jimmerkelauthor

Writer’s Diary 2/22/2012

Jim Merkel Author — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:20:58 +0000

Today I did a phone interview of Greg Maracek, president of the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame, about his recollections of the German-Irish St. Louis sportswriter Bob Broeg. Tonight I fiddled with my piece on the German School Association and did other odds and ends. Then my wife said this blog was boring.

Writer’s Diary 2/21/2012

Jim Merkel Author — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:41:26 +0000

Spent close to an hour putting stuff into my bibliography. It’s too easy to get behind. I’m really behind. Then I did another 300 words on the piece on the German School Association of St. Louis piece.

Writer’s Diary 2/20/12

Jim Merkel Author — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:19:14 +0000

Did everything but what I was supposed to do, but still wrote 300 words on the German School Association of Greater St. Louis. I also sent e-mails to Post-Dispatch baseball writer Rich Hummel and Greg Maracek asking for a phone interview about the German-Irish sports editor of the Post-Dispatch, Bob Broeg

Writer’s Diary 2/19/2012

Jim Merkel Author — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:25:12 +0000

Finished polishing my vignettes on Gussie Busch’s purchase of the Cardinals and how Health Commissioner Dr. Max C. Starkloff saved hundreds of lives in the 1918 influenza epidemic by closing down churches, movie houses, etc. I thought both were pretty good. Proofreader Lorraine told me the Starkloff one was very good. Then she wrote all over the copy of the piece.

Writer’s Diary 2/18/2012

Jim Merkel Author — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:20:03 +0000

Hey everybody, the diary is back after a big fight against computer viruses. Hope bringing the computer in to the shop fixes the problem. I won’t try to say what I’ve done since the last diary post except that I’ve been busy. I spent this morning out at the Saturday morning classes of the German School Association of Greater St. Louis in Des Peres. Had lots of fun and went to lunch with some of the adult students. Tonight I finished a piece on Dr. Max Starkloff, who was city health commissioner during the flu epidemic of 1918. He saved a lot of lives by closing down gathering places like churches and movie houses where people could have gotten the disease.

Writer’s Diary 2/9/12

Jim Merkel Author — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:11:15 +0000

Did 300 words on Irma Rombauer, the German American St. Louisan who wrote “The Joy of Cooking.” She self-published the first edition. Hey! somebody who actually made a success out of self-publishing.

Writer’s Diary 2/7-8/2012

Jim Merkel Author — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:34:55 +0000

Did near 500 more words on the Dickmann piece in the last couple days. It’s done, but is rough and has some holes. I’ll do it tomorrow.

Writer’s Diary 2/6/12

Jim Merkel Author — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:54:36 +0000

Wrote about 300 words of a piece aboutBernard Dickmann, a German-American who was St. Louis mayor in the 1930s.

Writer’s Diary 2/5/12

Jim Merkel Author — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:18:48 +0000

Polished my two pieces in e-mail. Lorraine then checked them over. I’ll send them in tomorrow.

Writer’s Diary 2/4/12

Jim Merkel Author — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 03:41:52 +0000

The return of a rather nasty virus to my computer made it tough to keep up the pace. My stupidity also didn’t help. After spending some time at one library doing research, I went to another library where I’d reserved two hours computer time.

But there I discovered I hadn’t brought materials I needed to write the piece I was working on. It probably was at work. So I signed off and went home, thinking I was whipped.

Disgusted, I did the only thing I could do. I took a nap for an hour. Then I realized I didn’t need that material. I had some other stuff and already had written enough from the material I’d forgotten. Then I tried something. I can’t get on my computer in normal mode, but I can in safe mode with networking. That’s what I’m writing in now. In safe mode, you can’t use a word processing program, but you can send an e-mail. So I wrote myself an e-mail with the article in it. It was clunky, but it worked.

Now I’m mostly done for the week. I found something on the web called “writer the internet typewriter.” You write online. I’m going to try it. Now if I can only get my computer fixed,things will be back to normal.

P.S.: When I send in the two pieces for the week, I’ll be up to 50 out of a goal of 80. I’m getting there.