A Christmas Poem

A Christmas Poem by

Crystal Russell

T’was the weekend before Christmas

And all through the mall

The shoppers are spending

In response to season’s call.

Spend to buy gifts for Ginny,

And something nice for Sue,

Something unique for Robert,

Then, there’s Uncle Charlie, too.

The list, my, how it’s grown.

From just family to friends,

To teachers, to acquaintances,

Even to strangers.  It never ends.

Something big and expensive

Buy without thought or desire

Buy a gift just to impress

Any gift is all that you require.

Gifts for everyone on your list

Expectations from all that you see

After all, what is Christmas,

But presents under the tree?

Spend, spend, and spend some more

Run out cash and use the card

Payment not due ‘til next year

So you can spend without regard.

Merchants happy with the frenzy

Anxiously rush the season.

With decorations in September

Does anyone care about the reason?

A tree and some lights will make it gay

But, not any old tree is alright

Just a $500 pre-lit designer tree,

Will make the holiday celebration bright.

Expensive?  You bet.

But Christmas comes but once a year.

What difference does it make,

If it brings holiday cheer?

It’s easy to get caught in the season,

And easy to get caught in the hype.

We believe that money will make it happy.

To deny makes you a Grinch type.

Salvation Army pots are prohibited.

Their bells are deemed offensive.

We are so drawn into spending

We forget what’s not expensive.

Is there any room on your Christmas list

For someone you need to forgive?

What of someone who is lonely?

Do you have anything to give?

What I am thinking of is all things free.

Your support, your talent, your time

Given in love and thoughtfulness

Is the best gift, and doesn’t cost a dime.

So in this season of endless spending

Stop a moment and contemplate

What can I give of me that the person needs?

Then, be prepared to hear that your gift was great.

Let your holidays be filled with love

Let it start with you

Be the one that breaks the cycle

It’s not too late to do.

The Radio Interview

The holidays are here and I have been distracted with normal year end activities for the holidays and in meeting client demands.  I admit that I have been neglectful of promoting Tender Offers.  What I didn’t know a year ago when I first started down this path of writing and talking about my books, is that it is really a constant, on-going and never ending process.  It certainly is not for the faint of heart or the easily discouraged.  There is no time for it unless I learn to make time for it.  Book promotion is like a fine garden of flowers which needs constant attention; or like a small child with a runny nose that needs frequent blowing.  Make no mistake about it though, marketing, promotion and blogging are tasks as demanding as the law.  When I first became a lawyer all those many years ago, I was told that the law would be my jealous mistress – although, in my case, it probably would have been more accurate to describe it as a jealous master.  Indeed that has been true.  Well, now I have two jealous masters – the law and writing – and each is competing for time that seems to grow in reverse.   My days are shorter, as are the months fly by without seemingly being connected to a twenty-four hour day.  My yesterdays are fading into my tomorrows without recognition of the present.

But, still I stay in the fray.  I am still doing new and exciting things.  This week I participated in a radio interview on Women’s Radio Network, WRMW1 – my first interview about the book, although it was not the first time I’ve been on talk radio. I can honestly say though, it was the first time I’ve ever been interviewed when I enjoyed the subject matter so much.   I got the chance to talk about me, and what woman doesn’t like to talk about herself? It wasn’t much really, just a short 8 minute clip which flew by with warp speed.  I got a chance to talk about my law practice and all the women owned businesses I helped get started through the years and the wonderful fun I’ve had watching them grow into successful ventures.  I talked about how I built a successful law practice providing business advice.  I also got a chance to plug Tender Offers and talk about my new adventures as an author.

It was interesting, while the interview was about what I had done in the past, it got me re-focused the future and back onto the task of promotion.  It helped re-direct my thinking and to see the hard work of promotion as a wonderful opportunity.   It made me realize that I am enormously lucky to have lived at the time I have lived and to have the opportunities that I’ve had for all my marvelous adventures.  All my hard work – my allocated time – fades into the seamless travel through the years with the memory of each new opportunity experienced.  This writing bit – well, it is but one more chapter in a life that has been well lived, filled with many exciting adventures. It keeps me going and I keep doing it because it is fun.  I welcome the challenges that each new opportunity affords because that is what keeps me alive in my senior years.  I don’t have to live in the past, I embrace the future.

