Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Art, Ballistics, Book Conservation, Connections, Emergency, General Musings, Health, Kindle, Marketing, Music, Preparedness, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Survival, Writing stuff, YouTube | Tags: Alzheimer's, Amazon, art, ballistics, BBTI, blogging, book conservation, care-giving, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, firearms, guns, health, hospice, jim downey, John Bourke, Kickstarter, Kindle, Legacy Bookbindery, literature, memoir, promotion, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, stroke, The Beatles, video, writing
My wife answered the phone. I could tell just from her facial expression that it was bad news.
“Oh, no!” she said. “What happened?”
* * * * * * * *
As part of putting together the Kickstarter project for St. Cybi’s Well, I need to explain *why* I want people to hand over their hard-earned money. I mean, I don’t need to buy materials or hire someone to do research for me. I don’t need operating capital for renting a studio, there’s no up-front printing costs to speak of. Why not just write St. Cybi’s Well on my own time, at my own pace, the way I wrote Communion of Dreams and co-authored Her Final Year?
Writing such an explanation — writing anything, really — is the perfect way for me to clarify my thoughts, to push past vague thinking and distill my understanding. You’ll see the finished product in a few days, but this passage from a blog post a month ago is a pretty good insight:
I recently turned 54. And I have accomplished a number of things of which I am justly proud. I have friends and family I love. I have a wonderful wife. I have written books and articles which have brought joy, knowledge, and solace to others. I have helped to preserve history in the form of books & documents. I have created art, sold art, made my little corner of the world a slightly better place. I’ve even helped expand the pool of ballistics knowledge a bit. Frankly, I’ve lived longer and accomplished more than I ever really expected to.
But I have more yet to do. Time to get on with it.
* * * * * * *
My wife answered the phone. I could tell just from her facial expression that it was bad news.
“Oh, no!” she said. “What happened?”
She listened for a moment, then got up to go into her office. I heard her talking some more. When she came back I looked at her quizzically.
“Tanna had some kind of accident. John was calling to see if I had any ‘emergency contact’ info from the Directory he could pass along to the hospital.”
A couple years ago, my wife and I put together this Directory for our neighborhood association. We’d included this option for people to list if they wanted. Tanna was one of our nearby neighbors, a nice semi-retired woman who we see almost daily on our walks.
I looked at her. “Anything?”
“Yeah, I told him what we had.”
“So, what happened?”
“She evidently had a stroke while out walking her dog. Just collapsed. John and a couple of other neighbors saw her go down, went to check on her, called an ambulance.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.” My wife looked at me. “She’s only a couple years older than you are.”
Jim Downey
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