Dispatches from the Forgotten Stars: the newsletter of author Kelly Sedinger - Issue #2
kellysedinger.substack.com
Greetings! Welcome to the second Dispatch from the Forgotten Stars. We're in the middle part of August, which in my part of the world is generally when the summer climate is most to my liking: the temperatures are still warm, but the humidity generally drops which makes for the kinds of cool nights that lend themselves to bonfires and marshmallows and pleasant beverages. We will still undoubtedly have burst of heat and humidity, but by August you can feel the mustering forces of Autumn to come. It helps that the days themselves are by now getting noticeably shorter; I always find that June and July mess with my circadian rhythms too much to really make for comfortable living. This, in fact, may be the main factor in why July has never been a favorite month of mine, moreso even than the heat.It's been a low-key summer, for the most part, mostly owing to The Wife's foot surgery in June. Her resulting period of being mostly immobile led to a lot of streaming teevee, especially since we bought new living room furniture and thus can actually sit down there to watch stuff on the teevee. Until now, we've done all of our watching via my laptop, sitting in our bed at night. It's nice to have another option, though our pittie Carla thinks otherwise. She strongly prefers the bed.One show we've started watching of late is American Pickers, which is about (skip this if you're familiar) two guys who drive around the country, visiting people who have hoarded stuff from our country's past, and persuading these folks to part with it (for money, obviously). Imagine Antiques Roadshow but it's actually on the road, and we're visiting hoarders. And yes, these folks are hoarders. Watching this show has been quite the education. (It also makes me feel a lot less bad about the state of my personal library upstairs, so that helps!)The Wife grew up in and around Iowa farm country, so she had to tell me about "out-buildings". The Pickers guys show up to farms and are led on tours by grizzled old farmers through all these "out-buildings" that are filled with stuff. What are the out-buildings for? To keep your stuff! But...why have the stuff in the first place? To fill your out-buildings!The show is a good illustration of the clash of mindsets at work. The Pickers are digging (literally digging, at times) through mountainous piles of stuff collected over decades by men (almost always men thus far) now in their elder years. They find cool items! They really do! It's not all garbage. But they'll ask the owner if he wants to sell the item, and often times the owner declines. The natural question is, Just what on Earth is this old guy ever going to do with that item that he clearly barely remembers? Why not just sell it?But then the next question arises: What's the guy going to do with the money, either? It seems to me that reluctance to sell might not be about any actual attachment to the stuff, but a simple "Meh, why bother?" combined with what I expect is a healthy distrust--never stated outright, but you can tell it's there--of door-to-door hucksters, the air of which, despite their best efforts, our Picker heroes can't entirely dismiss.American Pickers is an interesting show, especially if you're the type who likes antiques and quirky detours into the backroads of American life. I know we're late to the party on this show (it's been on for years and the two original hosts have endured some life-stuff of late), but we're enjoying it nonetheless. And the two of us both got excited the other night when we saw the guys buy a sign for something or other that had a picture on it of "a dog" that was clearly...a greyhound.Writing Update: Work continues slowly on Forgotten Stars V. It has not been a great summer for writing, but I keep plugging away. I would love to have this manuscript done before Christmas.I also really really really want to be able to get The Jaws of Cerberus, my supernatural thriller about an ill-fated kayaking expedition, out into the world by October. This may be a major focus of my annual late-September vacation, but I need to have some work done before then.Random Video Link: "Murder Show" from SNL. I had no idea that watching murder shows was such a thing until this sketch ran, and I asked The Wife, "Is this true? Are you watching murder shows when I'm not around?" and she laughed and nodded. In her post-surgery convalescence this summer, she has indeed been watching murder shows.On the Site: Here's some favorite stuff from my site, ForgottenStars.net: Our trip to the Renaissance Festival; some thoughts on Tennyson; and how sometimes my region gets in on the "rainbow" game.Other Stuff: In an attempt to once-and-for-all get myself more comfortable with producing video content in which I--gasp!--actually talk, I've joined TikTok. So far I'm doing readings there, in hopes that this will get me used to doing this sort of thing. (I also mirror my TikTok stuff as 'reels' on Instagram, if that's your preferred service.) My main impediment to all this remains my speaking voice, which bugs me when I hear it as it sounds not through my own head. Sigh!And Finally, a Quote: "To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time." (Leonard Bernstein)Thanks for reading! Until next time,-K
Dispatches from the Forgotten Stars: the newsletter of author Kelly Sedinger - Issue #2