So What Makes a Strong Female Protagonist?

I’m sitting here wondering – what makes a strong woman?  I know that we all love to read about them.  Perhaps, we even know one or two women who fit into that category, but we would admit that they are few and far between.  They serve as role models.  They hold families together in the face of adversity. They give us encouragement when we’re down and they certainly are women that we want to emulate, but why?  I don’t think that I’ve ever given much real thought to what qualities makes a person strong.

In some ways, I think it is easier for a man.  We all know the qualities that we like in men although frequently what women say we like and what we really like may be two different things.  On one hand women want men to be courageous and brave, to assume a leadership role and give us a strong shoulder to cry on, but at the same time we want them to be unafraid to display emotional sensitivity, and of course, always communicate deep heart-felt feelings.  So much for the brave, silent type of man of years past – you know, the men that went out and fought wars and gave their lives so that we could live in freedom – they have faded from the popular culture.  Sometimes, I wonder if men have as much trouble forging their roles in today’s world as women have.  I’m not sure that I really understand all that goes into making a strong male protagonist in today’s literature, but I digress.  I’m really obsessing about the role of the female heroine, today, because I think it is so much more complex.

If, through the course of the ages, men have claimed not to understand women, how much more confusing it must be for them today.   Books are written on the subject of just what women want.  To know what women really want, you would have to really find a strong woman to tell you out straight – someone who would be unafraid to tell you what makes her tick.  So just what makes a woman strong?  What key qualities make her memorable?  Inspirational?  Compelling?  What are the qualities that are most admired?  There are a few I can think of.  Certainly courage comes to mind, but it is a different kind of courage than the kind of courage men have, at least from my observation.   Men are brave with the body; women are brave with the heart.  It’s usually not a type of courage that demands recognition, but it is more like doing what you have to do as dictated by circumstances and done out of self sacrifice.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am not saying that men are courageous for status or recognition.  Nor am I saying that our women soldiers are not as brave as the men in a combat situation.  I have the greatest admiration in the world for our men and women in the service of our country.  I’m just saying that whatever that quality is that drives men, it doesn’t seem to be as much of a motivation factor for women.

So what else goes into a strong woman? Willfulness?  Maybe somewhat, but I’m not sure that it is willfulness alone.  Willfulness can easily be misconstrued as stubbornness, and I can hardly call that a desirable trait.  However, willfulness has a certain kind of ‘stick-to-it-ness’ that allows recovery from mistakes and gives a drive to go onward.  More importantly, willfulness can be beneficial when it creates determination that allows one to learn from mistakes and pick up the pieces and keep going.

But certainly there must be more to strong women than just courage and willfulness, and indeed there is.  I think the truly strong female has learned early on to love completely.  I’m not talking about a soppy kind of romantic love or a hot romp under the sheets kind either.  No, I am talking more about a love of life, a love for new adventure, a love of people and a zest for life that is contagious.  She is the type of protagonist that sticks in our heads long after the book is complete.   And really, that is the most difficult kind of protagonist to create, possibly because she is so rare in real life.

I’ve been blogging almost a year now.  Wow.  Still have more questions than answers.

Strong Female Protagonists

Do you like strong women?  Do you like to read stories about them?  Do you like to get inside their heads and find out what makes them tick?  I do.  I always have.  When I was a child I was first introduced to a strong female character in the Nancy Drew Mysteries when I was about 8 or 9 years old.  I was mesmerized.  I read them all.  Then I moved on to the Nurse Barton stories and read all those too.  I’ve read so many books that I’ve forgotten them all, but I’ve never forgotten the strong willed female who always knew her own mind.  Those are the types of heroines I like the best. They inspire and challenge and motivate me.

It seems as if fiction is filled with strong minded female personalities.   There’s Emma Woodhouse from Emma by Jane Austin, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm fame by Kate Douglas Wiggin, and of course, Scarlet O’Hara by Margret Mitchell – who could ever forget them?  Then, there’s Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace always using her wits to get the power and position she so desperately wanted.   They made the pages of literature come alive with their willful personalities because they were out of step with the women of their times.  On the pages of the novels they let women dream of a life which was out of reach for most of them.

