of the escalation of property values.....and many got so pumped they bet the farm and the homestead that what goes up never comes down. Stunned! Our leaders should have known better and looked at the projects on the books, and in the field, and thought about the catastrophe that could unfold......if developers offer big incentives on new houses while poor bastards who have lost their jobs and futures here, have to sell their homes just to survive. New home clear out versus necessary liquidation in order for a family's economic survival. I know, it's free enterprise right? Survival of the fittest and the most wiley. Just consider for a moment that you have to sell your lived-in house to fend off the bank's interest in repossession. Do you stand even the smallest chance of selling when a new home, for a few thousand more, is being offered with warranty and other incentives.
These huge residential expansions, from condos to single family units, are seen as outstanding improvements to our way of life and enhancements toward the future. This may be so. We know expansion is necessary as the population does increase. Yet there is a burden of responsibility, as a driver knowing when to signal, when to break, when to put on lights, and when to slow down on icy roadways. It's no different for municipal governance operating this region of ours. They needed to be cautionary when they began their open door policy of development. They needed to know just what a consequence was, and how to minimize impact. These same folks who put the pedal to the metal are now facing a serious reckoning with all of us constituents, who are starting to see the flaws of accepting too much too soon, without adequate reservation about what can and will topple under the right stresses. And you can make comment about hindsight being 20/20 but in fact, it doesn't apply here, because these folks knew all too well what was lurking around the corner. Economic cycle. They should have had a clear understanding about the recession of the late 1980's and early 90's. It's not distant history it's relevant historical fact that should have been applied here, to ensure that if a recession was to hit, a bear market at the very least, and it was overdue.....how to you ensure a safe balance of interests.....a sensible debt load....and a workable number of options to fall back on in case things started to fall apart. With the massive debt load of this region, you bet we're in trouble at this time of the economic downturn.....and there isn't a municipal councillor in Muskoka who shouldn't be deeply concerned about the future well being of their region.....and being able to meet its demands over the next gruelling decade.
Short sightedness. Greed. Stupidity. There are many descriptions to borrow, to deal with the glad-handers of our region who have perpetuated a dangerous situation, of economic tight-roping.....an urban expansion that would put at risk, at a most vulnerable time, mainstreets still trying to cope with decentralizing business strategies begun in the 1970's. In Bracebridge it is anybody's guess how the pods of commerce will fare in an economic down-turn but there are a few experts out there.....namely the business people on the front line who have already begun preparing for the new reality....hoping to survive the new economic deficiencies in an already stressed business environment.
If local government leaders had employed the smallest amount of wisdom, which comes from life experiences, they would have been pumelling the respective mayors about budget restraint, seeking a development hiatus, to allow for the storm to hit and pass. It's just logical. If a storm is coming, take precaution. We tell our kids to use caution. Be careful crossing the street. Don't take rides with strangers! Don't do anything stupid. Yet, when it comes to caution and the public good, all of a sudden it becomes a non issue. "Naw, it'll be okay....you'll see."
The problem here is that there are too many advisors locally with vested interests. People who should not be so close to councillors and mayors who are free-wheeling with their economic visions. We don't need the local arm twisters and ceaselessly progressives, the lobbyists who are in it for the virtues of expansion, under the guise of "it's be so great for the community." What if they're wrong? We'll see! Soon.
I'm deeply concerned about the small business community here, and the hard working citizenry who will suffer the consequences of less responsible government......elected officials who have voted in favor of urban expansion on the grounds it is always good and positive to have economic expansion. Well, that's not true. With each expansionary wave there are consequences of accepting the urban culture.....thrust for capitalist folly on the good folks who have made this beautiful part of Muskoka home for decades. It has been at their expense. It's hard not to get upset, as a regional historian, to see how and know why we have been mauled by progress.....such that investors from Southern Ontario can turn their accustomed profit, and then try to figure out how the locals can be influenced yet again, to buy into the snake oil fix-all.
Muskoka's number one industry is tourism. It has been this way from the late 1800's. What are we doing to make tourism better and more prosperous in the future? Apparently, we have opted to build more residential neighborhoods and commercial nodes. Does this help tourism? Not really but try extracting a wee bit of logic from town hall.
For the next two years of their municipal terms, the present herd of elected officials will see the results of their handiwork......and wish they had employed a somewhat more conservative, sensible approach to accepting so much, so quickly, without fearing the "kid locked in the candy shop" syndrome of over-feeding on a good thing. We warned them. Many citizens saw the potential dangers of over-development and commercial node planning but we were the bastard "critics" of the good life. I guess this is what it comes down to after all the expended debate....what makes a good life in a good community.......abundant commerce, hundreds of thousands of neighbors, no wild animals to worry about; no bears, deer, ever-pooping birds and other annoying wildlife. Just tarmac and more tarmac and traffic lights at every intersection, and oh so many shopping opportunities.
