Believe me it is quite a disappointment to write a whole three-hundred-something page story and have it sit there with no outside interest. Do yourself a favor and make it interesting all the way through, from Title to 'The End'. Bring each sentence to life with action words and don't dull it down by weak description. Don't write it lazily, as in, don't put that pen to paper without putting some pizzaz into the words you are using. Did you catch that? I just said the same thing in that sentence twice. The first part was lazy writing and the second part was more descriptive, stronger, meatier. So, 'write' became 'put that pen to paper'; 'lazily' became 'without putting some pizzaz into'; 'it' became 'the words you are using'. Did you notice that I did the same thing in the title. Spot the laziness in your own writing before anyone else has a chance to spot the laziness and get bored with you. Don't just throw out a skeleton into the world. That skeleton will just walk down the street appalling and frightening everyone who sees it. Put some meat on those bones and skull-pt (I meant to do that) sculpt it into the statue of David that it deserves to be. With intention, avoid the 'ly' words as much as possible. I almost wrote that as 'Intentionally' but I gained a whole word by rethinking the use of 'ly'. It is ok to use 'ly' words in some cases but don't flood your writing with them. Avoid using vague language like basic pronouns, such as it, he, she, they, them, etc., so often that it becomes confusing tor the reader. Use (them) pronouns as little as possible and say what the pronoun is representing. Avoid starting sentences with weakness. Add some style by changing up the sentence start. Don't do: 'The cat was on the fence with the mouse in its mouth.' and follow that sentence with 'The dog startled the cat with a loud bark.' Can you see how boring these two sentences are. Bring them to life, as in: 'There was that same old scruffy cat sitting on the fence as usual and this time it had a mouse still alive and squirming in its mouth. Ohhh, and was the mouse screaming. Out of nowhere, my dog, Killer, let that feminine feline have such a scare. That mouse hit the ground running, the moment the cat let loose of the poor creature out of fear and shock.'

Before I moved to Arizona about 32 years ago, I had no idea of what to expect. I imagined a constantly hot and treeless desert but that was not necessarily the case. Yes, in some places there is the heat and the sandy desert, in which one doesn’t want to be caught unprepared, but Arizona has a varying climate and captivating diversity. It is filled with both mountains and lowland deserts and many other sights in between. There are wondrous places to see and experience here. Whether looking out over and down into the distant span of the Grand Canyon or standing in the sparse yet bushy underbrush below a towering Saguaro Cactus with its many arms reaching to the sky like a large green uneven arrangement of organ pipes, the sights of Arizona can really size up one’s perspective on life. There is much history to be remembered and experienced through the shows and exhibits ranging from the shootout at the O’K Corral in Tombstone to the Titan Missile museum in Tucson. After living in Tucson for so long, I have come to appreciate the freedom and comfort of a place that is a complete opposite of such areas that experience months of cold and rainy weather. I’m not saying that it does not rain or get cold here but the frequency of such things is to a noticeable degree less. In areas that turn dark and seemingly dead under the hand of winter one has to be inside away from the cold as much as we need to stay out of the heat in the summer. The nice part is that, for the most part, things here in Tucson do not reflect a feeling of death through those times. Mount Lemon is a simple day trip, less than an hour away, and is covered with forests, majestic views over beautiful landscapes, a ski run that can be ridden in the summer, and a town that some call home known as Summerhaven. Mount Lemon and its neighbor are often capped with snow in winter. Below in Tucson it’s so mild in winter that the only time you need a jacket is at night when the sun goes down. Many people, snowbirds to the Tucsonans, come here in the winter months to avoid the cold of their other home. Maybe it is obvious that, though I still do not call Tucson my home, I prefer it over the home I grew up in and left so long ago when I joined the US Army. Pennsylvania will always be my home but I wish I could migrate like the snowbirds do. Then again, I would not be opposed to living in Hawaii, which my wife, who I met while in the Military, calls home. The weather there is pretty awesome too but it is expensive to live there. I guess I’ll stay put in Tucson and we will just take turns visiting our homes like we’ve been doing.

While it is often said that you should write about what you know, or like, would you go outside your comfort zone to write something you knew nothing about? What if you could put some of what you know into it? Would you do it for the love of writing or pass up the challenge? What if there was a possible payment or prize involved?

I don't like using the word "it" in any of my writing. I don't think using "it" is good writing. Using "it" is so ambiguous and I try to replace it (example: the word) for what "it" is that I am meaning. That being said, I used "it" to draw your attention in this case. I want to know if anyone has ever thought, like I have, about writing their life story. I think this is a common thing but I want to know if you would admit to having the thought.

I put a meeting on the calendar for Sundays recurring at 4:00 p.m. for an hour. That is Arizona time, which if you don't know does not have daylights savings time. So, the time difference changes twice a year. Right now for instance in Florida on Eastern standard Time it's 2 hours difference, i.e. the meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. Since this is the first of its kind, I hope everyone can join in. We'll get to know each other, try to figure out what we want to do in these meetings, maybe have a short joint editing session, and a time of questions and answers. We'll see how it goes. Please mark your calendars.