As promised last week, here is a capsule of our visit to Ketchikan.  On the second to last day of our cruise, we donned our raincoats, gloves, scarves, the whole nine yards, because we expected it to rain in this city which receives an average of 118 inches of rain in September. However, when the ship docked, there was no rain, just a few gray clouds which we didn’t mind. With an outdoor temperature of 57 degrees we were able to dispense with the warm gear and stroll comfortably to our bus that would take us on our tour.

We were taken on a five-minute tour of the downtown city loop which featured lots of small shops, most of which are closed in the winter, but do a brisk trade during the tourist season. Many of the shops specialize in diamond, gold silver and gemstone jewelry.  We saw stores selling designer watches such as Phillip Stein – the Oprah watch – Movado, Cartier, Bulova and others. We left downtown, drove past the pier once more and headed for the highway that would take us out to the country. On the way, the driver slowed the bus to point out a river chock full of salmon making their way upstream.

As we sped along the slightly winding road, with mountains on one side and the sea on the other, I was struck by the houses perched on the very edge of the hillsides, with not an extra inch of  rock to spare. The houses and the land seemed as one unit. But what amazed me even more were the staircases that extended from each house straight down to the sidewalk. The driver called it “The Staircase City.” You can see one in the picture above.

We passed a few hotels and lodges, among them a Motel 8, but no glass buildings or skyscrapers.  We entered a short tunnel and when we emerged, our  driver pointed out a small building with a few planes, which happened to be the Ketchikan International Airport.  Alaska Airlines provides daily service northbound from Seattle and southbound from other Panhandle cities. Like Sitka, Ketchikan can only be accessed by sea or air. As a result, there are ferries that connect Alaska with the Lower 48. We also saw a number of floatplanes, some privately owned, poised near their hangars which looked like small barns. Some homes, located on the water’s edge, featured their own pier with their own floatplanes at the end of it.

Next week: Bight Park and totem poles

Standing in front of Lake Mendenhall, Juneau

I just returned from a cruise to the amazing frontierland of Alaska. It was all I’d ever dreamed of – breathtaking sceneries, quaint cities (I’ll tell you all about Ketchikan, the “staircase” city) and charming culture. We embarked in Seattle, a city  which in itself deserves special mention. For one thing, we were greeted by a temperature of around 70 degrees when we got off the plane around 8.30 p.m. It was a foretaste of  what was to come in Alaska. Temperatures never got below 57 degrees, and rain, well we hardly saw any of it.

If you love nature, wildlife, water sports, or learning about exciting cultures (as I do) Alaska offers all that and more. From whale watching, bird watching, salmon fishing, skiing, mountain climbing, kayaking, you can experience it all in Alaska. I must confess that while I love the outdoors, water sports are not my passion. I can gaze at the wonder and majesty of  a natural forest or a glacier park, marvel at the grace of a bald eagle  winging  its way across the ocean, be awestruck at the radiance of the setting sun, but I tend to shy away from the water. Therefore the pictures you will see were taken either on terra firma or on the ship.

Enjoy! 

Sunset on the water

Glacial ice

As writers, I believe we owe it to ourselves and our profession, (yes, writing is a profession) to strive for excellence. We cannot be content with just slapping something out on our keyboards, posting it somewhere and smacking our lips, thinking we have done our duty. We need to make sure that anything we sign our names to bears the mark of excellence.

Where would the world be if we never had a Beethoven, a Mozart, a Dickens or a Wouk? Would we have even known the meaning of the terms “creativity”, “artistry”, “genius”? The world will always make room for excellence, but will be indifferent to mediocrity and sloppiness.

Everyday I read things in print and online written by seasoned writers that make me shudder. Some of them have clearly not been proofread, while others are just habitual errors some writers make. This one is a comedy of errors, you might say, although it’s not funny: The prices of shoes varies dependant of where you but them from.  This one is from an ad: Very interested in how your marketing.  From another ad: You can make your own decisions and place your bid. Then set back and wait.

Avoiding these errors can be very easy if you would only take the time to carefully proofread your work before clicking the submit button. Or, better still, have someone else check it for you. If you are a beginning writer, you may be able to conceive plots that will make Stephen King blanch with fear, but unless you can master the basics of grammar and structure, you will be missing the mark. There are many books on the market that will teach you all you need to know to make your writing flawless.

