Checking Resources by S. L. Carlson

http://bwlpublishing.ca/authors/carlson-s-l-ya-fantasy/

This week I read something which made me laugh out loud. On FaceBook was a quote from C. S. Lewis about politics, along with the reference. In the comments was something like, “He never wrote this. Check out (this Internet source) for what he actually wrote.”

What I found amusing was, why not send people to the original source? Pointing people to a secondary source certainly isn’t as accurate as reading it as it was originally printed, you know, like in that thing called a book. The quote was allegedly from The Screwtape Letters—a hysterical book on its own.

To me, sending people to a secondary source reminded me of the old game of Telephone, where kids sit in a circle. One person whispers a phrase in the next person’s ear. They keep whispering the phrase around the circle. The outcome is usually nothing like the original, and everyone falls over laughing. Why do the children burst into laughter? Because even if they didn’t know the original phrase or sentence, they know the words spoken out loud by the end of the circle could not have been anything like what the starter had said.

Would that we were as wise as children. And doesn’t this make you want to sit down with friends and play a whispering game ending in laughter?

Writers, as much as you can, instead of clicking for information on Google, please check out the original sources. Also, go find things to laugh about.

I unashamedly admit I checked online for research of the research for children laughing an average of three hundred times a day while adults laugh an average of 10 to find two interesting facts. 1) “Both adults and children laugh primarily during social interactions with others.”¹  So, go interact. And, 2) the 300 times a day for children vs 10 for adults is an urban myth, although that may have come after a game of Telephone.

Lewis, C. S., The Screwtape Letters, HarperSanFrancisco, 1942

¹  https://www.aath.org/do-children-laugh-much-more-often-than-adults-do

My Tsunami Summer

http://bwlpublishing.ca/authors/carlson-s-l-ya-fantasy/

Summer is officially over. Thank God!


This past summer I couldn’t get enough of tsunami videos. I stoically watched 2-3 hours a day of YouTube footage, mostly of 2004 Indonesia and 2011 Japan. It wasn’t until the end of July when I finally acknowledged my strange summer obsession and looked up from the floodwaters long enough to question why. Answer: my summer had become wave after wave of losses. It all began with my husband’s sudden loss of health the third week in June.

He had earlier scheduled four weeks off this summer for vacation and study leave, including our second-ever cruise. It turned out to be not a vacation, nor study leave; not even staycation. It was a summer-long sickation with his mysterious illness continuing to baffle doctors as of this writing.

Included in this summer’s losses were the cruise and the money for it because, always being fit and healthy, we had not considered travel insurance. Our spare refrigerator-freezer quit working. Of course, since it’s not often used, I didn’t notice it had stopped until all the food was spoiled. Our second car (25-years-old) became no longer dependable. We sold it for parts, but have not gotten a replacement. We sold our boat of 13 years because he could no longer trailer it. This was the first summer that family has not visited us, nor us them. My husband’s dizziness made him unable to drive; I became chauffeur. He lost 30 pounds since the illness began. (Yay, weight loss; boo, unintentional.) I gave up knitting since I only knit at night while watching dramas with him, but he was not up for watching TV. I gave up gardening – the first time without veggies in our yard in over 40 years. We also loss power for six hours one evening, but no big deal. I gave up singing and playing guitar, but worst of all, stopped writing.

Unexpected positive things also came as a result of this past summer – spending hours together without distractions; unburdening ourselves of big material things; my husband could sit, so sorted and shredded 40 years of bills and receipts; I couldn’t concentrate to write, and didn’t want to be far from him, so began making miniatures (HO railroading scenery and buildings, D&D and gaming, and a miniature house for my grandkids, of their own house). Also, surprisingly, three places asked me to do book signings without me even contacting them.

With the dozens of medical tests, we know all the things which are going right for my husband. A bit of self-diagnosis, what ifs, and insisting on certain tests…we aren’t there yet, but we feel we’re getting close to finding answers.

My husband’s only about 50%, but able to drive himself to work. I began writing on my next book, and am very excited about it. I also quit watching tsunami videos.

Going through periods of loss is tough. Seeing the hope of light at the end of the tunnel is hopeful. May you, who have gone through or are going through loss, see some encouraging hope of light. Keep on writing. Keep on reading.