Jean Wilson Murray

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It’s About Time – Time to Find Your Green

by Jean Leave a Comment

My favorite Twilight Zone episode is called “Time Enough at Last.” It’s about Henry dreamstime_l_10021911Bemis, a henpecked bank employee, who is a bookworm. One day, Henry takes his lunch and a book into the bank vault. When he comes out, the world has been destroyed by a nuclear blast, and everyone is dead. He finds a stash of food, enough to last him a long time.

So Henry, smart man, heads for the library. As he sorts the books into piles, his glasses fall off his head and he accidentally steps on them.

All the books in the world, and all the time in the world to read them, but no way to see. Life just isn’t fair.

© Alexander Pladdet | Dreamstime.com - Alarm clockThe older I get, the more I think about time. All the time left to me in this world. I recently bought an old-fashioned ticking clock because I heard the sound was soothing to puppies (I had a puppy last year for a short time). But I find the ticking of the clock to be restful for me as well.

I especially appreciate the clock when I am meditating. Clocks – a symbol of time – tick on and on, always at the same speed. Never faster, never slower. Somehow that thought is comforting to me in an elemental way. My life is moving into its next-to-last era. But I have no power to make it go slower, nor can it go faster. I can’t “make our sun stand still.”

Andrew Marvel’s poem “To HIs Coy Mistress” begins “Had we but world enough and time…” and describes how he would love his mistress until “the last age.” But,

“…at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.”

I’ve probably said this before, but I believe it’s worth repeating, that the older we get the more patient we are. The young, with all their lives ahead of them, are impatient. They want things to happen NOW. They rush around town in their mini-vans (I did it too), with carloads of pre-teenagers. As my daughter-in-law says, “This is our job right now,” caring for children.

So what’s my job right now, with at most two more decades of life left?

The older I get, the more determined I am not to spend time doing things I don’t want to do. I heard someone at the library today talking about the new Harry Potter book. She said, “I spent 5 hours of my life reading it.” With not enough time to read all the books I want to read, I’m much more selective about what I read. I seldom finish a fiction book, unless it’s a mystery. I used to love science fiction but I can’t deal with it now for some reason. I never re-read a book, although I am considering re-reading the Lord of the Rings.

As I turned 60 (almost a decade ago now) and my mother died, I began to think more about the time left to me, and I retired. I was accused of being “selfish,” and I would agree with that. Who else’s life am I going to live but my own.

How will you spend the rest of your life? Will you spend it running around with no intent? Will you spend it doing what others want you to do?

Are you considering a job change? Maybe you want to move, to be closer to family – or further away. I know sometimes circumstances don’t let us do what we want, but we can start making plans.

A young woman I know is struggling about whether to stay in a bad marriage. She has a young son and is worried that divorce would hurt him. It may, but the hurt to her fills me with sadness. I would say, “find your own life.” Leave that dark life and Find Your Green.

Time’s a wasting. Don’t waste another minute. Find a way to live the life you want to live, with who you want to be with and where you want to be.

You’ll never find the time later.

Filed Under: For Readers Tagged With: finding time, finding your green, meditations, reading fiction

How I Work as a Beta Reader

by Jean Murray Leave a Comment

I love to read, and I enjoy doing reviews of what I read. I am available as a beta-reader, but I want to clarify what I will do, and what I won’t do.

Woman with big mug of tea reading a book and making notes

Fiction: I do very few reviews of fiction. I read very little fiction these days (that’s the subject of another blog post). I will read an occasional historical fiction book if the subject and time period are interesting to me.

Non-fiction: I will beta-read most non-fiction, including business, scientific, motivational, humor, history, and biography. I probably won’t read a biography of someone who isn’t dead.

Short stories/memoir/poetry: I’ll beta-read short stories and poetry, but almost no memoir, unless the subject really interests me.

What I will give you as a beta-reader

  • I will read through the entire book – I promise!
  • I will comment on the content giving you an overall comment on its benefits to your target audience.
  • I will give you a list of questions and comments. I’ll tell you what I think works well and what I think doesn’t work, and why. 
  • I will note places (sentences/paragraphs) that are unclear or need more explanation (my opinion).
  • I will tell you when I find inconsistencies, like two names for the same character or place, or when the gun was a pistol in Chapter 1 and a rifle in Chapter 13.
  • If I find something I think is an error or an anachronism (like having a character in 18th century England say, “awesome!”) I’ll point it out.
  • Because I have a background as an English major and teacher, I may not be able to resist  pointing out some egregious grammar/spelling/word choice errors, but I won’t sweat the small stuff.

What I won’t give you as a beta-reader

  • I won’t promise to give you a review unless I feel the book is worthy of 5 stars, I am a bit of a rebel here, because I don’t feel every book is worth a 5 star review. I know that most people want 5 star reviews to boost ratings on Amazon.  Let me know if you want me to do a review (Amazon and Goodreads) knowing this.
  • I won’t tell you how to fix things.  That’s your job.

Still want me to be a beta-reader? Send me an email (jean [at] jeanwilsonmurray [dot] com or comment on this post.

Back to writing…

Jean Murray

 

 

Filed Under: For Readers, The Writing Life Tagged With: Amazon, beta readers, book reviews, Goodreads, reading fiction, reading non-fiction

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