I will validate this with one question, and hopefully an answer from a critic........."When will economic development be enough to satisfy everyone?" "When will a councillor(s) stand up and say.....'by Gum Mr. Mayor, we have finally achieved an economic balance that can't be bettered!" There is no possibility of this being achieved because it is a timeless excuse to seek more.....and who doesn't want more?"
In the meantime, don't let these elected officials who have accepted development over and above sensible proportion, off the hook. And when they fall back on that nasty old Bear market as the culprit.....let them know that bear or bull, there's always a consequence for making precarious investments. And speak up when they brush off the calamity of failed businesses by referring to the survival of the fittest.....because even the most fit amongst us, is weakened by reckless expansion of commercial pods.....and it is almost always the case the mainstreet takes one for the Gipper.
I love Muskoka. I love the hinterland way of life. What has happened here in the past decade has been anything but positive to the development of Muskoka's recreation industry.......already in the grasp of a serious, unabated decline.
-30-

Newspaper days were good, blogging is better
I have been writing an editor's retrospective feature column for the past few months, for a swell publication in Ontario, known as "Curious: The Tourist Guide." By the way, of the 20 or so publications I've written for since 1979, I have enjoyed my lengthy tenure with these fine folks.....who are truly generous with editorial space and always open to new feature ideas. The column has been about my days working in the editorial department of a weekly newspaper formerly known as The Herald-Gazette, in Bracebridge, Ontario. I began as a cub reporter at a sister publication known as the Georgian-Bay/Muskoka Lakes Beacon, then published from the community of MacTier, south of Parry Sound. In the early 1980's I moved over to the news editor's position of The Herald-Gazette, and then on to full editorship, which included management positions with The Muskoka Advance, and The Muskoka Sun, a popular summer time publication.
From 1979 to 1989 belonging to Muskoka Publications, here in the hinterland, was an aspiring writer's dream come true. After graduating from York University my girlfriend, at the time, wanted me to accept a job in the downtown Toronto area. I lasted in an office job exactly one half of one day. I couldn't do it! I came home to Muskoka, opened up my first antique shop in Bracebridge, known as Old Mill, and as most collectable dealers need (other than a rich partner), I looked for a supporting job to cover my extravagances. So I landed a job as a cub reporter for a small publication serving the Georgian Bay - Muskoka Lakes region. My parents took turns running the shop while I was at work. It was a business that would be closed after a short run simply because I got more gigs writing than I had expected and simply couldn't devote the time to hunting, gathering and refinishing the antiques I needed to stock the shop. It would be in the late 1980's that I opened another shop known as Birch Hollow Antiques, still chugging away today, with my wife Suzanne at the helm.
I worked at these sister publications until management decided my irreverance and failure to worship them with full heart and soul, meant I was no longer committed to their editorial plan. Well as you may detect sarcasm, it was true that I was irreverent to a fault and I offer no apology. I just didn't agree with their management decisions and I simply couldn't deal with the way I was being minimized as a writer. I was a journeyman writer who could compose a story quickly, efficiently, accurately and responsibly.....and that guaranteed the publisher wasn't going to face a lawsuit because of my reporting shortfalls. As for editiorial excellence, well, very few of us can be excellent about our tasks all the time but whenever I was putting material together for public consumption, I didn't cut corners or offer-up crappy copy juist to meet deadline. A few of the publishers I worked for had changes they wanted to implement and they knew, rightly so, that I wasn't going to be shaped by anyone or any wild and whacky editorial scheme they thought would be the next money maker. They knew in advance I'd probably try to dump their initiative on a rookie staffer who was still by industry standards a "keener," and didn't know when to duck the pitch! I wasn't adverse to negotation but I didn't dance on command....and if I sensed at any time an editorial project was being headed up by the advertising department....well by golly, I did everything to miss the opportunity entirely. I could be invisible fast when I saw the briefcase-toting ad sales manager coming up the stairs toward my office. I hated ad-supporting feature stories but I loved the news beat.
My tenure at the helm of The Herald-Gazette was a cherished time.....I loved to go to work each morning, and the fact I had some fine colleagues who mentored me constantly with sage advice, it was better than having spent tens of thousands of dollars in a university journalism course......this was immersion at its most precarious. Every word we put out there to the public could have meant a lawsuit, a firing, a reprimand.....and statements from the publisher like, "you'll never work in this business again." Being responsible and honest about the job was mandatory if you wanted to stick around. One miscue was all it took to be dumped. I had an amazing ten years in the day to day operation of a community newspaper and for the most part it was a hoot. Even the difficult moments with management non-confidence, and incredibly draining press nights into the wee hours, political run-arounds and smoke and mirror games with news sources, we never hoisted those frosty mugs of draft at the local watering-hole, (after the paper was put to bed), that we didn't feel it was all worth the battlefield of landmine-navigation.
