The Author Guy Blog by Larry B. Gildersleeve

23rd August 2024

Hello out there,

Welcome back. I made a decision 2 ½ years ago to stop watching television almost entirely, either traditional broadcasts or streaming services. My reasons are my own, and have everything to do with keeping my mind clear of their negative and damaging influence.

I yearn for a time when the news was simply the news with no place for partisan “alternate facts.” I can’t change the polarization found across cable channels, so I choose not to be in their audience, but will watch home improvement or cooking shows with my wife.

I will occasionally seek movie channels, and even then select away from almost everything except older fare, usually in black and white and more often than not based upon novels. This is because my writing is heavily dialogue-driven, and watching them become learning experiences.

During the day, I devote my time to writing, publishing and book marketing and sales endeavors, as well as a myriad of other activities enabled by stepping off decades on the corporate and entrepreneurial treadmills. Evenings, I read the works of other authors, both fiction and non-fiction, and watch DVDs from a rather large collection of movies and television series from times gone by. And I surf You Tube once I found it to be a wonderful search engine for all manner of things of interest to me.

I do get streaming news online during the day, so I am informed about the world around me. But I shut it all off around five. Works for me. You might give it a try … maybe for just a day a week … and see if it makes a positive difference in your life … as it has in mine.

Until next week … Vaya con Dios

Larry B. Gildersleeve