The Art of Retirement

      Ok the big day has come and gone. It seems that the last few months became unbearable. Once you give yourself permission to stop being in the work world you are not. Several years before deciding to retire my wife, Kathy, set up this blog for me for when I retire. She has always supported my writing mindset. My editor, confidant, critic, and fan Kathy has always encouraged my writing. I would not have a book on Amazon nor would I be writing under the name of Write My Fire. I am fortunate to have gotten the girl!
     The question now about retirement is where do you go from here. Is writing just for pleasure? Should I try to make money or publish a product? The need being is to supplement my income so that we can travel to do the things that we enjoy and also gather the experiences to draw future writing from. The natural thing for me is to do what I know. I have been told before to write about what you know. However I have never wanted to write a Plumbing and Heating blog nor have I ever wanted to write about pipes. The answer to the question may be to reinvent yourself. Is this what Grandma Moses did? Don't know what she did before picking up a paintbrush!
     What it really appears to be to me is an opportunity. There are many things in my life that I have left unfinished. Writing projects started but no completed. If you were to go back and look at all of my blogs from the beginning you would see that there are stories and thoughts that were begun but not pursued. A Historical novel that I have an outline, first chapter and notes for as well as a first act of a screen play. I even enrolled in a screenwriting workshop in Aspen when I was living there. Then there is a novel about writers estranged wishing to write with one another that is almost complete. It lacks a better beginning and a couple middle chapters in order to be complete. I wrote the book by writing separate short stories with the same characters designed to be linked together into a novel. Completion is not that far away.
     The answer is in the list. Like writing an outline, a list of half started works and ideas could be fleshed out and completed and turned into finished works. Not to mention many ideas and short stories that have been begun like blogs started and sitting in my blog sphere with the big red label of Draft on them. Yes there is also all of my poetry that was not included in Of Mountains and Men. Finish what you start!

Looking Toward Sochi, Russia 2014

O.K. I admit it. I have had an obsession with the Winter Olympics since they were held in Lake Placid New York in 1980. I tried very hard to organize my artisan and musician friends in climbing the back side of Whiteface Mountain at night with musical instruments and generators. It was my dream to hold a concert at sunrise. You guessed it. It never happened, that failure has not stopped me from dreaming of pulling off publishing my writing in conjunction with an Olympics. I came close in 2010 Vancouver with Of Mountains And Men. Wrong publisher and under marketing made for lackluster recognition. This Olympics I feel primed. I just recently realized that I can publish my blog in different languages, such as Russian, French, German, etc. What a great thing. Now if I can arrange to have my book of poetry already an ebook (www.amazon.com) available in translation, double score. My collection of short stories White Dreams, (The Trials of the World Greatest Ski Bum), available as an ebook and possibly find a publisher to simultaneously publish in Europe and America I will have arrived.  Why the 34 year obsession? I want a contract to write a Historical Novel about Arapahoe Basin Ski Area in Colorado and have the funding to do it right. Well so much for the confessions of a self-absorbed obsessed ski bum writer. Wish me luck! Who knows if I can afford it I may be able to realize my Oregon Retirement Dreams.