SELECTED STORIES ON ILLUMINATION-CURATED
Collection of Curated Stories on ILLUMINATION
Selected stories by Øivind H. Solheim, hosted on ILLUMINATION-Curated, September and October 2020.
“ILLUMINATION-Curated was created to provide a showcase for writers who have had their stories, articles, and poems curated in Medium topics. We are inviting other writers to curate a grouping of their own work and submit it to us for publication and in this way get the new readers who are being drawn to this publication, to have a look.” (Source: ILLUMINATION-Curated)
In the words of Dr Mehmet Yildiz: There are millions of stories on Medium. Unless we purposefully make them visible, our stories will be buried, and our readers will not have a chance to review them. Effective organizational and information management skills are essential for the success of Medium writers.
What Are You Afraid Of?
Distributed to #Writing #Creativity
I write a lot, I get readers and comments, but not very many. That’s okay. I never give up. That is my attitude. This story is about a feeling that many writers can have: fear.
What Success Is When Writing at Medium
Distributed to #Creativity #Writing #Purpose #Personal Development
The Medium platform is both a writing tool and an arena for creative writing, highly appreciated by many writers. This story says something about why it is like that, focussing on both the tool, the arena and the particular skills of many creative writers.
Going into Rooms and Out of Rooms
Distributed to #Writing #History #Life
In this interview from 2008 I talk about why and how I came to write and publish a 368 pages long novel where the main ‘character’ is an old carbide factory in a distant small town in the western parts of Norway. In this novel, published in 2008, there are groups of people, human characters who strive to live their lives in narrow and challenging social, economic and human surroundings.
You Can Change Your Life
Distributed to #Life purpose #Creativity #Writing
This is a story about what happened when I found myself in a life crisis, and how I managed to work my way out of it. Lessons learned: You can change your life, even if positive change seems out of reach. Creativity makes anything possible.
“It’s the Most Beautiful When Darkness Falls”
Distributed to #Poetry #Life
Can poetry change lives? I’m not sure, but I would like to believe that it is so. In any case, wise and beautiful poems can have an effect on people who open themselves up to such poems. Good poems can lift us, and they can give us new insights. In this story, I am writing inspired by a poem from a great poet, Pär Lagerkvist (1891–1974). He was a Swedish author, member of the Swedish Academy and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1951.
Oceans of Time Ahead of Me
Distributed to #Life purpose #Health #Aging # Writing
In this story I write about what happened when I retired after working 40 years as a teacher and an adult education manager. What happened in my life from this point is both simple and complex. It was not obvious that it would go well. I could have done as some and got into trouble in my new day. I believe that one of the most important things is to be able to shift focus, and to find the meaningful things to tackle in the new life.
The World Wants to Be Fooled!
Distributed to #Election 2020 #Politics
In this essay, I address current issues related to democratic processes in one of the world’s superpowers. Is democracy in danger? Is it acceptable not to follow the rules of the game in democracy? Should aggressive attacks, lies and manipulation have leeway in the election? How can democracy be saved?
A New Trend in Many Prosperous Countries: We Are Getting Fatter, but Also Healthier
Distributed to #Health #Obesity #Exercise
In this story I put focus on some new, somewhat surprising discoveries from researchers in Norway. Population health studies have for many years shown that the average weight of the Norwegian population was on the rise. One could expect that the general health condition would generally worsen and that obesity has negative consequences for the quality of life and for how long people can expect to live. New research is needed here!
I Woke up This Morning
Distributed to #Life purpose #Health #Aging
I’m 73. In this story I write about the fact that everything and everyone who lives will die once. Maybe there should be nothing dramatic in it. It is the course of life and nature. But we may need to think about it. Not too much, but sometimes, a little.
The Value in the Ugly
What is ugly, what is beautiful? In this story I explore the terms of beauty and its negation. — Is the old factory worth anything? — Does the old smelter have anything to say to us?
The Rebellion of the Displeased
Distributed to #Election 2020 #Politics
In this article, I address current issues related to democratic processes in America today. We can witness a revenge of the losers, large masses of electors who look upon themselves as losers because they feel they have lost something valuable that they are entitled to be granted. They have found their voice in a man who is an expert in manipulating others.
My Secret Industrial Photo Safari
Distributed to #Local history #Industry #Closure
I wrote this text in 2004, a few years before I decided to write the novel Fabrikken, about this very factory. It was a Sunday morning in March 2004 that I, with a beating heart and a camera in my hand, illegally entered the forbidden area of the closed factory and started walking around in there and taking pictures.
I repeated this stunt several times in the following years, and the result is, among other things, that I have a fairly extensive digital photo archive that shows various details — buildings, rooms, workshops, machines, tools, etc. inside the disused factory.
The Universal Human Dream
Distributed to #Election 2020 #Future #Politics #Democracy
Many have said the The American Dream is dead or dying. In this story I try to find out about what’s happening.
We Need to Know What Love Is
Distributed to #Love #Loneliness #Novel #Relationships
It is bad or harmful for humans to experience loneliness? Could it be that it is even so that it is necessary for humans to experience loneliness? — An invitation to think together around essential questions.
This is a selection of my stories hosted on ILLUMINATION-Curated in September and October 2020.
Thank you for reading!
All rights reserved. © Øivind H. Solheim , @oivind47, author of novels, poetry, articles, essays, short fiction and experimental writing. fiksjon@gmail.com