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Category: RABBIT TRAILS

“Just Kryptonite me NOW!”

Says the superhero as he searches for a wormhole to ANOTHER alternate universe. It’s not easy being a superhero. Long hours, lousy pay. But it can also be a rewarding life. Like when the mayor says “you saved us all from the bloodthirsty Gila Monsters!” Wow, it can feel good. And it’s equally tough to write about. When your editor tells you “I can’t see where this story is going…” you have to understand that…

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Do Algorithms Have Feelings?

Do Algorithms Have Feelings? ’Cause I must have hurt them… Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash For the past couple of stories, I have remarked on the fact that quite possibly the number of people who are exposed to any given writer’s stuff is but a fraction of the total number of people who followed that writer. The math of it i.e. If a writer is followed by x number of readers, then when he publishes a story,…

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Can Writers Fit In As Readers?

And vice versa? Photo by Vardan Papikyan on Unsplash And can they both live in harmony in this Medium environment? This may be a kind of a “Cowboys dance with the farmers’ daughters, farmers dance with the ranchers’ gals” thing that territory folks just do. Speaking from the archaic days when humans used to be rule followers, here are a couple that will promote peaceful coexistence between authors and fans. Rule One for Readers Rule one. Fans and…

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Four Mistakes I Used to Make as a Writer Wannabe and how I corrected them

I wanted to be a writer, but I had more bad habits than stories to tell. I whittled the number down to four and found answers to each one. Mistake One — no particular time or place to write. When I wanted to write, I would do just that. Want to write. I would think about it and imagine being a writer. But there was school work, and then there was actual work. When I got married, my…

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Breathe in, breathe out…

I am a writer.  I like to write.  Sometimes I just write about writing. I am a reader, too, reading, of course, a good bit about writing.  I have facorite authors which I follow, but, also I have favorite writers who write articles and sometimes have websites that are enjoyable to me. There is only a handful that I truly enjoy, and feel I benefit from.  I look forward to reading their next post and…

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FACEBOOK & Notebook Organizational Skills

#Amazon – You know I was a self-employed business person before I did any writing. My organization has evolved (painfully) to a two-notebook system, including a small “power notebook” I carry with me all the time, and a larger notebook like this one that I like for a “business notebook.” Now that I try to write as well, I use a third journal, also like this one for my “writing notebook.” My “power book” is with…

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World-class Travel Writer

It just came to me. New ride.  World-renown author.  Bored and looking for new directions. World, meet Don Martin, World-class Travel Writer. Don Martin, World Class Travel Writer, meet World. My life and career finally have direction!   All that being said, let’s go on our first travel adventure! The exotic and far-away land of Walmart on Nolensville Rd!Ample forms of transportation await us.           Boy, THAT was a close one!…

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Deep Cheese

Yes, she did it again. My wife, PJ, did it again last evening. She took a bit of this and a handful of that, and created the most magnificent dish I have enjoyed in a long time! It actually consisted of, among many other things, lots of cheese, ripe olives, hamburger, spices, onions, tomatoes, taco shells and guacamole.  Wow.  What a treat to smell baking and a treat to consume! By now you probably know…

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The Lock-Down Continues

I learned from an author-acquaintance this morning that he has not achieved nearly the amount of writing during the lock-down as he had wanted and expected. So it is not just me. The days seem to run into weeks and into subsequent weeks.  If one is not an avid daily television watcher, it is hard to distinguish one day from the next.  I sometimes imagine myself in an assisted-living home somewhere, where the only thing I…

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