When we're all children and dreaming of our futures, what comes to mind? For me, it was, one day, being a Master of the Universe in New York City, like the troubled Sherman from Tom Wolfe's epic of the 1980s, Bonfire of the Vanities. Big city, big life, everything BIG.
I never dreamed that maybe, just maybe, I would find paradise in a hamlet of 61,000 people.
Yet we have.
I was talking with a close co-worker of mine earlier in the week about the Southern California wildfires, the long commutes out East. I mentioned that a friend of mine was leaving the news business in South Florida to go back to Minneapolis because it was just so...negative.
I've always "stuck up" for Eau Claire, even during our five-year stay in Duluth, because the people here were always so kind to us, especially when I was a 23-year-old just starting out, long on schtick but not as long on talent.
There is something reassuring about knowing when you are in that perfect place. We don't have the constant activity of Minneapolis or Madison...but we also don't have the crime and the commutes. You don't need to send your kids to private schools for a great education.
I see Eau Claire trying, especially for parents of younger children, to offer enough services and entertainment and we do appreciate it. I don't write this to schmooze but to keep it honest -- here in 2007, you can live in a "smaller city" and not really miss out on that much. Besides, what am I really missing out on?
That may be the best part of living here. When we go on vacation, we're always happy to come back. I can say I've lived in places where that wasn't always the case.
NOTE: Two more book signings for The Interim are coming up and I hope you can check them out: Saturday, November 17 at Bookends in Menomonie and Saturday, December 8th at The Comfy Place up in Bloomer. It's good times!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Feeling Blessed When So Many Others Cope With Tragedy
We all hope we never get "that" call.
It's part of what I do at work, following the tragedies of many others. Teens that die in car crashes, their lives cut short while their families have to carry that pain forever.
Now that I'm a parent of two myself, I find myself especially sensitive to cases of sudden death, especially for children, teens and young adults. The other night, in a piece I'm working on for next month, I went out to the remote home of a mother who lost her teen daughter a few years ago.
I walked away from the twenty minutes in her home forever impressed with her resolve over the daily reminders, some suttle and probably painfully obvious.
The silver lining may be that, in Eau Claire, we're all still "relatively" blocked from the pain and death seen in many other places in the United States. In our little corner of the world, parents tend to take care of their kids, putting in place an informal buffer zone to keep them from tragedy.
Of course, it doesn't always work.
When I walk away from talking to a parent that has lost a child or even if it's a news story involving death and someone I've never met, I usually feel the need to hug and hold my two children as tightly as I can when I get home.
There are examples of this all over the Internet. A couple of years back, a friend introduced me to the Miller family, out of Central Texas. Two days before I started off a refreshing chapter to my life, our Joyous Return to Eau Claire, this family had their lives destroyed.
It's actually become a very noteworthy video. Millions of people have watched it and, if you have children, you will cry by the end of it.
The Importance of a 5-Point Harness
Every time I hear this song, which even years after its release it still fetches strong airplay, I think of the little boy and how the family continues to cope with each hour of each day.
We all want to protect our children but, the older I get, I realize that I can't do everything -- sometimes it just falls in a plan greater than me.
As I work through all of the stories of tragedy, you know what? It does wear on me. I'm human. You can't just "turn it off" during news time.
Count your blessings. That gets said often. I'm still trying to make sure I not only count mine but I see all the ones around me.
It's part of what I do at work, following the tragedies of many others. Teens that die in car crashes, their lives cut short while their families have to carry that pain forever.
Now that I'm a parent of two myself, I find myself especially sensitive to cases of sudden death, especially for children, teens and young adults. The other night, in a piece I'm working on for next month, I went out to the remote home of a mother who lost her teen daughter a few years ago.
I walked away from the twenty minutes in her home forever impressed with her resolve over the daily reminders, some suttle and probably painfully obvious.
The silver lining may be that, in Eau Claire, we're all still "relatively" blocked from the pain and death seen in many other places in the United States. In our little corner of the world, parents tend to take care of their kids, putting in place an informal buffer zone to keep them from tragedy.
Of course, it doesn't always work.
When I walk away from talking to a parent that has lost a child or even if it's a news story involving death and someone I've never met, I usually feel the need to hug and hold my two children as tightly as I can when I get home.
