Barbara J. Hamby

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Time Capsule Visits

Writing memoir stories is like visiting a time capsule periodically. Since I’m not writing chronologically, or even logically, and I don’t plan to arrange the stories in order, I’m randomly jumping in and out of decades. Those experiences can be jarring at times. There is, however, freedom to pick and choose what stories to tell and how much to tell.

Memoir poems pop up from time to time also, and I think I’ll put some of those into the collection of stories if and when they become a book.

Each birthday jars me once again into the realization that “times a wastin’” Or, that I’m wasting too much time.

It would help if I didn’t read the blog of a former writing teacher who is an over-achiever and fifteen or twenty years my junior. He writes every day (at least a blog entry), but usually much more, teaches a class at Portland State, makes short videos, reads and attends cultural events with his artist wife.

I should probably quit reading about all that--cold turkey. It makes me tired thinking about it. But I do enjoy some of his philosophizing and his verses.

My latest reading project, Bonfire of the Vanities, is nearing the end. The idea of writing fiction intimidates me even more when I encounter such a complicated web of interpersonal conflicts among multiple characters. If I ever get caught up on my present writing projects, I might give it a shot, just for the challenge.

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