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.

Been Writing Again

It’s such a slow process, this writing thing. Some days it seems like no progress is made as I labor over a sentence for hours.  Sometimes it is incredibly slow.  I’ve written 50 page contracts in less time than I can write a page. But in a flash it changes so that the words flow and the characters wake up. Nothing is ever set in stone and I cannot predict how much or how little I can write at a sitting.  Even when I think something is complete, I come back and change a sentence here or there, so nothing is ever finished, or so it seems.

The truth is I’ve been writing all summer long. The first was a project that I promised to do someday, and someday arrived.  Years ago, I wrote a how-to-do-it manual entitled “Sell Your Home Yourself and Save Thousands”.  The book was very successful and launched me into the private practice of law.  Because the brokers hated it so much, I had lots of attention with TV appearances and radio spots.  Soon I had more clients than I could handle and the book got put aside.  It’s been out of print for years.  From time to time I’ve had publishers contact me about revising it and bringing it back to the marketplace.  It was something I promised to do ‘someday’ but never found time to do.  Well, this past year, I found time.  I updated it and totally rewrote the whole book.  Much has happened in the industry to make it easier now than ever before to successfully sell your own house.  The book is now in a final editing stage.  The brokers are sure to go apoplectic again.  Oh well.

Simultaneously, with revising “Sell Your Home Yourself and Save Thousands” I’ve started another novel. It isn’t far enough along to reveal the plot but it is clearly in my head.  I know where I’m going, and I definitely know the ending.  As it unfolds on paper, I surprise myself with the characters that dance from my fingertips.  I think I’ve known them all my life.  To those of you who have read Tender Offers, Books One and Two, this is not a sequel.  Even though many of you have asked for a sequel to Tender Offers, it’s not going to happen right now.  Brittany is going to have to find her own way with no help from me. I’ve left her or she has left me for now, but Brittany may return someday.

My new novel is an entirely different story about powerful female lawyer, but that‘s all I’m going to say.  Right now it is flowing from my fingertips with surprising ease.  I’m sure I’ll hit rough spots, but it’s like I must get it down on paper.  At this stage of my life, I do not have time to waste.  As a septuagenarian my energy is limited, but my interests are not.  There is a young person in me, dying to get out and play.  I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do when I grow up.

I’m still writing the lawyer stuff – the contracts, the trusts, the wills, the legal opinions and the dry stuff of my existence, but it is far less gratifying. It is much harder now to stay focused in the legal world.  It is much more tempting to just be Peter Pan and refuse to grow up.

The Sober Reality of Vacation Passing

I’m in a pensive mood today.  After a month of vacationing in the beautiful mountains of Arizona, I am back to the reality of Phoenix in the summer.  It’s September and there’s a month more of really hot weather to look forward to.  Normally, I don’t mind the heat and figure that it is but a small price to pay for the glorious weather we enjoy from October to June – day after day of wonderful balmy temperatures filed with clear blue skies and gentle breezes.  We have Thanksgiving dinners at the park and Christmas dinners on the patio.  Roses upset the natural order of things and bloom in December.   It is an absolute paradise for eight to nine months.   All that wonderful weather does not come free.  We have to pay for it with June, July and August.  In reality it is not much different than being in the northeast and seeing the advance of winter and knowing that you are in for six or seven months of cold weather.

This year we decided to fool Mother Nature. We ran away to the high country for the month of August.  Yes, it was gorgeous and cool and everything a vacation should be.  But, Mother Nature had her revenge with rain every day. After the first week of heavy rain and awesome lightning, I didn’t even care if it was rainy.  It was so green and welcoming that the tall pines literally embraced my soul and restored my spirit.  I would be the first to admit that the first few days were a little rough as there really was not great internet connectivity and cell phones were not always going to pick up a signal.  Withdrawal was difficult and I was forced to rediscover the thrill of doing nothing.  I have a lifetime of doing anything and everything  – this or that or whatever meaningless task that I might have on my “to do list.”   Everything assumed an all important level as being critical –something that must be done right away.  I had lost all ability to question “why?”  So much of my time was filled with busywork activity, with very little spent on just getting to know me. Well a month of rain without internet distractions and I developed a relationship with who I am and what I want from the remaining time that I walk this earth.  For probably the first time in my life I can honestly look at who I am and not what I’ve done.  It was a rather exciting adventure.

I don’t know how much the quiet and serenity played in the rediscovery process.  It certainly was key in establishing a calmness that I haven’t experienced in years, but more than that, it was reinvigorating and totally regenerating.  Just hearing the sound of silence, broken only by the sound of rain was an invitation to be alive. 

So here I am back in Phoenix.  It’s 110° in the shade and not a drop of rain in the sky, but now the strangest thing has happened.  I don’t care.  I’m ready to take on the world again.  With pen in hand (actually, keyboard before me) I am ready to write.  I challenge all the characters that have played in my head, “Come on out.”   Play in my fingers.  Together we both will have life.

New Videos

Well, the brand new videos for Book Two have been released.  Outside of my looking really old, ‘they will pass in the dark’ as my mother used to say.  There definitely is not a viral one in the bunch, but they are fun in a way if you are desperate for entertainment, and like to poke a laughing finger and giggle at me playing Gramma Mosses, again.  Fine, have a laugh on me.  Glad to be of service. Do you feel better?  I hope so, because now, I have to know—“Am I getting better at this video thing?”  Improvement is such a nebulous thing that I don’t know if I see it in the progression between the videos for Book One and the new ones for Book Two.  You tell me—should I stick with the things I know and feel comfortable doing? Before you answer, remember that most ‘seniors’ (I tried to the think of a different word for ‘senior’ but ‘old’ or ‘retired’ or ‘elderly’ wouldn’t cut it and other words just wouldn’t come) don’t try new things.  As one ages, the fear of failure is so overwhelming that it really is harder and harder to do new things.  It is really a shame too, because the fear of failure keeps you from experiencing success as well as failure.  So, mindlessly, I keep rushing in where others fear to go, just because that is what I have always done.  Have there been failures?  Sure, but even failures have been learning experiences and allowed me to grow and change and become better and more accomplished. I don’t know why we become less likely to take chances as we age.  Is it because we are more content in our lives and really don’t want new experiences?  I hope that isn’t the case.  New experiences are the spice of life.  They keep me reaching and trying and yes, living. My first book has been an experience.  If I hadn’t taken the chance and written it, there are numerous people that I would never have met.  I would have missed re-contact with friends of years past.  Then too, I would have missed all these new and exciting ventures into Social Media with the posts and sharing.  I never would have experienced the thrill of my first royalty check. So I get down to the basics—do I care if I look old?  Heck no.  I am old!  Age has nothing to do with making a video.  Now, I’ve made 6 of them.  Bring the next challenge. Okay, is there any improvement?  How can I make the next one better?