Category: Writing

Posted in Creative Nonfiction Essays, Politics, Writing

We Can’t Stop Diversity

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Group of Friends Smiling

The dictionary defines diversity as the state of being different between two individual entities when and only when they are not identical. Diversity came to America with the Pilgrims. When they stepped on American soil, the population became diverse because, up to that time, the primary population was the Native Americans.

Diversity in the United States is not a new concept. We hear this often, but the population of the United States is composed of individuals so diverse that it is called a melting pot. Diversity has been encouraged in America and made possible by our immigration policy.

Diversity within countries across the world may have taken a different path, but the result is the same. Any country that looks attractive to outsiders looking in is going to draw a diverse population. Who doesn’t want to improve their lot in life?  In Iraq, for example, there are three diverse population groups. They have spent centuries fighting each other. It has stunted Iraq’s growth.

In America, our population is becoming more diverse. We now have a large Hispanic policy and many feel like those people are taking their jobs. If Americans would apply for and win their jobs, then do their jobs and work hard, they would have no fear of Hispanics taking their jobs. Instead of fixing what is wrong with our immigration policy and enforcing the immigration policy already on the books, the talk is of building a wall to keep Hispanics out. Do we really think a wall can stop increasing diversity in a country where so many want to live?

Diversity in religion often is what starts war. We can see that if we look all the way back to the Crusades. Look at the Middle East. The conflict there is all about religion. Oh, some say it’s about land. But if their religions had not been at war for hundreds of years, I think the property issue would have been resolved long ago.

Diversity in religion or skin color often leads to the persecution of the minority B groups in a population.

We began to focus more on diversity after the 9/11/2001 terror attack in New York City. We blamed an entire sector of our population, even though their numbers were reasonably small. When you think about it in that way, it makes very little sense.

Diversity is not the problem in America. Every single one of us is an immigrant from somewhere or have ancestors who were immigrants. There are bad, evil people in every religion and in every country. America has more than its share across all diversity boundaries. But, we blame Muslims for every single thing that happens in America.

We can’t round up illegal Hispanics and send them back to Mexico. We can’t put every Muslim in America in interment camps. That’s not who America is. That reeks of Fascism. We have to find another way to deal with the problems. If we let ourselves deal with diversity in this way, the shining city on the hill will be no more and the place we call America will be like every third world country on the planet. #amwriting #amblogging #writing #diversity

 

*This post sponsored by Creativity Challenge #12

Posted in Fiction, Flash Fiction, Uncategorized, Writing

Hard Work

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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“Mom, I’m embarrassed,” the boy said.

His mom was working around in their tent, trying to straighten the bed clothes from the night before and get the boy dressed for school.

“It’s my turn to have the boys over for a campfire, but they don’t know where we live. That we live in a tent.”

“Son,” his mom said. “You have to tell them I can’t find work.”

“I’ll try, Mom,” the boy said. “Some of their parents are out of work too and they are worried. Maybe they’ll understand.”

“They will, Son.”

“I love you, Mom.”

97 words

#amwriting #amblogging #writing

Photo credit Jan Wayne Fields

*This post sponsored by Friday Fictioneers

Thanks, Rochelle!

Just Some News….

Good news! Some of you know that I was recently approached by a large firm about becoming their Subject Matter Expert in finance for a project they are undertaking. After some negotiation, taking their test, and talking to their recruitment manager, I got the job! I’m excited about it. I can’t reveal any details as I’m under a non-disclosure agreement but I am happy with it.

I will still work on my novel, blog right here on WordPress, write articles, and, most importantly, spend time with my friends. I’ll be busy but I want to be busy. I have no desire to quit work. It’s not that time for me yet. I still feel the desire to work. Who knows? Maybe I always will.

Many of you wished me well in this venture and I want to thank you!

Rosemary

Posted in Flash Fiction, Horror, romance, Writing

#SoCS November 26/16

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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What an interesting two weeks it has been since I last posted a stream of consciousness post! My psyche is all over the place so I hope I can write, and you can follow, this post. It may not be pretty.

Of course, November is the start of the holiday season. I don’t really do the holidays or I should say I do it on a very limited basis. No reason to go into all the reasons but I will say that I lost both my parents at Christmas so that sort of did me in regarding the holidays. I do still like Thanksgiving, but I don’t have much family around anymore. I suspect many of you can relate to me when I say that my friends have become my family although I do still have a few close family members. I hate to say it but I am usually glad when the holidays are over. I really don’t mean to be a Scrooge.

I have some really fun events coming up during the month of December with my friends. I’m looking forward to those. I love to spend time with them. Several lunches. I’m also going to watch a performance of The Nutcracker with a friend later in December at a wonderful venue at a city nearby. Can hardly wait for that.