When I was unceremoniously forced from the paper with a drastic reduction of hours, which I assume they knew would force me to seek employment elsewhere, I lobbed myself unceremoniously over to the competing publication, which ended badly a half year later. I needed a break from being an employee. Did I mention I got kicked out of Cubs as a kid for insubordination. How many can say that? For a number of years I reverted to my old standby, as an antique dealer, and we ran a successful small shop on upper Manitoba Street, in Bracebridge, with my business partner-bride Suzanne. This new antique business was called Birch Hollow which we still operate online today. This is when I began writing a freelance piece (I didn't ask for any remuneration) in the Muskoka Advance, a weekly Sunday paper, called "Sketches of Historic Muskoka." Following this was a huge and prolific period of demand when I was researching and writing dozens of features for The Muskoka Sun each winter, from first snowfall to first lilac bloom. I wasn't doing it for the money. I just enjoyed writing and selling antiques. Not very complicated. I needed my antique business for profit but writing was for the good of an ever-questing artistic soul. Eventually however, management decided to impose a few controls on this seasoned, gnarled, curmudgeon of a writer, and once again I said, well, (amongst other things about what they should bite)..... stuff it! I had no shortage of publications that wanted my contributions but I determined in this universe-reaching new century that it was time to make my antique obsession turn over an occasional profit. It's a problem of all dealers.....we like to spend and that doesn't always balance with what we earn....but we're surrounded by a lot of neat old stuff with potential.
I remember telling a boss once, in a heated debate, that I didn't take the editor's job because of any prestige, or for that matter because it offered a great wage. It sucked. I was in it because of writing, and even as editor, to fill the big hulking white spaces between the ads, I often composed seven to ten articles and more each week. It was a co-operative newsroom task that by necessity demanded lots of editorial submissions. The ads were husky and plentiful back then and demanded a substantial amount of copy each edition. I've had a lot of publishers and managerial overseers snear at this comment, when I'd tell them quite bluntly....."you think I put up with you guys just for the meagre beer money stipend? I write because I love to.....that's it.....and I'll take the few thin dimes you pay me and buy a new typewriter ribbon....why...because I love writing so much." I wasn't fooling. They just didn't get it. I was the most productive writer they had but they couldn't deal with any one saying they loved their job. And over the years they did everything they could to make me hate it. It just didn't work. Sure I've been wounded a tad but not enough to detract from an enterprise that gives me a great deal of satisfaction.
I was thrilled to be able to spend a day writing. Just writing. No distractions, no banging-door meetings, no intrusions.....just writing. It has taken many decades to find comfort amidst solitude. There was a time when I needed a constant din to feel as if I was in the ball-game. Back then there were always intrusions, always distractions, and there weren't many days when management calmed to satisfaction with anything. We were required to attend lively meetings to trim up the troops. I loved it when they tried to motivate us! We were self-motivating..... period! I almost clobbered a new managing editor at one meeting when he told the writing staff he was going to "nurture us like flowers in a pot." From that point I hated the guy and he knew it. I told him in no uncertain terms that if he ever said that to me again, I would embarass him beyond recovery. Funny thing was, this was the goof who had to break it to me....with a smile only a belt sander could have removed, that I was being cut down in hours to status of a part-timer, after a decade's service to the publication. As a former baseball player in regional fastball, I knew some pretty incredible hand signals, and I gave him all of them in a magical sequence mixed with some of my own invention.....and a few other rude ones. I refused the part-time offering needless to say. Best thing I ever did! I actually started to make money in my freelance approach, and I was able to concentrate our antique business beyond the storefront and into e-commerce, which we still pursue now with steady results. The only jerk I answer to these days is the one writing this blog. My wife is the accountant. As long as I turn a profit she has no reason to order a staff meeting.
When we closed our antique shop in Bracebridge in the mid 1990's, moving it to our Gravenhurst home, and I began a different approach to writing, having a much higher standard of who I'd work with and for, my home office with computer became a nurturing, resource laden, inspiration oozing paradise. I could write for hours on end and never have one urgent request for my attendance at a disciplinary meeting. I was able to run my antique business on-line and world wide, and my writing enterprise, geez, I was free at last. I could write at any time of the day or night and not have calls and frequent, annoying raps on my door intrude upon the story-line. Sure there was the household din sometimes, because I was a Mister Mum to my two lads Andrew and Robert (looked after them while my wife went back to her teaching job), yet surprisingly, I seemed to write more and better with the voices of the lads playing in the other rooms. They play guitars now and have a music store here in Gravenhurst......their replacement noise being the play of three cats and a dog, snoring, growling, shreiking with the timely, regular interuptions..... maybe an occasional nuzzle, when they've determined its feeding time at the zoo. I miss the boys but these critters are good company. It's sort of a passive news room.....they don't bark commands and get in my face, or bloody hell, ask me to stop my work mid paragraph to take a used car photo for the advertising department. I hated that with a passion.