One of my favorites, and I daresay the favorite of many, is The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr and E.b. White. In just 85 pages, the writers cover  such topics as punctuation, grammar, composition, commonly misused words and expressions and Style. Another gem,  Grammatically Correct by Anne Stilman deals with the same areas, but in greater detail. There is also a section on Spelling. If you prefer, you can always take a course at your local college or online. But make sure it’s a reputable site.  Whatever you do, don’t stop writing. The more you write, the more proficient you will become.

by Beth Ann Erickson

Intuition is the deep knowingness inside yourself. It’s that place within you where you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what you’re doing is right or wrong for you at the moment.

Living intuitively, life is a joy, your work a pleasure. When you don’t listen to your intuition, you’ll stumble, life will be difficult. Everything you do will feel like swimming up stream.

You find yourself self sabotaging yourself. You may forget to answer e-mails. You won’t return calls. You’ll find yourself doing anything except tend to the task at hand.

In a similar vein, when you follow another person’s path (which is exactly what you’re doing when you’re not following your intuition), the same thing will happen. You will self sabotage the project. You won’t feel joy. You will have an inner sense of panic.

So it’s imperative to follow your intuition because your path will always be unique… never quite the same as other writers.

Where one writer will share a trick to do “this” and another writer will share a trick to do “that,” these techniques may or may not work in your situation.

It’s important to take into account your personality whenever you’re evaluating marketing techniques.

I’d darn near die (literally) if I had to cold call editors. I have no problem contacting people if we have a prior relationship, but to call out of the blue? No way.

That’s just the way I’m wired. I accept it and work around that inability.

Some people may dislike writing queries and sales letters. Then cold call. Send e-mails. Do what works for you.

This is why it’s so important to follow your hunches no matter how far off the beaten path it may be.

Your activities may make no sense to the person watching your life, it may look bizarre to others, in fact, your hunches may not make sense to you either.

But in your spirit, in your soul, all will make perfect sense. And that’s what matters.

How to Know You’re on the Right Track…

When you’re on the right track, career-wise, you’ll experience love. You will experience joy. You will find yourself in a high-powered creative zone.

Ah, but what about money? How will I make a living doing something far off the beaten path?

Or worse yet, how will I understand how my writing career will unfold without knowing the end result of my actions?

To that I say, your first goal should not be to rake in the big bucks.

Your first impulse should always be joy.

It’s been my experience that money flows towards joy.

This is because when you’re writing in a state of joy, you won’t self sabotage yourself. You won’t feel anchors beneath your feet. You will feel incredible peace while clients, customers, buyers will be drawn to that same incredible peace.

Your first and foremost plan should not be gaining wealth. However, on the other hand, if your grand plan, if your Polaris is to accumulate great wealth as a writer, if that is your joy, you just may find yourself in a very hollow situation later on.

This is because accumulating wealth isn’t in and of itself a negative thing.

However, making wealth your sole purpose in a writing career seems to stem the ebb and flow of creativity. And ironically you may find yourself without a message, without anything to share with your reader.

What a bummer, eh?

I know far too many copywriters (those who write advertising) who entered the biz for the promise of high pay. Many have gone on and done quite well.

Thing is, most are avid “swipers.” Some border on plagiarism.

This means that alone in a room, without their swipe file, they probably couldn’t come up with an elegant, solid sales piece more than flap their arms and fly to the moon.

They may be making the big bucks, but they also get to contend with the continually niggling feeling of inadequacy wondering if and when they’ll ever develop the chops to build their own message from the ground up.

It’s tough to do when you’ve short circuited intuition.

Mark my words, these non-writers will not enjoy long lasting writing careers. They simply can’t. They don’t know how to write.

But I’m off track. Back to it.

If your first path is joy, and if you’re committed to spreading that same joy, the money will make its way towards you and you will live a full, happy, and beautiful life.

Truth be told, the only path to joy leads through the door of intuition.
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This article written by Beth Erickson is one that every writer, aspiring or seasoned, should take seriously. When you write with intuition and joy, your readers can sense it and will come back to it again and again. Without joy, your writing will be as flat as the paper it is written on.  

This morning I left home a little later than I should have for my morning walk. The reason was that I simply thought I would lie in bed a little longer, but the increasing brightness on the other side of my window shades reminded me that time was not waiting on me. So I got up and went for my walk. Fortunately, by the time I got to the park it  felt around 70 degrees and there was still a nice number of walkers/joggers to keep me motivated.

