Good Advice
- Fairfield Library Writing Group, posted by Adair, honoring a newly published author. My friend Jane is 2nd from left. Adair isn’t in the picture.
First connection: I follow Fairfield Writer’s Blog which has the tag line, “Literary Connections at the Fairfield CT Public Library”. Today my friend Adair Heitmann posted “6 Simple Rules Every Writer Needs to Know.”
I follow her first rule: “Be consistent. Find a schedule and stick to it.”
In my comment I told her, “I post every 4th day on Afor, which is the market day of my husband’s Igbo village.”
Her 4th rule is hard: “Tie into your reader’s emotions. Easier said than done, yet it’s achievable. If you are feeling something, it’s more than likely your readers are too. When we can give voice to the whispers, we deepen our relationships.”
I’m working on that one. Let me know when I succeed.
Question and Answers from Writers
Second connection: I subscribe to several writing blogs and belong to two or three writing groups on LinkedIn. Two days ago someone posted a question in LinkedIn’s Aspiring Writers group. She said, “Stupid Question, but it’s not my Speciality. How do I convert an Adobe pdf book to a Word file (to fix typos), and then back to pdf again?”
There were a few replies to tell her she couldn’t, and a couple said, “Copy and paste.”
Then came an answer from Steve Uzochukwu. I’ve known since he was very little.
I stayed with his parents Ben and Anne for a few nights before my Lagos wedding on December 26, 1964. I had finished my Peace Corps service in June, gone home to the U.S., and returned to Nigeria with a teaching contract at the small school where I’d taught part-time. The school had no housing. So I had been staying with my fiance Clem since arriving back in the country in September.
We felt protocol required I move out on December 23 when his parents and mine arrived in Lagos for our wedding. Steve, or Chike as he was called then, was a toddler.
It was such fun to see his name. He suggested uploading the PDF to Google Docs/Drive and from there to Word.
No surprise, remembering his brilliance as a child, that he would supply an answer. I asked him in a private message what he’s writing. He said, “I’ve had a medium length run of writing for hang gliding, paragliding and microlight (ultralight magazines) as a volunteer or occasionally paid.”
What a variety of writing interests there are in the world! I hope the original questioner proofreads and fixes her capitalization which was so exuberant in her post.
Mount Holyoke Connections
Third: On Saturday last week my husband and I went to a Mount Holyoke alumnae event at the home of Judy and Mike in Westport. I didn’t think I’d met Judy before. A couple of hours before we went, I was checking email and found that Mike, her husband, was the one I had a connection with!
- Maxine Bleiweis, Director Westport Library
I was a member and then president of the Westport Library Board from 1994 to 1997. Mike, who is the current board president, had sent a request for a contribution for a community-wide event to honor Maxine Bleiweis, the Westport Library Director, who is leaving in June.
I enjoyed sharing library stories with him at their home.
- Mount Holyoke gathering at my house on March 24.
Last night I held another gathering for Mount Holyoke women in Westport, Weston, and Fairfield. We had a lovely potluck dinner with thirteen women ranging from the class of 1949 to 1992!
Although I was hostess I couldn’t stay to the end. Our Ministerial Search Committee at the Unitarian Church in Westport is facing a deadline so we had to meet last night. My Search Committee colleagues were kind enough to delay the meeting start until 8 pm for me.
I left Jacquie, President of the Fairfield Villages Mount Holyoke Alumnae Club and a fellow Westport resident, in charge. When I got home I was surprised to find someone’s car in the driveway. I couldn’t imagine how someone could have forgotten her car!
Nigeria’s Election is Saturday
Fourth connection– to Nigeria – comes with a fear. How will the election turn out on Saturday, March 28? Will you watch for news on Sunday, or even Saturday evening? My next post will after.
The New York Times ran a piece called “Don’t Steal Nigeria’s Election,” by Jean Herskovits, who has written on Nigerian politics since 1970, the paper said. She says, “If this weekend’s vote is delayed, disrupted or canceled, it will imperil the democratic future of Africa’s most populous country.”
I am frightened. I hope the vote is not delayed, disrupted, or canceled. And then the result will be accepted. It’s not a sure thing. After all, it’s only since 1999 that the country has had a democratically elected government, not even two decades yet.
I described the election process and postponement, the candidates, and some of the pros and cons of each at the end of my book talk in Weston yesterday. When I invited questions, someone asked, “How would you vote?” I had to say Buhari. I don’t believe Goodluck Jonathan has done enough to merit my vote.
How would you vote?
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