Rich Engle Finally Leaves Ohio: Film at 11

[Rich Engle]

Hi, OL

I wasn't quite sure where to put this one, but I figured a happening is a happening, and, well, that's what's happening!

Outside of the few years stint I did in NYC as a kid in the sixties, I have been a lifelong Cleveland, Ohio-er. Travelled a good deal, but never relocated once.

Now, good fortune calls, opps knock, and I am finally pulling up stakes and bugging out of this God-forsaken Hell-hole, one that has its beauty, but to me after decades of it is no more than a love-hate relationship, on a good day. I have done all I can do in this town.

I am leaving this evening. In the morning, I will fly to N. Ft. Myers, Florida. I am going to write a novel there (illustrated by an unnamed artist often known as "that plagiarist") and promote my album, finally done (cover done by that plagiarist), and also see how that plagiarist's book goes, for which I wrote the forward.

I am excited, eager, and the long trough is now meeting a high peak. Furthermore, I can say that Rand's work, and maybe moreso Nathaniel's had a lot to do with keeping me on focus, and keeping myself so I could actually end up doing what I was supposed to.

Now all I have to do is write a decent book.

I'll be online tomorrow. After the pool, and such!

best to all

rde

[Chris Grieb]

Rich; Good Luck and Good Premises. May you achieve success!

[BaalChatzaf]

I am excited, eager, and the long trough is now meeting a high peak. Furthermore, I can say that Rand's work, and maybe moreso Nathaniel's had a lot to do with keeping me on focus, and keeping myself so I could actually end up doing what I was supposed to.

Now all I have to do is write a decent book.

I'll be online tomorrow. After the pool, and such!

best to all

rde

May you pen be sharp and your wits sharper.

Bon chance.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Newberry]

Rich,

That all sounds awesome. Good luck with your endeavors and to Victor too - he does super caricatures.

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

Rich,

Good luck!

Sad you are leaving Cleveland.

Around 1902 a streetcar in Ft Defiance, OH was hit by a train. A woman was killed--I don't know how many others--and her two baby nephews too, Gerald and Roland. Her sister, my grandmother, survived. My Father was born seven years later. I never, of course, knew these uncles of mine. They are all buried in Brooklyn, a suburb of Cleveland. I visited their graves, and the graves of their grandparents, my great grandparents, in 1993. I still have one uncle, Dave, who will soon be 91. He was born in 1918. Everybody--everybody is incredibly lucky to be here. Make the most of it, Rich.

--Brant

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Rich,

Great luck to you with your move and with your project (and that goes for the "other one," too ).

Grow and achieve great things. I know you will because you can.

I will be in touch, both online and off.

Michael

[Rich Engle]

Thanks all... I"M HERE!!!! It's even better than I thought!!!

Brant- I think they would have been buried in the Brooklyn Hts cemetery. I used to own a house on Broadview in Old Brooklyn that adjoined it. Well, a little more...I had a sunken grave in my backyard. Hope it was no one you mentioned...

rde

Hemingway came down here to machine gun sharks. Me too.

[Barbara Branden]

Rich: "Now all I have to do is write a decent book."

What could be easier than that ? All you have to do is remember Somerset Maugham's advice: "There are only three rules for writing a novel. The trouble is, no one knows what they are." Ayn Rand thought she knew the rules and I agree with her, She once told me: "There are three rules for good writing, The first is clarity. The second is clarity. The third is clarity."

Good fortune in your new life, Rick, and much happiness and success.

Barbara

[BaalChatzaf]

Rich: "Now all I have to do is write a decent book."

What could be easier than that ? All you have to do is remember Somerset Maugham's advice: "There are only three rules for writing a novel. The trouble is, no one knows what they are." Ayn Rand thought she knew the rules and I agree with her, She once told me: "There are three rules for good writing, The first is clarity. The second is clarity. The third is clarity."

Good fortune in your new life, Rick, and much happiness and success.

Barbara

When I took a course in novel writing I was told every novel has four elements.

1. A reference to God

2. A mystery

3 sex

4 royalty.

So I handed in the following:

My God! said the Queen. I'm pregnant. Who dunnit?

I received an A.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Brant Gaede]

Clarity is the leitmotif of Barbara Branden. That's why she reads and sounds like the characters in Atlas Shrugged, including the villains.

--Brant

[Rich Engle]

Thank you, BB; I will do the best as I can. It will be a break from music, though I am still heavily involved in that.

Somerset... well, clarity. I like telling stories, and putting up imagery.

Praise from On High, BB.

Well, you know, too: Florida has a great tradition of writers. Maybe I'll aspire a bit. We shall see. I like this tract. I like Crews' work. There is an obscure throwoff novel he wrote called "Karate Is A Thing Of The Spirit" which was influential to me. I like Twain and Thompson and such...

I've always considered the most important thing in writing to be the flow. That is something you know when you see it. I just work on flow. And, to be nasty.

Thanks to all. It's really awesome down here; more than I expected, even.

It was quite a task just to decompress-I flew down here with my little red minipin dog, put in a soft carrier. I laid over at PHIL (shipyards are interesting to see on a plane)...little connection time.

Let's just say I landed hot, with the dog, and two valises. It was fun!

rde

Edited March 22, 2009 by Rich Engle

[Alfonso Jones]

Rich -

Interesting news! Enjoy your new focus.

As any author can tell you - you are about to work on a difficult task.

Wishing you well.

Bill P

[BaalChatzaf]

Rich, in a way I envy you. I write a great deal (surprise! surprise!). I write essays and articles. One thing I do not have the talent for, is to encapsulate distill the essence of people, to channel their character onto a page. That is probably one of the less felicitous results of my being as Aspergarian. I think being able to create people, who a real sense, actually live is one of the greatest of artistic talents. Go forth, and do mighty deeds!

Ba'al Chatzaf

Edited March 22, 2009 by BaalChatzaf

[Rich Engle]

Thanks. I don't know about mighty, but I'm going to make it at least fun to read.

Brant on clear being BB's leitmotif: so true. She is a treasure.

[Ross Barlow]

Rich, nice move. It is really inspiring.

It’s not so much the particular place you move to that is so important but rather the fact that you moved and created a whole new personal pathway. It takes vision and guts. Keep hold of that vision and that excitement. Sometimes a complete break with the inertia of one’s own worn pathways is a great tonic. Cutting loose and traveling light.

I share a couple of inspirational heroes with you, Rich. As an utterly broken-down vet in the 1970s, Nathaniel Branden’s books taught me how to “break free” and discover my “disowned self,” and to live a more genuine life. In the early ‘80s, reading George H. Smith’s first book on atheism got me newly curious about Objectivism again. And Barbara Branden’s great biography of Ayn Rand came out at that time and totally revitalized my life, inspiring me to accept no limitations.

So I completely changed course, setting out to become a teacher. I have never regretted that radical change of schooling and profession, because it made me a richer man deep inside. A refreshing wind of change.

May you flourish, Rich. Keep us posted. One last thing: remember the sunscreen.

-Ross Barlow.