Who can forget the indomitable Dagny Taggart from Atlas Shrugged?   Now there was a modern woman who never waited for her hero to ride up on a white horse and rescue her from anything.  She was my first example a woman making it in the business world.  I think that I have read this book three or four times.  It is always one my favorites and probably always will be.

Novels are fun, but to get to the really strong characters, you have to go to the biographies.  At 13 or so, I started reading serious books as I called them.  My first real life female heroine was Anne Frank, author of the Dairies of Anne Frank.  I read this book several times, too.  I will be forever impressed by the sense of courage and equanimity she exhibited as she matured from child to adult in the space of one to two years under unbelievable circumstances.  I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult her life was.  It impressed me so much that she could still find thanks in her heart for the woman who brought her family food.  The most marvelous thing about Anne Frank is her lack of hatred especially in circumstances when that probably would have been the most universal emotion against those who treated her so cruelly.

The parade of woman heroines from the pages of the books paved the path for the modern woman as she has braved the dramatic societal changes of the sixties and the advent of women’s rights.  They served the function of guiding the women of my generation to an understanding that anything was possible. They all helped create the modern strong willed female.   They helped to forge a sense of independence of the modern woman.  She is adventurous and not afraid to go where few women have gone before.  Sure, she is willful and perhaps, stubborn, but she has to be.  The point is, the women of the old novels and classic stories could only dream of living the life most women live today.  But their dreams set the pace.  They were unusual in literature because they dared to be different – to do the unexpected.  If anything they showed a generation of women who were learning new roles how it could be done.  How grand is that?  Certainly, living as a female lawyer has been one of the most thrilling adventures of my life.  Sure, I was born at the right time, but I had all these heroines from the books to show me the way — to mold my world view to make all things possible.  What a gift.

I expect that strong female protagonists are mainly appreciated by other women, but maybe not.  I am certain there are men out there who are secure enough in their own sense of self not to be challenged and to welcome the intellectual equal that today’s modern woman has become.

Discovering YouTube

I’ve been plowing away at this promotional thing and discovering the wonders of YouTube.  I have to question how I could get to be as old as I am and never really got into YouTube before.  I’ve been sitting in front of the computer mesmerized as I jump from one video to another.  It seems like the whole world is there and on everything subject imaginable.  I guess I’m a little overwhelmed right now.  There are all sorts of possibilities that come to mind – what a great tool for communication – for education and entertainment.  But, of course, the kids have known about it for years.   I’m just a late comer to the program.  I guess what makes it so interesting is that the whole YouTube thing captures a little bit of the essence of who you are.

About a year ago when I first made my short video for Book One, I really had no idea what the video was for or how it could be used.  I found the whole process intimidating and rather distasteful.  Why in the world would I want to post my image on the internet?  I am by far a movie star and I have jealously guarded my privacy.  Why would I want anyone to see me talking about my book?  Well, that was before I started watching other videos on YouTube.  Now I know why.

The world is changing and it no longer exclusively belongs to the young and beautiful people put on the screen by Hollywood.  It really belongs to everyone now.  With YouTube anyone can become a star.  Anyone with a message can get it out to the great marketplace that is everyone.   The great marketplace of ideas and messages is as close as a video camera, or an iPhone.  It is hard to imagine that anyone really can do it.  I find this very exciting.  To think that this septuagenarian can still do anything that she wants is encouraging.  It makes me realize that there is a life worth living in the so-called ‘golden years’, but more important, it can be a life of your own making.  With YouTube everyone has a voice and that voice is equal in importance.

So come and share a bit of me on YouTube.  Feel encouraged that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive. Think of all the great inventors of the past who would have loved to get their ideas, their essence out to a worldwide audience.  I really do invite you to like and leave your comments.