There are examples of this all over the Internet. A couple of years back, a friend introduced me to the Miller family, out of Central Texas. Two days before I started off a refreshing chapter to my life, our Joyous Return to Eau Claire, this family had their lives destroyed.
It's actually become a very noteworthy video. Millions of people have watched it and, if you have children, you will cry by the end of it.
The Importance of a 5-Point Harness
Every time I hear this song, which even years after its release it still fetches strong airplay, I think of the little boy and how the family continues to cope with each hour of each day.
We all want to protect our children but, the older I get, I realize that I can't do everything -- sometimes it just falls in a plan greater than me.
As I work through all of the stories of tragedy, you know what? It does wear on me. I'm human. You can't just "turn it off" during news time.
Count your blessings. That gets said often. I'm still trying to make sure I not only count mine but I see all the ones around me.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
New Regular Segment: Hockey Fight of the Week
What?
Well, how many other fiction writers would do this?
I never said I was "highbrow". I generally try to write "guy's novels".
So, a weekly feature: Hockey Fight of the Week. As you will see, they will send the "skew" towards the St. Louis Blues. When I was 16, I often bagged the groceries at Schnucks in Creve Coeur for Brett Hull and Adam Oates, the team's two biggest stars back in 1990-91.
Goalie's Battle at Center Ice!
They usually just purchased potato chips, meat and beer.
This week, Detroit vs. St. Louis in late 1992 at The Arena.
Well, how many other fiction writers would do this?
I never said I was "highbrow". I generally try to write "guy's novels".
So, a weekly feature: Hockey Fight of the Week. As you will see, they will send the "skew" towards the St. Louis Blues. When I was 16, I often bagged the groceries at Schnucks in Creve Coeur for Brett Hull and Adam Oates, the team's two biggest stars back in 1990-91.
Goalie's Battle at Center Ice!
They usually just purchased potato chips, meat and beer.
This week, Detroit vs. St. Louis in late 1992 at The Arena.
Next Signing: Bookends in Menomonie, Saturday, November 17th
This has just been finalized in the past few days but I will be hitting I-94 to travel west to Menomonie for a signing at Bookends, right on Highway 29, across from the Mabel Tainter Theatre.
I've always enjoyed a special relationship with Menomonie. When I was in sports, I covered the always-successful MHS football team. In 1999, I was there, in Madison, when they captured the state title on a brisk, frigid November morning.
That game was actually a watershed moment for my career.
At halftime, with Menomonie leading, I accepted the main sports anchor position at KDLH-TV in Duluth (we had operating pay phones in the last century). That led to a five-year odyssey where I "grew up" in Duluth, adding two children and even some maturity before we were blessed enough to move back to Eau Claire.
Hope to see you there. Saturday, November 17th at Bookends in Menomonie, 1 p.m.
Here is their website:
Bookends
Bookends is a locally-owned bookstore. They're stocking The Interim right now so, if you're close by, stop on by and pick one up.
I've always enjoyed a special relationship with Menomonie. When I was in sports, I covered the always-successful MHS football team. In 1999, I was there, in Madison, when they captured the state title on a brisk, frigid November morning.
That game was actually a watershed moment for my career.
At halftime, with Menomonie leading, I accepted the main sports anchor position at KDLH-TV in Duluth (we had operating pay phones in the last century). That led to a five-year odyssey where I "grew up" in Duluth, adding two children and even some maturity before we were blessed enough to move back to Eau Claire.
Hope to see you there. Saturday, November 17th at Bookends in Menomonie, 1 p.m.
Here is their website:
Bookends
Bookends is a locally-owned bookstore. They're stocking The Interim right now so, if you're close by, stop on by and pick one up.
Thank You for a Wonderful Signing!
I'm entrenched in the Colorado-Kansas State football game on ESPN2 (it's halftime and I'm in a writer's block on my current project) as I write this but I wanted to take a moment to thank all who came out for today's very successful signing at Borders in Eau Claire.
The people who works at Borders Eau Claire have always been very supportive of what I'm trying to offer up, fiction set here in Wisconsin that can strike a chord. Today, I met a charming cross-section of people, grandparents and younger people. I signed books for high school students at Eleva-Strum, North, Memorial, Fall Creek. That is a "target audience" for me, "mature teens", because, when I was that age, finding interesting fiction was difficult.
