Death – Page 2 – Writer, Author, Speaker

Add A Brick

I stood up in front of the small crowd of people last night. Naked. [caption id="attachment_media-14" align="alignleft" width="168"] Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com[/caption] Kidding. I might as well have been. Two other authors and I were reading from our work, and I was the least accomplished of the trio by far. So, I can choose to engage in self-flagellation . . . or I can view it as a brave opportunity to add a brick to the building I'm constructing. The building of me. Notice... the building at left has fire escapes! That's me, too. I'm a building with...

Death,Happy,Lucky,Time

Mrs. B

Mrs. B didn't own a computer. She had a cell phone for three months but never used it. She told her daughter to take it back. She had time to take long walks at the park, read, do crafts, and go to lunch with friends. She attended live lectures, went to the library, enjoyed museums, picnics, and face-to-face conversations with squirmy children who weren't used to 'talking' without a keyboard, a cell phone or a computer— even the little ones. She could see the kids' expressions, and help them understand social interplay the old-fashioned way. Sometimes she wore a clown nose. I want...

Children,Control,Death,Future,Life,Living,Time

Temporary

We just dropped off our twenty-year-old son at the airport. He is so, well, twenty. After raising two boys to manhood, I know that Kahlil Gibran was probably right: Our children are only on loan to us. I had heard it, but I didn’t have a clue of what that meant. When they were little, I fooled myself into thinking they were mine. But now I’m not so sure they ever were. Yes, they pretty much did what they were told—most of the time— because they didn’t know any better. However, those times didn’t last. And the boys often made...

Authors and Writing,Bucket Lists,Death,Finishing,Love Yourself

FINISH IT!

You: "Who me? Are you talking to me?" Your conscience: "YES. You. You have started a lot of things. Let's finish one." You: "How?" Your conscience: "I am SO glad you asked. Take a moment and write down all the reasons you can't finish. If you need help, I have a short source for you to check out": Challenge and Joy of Finishing [caption id="attachment_231" align="alignnone" width="1000"] Whoa! I meant to finish that...[/caption] You: "Wait. That's not me in the photo!" Your conscience: "It could be. It's time to finish your thing -- whatever it is before, well, you know." You: "That's...

Authors and Writing,Bucket Lists,Fear,Hacking,Life,Living

Published!

This published book, Giving My Self to the Wind, is a way to say ‘I was here.’ I stole that idea from Thomas Kail, the director of Hamilton. I hope he doesn't mind if I borrow it because it's true. A headstone doesn’t do it, and I cannot hold my kids responsible for substantiating my existence. My 298-page (!) book opens with a quote by Gustave Flaubert that also explains why I wrote and published Giving My Self to the Wind (GMSTTW): “The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” Isn’t that why most people write? The collection's title...

Death,Fear,Life,Plans

Deadlines

[caption id="attachment_231" align="alignleft" width="281"] What do I have due today?[/caption] Deadlines are the lines drawn in the sand, the air, and on calendars. They are imaginary lines past which one should not go, or you'll die. Die of what? Failure? Disappointment? Losing a job? Not answering a need? Shame? Deadlines are a form of communication. "I need this by noon so we can move forward on the project." There should be no room for negotiation in a deadline. There is no room for negotiation in death, is there? So why do people push up against deadlines by crushing the work to...

Birth,Death

Death in the Garden of Eden

Death sat curled up in a large swinging wicker chair in the long shuttered Garden of Eden. The warm breeze smelled of plumeria. A colorful macaw bobbed on a branch of that famous tree. The snake near the tree knew who the beautiful woman was, and recoiled from her, even though she really had no jurisdiction over the animal kingdom. Still the snake stayed his distance. A bright green frog peeked up from under a leaf. The rest of nature’s creatures crowded around in a careless exhalation of extraordinary beauty. Death went there sometimes to think things through. She loved...

Authors and Writing,Deathlist Alphabet,Eternity,Plans

E Is for Eternity

Eternity — it was the last thing I thought about when I died. I was supposedly going someplace (as they say) for a long time. In fact, they say the place you go will be the place you stay for the rest of time. I cannot fathom this any more than many people can fathom living with the same person for all one’s lifetime. But the fathomability of all things varies with each person’s fathom factor, which may change as one ages, or may be one of those things stapled onto your DNA as much as your eye color...

Death,Hacking

Book Synopsis

Do you want to know when you will die? My book is about a computer hacker who finds a huge database with every single person’s FUTURE death date on it. He sells the dates and gets rich, but other people want to profit from this “deathlist.” This book is part action, part religion, part philosophy, part good vs. evil . . . and mostly true. How else do you explain the crazy times people die? © 2016 Kathryn Atkins

Death

Death Isn’t Just Beautiful — She’s HOT

Deathlist excerpt: She was wearing a black dress with a plunging neckline and an air-light shawl. Her hair sparkled with tiny, exquisite diamonds. They looked real. Her wide, sensuous mouth and perfect teeth smiled at the gray-haired gentleman seated next to her at Table 16. Harold got up from his table and started to go over for a closer look, but she casually turned away, her back denying identification, and all he found when he arrived at Table 16 was a napkin with lipstick stains and the guy who had been sitting next to her face down in his watercress...