Just over two years ago, I took a DNA test to figure out anything I could about who my father’s biological family were. (He had been adopted at birth, a fact we always knew and my grandparents were open about, though they had never been given any information about his biological family or origins). Two years (and much research) later, I found myself on a plane late one night in late August to Lexington, Kentucky. The next morning, we drove two and a half hours east to an isolated, rural, very hilly area. It was green, with winding roads that twisted and turned, revealing interesting panoramas of hilly landscape and…
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Does Writing Come More Naturally at Certain Times of the Year?
I’ve enjoyed writing all of my life. And there’s one thing that, as a regular and consistent writer, I have become aware and accustomed to over time: the times of the day when I write the best. I like typing away late at night, long after my “real world” duties are done and when everyday distractions have been placed into sleep mode for the night. That’s when I feel like I can finally switch my mind from “daily survival mode” to “deep into writing mode.” More recently, however, it dawned on me that there are also certain times of the year when I feel more into writing than others. I think it…
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Can You be a Great Writer but Bad Communicator?
Ever since the mid-2000s, I’ve struggled with knowing how to label myself professionally. How does a business writer, creative writer, editor, proofreader, project manager, account manager, general liaison, distill all of that into one single title? “Writer” doesn’t begin to cover it at all. It has always seemed to me to be too feeble, too airy to define everything my professional work really covers. I mean… talk about a crisis. Who am I? Why am I here? Help…! Somewhere around the year 2009 I settled into a single title for my chosen vocation: “Communications Specialist.” I figured it was sort of a spinoff of the popular (in the corporate lingo…
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Lovely Things to Watch: Poldark
I’ve been a fan of Outlander – the now-classic story Claire, a twentieth-century modern woman/healer/”white witch”/doctor who accidentally falls back in time and marries the love of her life, Jamie, and 18th century highland warrior – for years. I first read the book series before any talk of a television show was on the horizon, and now that the television series is going to be embarking upon its third season is less than a month, I couldn’t be more excited for the adaptation to be back on my screen. It’s still not quite as good as the book, but it’s definitely still a delightful romp. Last July, however, around the time when…
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A Summer (Nearly) Gone
This month has been a mixed bag as far as months go. I began the month with family, spending the week of the fourth of July working and watching the neighbors put on an impossibly long, loud and undoubtedly expensive fireworks show. Week one: Fourth of July There’s something about the Fourth of July that always sneaks up on me. I am usually still in that early-summer haze, where I can scarcely believe that I can actually go outside without wearing a jacket, when suddenly, boom! (literally, boom, bang, crack), it’s Independence Day, and everyone is setting off fireworks and roasting s’mores and boating on the lake. I spent…
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How to Build a Podcast
About four years ago, in summer 2013, a friend and I flippantly said “we should start a podcast!” We were both rewatching a television series together (well, together-apart, we were actually just instant messaging about it as we watched one episode to the next) during the show’s summer hiatus and were having fun chatting about it and theorizing about the upcoming season. The show? Once Upon a Time, a sort of sleeper hit about fairy tale characters who live in the “real world.” Neither one of us were superfans of the show per se, but we had spent the better part of our young adult lives in various fandoms (X-Files, Harry…
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Lovely Things to Watch: Rita
Supremely intelligent, funny, powerful women who are totally likable. Great acting. And the side effect of learning a brand-new Scandinavian language (at least by osmosis). These are all the benefits of obsessing over Danish television… and I would know, because I am currently obsessing over Danish television. Yep, it’s early summer and for the second year in a row, I have fallen hard for a Danish series. You know, the kind of falling hard that involves watching 3-4 episodes nonstop, tearing through an entire season in only a day or two, frantic Googling to see when (if) another season is on the way. (And I tend to find great Danish…
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Lovely Things to Watch: Outlander
Whenever I pick up an “Outlander” book, it is, to me, like falling back into my own bed after a long trip. This 8-book-long series is familiar: the characters seem like friends, and the settings, as foreign as they may be to those of us stuck in the 21st century, oddly familiar. I first read the book series when I was embarking upon a really strange, busy and stressful phase of my life, and these books felt like a safe place that I could return to, day after day, page after page, chapter after chapter, one book after the next of the staggering (then)7-book series. I began reading the series…
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Roadtrip to El Mano del Desierto, the Atacama Desert, Chile
Right now I am making my way back to North America, but last week, I fit in a few last-minute tourist trips: the first, a short road trip into the middle of the Atacama, about 75 kilometers from Antofagasta to see a bizarre statue in the middle of nowhere. The second, a weekend in San Pedro de Atacama for relaxation and some immersion in Altiplanic culture for a few days. Now it’s time to hop on a plane and go home to the United States. (But don’t worry… I’m going to keep blogging!) Last Tuesday a few friends and I drove into the vast desert behind Antofagasta on the historic Pan-American…
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The Art of Juan Silva: Antofagasta, Chile
Authors’ note in September 2018: I recently learned that Juan Salva passed away earlier this year year. I deeply appreciated the opportunity to meet him and speak with him five years ago in 2013; viewing his artwork and hearing his story was a highlight of my stay in Chile. I am reposting this from my original blog (now offline), Postcards from Amanda, dated according to its original publish date of March 2013. Last week, I was invited by a friend to go with her to meet a painter, Juan Salva, at an exhibit of his work in a small gallery here in Antofagasta. In a brochure from one of his…
