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Welcome to "My Take," a blog dedicated to offering unique perspectives and insights for a mature audience of achievers. Here, you'll find thoughts on a variety of topics, with a focus on understanding and navigating the complexities of modern life. Bonnie Sedgemore believes everyone's perspective holds value, and this space is dedicated to sharing hers with you.

Insights into Man's Problems

This blog will delve into various aspects of the challenges men face today. From societal expectations to personal struggles, Bonnie Sedgemore offers her perspective, aiming to provide a fresh and thoughtful approach to understanding these issues. The goal is not to provide definitive answers, but to stimulate thought and encourage personal reflection.

My Take

Voice

November 7, 2025

I'm just really finding out what voice is. I was coming back from breakfast and thought about writing. In amongst those deep thoughts, it came to me that we each speak differently, use different words, different sayings, put our words in particular order, use the same phrases over and over again, and react the same way to events. All these actions and speech affects come out in our writing. That is part of voice. Another aspect is how each of us think and evolve ideas into action, or in this case, writing. We analyze, observe and deduct, or vacillate or procrastinate. Our writing shows these also.
Our voice shows, then, in dialogue, in the type of characters we choose, the plots and how we develop them, and the narrative style of our writing. No two of us will have all these same traits in our writing.

Writing Forever

November 5, 2025

I am at an age when I should be retired, but from what? From a day job? From writing?
Well, never from writing. It has taken on a new life with the passing of years. When I have a chance to relax and be free, to do what I want to do, I want to write. When I have a chance to go to the theater , I would rather work on my latest story or read a story to further my career in writing. It is not something I wish to be free from.
Writing is just stringing twenty eight letters into words and putting those words together to make sentences to make a story. And making a story unique and interesting is about investing my voice in my work, letting people see me in what I write.
People are the same now as they have been for as long as man has existed and there are no new plots or twist that haven't been written. What makes them unique is the individual voice of the you.

Ideas-Where Do They Come From

Nov. 3, 2025

Reading other authors works, I wonder how they come up with their ideas. I wonder though I know that we cannot write what we don't know,  and what do we know about other than what we live or read or hear. So many would be writers don't write because they fear telling what someone else might find faulty through remembrances. That is a valid point. We each edit scenes in our heads as they play out and in retrospect,too. No two people remember the same scene exactly the same. Witnesses to crimes who have seen the criminal in action may differ on what was seen even to identifying the criminal differently. So is there no truth to a story? No truth to reality? Maybe not. The best we can do is tell the story as we each remember it and let that be enough. That is where I get my inspiration, where my stories come to life. I tell it from my point of view and my psychological perspective at the time. Let others read them as they may. Let them write their version and you will get as many different versions as there are people involved, each told from their own perspective and memory..

Starting

November 1, 2025

A question put to me by a would be writer: How do you start? You start by sitting down and writing anything, just writing. Don't analyze what you are writing as at first you will be prone to criticizing yourself into writer's block. Write first and analyze after completing a number of pages and after a period of time, a long enough period that you will see the work with a fresh eye.

So many people I've talked to say they sit down and can't write or that they write a bit and become dissatisfied with what they have written. They quit.

Quitting is okay. Not everyone has to write though each of us has a unique story, everyone is not a writer. But, if you want to write your story, just start and don't quit. Try to believe in yourself and your ability to tell a story.

I have four books published, but I still look for improvement in my writing. I still learn something each time I sit down to write. You must start somewhere. In all things you must start somewhere.

Giving to Self Versus Giving to Others

October 30, 2025

So many have answered my posts with advice and pleasing comments and only one bad reply out of the bunch, out of my many posts. I'd say that is encouraging. I'd say people support people. It is easy to say words, but actions tell the story. Yet, I believe people have the best intentions and do wish the best for others. But, we must take care of ourselves first, must work to do our best at life. The question I keep asking myself is where is the divide, when do I stop giving to others and give to self. Is it wrong or too egotistical to want for oneself rather to strive for the whole of humanity? When is it right to give to self rather than give to others?

Having confidence

October 28, 2025

We go along, feeling we are on top of the world and then just as quickly switch to being on the bottom. We try to achieve, feeling so many are above us, better than us, working harder, more knowledgeable, until we lose our confidence and become crippled. How can we possibly do anything worthwhile when there are so many doing much better stuff than we can do? In allowing ourselves to think in this way, we run ourselves down to being a flea on the elephant.

No, I don't know more than everyone. No I'm not as hard a worker as everyone, but I know enough to do what I need to do. I may not be the top, but I'm above average. I am attending to the chores I set for myself. I am capable, and so are you of doing what you wish to do, of accomplishing what you wish to accomplish. I am ambitious and determined and those traits will keep me above water, as they will keep anyone going and doing well.

Ads and Surveys

October 25, 2025

Ads, we are inundated with them, Surveys, too. You cannot read something or answer emails without suffering many of each. They become important as sayings after a bit. Ads for web pages, for designing web pages, in which they, the creators of the ad use language I don't often understand and letters and initials that I ty to fit with my own words. I don't like shortcut initials instead of words but I use shortcuts, can't and doesn't, shortcuts for words. What's my problem. I can't figure out what all the initials stand for. That's my problem.

Ads are becoming more prominent than writing. They seem to take up more space. Ads, not only to get business for products, but more business for about everything. Or a survey to see if you were treated well, better than average, or if the product or service was done well, or better than average.