I don't think I could ever go back to that time in my life, where I had to listen to my alleged superiors, tell me how and what to write. Since I began writing in the mid 1970's as a struggling poet/author at York University, I have never had a period when I couldn't find a willing publication or media outlet interested in a freelance piece. And to this point in my life, it's pretty much the same although everyone around here notes I'm spending a lot more time in the antique field than with writing at present. Every few years it switches around, and I get more writing gigs than antiquing opportunities. With this amazing outlet to "blog-at-will" it has opened up a lot of doors, not just for me but for many other proficient and talented writers wishing to express themselves without the whining and nattering of publishers....worried about losing ads and readers because of a controversial stand.....the side taken on a political debate.....the impact it might have in social situations. I got pretty sick of the "good time was had by all" approach to journalism, and it pretty much created the conditions for my diminished position at the paper. I haven't been fired yet from this blog site. I'm pretty buzzed about that!
You know it goes back to childhood, this problem with bullies as bosses. Shortly after we arrived in town, moving north from Burlington, Ontario, I was just delighted to receive a warm and welcoming invitation to join the rank and file of the Bracebridge Cubs, and I was working on my first badges of accomplishment. I didn't have my uniform yet but for this one evening get-together, my mother insisted on buying me a brand new dress shirt and church pants as we used to call them....just to look mildly dapper and respective of club standards. We weren't rich folks and I didn't get a lot of new clothes so I was pretty proud of my attire. Mid way through the evening it was recreation time, and we were told the group would be playing British Bulldog....which was pretty dumb considering the number of kids and the small size of the Scout Hall. We'd run back and forth and attempt to avoid being tagged. Some of the touches were a tad heavy I noticed, to the point a few kids were falling into the wall. I was pretty good at the game and lasted until there were only several players left. I made my last foray across and a kid grabbed me by the collar and ripped the whole back out of the shirt. There was even a lengthy red, multi finger claw mark down about six or seven inches on my shoulder. Some of the other lads had similar wounds that needed tending, and outfits showing the rigors of rough play.
I went to the leader and said, "Hey, look what that guy did to my shirt?" "So?," was the limit of his sympathy. "Well, he's going to buy me another shirt," I retorted with a half Irish-Dutch demeanour, dragon-like by any other description. "Buzz off kid," said the leader. What happened next would have impressed that white attired, gun slinging cowboy, "Shane"....although I never hit anyone or pulled a gun.....well sir, I told him about his "skunky" attitude (it was the 1960's), and suggested that he was a pretty poor excuse for a leader......and that yes, he would be dipping into his retirement funds to buy me a new shirt. This isn't intended to discount the good work of the Cub Scout movement, just to suggest that at this time, the leader was a jerk.
My father later let the chap know he should have had more sense that to promote rugby rules in a game of indoor British Bulldog....but I don't think I ever got money for a new shirt. My mother just fixed it the best she could and life went on pretty much as it had before the incident. The Cub leader tried to be my good buddy for the next thirty odd years, especially when he'd try to sell me on writing a promo for his failing business...... but I never forgot that shabby treatment he bestowed on a trusting kid who wanted to be part of a good program.
Guess it sums up my attitude today. There are still certain names from the former publishing business that are not to be spoken in our homestead..... and that's my right. But I don't let it become an entanglement.....in fact, if I do inadvertently think about some of these folks at all, it's because I always write better when I'm madly gnashing my teeth.....I'm a beggar for punishment but it works, it works! You wouldn't believe the huge volume of manuscripts penned in anger. Surprisingly, they don't read as angry and vengeful as I felt at time of penning! I'm suring seeing my byline pop up after all these years drives them nuts. That's all the incentive I need.
We all have our markers from the past that make us cringe, send fear and trembling through our hearts, and yet make us appreciate how far we've come, to become so pleasantly, successfully independent.
When my son Robert, who helps me polish and then publish this blog, asked me bluntly how I feel about blogging versus writing for a publication.....I said "Well, that's easy......liberated." It does take a while to get used to, so for comfort's sake I often write while imagining a former boss hovering over my shoulder, trying to read my copy......to make helpful, "I know better than you," additions and deletions...."to make the story more suitable to our readers." It's kind of like hitting your hand with a hammer because it feels damn good when you stop. And yes, despite what you've just read, I do enjoy my craft and can produce volumes without ever once thinking about the clod who wanted to nurture me like a wee flower.
Thanks for joining me on this most recent blog submission.