What does this have to do with writing, you are probably asking? Discipline. The same thing that gets you out of bed every morning, is the same thing it takes to get you in front of the computer to write something. Or to send out those queries or to read a book on writing.

I have to confess that I am still lacking in the discipline department. No, that’s not entirely true. Work and household duties sometimes get in the way of my writing. I do not spend as much time as I would like to, doing what I love. But I do write or engage in writing activities everyday. Whether it is for a client, for Livestrong or critting for my online group, I manage to squeeze in a little something everyday. And that, like exercise, is what counts.

I know that if I’m to eventually drop those two dress sizes by Christmas, as I plan to, I have to do what it takes to achieve that goal. In the same way if I’m to become a successful writer I must write every day.  So here’s to discipline. Do you struggle with discipline in any area of your life? Leave your comments below.

     This morning I stepped out of my daughter’s house in Florida intending to run some errands, but the heat sent me scurrying for cover. Summer is here. What a contrast to a few months earlier when Floridians complained it was too cold. In Georgia where I live we enjoy the changing of the seasons, a  natural phenomenon that never fails to fill me with awe.  The lush foliage and vibrant colors of spring give way to a sea of summer green, then to the red, orange and brown of fall and finally the dry, naked branches of winter.

For those of us who are writers, we may encounter seasonal changes in our writing. Our prolific pages of heart-stopping poetry or prose may become scarcer and scarcer until we are suddenly staring at a blank page.  What happened?  Call it writer’s block or whatever you will, it’s not a pleasant experience. What can we do about it? Write! That’s the only answer.  But what can you write when your mind is as dense as a foggy morning in Georgia? Write whatever comes to your mind. If you are working on a novel, don’t think, just keep on writing. If you are working on an article, put it aside and start writing about … fog?  Why not?

When you do this a few things will happen. Your novel plot will move in a direction you never envisioned. Your characters  begin acting in ways you didn’t program them to act,  your article takes  on a new dimension and you gain a new perspective on … fog. But the best part of all is that your writer’s block will become dislodged and you will enter a new lush season of creativity. Try it!

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Why I Write

From the first day my elementary school teacher read my essay to the class, I was bitten by the writing bug.  I continued to write throughout elementary school and in to high school, where my classmates humored me and helped inflate my ego by asking for more of the silly love stories I wrote.

With my exit from high school and entrance into the world of work ended all my attempts, but not my  dreams,  of becoming a writer. Oh, I still wanted to be a journalist and a novelist more than anything, but I followed the safe path and chose a teaching career like most of my friends had. Eventually, my dreams of becoming a writer became buried under my triple roles of teacher, wife and mother.

Then one day, I received a call from one of my classmates who had migrated to Canada. During the conversation she asked me if I was still writing. Taken aback, I said I wasn’t. No one had mentioned that word to me in years. She went on to say, “Well, you should. You were very creative.”

Her words stuck with me until years later when I migrated to the United States. I was determined to wipe the dust off my hidden dreams and give them another try. I entered Community College and almost immediately my English professor was reading my essays to the class. She encouraged me to enter a contest, which I did. There was only one prize and it went to someone else, but the college magazine published my short story titled, A Pair of Blue Skates. The following year, I entered a nationwide contest and won an honorable mention. My professors were proud of me, but I felt I could have done better.

Community College came to an end and I entered the occupational therapy undergraduate program at a local university. Two grueling years of study followed, during which I once again had to shelve my writing goals. I attempted a few stories and even took a short Writer’s Digest course, but my new career and new life excluded any type of meaningful writing.

However, even though I chose not to go into the writing field, the fires of my dream still burnt brightly. In 2002, I began writing Coming Out of Egypt, my first serious work, while publishing a few short articles for ezines. I joined an online critique group which really helped me hone my novel-writing skills. Some of the members and I are friends to this day and we have formed our own writing group.

Occupational therapy has served me well. It has provided me with marketable skills, with which I earn a good living, but even more, I can write expertly on health-related topics which are much needed in today’s marketplace.  I plan to retire soon and devote most of my time to writing. I am comfortable writing fiction as well as non-fiction. In fact, I am about to self-publish my first non-fiction, Women For All Seasons, a short creative work on women of the Bible.

I love the art of writing and everything associated with it. Reading, researching, editing, networking with other writers and even spending hours alone. For me, to write is to live. To soar above the mundane activities of everyday life and connect with the innermost recesses of my being, and with my Creator. It doesn’t get any better than that.