The Tyranny of Typos

I keep discovering what hard work this writing business really is, and of course, in so doing I learn greater appreciation for those authors who seem to have it all together. For the first time in my life I am becoming fixated on things like grammar and spelling.  All little things called ‘typos’ are driving me crazy.  I imagine that all authors have their own particular waterloo.  Mine is all those glitches that the spell checker doesn’t catch, and that my old eyes totally miss.  Alas!  I admit that I get lost in the words that aren’t there, but should be.  Prepositions, clearly formed in my head somehow never make it to the page.  Articles are dropped or worse yet, repeated.  Things that I thought I learned in grade school seem to be forgotten as I struggle with the simple things like ‘there’ or ‘their’; or ‘hear’ or ‘here’.  Every time I rely upon my eyes to assure correctness, something strange happens – as I read my writing my mind supplies missing words.   I see the sentence as it should be and not as it is written.  My mind simply supplies the missing word.  Reading out loud doesn’t help a bit as my mind still fills in the blanks.

Horrid habits that I’ve picked up through 40 years of the practice of law come back to haunt my literary style. Commas are placed everywhere.  Of course, everyone knows that lawyers love commas.  We place them in all the strategic places to emphasize a point or to change a meaning.  Nowhere is this more evident than in contracts.   Perhaps, that’s why no one can read and understand all the legalese that that the lawyers so liberally use.  Everyone would agree, contracts are the worst example of writing that exists.  It’s all the commas that make it incomprehensible.  Right along with the commas, lawyers overuse capitalization.  It’s in our nature, I think.  We define a word and then every time we use that word, we capitalize it.  This results in the strange capitalization of words and I am sure that it is annoying to readers.   This annoyance has to be right up there with using so-called terms of art or Latin phrases such as ‘caveat emptor’ or ‘stare decisis.’   Lawyers sprinkle these kind of words throughout their tomes. No one except other lawyers knows just what the heck the lawyers are talking about, but that’s the point.  While they might mean something to other lawyers, they sure don’t advance a story very much.  So why use them?

When I get right down to the nitty-gritty of writing, all of the writing I’ve done during my professional career doesn’t really help me write a clear concise sentence.  In many ways it is limiting.  I am finding it increasingly difficult to write without getting bogged down in the minutia of details.  I am sure I’m not the only new author struggling with this.   There must be an easier way of getting my words on paper.  Are there any suggestions out there?  Of course, I can resort to my usual solution to perplexing problems – a glass of wine and a box of chocolate and just go on doing as I have been in the past, but really there’s too many calories in that solution to answer all my typos.  Maybe, I need a de-programmer.  Help.

So many distractions

My books, Tender Offers, have taken a little side trip the past few days.  My inability to concentrate made it easy to run away and play.  I am now learning that writing is really hard work.  I am not claiming that it is hard physically, although, there are days when the aches and pains of sitting too long at the computer seem to suggest that there is a physical part to it.  No, it is not that.  The problem is concentration.  It’s so easy to get side tracked and become distracted.  Notwithstanding, my resolution to be faithful on my once weekly blog — to say nothing about my book promotion activity – this week has been a disaster in a nice way.  It’s fall.  Leaves are turning the brilliant colors of fall and the days are golden, right?  Ah, but you’re skeptical.  You’re not buying my excuse.  “She is just looking for any excuse not to write,” you say.  “After all, do the leaves really turn in Arizona?”

I’ll bet you thought that the land of perpetual summer didn’t have any fall color.  Believe me it is a well kept secret.  True Arizonans like to live with the myths that they create.   You have heard them all.  It is always summer in Arizona.  The summer in Arizona is too hot – but it is a dry heat.  It’s always warm and sunny.  It never rains.  Scorpions are everywhere.  Rattlesnakes get into the houses.  There are myths that Arizonans concoct to keep out the would-be transplants that live their lives chasing sunny skies and greener grass.  Like most good myths though, there is just enough truth to sound convincing.

Except in this case, Arizona really does have a change of seasons.  It’s here; you just have to go find it.  Unlike the New England states, where no one can possibly ignore the splendor of the colors that paint the landscape, our colors are much more subtle.  To find autumn in Arizona you have to go to the high country – the higher the better.   Once you get up above 7,000 feet, then the beauty of fall opens up with spectacular vistas.  The aspens get a vibrant shade of yellow and the pines become a deep almost black-green.  If you add in the clear blue big sky and throw in a babbling brook, autumn in Arizona takes on a whole new meaning.    It fills the senses.  You just have to feel it, smell it, hear it and of course, see it.  Who could possibly work on a day like that?

