Michael Seidel's Blog
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Jun.08.2013
A few new characters climbed out of my brain's gray caverns and canyons. I love adding all of these characters and their details. I experienced such joy while learning about them and writing them in.
One, a woman, particularly amused and astonished me. A rotound and aging woman,...
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Jun.08.2013
"Tally-ho," we cried, setting out on our book hunting adventure.
No, not really. Not even figuratively. The book hunt was more a conversation.
"What books are you looking for?" my wife asked.
"Just The Alienist right now. I haven't been able to find it anywhere. What are you...
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Jun.08.2013
My sweetie gave me several morning hours to go write on Friday morning while we were still in Bend. I scurried down to The Looney Bean, found a table, and off I went, writing like crazy for about two hours.
It was again a bittersweet time. I was alone and writing and enjoying it...
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Jun.08.2013
We have a house guest. She usually visits with us a few days each year.
We met our houseguest while protesting President Bush's ultimatium to Iraq to disclose the location of their non-existent weapons of mass destruction or the United States was going to go all shock and awe on their country...
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Jun.08.2013
I'm in vacation twilight.
We're back from Bend. We enjoyed Bend. I've described tangibles but Bend exudes intangible relaxing sensibility. It's a mellow locale. Being there, crusing streets on foot and in car, exploring shops, restaurants, and neighborhoods, we felt...
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Jun.06.2013
I've been involved in a work conflict with one of the geo analysts.
He consistently vexes me and my team. We ask him to do something, he returns with lengthy, condescending and pedantic explanations of why our one paragraph suggestion will not work, going into numerous tangents. It's...
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Jun.06.2013
"What time do you want to leave?" my sweetie asks. "I know how important it is for you to go to the coffee shop and write but I was hoping we could get on the road early."
"What's early?"
She gives her eyebrows hopeful arches. "Ten thirty?"
"I can do that."
I rise at 6:30, feed the cats...
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Jun.06.2013
We're in Bend, Oregon, staying at the Phoenix Inn and Suites by downtown Bend.
The hotel is a standard American offering. Form follows function. Color is added to give it personality but mostly it's a comfortable space to retreat in privacy.
A continental breakfast is offered....
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Jun.04.2013
There's mayhem at work. Frictions have been increasing, sparks generated. Now matters are bursting into flames.
All metaphorical, of course, small in the matter of the Universe and its processes or even the Earth and its turning and the sun and its burning.
The sun is wonderfully warm...
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Jun.04.2013
It's been a wonderful week for flavorful brews.
Last Wednesday found me meeting with the Brains on Beer boys where we cheerfully discussed death and quaffed our beverages of choice. My choice was a dark porter infused with vanilla. The vanilla infusion made it seem like there were hints of...
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Jun.04.2013
Anxieties swell high and crash down on my consciousness.
A storm of worries arises.
Decisions are needed.
I sniff the wind, eyeing the horizon, trying to glean a sense of what will happen.
Clouds race in and darken, smothering the sun.
The temperature falls and falls.
Rain falls...
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Jun.04.2013
It's a weekly ritual, part of the gang's fun at the Y, conducted in bonding times after morning low impact exercise class M-W-F.
One member's husband receives US magazine, courtesy of a Christmas joke gift from his children to help him stay up on culture. He's almost 80 now and struggles...
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Jun.03.2013
Today's mantra is simple - look forward and move forward -- and keep moving.
I feel like I've traversed a bridge recently. I'm leaving behind my past's golden dreams. I'm creating new golden dreams.
I met a man, Teddy within the last few weeks. He said the secret to life is to...
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Jun.02.2013
Some bottled water corporation is running a television commercial campaign about realizations and waking up. That's their underlying message. And it's ironic because if people did wake up, they wouldn't be buying that water.
I want to say the company is Nestle but I'm not positive....
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Jun.02.2013
Another rich and rewarding writing day. I’m riding a wave of enjoyable, productive writing days and creativity. Don’t know what all causes that to happen but when that wave comes up, I catch it and ride it as far and long as I can, hoping that I don’t wipe out.
Have been writing...
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Writing is exploring myself and discovering the stories and characters that managed to burrow into me. It's a trek, a space shot, an endurance race, a transcendental existence and a dark, worrying tunnel.”
About Michael
1956 - I was born in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Some other things happened that year, too. Moved around the country as a military brat before finding anchor in Pittsburgh, PA. Lived there 8 years, moved to southern West Virigina, graduated high school and...
Connections
Causes Michael Seidel Supports
Kiva, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Propublica.org, Doctors Without Borders, GreaterGood.com
Michael’s Favorite Books
Catch 22, Catcher In The Rye, Ender's Game, Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Lonesome Dove, Children of Men, The Handmaid's Tale, The Left of Darkness, The Cancer Ward...
Michael is a fan of
