Introducing myself is never easy.

Hello.

I suppose I’d better do that 'thing', you know the 'thing', the 'bad thing'. Writing is easy (okay, writing well isn’t, but simply writing is), I can write about my life, I can write about my wife. I can write about my kids, I can write about… Damn, I can’t think of anything useful that rhymes with kids – lids? How often do I write about lids? I’ll consult with my Dr. Seuss thesaurus, and get back to you.

When it comes to writing about that 'thing' though, I draw a blank.

That 'thing' – is me, Glen Staples, the idiot still making sand castles, even though his children have run off to play with a kite.

Sadly then, I have to introduce myself and that involves getting my keyboard to write a bio (the mere mention of that word brings me out in a sweat).

Think back to when you were 18 and had your first car. It was an old style Mini, or something similar. You got it 4th hand and it was a wreck, but it was so much fun. Your mates would all pile in, and you would head off to the coast for the weekend with the cassette player (use Google or Wikipedia if you are too young to know what a cassette player is) blasting out Kiss or Bon Jovi (again Google will help). Another night would see you parking up in the woods with a girl whose name you had already forgotten, and then desperately trying to master the art of bra removal.

That’s not me – I don’t think it ever was.

I’m the 2nd hand Ford you had when you were 20. You had started having ‘relationships’, which could sometimes last months. This meant that you were officially ‘a couple’ and could therefore not go on the weekends to the coast with your mates. Also the excitement of the bra removal had gone, because it was no longer new and her name was on the green strip along the windscreen. However the car stuck by you through all this, got you where you wanted 8 times out of 10 and it had a CD player.

That’s me – not quite so much fun as you hope, but loyal, often dependable and almost, but not quite, modern.

I left home at 16 to join the Royal Navy, where I attempted to have ‘relationships’ with many women around the world, often at the same time and usually unsuccessfully. Eventually, I found a girl foolish enough to take me on, so I left the Navy and settled down to a more normal life.

Now I have two children, a wife and a London commuter’s life, all four of which give me plenty to write about, because there are funny things that you can see in almost all situations if you know how, and where to look.

Check these posts out if you want to see what I mean.

Survival

I live in a sit com

Training update #2

These can all be found on my blog http://www.glens-life.blogspot.com/.

Hopefully, now that I’ve got the introduction out of the way, I can relax and write some more for Writers Rising soon, meanwhile I need to get a cup of tea so that I can sit and read some more about you.

By the way…

I can write about my kids,
I can blink my eye lids,
I can eat the meat of the Krakka-Dakka-Zidz.

Good old Seuss never lets you down in a crisis.

Yep - I'm the Noob!

     Hello all, and allow me to introduce myself! My name is Tony Anders and Katherine was so very kind enough to ask me to join in the fun here. Like Katherine, I think we bonded as I believe and perceive we share a similar goal in doing our part to "drop our spiritual pebble in the pond", and hope the ripples wash over the masses making the swim a touch more exciting. Enough with the metaphors for now.

     I am a hairstylist by trade and it is that close and intimate connection where I have heard many stories of love, hate, fear, gain, loss, beauty, insecurity and a menagerie of humanness that has really drawn me into seeing that I may be able to use these stories to help my brethren collectively. If presented in digestible, approachable, and compassionate chunks, I think it is achievable.

     My career has taken me around the world as I have been a trainer for my craft, stage presenter, and motivator. I have written for magazines, as well as spent six and a half years as a local TV on-air fashion reporter. After feeling a void after a quarter century of beauty, I decided to shift my focus to how people "feel" more so than how they "look". It's about the gift inside, not necessarily the wrapper! This pond I eluded to earlier now had more depth.

     I have recently finished a book titled "Artisan of the Human Spirit ~ Awakening to life's lessons" to be out soon in 2010. It is an observation of important lessons we can experience in life that do not necessarily require mentors, guru's, sages and prophets to present them to us. I have grown weary of people looking externally and always feeling a healthy spiritual insight is elusive and unobtainable. My eponymous blog and posts you will find here, reflect my quest to not only connect myself to a better place, but others as well as the things that surround me. I don't profess to be anything more than a "finger pointing the way", where you arrive is up to you.

     My musings are spoken from the vantage point of a "regular guy" as I grew up in a small town in Ohio (USA), and I have always tried to remain three quarter redneck at heart. Aside from my humble beginnings, I have truly been blessed with a variety of contacts, and experiences that may be worth reading about; you can decide. Just know, I share, I do not proselytize.

     My writing, I feel is like if I were to present a buffet of many wonderful treats. I am inviting all of you in. I try to respect everyone's palate. I will try to make my buffet abundant, and inviting, and should you choose not to sit at the table, nor wish to eat; please know that you are still welcome and invited and my door is always open to you. Namaste', In Lak'ech ala K'in, Aloha, How do you do, 'Sup everyone, and love to all!

