The day before Christmas

It's the day before Christmas here in NZ.  For some it's a working day, for others their day-off (just like me), and for most the start of a very long weekend, lasting all the way to January 5, 2014.

I'm sure that the Christmas rush has begun.  I dropped off my wife at work and I've noticed the more than usual number of vehicles parked in the supermarket where she works.  For what is Christmas without the food!  The gifts, food, parties, seems to have replaced the real essence of Christmas.

I'm not trying to sermonise because I have no qualification to do so.  It's just an observation born out of nearly 60 Christmases!  Receiving and giving gifts, partaking of the simple or sumptuous food, and the constant and endless partying for some, is all part of Christmas.  Add a sprinkle of spirituality into the mix, and you're on the right path.

Lingering last words

While reading a magazine I was delighted to find these lingering last words. Now these are just a few samples of a body of written work that could be developed into a story, a book, a novel.

1. It is said that while French writer Voltaire was on his deathbed, the attending priest wanted him to renounce Satan.  Voltaire's classic response was, "Now is not the time to make new enemies"

2. Norwegian playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen was told by nurse that his health was improving.  Again another classic reply, "On the contrary."  He died the next day.

3. Henry David Thoreau was asked by his aunt to make peace with God as he was slowly dying from a deadly combination of tuberculosis and bronchitis.  His classic reply, "I didn't know we had quarrelled."

Authorpreneur

Now I get it!  I really am an Authorpreneur or more precisely an aspiring one, budding but not a wannabe!  There really is such a word and by definition and according to the Urban Dictionary - "an author is someone who creates a written product, participates in creating their own brand, and actively promotes that brand through a variety of outlets.  An Authorpreneur makes use of outlets such as: websites, blogs and social media, promotional materials both in print and online, opportunities to speak, generating media coverage, teaching other authors in person or online, creating unique business models to facilitate their product, offering support through those business models to other authors."

I like the word Authorpreneur and everything that it may represent!  Am working really hard to be a published author soon!

A family of writers!

I've begun to rediscover creative writing again!  It's good therapy and it gives me great pleasure to dream big ones and most often impossible ones at that too!  While driving to work this morning, my wife and I talked about writing. She had shown me the night before the essay she wrote to be submitted in her application for a Diploma in Interior Design.  I told her that I never noticed that she writes well too.  At least, she took that observation well, and besides I was the one driving!

All my three children are writers too, my eldest daughter with her own successful and popular blog and writing for a living too, my teenage son who comes out with insightful essays in his high school assignments, and my youngest son at six years old already showing great potential in creativity and writing!  My wife and I, have produced these very creative kids.  Must be the vibes we got when we were working for a TV network.

There are five writers in this family and I'm loving it!