Again, thank you!
The people who works at Borders Eau Claire have always been very supportive of what I'm trying to offer up, fiction set here in Wisconsin that can strike a chord. Today, I met a charming cross-section of people, grandparents and younger people. I signed books for high school students at Eleva-Strum, North, Memorial, Fall Creek. That is a "target audience" for me, "mature teens", because, when I was that age, finding interesting fiction was difficult.
Again, thank you!
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Need a Baseball Team to Root For? Why To Root For Colorado.
As a lifelong Kansas City Royals fan, I need to find reasons to even care about baseball after Memorial Day. Unlike fans of, say, the Cubs, who at least sniff the playoffs, that just doesn't happen with me.
If you are, like me, a casual baseball fan without a "horse in the race", consider this team.
The Colorado Rockies.
Clint Hurdle is the manager of the Rockies. Has been since 2002, when he took over a bad team. Colorado was supposed to be mired in another bad season this year. Just when Hurdle is getting sized up for the Managing Guillotine, they won. And won. And won a little bit more. All told, Colorado won 13 of 14 to end the year...and they STILL had to win a play-in game.
Colorado just finished off a sweep of Philadelphia in the National League Wild-Card round. They're into the NLCS.
I grew up watching Hurdle when he was a "phenom". At the age of 20, Hurdle faced immense pressure as SI put him on the cover in spring training in 1978. That only made it even more difficult for Hurdle to crack the Royals' lineup and be an everyday starter, much less hit .327 and be "the next George Brett".
Those Royals teams, mind you, were loaded at just about every position. Hurdle platooned in right field, usually playing when facing right-handed pitching. But he just never found the "greatness", at least not with Kansas City.
Clint Hurdle had a solid, if not spectacular, 10-year career in the majors. After getting out of Kansas City (and all those expectations), Hurdle did win a championship with the 1986 New York Mets (wayside: The '86 Mets were, possibly, the craziest baseball team ever. Read "The Bad Guys Won" by Jeff Pearlman. It's a fabulous inside look at baseball's loosest, loudest, most drug-infested and morally-questionable championship baseball team of the modern era).
Anyway, in 2001, my aunt, 48 at the time, got sick. Really sick. I remembered, growing up, that she told me Clint Hurdle was "so cute" and was her favorite Royal. In a city where George Brett was everyone's favorite athlete, I remembered that, even decades later.
To bring a little joy to my aunt, I went onto eBay and, for about $3, I bought the 1978 SI for someone in New Jersey. Then I sent the SI to Hurdle, then the first-base coach with the Rockies, to sign and mail back.
Clint Hurdle mailed the SI back to me, signed, within five days. Got it to my aunt right away. (By the way, she's fine now and living in Arizona.)
That spoke volumes to me about Hurdle's character. He didn't have to do that, much less do that so quickly.
The next year, Hurdle becomes manager of the Rockies. Turns out, he is also the father of a little girl named Madison. "Maddy" was born just three weeks after my son, Sam.
Yet I read that Madison is diagnosed with Prader-Willi Syndrome. What that essentially means is that Madison's body cannot tell when it is "full". Food has to be kept, literally, under lock and key.
Now as the manager of the Rockies, Clint Hurdle is in a high-stress, high-profile position. Because of Madison's (she's in the white shirt, on her father's left knee) constant need for medical care and various surgeries, Hurdle has to, often, miss his team's games to be with his family. I understand the Rockies management has been very supportive throughout all of this.
Even in this moment of "professional greatness", I still cannot imagine the everyday battles the Hurdle family must overcome for parts of the day that I take for granted. I'm bless to have two healthy, wonderful children, a beautiful and supportive wife, a enjoyable job and a city I love living in.
Yet, as I've watched the Rockies' games in the playoffs, Madison isn't too far from my mind. I hope that Colorado's deep run into October does raise more awareness about Prader-Willi, a disease that strikes only 1 in about 12,000 but one that requires constant attention.
So, if you need a team to root for in the playoffs, join the Purple and Black.
If you are, like me, a casual baseball fan without a "horse in the race", consider this team.