The last half of 2016 has been difficult for me. I had a really bad experience in my personal life. Actually, that is an understatement. It was a devastating experience. The kind that affects you for the rest of your life. I’m starting to get over it or maybe I should say get past it. I’m realizing that I was duped. My part in this was that I was too innocent and trusting. That is my nature, perhaps unfortunately. At my age, I don’t understand how I still remain so trusting but that seems to be the case. So I certainly own my part in this bad experience. I was not told the truth and even worse, I was convinced, over and over, of a lie. When that was revealed, it was humiliating and demeaning. I have had a really hard time coming to terms with it. It is starting to happen and I’m feeling better. To be honest with you, there was a long period of time when I didn’t think I’d ever feel better. I’m very grateful to my friends who were such a great help.

Here in the Ohio Valley, Kentucky to be precise, it is finally late fall and cold. Our weather has been unusual and very warm for fall. We’re supposed to have more warm weather on the way. The weather is definitely changing. I can remember, as a child, we had snow by now and snow on the ground until February. Now it’s 50 degrees and we are supposed to have weather even up to 60 degrees soon. No rain to speak of and we are in a moderate to extreme drought. November used to be a wet month here.

I have been doing a lot of writing and a lot of thinking about what I’m going to write. I have fiction on my mind although I also have some pieces I want to write that are non-fiction. I like to write non-fiction for the WordPress Discover Challenge. I’ve been participating in a lot of flash fiction challenges which are quick and fun. I really enjoy Chuck Wendig’s horror challenges though I never imagined myself writing horror.

Linda, I read your post about your call from the supposed Microsoft technician. Obviously a scam. I’ve had a call like that and I just hung up but your idea about having some fun with this guy is a great idea. Someone made the comment that you should work with him and pretend you are on an Apple computer to confuse him. I think that’s a great idea!

Have a good week, everyone! #amwriting #amblogging #writing #ChuckWendig #FFfAW

*This post is sponsored by Linda G. Hill

Thanks, Linda!

Posted in education, Finance, Uncategorized, Writing

Mind the Gap: The Knowledge Gap

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

When I saw this week’s Discover Challenge, I actually heard the big bang that occurred with the collision of my two careers. I received my doctorate degree in Business/Finance in 1988 and taught on a university level for many years. Writing is a second career that began with academic writing during my university career but expanded during and after that time into both non-fiction and fiction writing.

The concept of Mind the Gap is a familiar one to doctoral students. Our real purpose is to learn to do original research, not learn to teach, which is simply a by-product of our education. We learn to teach because we have to learn the material in our fields in order to do effective original research. That doesn’t mean we all become good teachers. That is another essay for another time.

My field was and is finance; specifically, corporate finance and financial institutions. Simply put, I studied larger business and big banks. Everything about larger business. What makes them tick. How to analyze their operations. How to advise them. How to value them. And much more. When I finished my courses in finance, banking, and statistics and was ready to write my dissertation, that is when “mind the gap” really became an issue. Doctoral students have written many papers up to that time. But there is nothing more important than the dissertation, which is nothing more or less than a book that you write about an original concept in your field. Not to mention the fact that you have to write a dissertation in order to graduate.

“Mind the gap” is the gap between existing knowledge, in my case, in corporate finance and banking and knowledge that is yet to be determined. I know that sounds very esoteric but in everything, there is knowledge yet to be determined. Business, science, technology….you get the picture. Else, we would never have the next iPhone. So, my task was to determine what my topic would be for my dissertation. Where did I think there was a gap in the knowledge in my field.

At that time, banking regulation was going out the window. Banks were beginning to merge and expand and the big regional banks we have today were being born. Banking executives seemed to think that bigger was better. At least, they thought it was more profitable and earned their shareholders more money. There was my topic. Was that true? There was the “gap.” No one yet knew if bigger was, indeed, better in banking.

I will spare you the details of my dissertation. (Trust me, you do not want to know.) But, in general, what I studied was whether or not banking expansion caused increased and even abnormal returns in banking. The bottom line was yes, in the short run, but no, in the long run. Think about this. I finished my dissertation on this topic in 1988. The financial crash that almost took down our economy that we all remember was at the end of 2007. What happened? The big banks were engaging in activities that were earning abnormal returns for them. It worked, in the short run. In the long run, many of them failed and many more were bailed out by the federal government.