Tony Anders

"In life, not every classroom has a desk, nor every church a steeple!"

Happy to Be Here

My thanks to Kathy for inviting me to share this beautiful space. I found Kathy and her incredible site through my friend Sharni who interviewed me for her own blog. Sharni found me while searching for blogs about New York City, a place she'd like to travel to. What a glorious, tangled web blogging weaves.

I am a product developer by day and a writer by night. I spend time writing every day, and now it has become a wonderful, happy habit, just like brushing my teeth, eating breakfast, and doing yoga. It keeps my mind fit and active, and has brought me connections with so many wonderful people whom I may have never otherwise met.

In 2009, I blogged every day about something that made me more hopeful. It was my New Year's Resolution in 2009 to be more hopeful every day and bring that hope to others. Blogging helped me accomplish both of those things. I'm turning those posts into an e-book that I hope to have done in March. This year I'm taking all of that hope and every day blogging about one little step I'm taking toward building an extraordinary life in 2010.

This month I launched my new site complete with my full blog as well as content pages that highlight some of the other projects I'm working on: my yoga teacher certification and an after-school program in East Harlem for middle school students interested in product development and entrepreneurship.

I've always wanted to join a writing group and have poked around at a few though I never found one that had the right vibe until now. Then Kathy invited me to this group and my first reaction was, "ah, yes. This is the feeling I was looking for." My unending thanks to Kathy for inspiring me with her own writing and inviting me to be here with all of you. And of course to Sharni, my blogging sister down-under. I look forward to the conversation!

The photo above is me having fun in a park near my apartment. Photo taken by my pal, Dan Fortune.

I haven't changed much

Many thanks to Kathy for inviting me to contribute to Writer's Rising. I can see I am in good company. Kathy asked me to introduce myself in my first post. At the age of 44 I don't have an impressive biography. I do have a good education, good relationships, somewhere nice to live, good health, and a purpose. I'm not going to say much more about those things here. Instead I'm writing about the 2 things about me that haven't changed in nearly 40 years. I figure that these things are very essential and core information about who I really am, so they will suffice as my introduction as a new contributor on Writer's Rising.

The first core truth about me is that I love the natural world so much that I collect souvenirs.
Picture this. A blood red 2 door Torana. My lovely mother in a head scarf,and my handsome dad driving. Five (yes 5!) children aged 5-8.5 years in the back seat. Yummy foods, drinks, a blanket and some Lazy Boy chairs in the boot. Destination? Weekend family picnic.

Imagine this. The winding roads and sharp bends leading to the picnic grounds are exaggerated by the pile-up of kids against the 'lucky' two with the window seats. Car sickness complaints are rising from the back seat in anticipation of a travel lozenge doled out to 5 sweaty hands.

Here is a photo of my sister and I aged 6 and 5 years at one of our weekend family picnics. We are holding hands and shyly smiling. Our outfits are identical from the shoes up and so are our haircuts. I am the younger sister on the right. My sister's right hand grasps my right hand and in my left I am holding something. It's difficult to see what it might be. Recently, as I scanned this photo and it was magnified on my laptop screen, I realised that I was holding a small blossom.

Forty years later and my sister and I rarely, if ever, hold hands. We have different tastes in clothing and very different hair styles. But I still bring home souvenirs from my almost daily forays into the natural world. At the moment I have a bottlebrush in a glass near my kitchen sink. Tomorrow it will be something else. Yesterday it was a large fragrant pine needle branch and the many days of nature walks before have seen feathers, shells, flowers, and bright autumn leaves find a home on my sink. When I look at these momentoes throughout the day I am transported back to my walk. Loving nature and bringing it home with me is something I have always done and will probably always do.

The second essential and enduring thing about me is that I love and respect the library and its contents. I know how dorky and nerdy that sounds believe me. Let me explain.

When my 4 siblings and I were growing up our lives were very routine. My mum was a nurse from the 'old school', so breakfast was at 7am, morning tea at 10am, lunch at 12, afternoon tea at 3pm and dinner at 6pm. Mass every Sunday and every Friday night was a whole family trip to the library and fish and chips for dinner.

We lived in a small seaside town so the fish and chips were good. Along with enough chips for a family of seven we ordered potato scallops, fish and sometimes dim sims. These were eaten at home later with pickled onions and fresh white bread. Five Twin Pole icecreams were paid for and wrapped in newspaper ready to collect with our order.

While the fish and chips fried we all went to the library. This was the highlight of my week. I loved the silence, the order and the anticipation and smell of the books.

