Marion Agnew

Procrastination. We all do it, though we may pretend we don't. Here's an article by James Surowiecki from The New Yorker . The whole thing is well worth reading for its examination of the phenomenon: sometimes procrastination is useful and/or enjoyable, sometimes we do it even when we don't enjoy what we're doing instead, and none of is alone in practicing it. Et cetera. However, of course I'm interested in avoiding procrastination, as I suspect most creative people are. Surowiecki names two concepts behind "fixes" for procrastination that have led me to some interesting insights about my own process. One concept is "willpower." Just do it. Brute force. I am a thinking, rational creature who simply does the right thing to do. One problem with willpower is, of course, that some of us don't have much. Also, it's limited: if I'm busy not eating all the chocolate oatmeal macaroons, I have less willpower to exert in other areas. The other

"It Gets Better" videos are all over Facebook these days, and they're collected at YouTube here . They feature a person--a young adult, a middle-aged adult--speaking to the camera, hoping to reach a young person who's hurting. The audience, that young person, is any teen or tween who feels "different," and because what teen doesn't feel different, they speak specifically and directly to kids who are being bullied, at home or school, for being gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgendered. They speak to keep these young people from despair, from harming themselves, from suicide. Many of the videos feature extremely good-looking, successful adults--cast members from various Broadway productions, former Playboy bunny celebrities, award-winning mainstream actors. Many speak from personal experience, and many speak on behalf of friends and family. Because, yes, we all have friends and family who are LGBT. Even if you don't know they are. Even if they're

The Ten Stories High anthology is now out and available for purchase! ( www.canauthorsniagara.org/Resources/ShortStoryContest.html ) At $5 Canadian, that's 50 cents a story (a little more if you factor in shipping and handling). A movie costs $9 and lasts two hours. For a little more than half that price, you get ten stories--at least nine more stories than you get in the movie, with lots more variety--and you get them permanently. You can read them again in a year. You can share them with a neighbour. Et cetera. Anthologies published in previous years have sold out. Just sayin'.