It’s interesting.  I’ve lived in Arizona for years and this is the first fall that I have just been swept up with the wonder of it all.  It has been impossible to work and for the first time in my life, I have been unable to force myself to sit and stay focused long enough to write.  I don’t know if other writers hit a brick wall like this, but if they have, please share with me how you work through it without simply deciding that it is more fun to skip away and enjoy the sights and sounds all around.  How does one get re-focused?   I suspect that I have inadvertently stumbled on some profound secret of the trade that only true authors know and few are willing to share.  Even in my naivete, I can see that this is what separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls and the true authors from the wannabes.

My Video Revisited

Lately, I’ve been working with a company to promote my book, Tender Offers.   They are guiding my efforts in building up my presence on YouTube.  This is a good thing since I know nothing about YouTube.  Sure, like the rest of the world I pop onto that site once in a while to watch a funny video, or to see something interesting, but I’ve never used YouTube to promote my books.  I am ashamed to admit that I really don’t know how to upload a video or anything else.  It truly is times like these that I regret not have a 10 year old at my disposal.  Of course, the younger set knows all about this new computer stuff and probably understands how to upload a video more than they know how to balance a checkbook. YouTube is their playground.

My video has been uploaded now and I’m trying to have as many people look at it as is possible. Sound familiar?  Again, I am a novice in this area.  After months of not liking my video at all, my voice, my appearance or my mannerisms, I think I like it now.  As a vote of confidence, my husband’s only comment was that the music sounded “spooky”. That’s okay.   After all it is nearly Halloween and the season for spooky everything.  I get to ride my broom again and engage in some Halloween fun.

Remember now, when I started down this path of being an author, I had absolutely no idea of this thing called social media. I was not on Facebook, and I never twittered. I had no idea what a blog was.  Here I am, almost a year later, and I am still learning.  Now I feel ready to tackle YouTube, with help, of course.

This is a big step for me. I am constantly fighting with myself trying to balance my need for privacy verses my need to promote my books.  The two desires are constantly in conflict. I’ve built a successful law practice with a low profile existence.  Naturally, I thought in my delusionary thinking that I could have a successful marketing campaign for my books with an equally low profile.  That has to be one of the mistakes I’ve made.  I totally misjudged social media and the force it has in connecting with people.  I really haven’t addressed the impact of YouTube in our daily lives.   So here I am, learning new tricks, meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends.  Every day is exciting and a brand new adventure filled with challenges for this septuagenarian.

I haven’t retired from the practice of law yet, but more and more I am recognizing that, yes Crystal, there is a life out there beyond being a lawyer. It is invigorating, stimulating and exciting.  I am constantly learning new tricks.  So for everyone who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks – I say “Nonsense.”   This is one old dog who is not intimidated by learning new things.

Author Blogs

Is anyone really aware of how many authors are writing blogs on the internet? I mean, the number must be astronomical.  A year ago, I didn’t even know what blog was.  Because I didn’t know about blogging, I missed reading all these wonderful blogs that introduced me to the minds of some very interesting people. You might say that I was a social media virgin.  (I like that.  It’s the only time I’ve referred to myself as a virgin in any context in over fifty years.  It makes me feel young, almost innocent.  But, I digress.)  In the past year, I’ve opened the Pandora’s Box of marketing.  I learned about Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and a whole lot of other social media outlets.  I’ve learned YouTube, and I’ve actually done a few videos.  I watched videos that other authors have done.  But, most important of all, I’ve learned to blog.  While, I am by no means an expert at this, I think I have climbed some major hurdles and have learned to navigate around the edges.

For nearly a year, I have written a weekly blog that has described my adventures and misadventures of entry into the society of authors. I find that I am one of millions authors, each with an interesting tale to tell.  There are many blogs by authors describing their successes and frustrations writing and marketing their books.   Some bloggers have even told of adventures they experienced which are similar to my own. They offer helpful advice on technical things like correct grammar, manuscript formatting, and plot development.  They share their secrets on how they have successfully marketed and promoted their own books.  For me it is the sharing of their struggles, their accomplishments, and even their complaining, that keeps me reading their blogs.  Through their blogs, they give an insight of who they are as people.  I feel privileged to know these complete strangers because of their blogging.