There again is the “gap” I’m speaking of. The gap in the banking literature in 1988 was in the research on bank returns in the absence of the regulations they had always been under. By 2007, the premise I had studied in my dissertation had been addressed in the “real world” and had been proven to be correct. That gap in knowledge had been filled in. I had proven in my dissertation that banks do not earn excess returns in the long run as they become increasingly unregulated. They did, but only for a short time. Unfortunately, it seems to be happening again. #amwriting #amblogging #writing #banking

Posted in Fiction, romance, Writing

The Silver and the Divorce, Part 3

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

To read Part 1 of The Silver and the Divorce, click HERE.

To read Part 2 of The Silver and the Divorce, click HERE.

Now, here is Part 3 of The Silver and the Divorce!

Ana woke early the next morning to call her lawyer and make an appointment. She wanted to show Jack the property settlement that she and Walter had put together. She was lucky enough to get an appointment within just a couple of hours. As she got ready to go, she was nervous. She knew Jack, her attorney, would never approve.

“Good luck, sis,” Marcia said as Ana left to go to Jack’s office.

“I’ll need it, ” Ana replied. “Jack will never go for this.”

“I hope he doesn’t.”

Ana drove downtown toward Jack’s office and parked in the parking structure nearby. As she was locking her car, suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped a foot and turned around. It was Walter, very dressed up.

“Ana,” he said, “Why are you so dressed up just to come to Jack’s office?”

As Ana stood and stared at Walter, the old Elvis Presley song, Suspicious Minds, ran through her head. Here was Walter, even when they were getting a divorce, acting jealous and being sneaky just like when they were married. This was one of the things she couldn’t stand about him.

“Walter, what did you do? Follow me?”

Walter smiled that smarmy grin of his. “Well, Ana, I have to keep tabs on my wife. After all, you’ve proven you aren’t trustworthy. Anyway, I want to come with you to Jack’s office.”

Ana blew up. She told Walter that this is one of the reasons she was divorcing him. That she could not tolerate his sneakiness, following her, watching her, and that she would not live this way the rest of her life. Furthermore, Jack wasn’t his lawyer, only hers.

She said, “Walter, do you remember that old Elvis Presley song, Suspicious Minds, and what it says? That a couple can’t go on together if they are suspicious of one another. That it’s impossible to build a marriage on suspicion?”

“Oh, dammit, Ana, you always were some weird romantic.” Then, Walter grabbed her arm and tried to steer her out of the parking structure. Fortunately, Ana had her phone in her hand. She wrenched her arm away from Walter and told him to get out of her face or she would dial 911. He laughed at her and tried to grab her arm again. She raised the phone and pretended to dial 911 and Walter started running toward the exit. Ana got some good photos of him running away.

Ana had to lean up against her car and catch her breath. Walter was a tall, powerful man and that was not the first time he had tried to manhandle her. Her heart was pounding, she was breathing fast, and she was shaking all over.

After she straightened her clothes a bit, Ana started for Jack’s office, keeping an eye on her surroundings, watching for Walter. She made it to Jack’s office without seeing Walter again. After she and Jack exchanged greetings, she handed him the roughly written property settlement she and Walter had cobbled together.

“What’s this?” Jack asked.

“Jack, Walter and I talked and put together a rough property settlement.”

“Ana, you didn’t sign this damn thing, did you?”

“No.”

“That’s fortunate,” Jack said. “You should never have done this. I won’t have a client putting their own property settlement together. You can, of course, make suggestions.  But, you are too emotionally involved. Keep this. We can use certain elements of it, but certainly not the whole thing.”

Ana asked Jack to please at least read the handwritten document. Jack paged through it and looked up at Ana in astonishment. “You are kidding me, Ana,” he said. “No way is this going to be even close to your property settlement.”

“Why not, Jack? Because I’m giving Walter the house?”

Jack started to describe to Ana all the things wrong with the property settlement, including the fact that she was going to let her soon-to-be ex-husband just have her home. He was right in the middle of his explanation when the door flew open and in walked Walter.

“Walter, get out of my office,” Jack said.

“Why the hell should I leave? I know you’re discussing the property settlement.”

Jack responded, “Even if we are, I’m not your attorney and our discussions are private. Now get out.” Jack stood up.

Walter stepped forward toward Jack but then apparently thought better of a certain assault charge. “You better tell my wife to sign that property settlement or I’m going to beat the shit out of the two of you in court,” Jack said and walked out.

Ana had as much as she could take and tears started running down her face. “Oh, Jack. Do you see what I mean? If I don’t do what he wants, he’s going to leave me with nothing.”

Jack tried to reassure Ana that Walter was just being a bully and trying to scare her. The divorce laws of their state would not allow that to happen. He tried to tell her that the property would be split up approximately 50/50 although she might have to pay alimony for a time since her salary was much higher than Walter’s. But, Ana felt like she was going to lose her mind if this divorce was not over soon. Walter was so hard to deal with. The restraining order she had against him wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.