The Colorado Rockies.
Clint Hurdle is the manager of the Rockies. Has been since 2002, when he took over a bad team. Colorado was supposed to be mired in another bad season this year. Just when Hurdle is getting sized up for the Managing Guillotine, they won. And won. And won a little bit more. All told, Colorado won 13 of 14 to end the year...and they STILL had to win a play-in game.
Colorado just finished off a sweep of Philadelphia in the National League Wild-Card round. They're into the NLCS.
I grew up watching Hurdle when he was a "phenom". At the age of 20, Hurdle faced immense pressure as SI put him on the cover in spring training in 1978. That only made it even more difficult for Hurdle to crack the Royals' lineup and be an everyday starter, much less hit .327 and be "the next George Brett".
Those Royals teams, mind you, were loaded at just about every position. Hurdle platooned in right field, usually playing when facing right-handed pitching. But he just never found the "greatness", at least not with Kansas City.
Clint Hurdle had a solid, if not spectacular, 10-year career in the majors. After getting out of Kansas City (and all those expectations), Hurdle did win a championship with the 1986 New York Mets (wayside: The '86 Mets were, possibly, the craziest baseball team ever. Read "The Bad Guys Won" by Jeff Pearlman. It's a fabulous inside look at baseball's loosest, loudest, most drug-infested and morally-questionable championship baseball team of the modern era).
Anyway, in 2001, my aunt, 48 at the time, got sick. Really sick. I remembered, growing up, that she told me Clint Hurdle was "so cute" and was her favorite Royal. In a city where George Brett was everyone's favorite athlete, I remembered that, even decades later.
To bring a little joy to my aunt, I went onto eBay and, for about $3, I bought the 1978 SI for someone in New Jersey. Then I sent the SI to Hurdle, then the first-base coach with the Rockies, to sign and mail back.
Clint Hurdle mailed the SI back to me, signed, within five days. Got it to my aunt right away. (By the way, she's fine now and living in Arizona.)
That spoke volumes to me about Hurdle's character. He didn't have to do that, much less do that so quickly.
The next year, Hurdle becomes manager of the Rockies. Turns out, he is also the father of a little girl named Madison. "Maddy" was born just three weeks after my son, Sam.
Yet I read that Madison is diagnosed with Prader-Willi Syndrome. What that essentially means is that Madison's body cannot tell when it is "full". Food has to be kept, literally, under lock and key.
Now as the manager of the Rockies, Clint Hurdle is in a high-stress, high-profile position. Because of Madison's (she's in the white shirt, on her father's left knee) constant need for medical care and various surgeries, Hurdle has to, often, miss his team's games to be with his family. I understand the Rockies management has been very supportive throughout all of this.
Even in this moment of "professional greatness", I still cannot imagine the everyday battles the Hurdle family must overcome for parts of the day that I take for granted. I'm bless to have two healthy, wonderful children, a beautiful and supportive wife, a enjoyable job and a city I love living in.
Yet, as I've watched the Rockies' games in the playoffs, Madison isn't too far from my mind. I hope that Colorado's deep run into October does raise more awareness about Prader-Willi, a disease that strikes only 1 in about 12,000 but one that requires constant attention.
So, if you need a team to root for in the playoffs, join the Purple and Black.
Friday, October 5, 2007
The Best Part of Writing...The Research
This just may be the best part of writing a new novel.
The research.
With the access available through images, Google Earth and a website for just about everything, the days of having to travel to Italy for two weeks to "compose ideas" just may be over.
As I work through my fourth novel, The Last Drive, I'm taking my mind back through some dynamics cities. Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia.
If you ever get the opportunity to go to these cities, I'd highly recommended it. Searching through my memory and the Internet have provided plenty of inspiration to keep writing, such as the endless rain and modern vibe of Vancouver or the laid-back beauty of Victoria.
The snapshot of the seaplane (above) played a major part in my fascination with those two large hamlets of British Columbia. If it wasn't so bloody expensive, I'd probably consider living there one day. Who knows, if enough people buy The Interim, it just may happen. There...was that suttle enough?
Hope to see you at the Borders signing, next Saturday, October 13 at Borders in Eau Claire.
Packers. 16-0. Believe it.
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