I invested nearly all day and night yesterday on writing my first non-fiction book, titled “From the Heart of a Grateful Man”. As I did so, it occurred to me that the old Chinese curse “May you live an interesting life” is actually a blessing for authors because such lives create much more interesting material from which to draw.
With Love,
Russ
About russtowne
I'm awed by the beauty of nature and the power of love and gratitude. Some of my favorite sensory experiences include waves crashing on rocky shores, waterways in ancient redwood and fern-filled forests, and rain. My wife and I have been married since 1979. We have 3 adult children and 5 grandchildren. I manage a wealth management firm that I founded in 2003. My Beloved is a Special Education teacher for Kindergartners and First Graders. I'm a published author of approximately 60 books in a variety of genres for grownups and children.
Russ Towne's A Grateful Man 
Are you participating in the NaNoWri? November 1st marks the start of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The annual fiction extravaganza will bring together writers who are each committed to hammer out 50,000 words of sparkling fiction over the course of the month.
Hi, Misifusa. Thank you for asking. “From the Heart of a Grateful Man” is non-fiction, so wouldn’t apply based on NaNoWriMo being novels/fiction projects. Also, much of my material is being drawn on, or derived from, earlier writing or notes that I’d created thinking some day they might come in handy if I ever decided to write a non-fiction book.
Each item was anywhere from a single line or two to about 4 pages, with most probably about a page long, so it certainly isn’t a completely from-scratch project. I’ve had to do a lot of re-writing, revisions, trimming, corrections, editing, and creating of new material, but the project is going blazingly fast. For example, in the approximately 16 hours I worked on it yesterday, my rough draft hit about 28,000 words before I finally stumbled off to bed at about 5:30 this morning (4:30 due to the time change). This book is exploding from me like water from a pressurized fire hose.
I had vaguely thought that I might have enough material for a short book and therefore would need to create a lot of it from scratch to end up with a full-length book, but have discovered that I probably already have so much raw material for a full book that a lot of what I believe to be quality material will need to be left out to keep the book to a reasonable length.
Russ
I’m looking forward to your next book Russ! 🙂
I’m happy to hear it, Misifusa! I look forward to having you read it and hope that you enjoy experiencing it as much as I loved writing it.
Russ
Russ, there’s also a non-fiction community for November writings as well. I had started to look at it, but then I wasn’t sure if I wanted to participate in fiction or non-fiction! I just thought I’d let you know! Stay in the zone! Surely your writings are excellent! Keep the flow! 🙂
Thank you for the additional information, kind comment, and encouragement, Misifusa!
Russ
I didn’t know that about the curse very interesting indeed
:-D!
Good luck with your continued writing. I look forward to the finished book.
Thank you, Elizabeth. How kind of you to take the time to say so.
Russ
I always knew it as ” May you live in interesting times”
Yours is probably the correct version, Bill. Thank you for the correction.
Russ
I am sure only Confusicous knows for sure.
And he’s so old that he may not remember it very clearly himself! ;-D!
but he left some crumbs of knowledge…. in fortune cookies 🙂
LOL! I always wondered how he found the time to writes messages on so many little pieces of paper. He must be the world’s most prolific author!
when we were on vacation this year, we got one that said: “You are not illiterate”
LOL! Love it!