Writing Seminar by Markus Vattulainen

After waiting eagerly for Saturday to come, I was excited to attend the seminar by Markus V, a would-be author from Finland. Markus posted the details of the seminar and invited participants to join him for a whole year in learning the craft of writing. A session would be held for three hours every Saturday morning to discuss not only the personal approaches to writing, especially fiction, but also to learn and analyze the time-honored techniques employed by published authors. I was hoping to be able to be part of a group of aspiring writers for a long time. Markus's offer came like a soothing balm to my aching heart.
The first session was introductory and began with three men and three women apart from Markus who headed the session and drove it skillfully forward with the tools of the trade, beginning with a short introduction on the purpose of the seminar and ending the session with a film clip. Markus has a pleasing personality with a jovial face and a friendly demeanor. He greeted all of us with warmth and introduced us gently to the writing process. Everyone participated in the discussions that followed. The session held promise for more interesting and useful interactions in the future.
Markus made it clear at the very outset that he had made a choice between writing and not writing. The decision must necessarily be irreversible, leaving no scope for dilly-dallying. He decided to write, quit his job and settled down to writing full time. It was clear I am sure to everyone who did not take as seriously to writing as he did that it ws important to decide NOW, which is what Markus told us to do before going ahead with the seminar. It remains to be seen how many will go through with it and with how much hard work and enthusiasm.
The first session began with the screening of The Lion King, pausing the flow often to make a point or deliberate on some aspects of story-telling. Markus is articulate, clear in exposition and often invited the opinions of his eager listeners before offering his own. He gave an assignment which involved analyzing a scene from the film and posting answers to queries he posed in a hand-out. He expected everyone to join the forum on the seminar's website and participate in the discussions. The days of enjoyment are over, Markus announced; it is time to be analytical whenever we watch a movie or read a story.

Father's Bio

I have been busy working on gathering the details of my father's early life, before he got married to my mother, even before he left his family home to become a journalist.
It is quite a job to dig out the past from those who lived through it. Depending on the subject they either express freely or guardedly. In any case they usually tend to digress when they talk about the past. It is difficult to bring them back on track once they go off at a tangent. Under pressure, they do return to the topic, albeit reluctantly, for they have been interrupted in their free flow of memory.
It is surprising to note how much of a man's life is a history of his time. It becomes doubly interesting when the man had spent a considerable part of his life in shaping the events now considered part of history.
Indeed, history is man's collective story. Every one of us leaves a little history behind which posterity will either love to cherish or hasten to bury. History though is unburiable and surfaces time and again in the pages of a historian or a sensitive writer.
I find the work of digging into my father's life quite interesting, even fascinating at times. I have collected scores of photographs and anecdotes. There is a lot of work to do and the job remains unfinished until the man lives again through the pages of the written word.
I have started putting together some random notes and scanned photographs. I have begun to blog at bjbnr.blogspot.com where I am attempting biographical sketches using the information I am gathering from time to time.