I’ve received a few ‘hints’ lately that it’s been a while since I posted an article. Part of the delay has been due to a couple of commercial writing jobs that took my attention, but a large part of my silence can be put down to not knowing what to write about.
I could write about a number of things that interest me (but do they interest you?). It’s well known that I have PTSD, and there’s no end to the need for increased awareness about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I’ve written a number of articles on PTSD, Depression and Anxiety, but I’m reluctant to do much on this subject (without some feedback from readers) because there’s more to me than mental health issues.
I’ve spent a lot of time over the summer viewing videos on Instagram. I’m following some incredibly talented, youthful, multiple award-winning violinists, like Chloe Trevor, Esther Abrami, and Anastasiia Mazurok. Each of these violinists has performed with world-class symphonies all over the globe since in her early-to-mid teens. Ms Trevor held a music academy for two weeks this summer that was exciting to watch (and certainly more exciting to have attended). It was the first year for the Chloe Trevor Music Academy, and was extremely successful with more than one hundred students from ten countries. Ms Abrami is in her final year at the Royal College of Music in London (fresh from concert tours in Europe), and Ms Mazurok has just begun classes at Julliard. All have already won awards and prizes for their concert violin work, and have played with world-class symphonies all over the globe.
I could rant about musicians who harm their performances by what we might call ‘misbehaving on stage.’ Accompanists whose actions on the piano bench are so distracting that you forget the soloist they are accompanying. I am disturbed by soloists who employ attention-getting antics like standing up at the piano bench, or flinging hair around. My overall favourite objection is to contortions that lead you to think the performer is in excruciating pain, really hates this piece/this instrument, or is about to burst into tears.
I could talk about what I’m doing in the literary arenas. I have two novels in the works: Tea with Violins; and The Souls of Grange Cove, which is the reworking of a novella I wrote in 2014, The Inn of Souls. I’d be happy to discuss what each of these works involves, talk about the processes of writing, answer questions, etc.
These are just the ideas that come to mind as I sit here writing about having no idea what to write on a chilly Wednesday morning. What I really want to know at this juncture is: what do people want to read?
My email address is at the end of all my articles: [email protected]. Please let me hear from you, and give me some guidance as to what the reader would like the writer to do.
Paul TN Chapman
[email protected]
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