Peg and I hear this a lot, especially since we started emailing our "Call for Stories" to everyone we know. Here are a couple other responses we're hearing:
"I'm not really much of a writer" and "Oh, you don't wanna hear about my boring life!"
...to which I respectfully respond (citing #16 of our 50 Ways in the bargain), "Fuhgeddaboudit!"
Now I don't mean "forget about it" as in, "Oh, ok, never mind, forget I asked." No. I mean (if I may don my best Joe Pesci-inspired New Yahk accent, complete with all due, in-your-face hand gestures), "FUHGEDDABOUDIT!!! Whose life you calling boring? And you don' even HAFTA be a writer. That's what me and Peg are here for!"
"Me and Peg" -- you like that? See what a good writer I am? (Actually, that was still part of my Joe Pesci impersonation.)
Seriously, though, we are seeking insights into the Universal Midlife Experience in all its mundane, joyful, painful, funny, unexpected, gratifying, [insert your own list of adjectives here] manifestations.
...Like the one-liner from Reina, who was never particularly bothered by any gray hair on her head. "But you know you're getting up there in years when your eyebrows start turning gray!"
...And the bit from Peg's colleague Barbara, who showed up at work one day (speaking of eyebrows) with some sort of tweezing injury related to her attempts to (her word) "De-Frump" in time for her 30th high-school class reunion!
...And then there's Tuko's revelation that playing beach volleyball with people half her age is a lot more fun now that she limits herself to one game a day, or a game-and-a-haf MAX. "I was finding, after four games, I'd wake up unable to walk!" Tell it, sis-tah!
Want more ideas -- ones we have NOT yet received? Scroll down to the "Cliffs Notes" post, below, for no fewer than FIFTY possibilities. Even if none of them quite fits you, perhaps they'll serve to nudge out the midlife story of yours that's just been waiting to be told.
Then... just schlopp your anecdote (one-liner, joke, insight, lesson learned, favorite midlife book or movie, whatever!) into an email -- in your own words, nothing fancy (unless fancy happens to be your style, in which case, fancy's cool). Just tap, tap, tap it into an email to sheilakey@newmexico.com and click Send. We'll take it from there, weaving your story into our "50/40" manuscript wherever it fits best.
By the way, you are more than welcome to leave your input for the book as a comment here at the blog, but we would also like to know your real name, your real age, and whatever first name you'd like us to use in publication. If you'd rather send that information to me privately, do so by email, even as you leave your public comment(s) here.
SPECIAL NOTE TO OUR FELLOW BLOGGERS: By all means, scroll through your OWN BLOG's posts and archives, for any middle-of-life story you think we'd enjoy. If it's already written... all the better, right? (Thanks, Di, for this winning idea. You ROCK!)
Thanks a ton, y'all! Peg and I can't wait to hear from you.
Love, Sheila
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2 comments:
Peg sent me over here from my blog at First 50 Words. I'm not sure I have much of a story to tell, but I'll try to come up with something and figure out how to submit it. However, I left my 40s so long ago . . .
Oh, good! The voice of experience! We'd been hoping you'd weigh in! Check the list of 50 story ideas in our "Cliffs Notes" post. Even if none of them "fits," maybe they'll nudge out the story that wants to be told.
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