Paula B. Puckett

 I know, I know…..if it’s true that busy hands are happy hands, then I must be close to delirium by now.  But I’ve been writing.  

 And going to car shows. 

And looking at collections of typing machines. 

 So when I get back to the typewriter, the words spout forth in some long kind of FreeWriting gusher, and I’m okay with that. This coffee mug reflects my sentiments, exactly.. 

 Happy Creating, everyone!  

Every so often, I find there are days, weeks sometimes, in which I get not-as-much-accomplished-creatively as I’d like. Call it a time warp if you’d like–I usually do– however THIS time (pun intended) I need to be a little more ruthless.

Distractions abound. You may know what I mean: simple tasks of day to day living are necessary to maintain a household. Can’t do THIS now, because of THAT which needs to be done before THIS can happen. I was going to do this, but then somebody calls and could I please do this other instead? And regular jobs may pay the bills, but take away from unstructured creative time.

Pffttt……..!!

If I’m doing all that, then the result is I’m not doing the other, creative THIS.

I’m searching for ways to have more hours in a day.
How do you find balance in your creative time, with everything else??

Every so often, I begin to think about how my life has changed and is changing as a result of the technology we have in the 21st century. I’m old enough to remember having taken a typing class in high school and having to wait my turn to use one of the six electric typewriters. Other than that, I learned to type on a manual typewriter.
Really.
Six.
Electric.

I never got really fast and my method was more like “hunt and peck” so I was never right up there at the top of my class. (Yes, our high school classes were very small and we took typing through the “business” department.) But I liked the sound of the machine and own a few manual typewriters as collectible items. I still have and sometimes use an electric typewriter out in the barn. Remember, I can travel through time by going from my back door, through the yard, and out to the barn.

Flash forward to now, where the ever-present means of communication(s) via laptops, on cell phones, or through voice/text messaging through my phone can sometimes occupy a great deal of my time. I can get lost for hours checking this and that, researching and reading new ideas, and checking social sites.

I’m easily distracted. I need to focus or I’ll not get anything done and I KNOW this about myself!

Anne Lamott, whose work I admire, made a point today on a social site in which she said (I’ll paraphrase) that almost anything mechanical can be fixed by unplugging it and then plugging it again. People too, she added. I know that can be interpreted in a great many ways, but after I complete this post, I think I’ll unplug. I’ll pick up and visit with an old musical friend. And just for a moment, I’ll call it “research” on my next writing project and then pick up a pencil and write on paper.

Spending time with a long time friend……

I’ll be back. I hope you’ll find a way to get something creative accomplished, too!

I’ve just returned from a wonderful conference for writers and illustrators, the SCBWI Southern Breeze Springmingle 2015. Our speakers included Neal Porter, Guiseppe Castellano, Meg Medina, Karen Grencik, Elise Howard, Bill Mayer–and included even more agents, editors and published writers and illustrators. My head is FILLED with many new ideas and I would like to thank all the volunteers and attendees who contributed.

Seeds have been planted. Figuratively AND literally.

Now that I’m home, and out here in my garden, I’ve built a tiny greenhouse. I can just barely see the new seeds begin to come forth. Do you see the tiny sprout in the center of the dark, brown earth? Look closely. It’s there. It will most likely take a while to turn into something able to thrive out on its own and much longer to produce vegetables. That’s okay. I can give it water, make sure it receives sunlight and I know it will grow.

Thank you to the panel of speakers and attendees who’ve helped plant seeds of creative ideas. I will nurture them, every day, and look forward to see what grows.

Happy Creating!

There’s a fair amount of wind coming through our pastures on a regular basis. What better way to add to the scenery than build and install a windmill!

Of course, my husband knew someone who had one they wanted removed. We didn’t have one. (You have heard me say this before, so you know where it’s headed, right?) and after a little wheeling and dealing, it became ours. All we had to do was take it down and get it here. We didn’t even have to chase it.

We DO have a shared creative vision. Implementation of the vision is a little bit tricky, but never having done something before doesn’t seem to get in our way too much.

The next steps will be to get the windmill UP on top of the tower and turning. I’ll keep you posted as to our progress.

On the nightstand and on the floor along one wall in our bedroom is my stack of Books To Be Read. Included in that stack is a copy of “Mountain Singer,” by Raymond A. Cook. It’s a biography about the life and poetry of Byron Herbert Reece. The author calls BHR “A Hill Country Genius,” and if you have time, you might want to read some of Reece’s works. Reece says this about himself, “I am a farmer first and a writer second.” I understand that.

Maybe he liked windmills, too.

Happy Creating!