Before Ana left, Jack assured her he would set up a meeting with Walter’s attorney and start hammering out a reasonable property settlement.

Ana was upset as she left her attorney’s office. She was thinking about Ben, her former lover, the man with whom she had an affair before she and Walter split up. Her marriage to Walter would have ended anyway. Her affair probably just caused it to end a little sooner. The turmoil caused she and Ben to agree not to see each other but Ana misses him so much. They had been in each other’s lives for years. Ana decided to take a chance and give Ben a call at his office. Maybe they could get together, even for just a little while, and talk.

Ana pulled out her phone and dialed. Ben answered on the first ring. “Ana?” he says.

“Yes, Ben, it’s me. Are you busy?”

“No, I’m so glad to hear from you. How are you?”

“Oh, Ben. It’s so good to hear your voice. I miss you so much,” Ana says as tears streamed down her face. “Do you think we could get together for a late lunch?”

“Ana, Millie is at my house today. I’m sure she would be glad to put something together for lunch for us. That would give us some privacy to talk. Would that be OK?”

“Yes, Ben. That would be wonderful. What time?”

“Let’s make it 1 p.m. Ana, I can’t wait to see you,” Ben says.

Ana hung up with a smile breaking through her tears. She walked with a spring in her step back to her car. #amwriting #amblogging #writing #romance #fiction

 

 

 

Posted in Flash Fiction, Writing

My Love

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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“How could anyone ever tire of France, Patrick?” Rebecca asked as she looked out the window at the beautiful tiled roof just outside.

“I don’t know, Sweetie. I always wanted to come back to Paris with you,” Patrick said.

“This may be the last time, Patrick.”

“I know,” he said, as he reached into his luggage and handed her a beautiful Hermes scarf. Rebecca’s breath caught in her throat and she looked at Patrick. “What have you done?”

“I’m giving you something to remember me by. You are my love.” #amwriting #amblogging #writing #FridayFictioneers

*Sponsored by Friday Fictioneers

Thanks, Rochelle!

 

Posted in Writing

Writing a Novel

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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In writing my first novel, I am finding it is becoming a living thing. I know that so many of my blogging friends are also novelists. As a first time novelist, I would love to discuss methods with you.

I feel the need to be super organized. I am writing out the characterizations, in detail, for each major character and shorter characterizations for the minor characters. I am writing out the story line and trying to write the first layer of the plot. I will get to the other layers of the plot though I have not tackled those yet. I have built the story world, though this story will take place in a number of geographic areas.

Some say you should think about your theme last. Is that true? Jodi Picoult, for example. You know her theme almost from the first page. Is that a better way?

Do you jump in and just write and not worry about any of this? That is so tempting, but when you think about the things I’ve just mentioned, it seems a recipe for disaster.

Any comments? What’s worked for you? #amwriting #writing #amblogging

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Good morning, everyone! It’s good to see you this Saturday morning. Won’t you please come in and join me for coffee. I also have tea for my fellow tea lovers. You can choose from regular or decaf coffee. I can offer you arabica or if you really want a kick, robusta. I would be glad to make you an expresso. I have black flavored tea which is delicious – hot cinnamon spice. I also have the green tea equivalent in both regular and decaf. You will love it. I happen to have a little special tea today. It is called Pur-reh and it is an ancient Chinese fermented tea with a very earthy taste. Please help yourself!

If we were having coffee today, I would share with you that my writing studio is basically finished! It was hard work, but it is ready to start the month of November and NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. Of course, I’ll also be blogging from there. So, I’d like to share a few pictures with you because some of you have asked for them. Here goes:

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A big desk with computer equipment although not all has been moved in yet.

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A bookcase waiting on its books.

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The writing studio’s mascot, my dog, Betsy, lying on MY comfy couch.

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Every writing studio needs a rocking chair, sitting beside an old-fashioned heater.

So there you have it – the bare bones of my writing studio, though there is nothing “bare bones” about  my dog! Soon, it will have books and papers stacked all over it and Betsy will be lucky to find a place to nap. Right now, I am just focused on doing some outlining of my novel and getting ready to start characterization and writing in earnest, aiming for a first draft by early December.

I hope others of you are going to participate in NaNoWriMo! It will be a busy month. Thanks for taking my tour! #amwriting #amblogging #writing #NaNoWriMo

*This post was sponsored by Diana, at http://parttimemonsterblog.com

Thanks, Diana!

 

 

 

#weekendcoffeeshare 10/29/2016