Dispatches from the Forgotten Stars: the…
Dispatches from the Forgotten Stars: the newsletter of author Kelly Sedinger - Issue #2
Greetings! Welcome to the second Dispatch from the Forgotten Stars. We're in the middle part of August, which in my part of the world is generally when the summer climate is most to my liking: the temperatures are still warm, but the humidity generally drops which makes for the kinds of cool nights that lend themselves to bonfires and marshmallows and pleasant beverages. We will still undoubtedly have burst of heat and humidity, but by August you can feel the mustering forces of Autumn to come. It helps that the days themselves are by now getting noticeably shorter; I always find that June and July mess with my circadian rhythms too much to really make for comfortable living. This, in fact, may be the main factor in why July has never been a favorite month of mine, moreso even than the heat.It's been a low-key summer, for the most part, mostly owing to The Wife's foot surgery in June. Her resulting period of being mostly immobile led to a lot of streaming teevee, especially since we bought new living room furniture and thus can actually sit down there to watch stuff on the teevee. Until now, we've done all of our watching via my laptop, sitting in our bed at night. It's nice to have another option, though our pittie Carla thinks otherwise. She strongly prefers the bed.One show we've started watching of late is American Pickers, which is about (skip this if you're familiar) two guys who drive around the country, visiting people who have hoarded stuff from our country's past, and persuading these folks to part with it (for money, obviously). Imagine Antiques Roadshow but it's actually on the road, and we're visiting hoarders. And yes, these folks are hoarders. Watching this show has been quite the education. (It also makes me feel a lot less bad about the state of my personal library upstairs, so that helps!)The Wife grew up in and around Iowa farm country, so she had to tell me about "out-buildings". The Pickers guys show up to farms and are led on tours by grizzled old farmers through all these "out-buildings" that are filled with stuff. What are the out-buildings for? To keep your stuff! But...why have the stuff in the first place? To fill your out-buildings!The show is a good illustration of the clash of mindsets at work. The Pickers are digging (literally digging, at times) through mountainous piles of stuff collected over decades by men (almost always men thus far) now in their elder years. They find cool items! They really do! It's not all garbage. But they'll ask the owner if he wants to sell the item, and often times the owner declines. The natural question is, Just what on Earth is this old guy ever going to do with that item that he clearly barely remembers? Why not just sell it?But then the next question arises: What's the guy going to do with the money, either? It seems to me that reluctance to sell might not be about any actual attachment to the stuff, but a simple "Meh, why bother?" combined with what I expect is a healthy distrust--never stated outright, but you can tell it's there--of door-to-door hucksters, the air of which, despite their best efforts, our Picker heroes can't entirely dismiss.American Pickers is an interesting show, especially if you're the type who likes antiques and quirky detours into the backroads of American life. I know we're late to the party on this show (it's been on for years and the two original hosts have endured some life-stuff of late), but we're enjoying it nonetheless. And the two of us both got excited the other night when we saw the guys buy a sign for something or other that had a picture on it of "a dog" that was clearly...a greyhound.Writing Update: Work continues slowly on Forgotten Stars V. It has not been a great summer for writing, but I keep plugging away. I would love to have this manuscript done before Christmas.I also really really really want to be able to get The Jaws of Cerberus, my supernatural thriller about an ill-fated kayaking expedition, out into the world by October. This may be a major focus of my annual late-September vacation, but I need to have some work done before then.Random Video Link: "Murder Show" from SNL. I had no idea that watching murder shows was such a thing until this sketch ran, and I asked The Wife, "Is this true? Are you watching murder shows when I'm not around?" and she laughed and nodded. In her post-surgery convalescence this summer, she has indeed been watching murder shows.On the Site: Here's some favorite stuff from my site, ForgottenStars.net: Our trip to the Renaissance Festival; some thoughts on Tennyson; and how sometimes my region gets in on the "rainbow" game.Other Stuff: In an attempt to once-and-for-all get myself more comfortable with producing video content in which I--gasp!--actually talk, I've joined TikTok. So far I'm doing readings there, in hopes that this will get me used to doing this sort of thing. (I also mirror my TikTok stuff as 'reels' on Instagram, if that's your preferred service.) My main impediment to all this remains my speaking voice, which bugs me when I hear it as it sounds not through my own head. Sigh!And Finally, a Quote: "To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time." (Leonard Bernstein)Thanks for reading! Until next time,-K