I use ads and reviews. I have to if I want to make money. So, around and around we go, ever increasing ads, surveys, reviews and such. Has our society improved or just moved sideways?

What It Takes to Be the Best

Thursday Oct.23, 2025

Sometimes I think of all the people writing in the world, and if a judge could determine the best writers, I would find myself mid-way. That's not nearly the position I want to be in, I want to be the best of the best. If trying and writing, and trying and writing doesn't do it, what does? Could I be the best somehow? Is there something in me lacking? I haven't lived an interesting enough life?
If I were to start over, I would consider who I am writing for-an audience or myself? If for myself, I could ignore all the marketing and studious questions about the reading public's likes and dislikes. I would write for me, what I like, and that's where I think I went wrong. Oh, well.

Ingenuous What?

Tuesday October 21,2025

An agent once said my writing was too ingenuous. What the heck did she mean. Even after looking up the word I wasn't able to pin point what she was trying to get me to change. It is forty years later and I've finally figured it out.
In fairy tales they say "He lived happily ever after. In life we don't live happily ever after. We just keep trekking on. We think about a problem and come to several conclusions and usually let it settle a bit before making a decision without ever being sure the decision was right.
I want to make conclusions. There aren't any. They are too entangled with many different threads and we must make the best choice possible, right or wrong. That is what she was trying to tell me.

Bluebirds in Action

Friday October 17, 2025

I looked out the window and saw seven bluebirds sitting on the fence looking down at one spot on the ground. Below them, one bird was flopping around madly, trying to flap it's wings, one wing stretched out, but just raising a dust storm. It was injured. More birds joined them, and I saw that they were all concerned about the one bird on the ground.
What surprised me was the interest of the other birds for one of their own. I didn't think birds had that kind of empathy. Also, there weren't other kinds of birds on the fence, only bluebirds. No finches, crows or robins. Although they fly individually, they obviously stick together, like to like. And they fly south together, one kind of bird in a triangular formation, not a mixture of birds going south.
Can I learn something from this?

My Story

I have a short story coming out in a magazine soon. The magazine is Adelaide and the story is Retribution. It is honestly one of the best things I've written and will be entered in the pushcart contest, submitted by the magazine.
Meanwhile, here is the long link to my latest book, The Machiavellian Man.hhttps://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=lqsPJrJgQOKKDHgVuSrtfuLmDUJkCSB0XIkSbmAlX4pttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FMNZGG6V. Or just go to Amazon and type in my name and it will bring up all my books, I write about incidents and people in my life that have presented obstacles. I have survived them and each of you can survive similar ones. We have to be strong to live through life. If you are alive you are fighting a good fight. So, I salute you, my fellow men and women.

Thanks

It is great to hear all the comments and to see how sincerely and thoughtfully you answer. I say you instead of everyone because I feel close to all those who have read and answered . I am trying to do marketing, but in the process am finding many friends out there. It has been very rewarding.
I have spent my life writing, writing in closets, giving up Sundays and holidays, and giving up sleep. Although writing does not at first glance cost money, it costs a lot. I want my work to be read, and I want my work to be the best I can do.

Old Folks

I am in an assisted living community and there are many different personalities in here as in any place, be it school, city, work force or neighborhood. The only thing different is the duration of those personalities. We come to assisted living with a problem. Each of us has to remember that and it is emblazoned on us by the quick turn over of the residents. They are here today and maybe gone tomorrow. We are not told they are gone or where they are gone or if they will be back. We watch their rooms to see if their belongings are removed, indicating that they will not return. But, we don't know if they have gone to a different home, maybe have gone to a nursing home or if they are gone gone. We tell ourselves to not get attached to them, but we do, even to the personalities that aren't our usual types. We come to accept all.

Continued

I didn't know what it would be like to live in assisted living. I thought it would be one large group of people brought together all happy to be joined. That is so to a point. We are all supportive of each other, but still there is an adjustment period.
Most of us had two weeks to get ready to move, to settle up with the landlord, to decided what to take and what to leave behind. All those knick-knacks you've kept, old memories of someone, someplace or sometime will have to be discarded. We hold onto things, because we can't hold onto time or people. People move away, friendships dissolve, family dies.
We can't go back. We have no place to go back to. We must make the adjustment. Sometimes it puts us in the hospital for a day or a week. It is one hard adjustment.

At the End

What do you say when someone near you is watching their loved one die? I'm sorry doesn't cut it. Someone said to me that someone had to go first, you or them. That certainly didn't sound right nor help my feelings. "I'll pray for you," sounds trite and ineffectual. A somber yet loving look says more, but you are left with feeling dissatisfied. So, what is the most helpful thing to say?

Exploring Bonnie Sedgemore's Writings

This section of the blog will also explore themes and ideas presented in Bonnie Sedgemore's books. Readers can gain a deeper understanding of the author's inspiration and thought processes behind her literary works. This is your opportunity to get an author's insights.

A Little Bit Better

The ultimate aspiration for "My Take" is to offer insights that empower readers to handle life's challenges just a little bit better. Bonnie Sedgemore hopes to foster a sense of understanding and resilience in her audience. By sharing her perspective, she aims to create a space for growth and positive change, one blog post at a time.

Read More

Dive deeper into Bonnie Sedgemore's world. Explore her other blog categories, from short stories to author insights, and discover a wealth of engaging content.

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