We were allowed 3 books each so that meant that 15 books came home for the week. I learned to read at age 3 to keep up with my older siblings. There were many whispered discussions in the library stacks before we all agreed about what was coming home that week. The chosen 15 were shared around. Subjects varied from cricket and football to sewing and the Famous Five series. By the time we had all finished primary school we had read every book in the kids section a few times and had moved on to the adult section. At home we read comics and magazines and the newspaper. We each had a book case in our bedrooms filled with books, and we had quiet reading time for 1-2 hours in the afternoon during the holidays and on weekends.

Today I read at least 2 or 3 books a week. This has helped me get through a University degree and post graduate studies. I still love the library. I have worked in the University library as a student searching for rare books, retrieving books from basement collections and scanning and sending articles and chapters to external students. I love entering a library and feeling the excitement of bringing a few books home with me. Reading has helped me find solutions for many of the problems I have had. There is always someone going through something similar and there is always someone writing about it.

Pleased to Meet You...What You Want My Name?

RASPBERRIES!!! Thoroughly Modern Millie was my favorite movie as a child. Though looking back on it, I often wondered why I was allowed to watch a movie that had the adult world so entrenched in the story line. You have white slavery, prostitution, jazz babies, and thingees popping out of bras. Perhaps I loved the way Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore had to tap dance in the elevator to get the damn thing to move. At the heart of the story for me was the lovely, raspy voice of Carol Channing. I wanted to be HER, because she was comfortable being HER. My first life lesson at the tender age of seven, was to be ME. Carol had a voice that exuded confidence, not beauty. She had a strength acquired through love. She loved to perform and she loved people...in character and out of character.

So, here's the deal. Katherine and I have been corresponding, reading each others blogs during this past year. She is aspiring to write her story (yes folks...if I may be a little Palin Folksy right now) about her life lessons...love lessons, about the Buddhist monk she married. Love is a thing of beauty that is often imitated, yet rarely lived for most people. Katharine has endured enough of my private prodding...and invited me to be a contributor on this wonderful venture. I am a bit of an anti-heroine, a rebel...because the bottom line is what the publishing industry seems to have evolved to. The goal is to write, to read wonderful stories, differing genres, and please hope for ORIGINAL THOUGHT, which is a concept I feel has been L O S T in this world that has become so driven by currency. My views darling...and not meant to be taken as gospel...a Dharma...a chapter. I have published four works, because well, writers do that sort of thing...and I am not adverse to self publishing...MOST of the writers I have venerated HAVE. However, my reasons for publishing are not the SAME reasons MOST publish. MOST publish with dollar signs in their eyes. They wear the title of author and disband the title of HUMAN. The reality is, when you are striking out there, the goal should be to improve your craft. You can read a million books about how to do something, but like religion, you have to find what works for you. The publishing world is changing and the industry is horrified that more writers are taking control of their art. YES...ART. This is an art and not everyone has the gift to do what we as writers do, and that is to tell our stories...in whatever way it is presented.

If you are like I am...you are not afraid of these blank pages. You get excited about them and realize that anything...absolutely anything is possible, so you pick up your favorite writing implement and you get to work; notebooks, laptops, CPUs, or on a highly coveted MacBook. One of the HUGE mistakes I would make would be to try to copy someones writing style, and try to make it my own. WRONG. You can learn from many writers, but what most need is their own voice, signature...something that is the missing note to enhance what is yours. What seems to eat away at writers is the direction the market goes...the celebrity 'author' who employs a ghost writer to ink their story. Perhaps the list books get to you. Perhaps it is the number of books you have picked up and you shake your head and wonder WHY it is so popular with the masses.
I had to stop doing that myself because what happens is this thinking gets writers to reinvent the wheel. Come on people...what we need to do is to stop rehashing the latest vampire love scenes and write our blessed little hearts out to capture what we want to feel and see...and just maybe an audience will find you or you will find the audience. The first audience that has to be happy is YOU.

OK, a little about me. This is my vision board, collage, collection of odd pictures...whatever you want to call it that I look at. It kind of reminded me of Henry Miller's bathroom, but the reason I put it up was for my personal inspiration so I take action in my life. I am a 43 year old woman who still runs around like I am in my 20s. Most people can't believe my age. GOOD. I wouldn't want them to think I had cashed my chips in and decided to die in front of a television. Unfortunately, this has been the legacy for most in my age group, and they have the extra large seating to confirm their death wish. I am unforgiving about laziness and attitudes that are suicidal. I see this precious gift called LIFE...and baby it is worth living. "That's good for you, but not for me." really is a reason for people to continue doing the same thing. Change is UNCOMFORTABLE. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting change...does not work.

I close with my hands extended out...and a picture, of a what I have dubbed a fire horse (which I am one). This image I captured at the Daegu Arboratoreum. It is one of the oldest pieces of surviving art in South Korea. I loved it because I personally related to it. That is what it takes for your art to succeed. Not everyone will love you. So get over that and get to work. I look forward to seeing all of us come together to make this blog not just what will help us, but how we can help others along the way.

Marilyn Campiz