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Exploit the natural resources (oil, rubber, coffee, enslaved labor/manpower) of developing world nations over the course of generations;
Ensure that educational and employment prospects in those same exploited nations are eliminated through punitive economic and political sanctions;
Nurture hatred and resentment through brutish bigotry that publicly mocks and belittles the cultures, religions and ways of life in those exploited nations. Add salt to the wound by labeling other societies "uncivilized" when they aren't like you.
Flaunt your excessive and elitist wealth that was acquired from other people’s natural resources and labor;
Scratch your head when people around the world hate you and your way of life, and then seek to do you harm;
Respond to that hatred with massive military intervention that further reduces the educational and employment prospects of future generations in those same exploited nations;
Repeat.
It's the first week of 2017, a fitting time to start my new blog. In my headphones is the somber soundtrack to "Schindler's List." Music is my muse (if you will) when I'm writing. As far back as the late '80s when I apprehensively tapped out my first dispatches as a young journalist, music was always part of my writing routine. Of course, it was a bit more raucous then, and yes, I could write my way through lyrics. Now, my writing, let alone my nerves, requires something calmer, something inspirational and conducive to my creative aims.
I remember, not long after I was first hurt I wrote an OP-ED on the Taliban in Afghanistan for a local paper in Canada when a few lines from R.E.M.'s "Stand" found their way into my copy. Since then, I've shifted to instrumental music (my youngest daughter, I'm sure, thinks me lame. Alas).
Today I'm editing several darker scenes in Part I of my upcoming serialized novel "Lillis." The quiet melancholia of Itzhak Perlman's violin sonatas help me channel into the mood I'm aiming to achieve; music transports me into a given moment in time in my characters' lives. In the end, I feel like a spectator as events unfold before my eyes. The trick, then, is to convert what I've watched into compelling prose that will, I hope, have the same impact on my readers. This may sound corny, but it's not uncommon to find me with a tear in my eye for a character or a particular scene. It's my hope that my words will do justice to what's in my imagination.
The problem is that ever since my injury (see the My Story section of my Web Site), I've had to learn how to type with one hand. It was tough at first, pecking out words like some crazed pigeon searching for seed amidst the pebbles on the flagstones of the town plaza. But I found it could be done with patience. My right hand has written my creative non-fiction memoir, Ambushed and a 300-plus page dissertation on contemporary slavery. The typing has improved over time, of course. Common words have taken on a flow of their own. The, and, or, for example, are simple fluid rolling motions of the first two or three fingers of my hand; they find the keys without my thinking about them. But even on the best days, my right hand can't keep pace with my thoughts, ideas and scenes (heaven forbid should there be a heated argument between my characters; that perfectly pithy comeback is in peril at of being lost to my inefficient mono-manual typing). Dropped words or letters and misplaced punctuation is often the result. For any of you reading this who have also received sloppy emails or texts from me, or may in the future, I humbly apologize.
Musical inspiration and typing challenges notwithstanding, 2017 promises to be a very exciting year. This will be the year I re-launch my writing career. Following an extended hiatus after my memoir Ambushed was published(more on that to come) and a journey into the scarcely accessible world of non-fiction academic writing, I've finally decided to take the plunge (as it were) and shift my love of writing and storytelling into the realm of fiction that draws on my reporting past and love of history.
Subscribe below for updates on the Lillis series and the occasional insight into my writing and creative process, and see first-hand how my career as a journalist prepared me for this exciting adventure into fiction. Also, I'd love to hear from you. Please drop me a note with a comment or question.
- Thanks for reading, Ian