Reading authors’ blogs has been entertaining, but most of all it has been a lifeline to creative thinking. There’s been an unexpected bonus as I have read many of their books – books I never would have even looked at without the blogs.  For that, I am grateful.  The books have been on subjects that I never would have read if left to my devices of choosing a book by a title or cover. These authors who have taken the time to blog regularly have kept me going, forced me to think, made me laugh or cry with them as our joint experiences open into the reality of being an author.  Not since the horrid days of law school and the intimidation of the bar examination, have I felt more connected in an untold alliance with these authors who, like me, are taking to the airways to promote their baby – the books created by their efforts.  So in recognition of the enjoyment I have received from other authors who blog, here are some of the books I’ve read:

JC Gatlin- Prey of Desire

James Rose – Pabby’s Score

KL Docter – Killing Secrets

Bobby Blaze Smedley – Pin Me, Pay Me

MP Zarrella – A Tangles Web

All of these have been entertaining and all worth the read. Thank you.  But for your blogs, we never would have met.

Writing, Writing and Writing

I always thought that writing came naturally and it was easy to spill out the words in some meaningful fashion. It’s getting harder and I can’t tell if it is just because I’m getting older or if I can’t make up my mind on what to write.  In the space of a week, I’ve written 6 contracts,  2 trusts, 4 wills, 4 powers of attorneys, and a couple of blogs. At the same time, I have been editing and rewriting my how-to-do-it manual, “Sell Your Home Yourself and Save Thousands.”  Every once in a while I try to sneak a page in here and there on my new novel.  It is getting harder and harder to shift between the different writing styles.  The legal writing is dull, dull and dull.  The how-to-do-it manual is pedantic and really, really difficult to put in easy to understand language.  The novel gets the short shifted and is hard to bring it to life.  My brain can’t keep up with the transition from the dull lawyer stuff to the supposedly easy to understand “how to do it” manual to the more creative pages pulled from my imagination.

I never realized that the writing styles are so different or that it is so difficult to change styles. I guess I’ve been a lawyer so long I’ve forgotten that most people don’t think in terms of the legalese that lawyers so frequently sprinkle in their writings.   All the “wherefores” and the “hereafters” don’t really advance the ease of reading and the use of the stylistic words like “shall” are archaic and cumbersome.  Yet, lawyers pride themselves in writing 50 page contracts of perfectly nonsensical gobbledygook, understandable only by other lawyers.  Why?   The usual answer is that if there is a problem, that language will be the words a court relies on to interpret the contract.   Even when big companies try to write “plain English” or “easy to understand” contracts the words come out sounding lawyerly.   So now, all of a sudden writing contracts is difficult because I am obsessed with making them understandable and easy to read.  What had been easy is now only accomplished with numerous re-writes and much anguish.  I am finding out that leaving the legalese behind is difficult as I am much more conscious of my writing and I am always trying for a higher level of communication.

And, if I am finding it difficult to write the lawyer things in easy to understand language, it is harder still to bring complex legal issues to a level where they can be used by anyone. All I can think of is what one of my students said to me one time when I was teaching graduate level business law.  “You don’t understand– I don’t want to know anything about the law,” the student said earnestly.  I was shocked.  Not love the law.  Unheard of!  Impossible!  I couldn’t believe that there was anyone on the face of the earth that didn’t just love learning, but evidently it is so.  Certainly, writing easy to understand is not nearly as difficult as writing for people who don’t want to understand.  The effort expended in this area is painful, because I want people to understand, to be able to stand independently and think for themselves.  Clear and concise is hard for me.  Simple and easy to understand is even harder.

Well, both of these approaches fail miserably in the world of fiction. In fiction, I don’t have to use legalese, teach or be particularly legalistic, just entertain.  But, I’m finding it’s hard to switch from one type of writing to another.  Clear and concise writing does not necessarily translate to exciting.  Simple and easy to understand words do not breathe life into the pages.

The only thing I have figured out is that sometimes, the only way to go forward is to stop completely, take a break and have a glass of wine. It’s nice to use those breaks to contemplate a world where all knowledge is imparted while we sleep so we don’t have to work to learn.  As long as I am contemplating a more perfect world, it would be nice if there were no legalese—and maybe, if wine and chocolate really didn’t have any calories.