Beth Dolgner, Writer and Editor

For years I have been joking about writing a book entitled “Everything I Need to Know About Life I Learned at Disney World.” Long before I was a Star Wars geek, and decades before I was a writer, I was a Disney World fan. I joke that Disney was my second home growing up, but it’s not far from the truth. We always had some sort of pass, whether it was the old-school Three Season Salute (good for January, May and September) in the early ’80s to a full-blown annual pass. If we were up in Orlando, it wasn’t unusual for us to just swing into the Magic Kingdom for a few rides, or to stop by EPCOT for dinner. I learned a lot during those trips to Disney, so from now on, my Tuesday blog will feature one of the many lessons learned at Disney World.

To start things off, “Everything I Need to Know About Life I Learned at Disney World” includes how to wait your turn. It’s one of the most important lessons that every kid learns, isn’t it? “No, you can’t play with Mandy’s doll right now. You have to wait your turn.” “Don’t skip to the lead of the line at lunch. You have to wait your turn.”

At Disney, there’s a lot of waiting for your turn. Standing in line to buy your ticket, standing in line for rides, standing in line for food. Yes, even standing in line for the bathroom. What makes the “wait your turn” lesson really hit home, though, is that you can stand there and look at everyone else patiently waiting their turn, also. Adults lead by example, patiently shuffling through the line with all of the antsy kids. There isn’t a stern face or a wagging finger to be found, just thousands of people showing you the way to wait.

And the best part? The reward at the end, of course! After all of that waiting, you finally get on the ride, or sit down to see the show, and then the lesson sinks in: patience really is rewarded!

During my junior year of high school, my English teacher made us keep journals. We were often given a topic, though from time to time I was able to write about whatever was on my 17-year-old brain.

On January 26, 1995, our journal topic was “Words I Associate with the Word ‘Horror’” and what a fun list I made! There are the obvious entries: vampires, werewolves, witch. But a few were a little more obscure… words that set the mood for a chilling horror story. Moon, rain, blood, lost, panic, mangle, lacerate, claws. I remember the origin of some: “deadfall” came from Stephen King’s Pet Sematery. Actually, Stephen King himself made the list, since at the time I was a voracious reader of his work. A few entries mystify me now, so many years later: why did I put “scientists” on the list? I am particularly amused that I added “voodoo” to the journal entry, especially since one topic covered in my voodoo book (which is in progress) deals with minconceptions about the religion.

What words do you associate with “horror”? Are there words outside the “typical” list that make a shiver run up your spine?

My computer is up and running again after crashing last Thursday. And I don’t mean any little old crash; I mean a knock-down, call the ambulance, this one’s going to hurt a lot crash. I may not race motorcycles anymore, but I can still crash things with the best of them. I guess the upside is that I can’t break any bones when the computer goes down.

The upside is that my files were backed up so, thanks to Ed, everything has been rebuilt and restored. All I lost was an interview with Scott Russell that I finished typing up just before the crash, which hadn’t been backed up yet.

The downside is that I realized, over the course of six long days, just how dependent I am on my computer. I nearly drained the battery from my phone each day, obsessively checking email, Facebook, the message boards I frequent, and even Twitter. Yes, I’ve started Twittering, though I only have a whopping three followers – two of whom I had to coerce into following me.

It’s not too late to make a New Year’s resolution, is it? If not, then I resolve to spend less time on the computer. I need to go sit outside with a book, play with the kitties, visit the zoo, keep up with sewing projects… and whatever else might come along in the “real” world.

February is shaping up to be a very quiet month for me, work-wise. The downside of this is that I won’t be making much money over the next four weeks. The upside, however, is that it gives me a lot of free time, which I’m using to work on my voodoo book, and to work on the second draft of my fiction novel.

My favorite place on the internet, uabmagic.com (which plays Disney park music and has a wonderful online community), is closing down operations at the end of this month. Someone in the community posted the following link from Walt Disney, and I thought it was appropriate for me, as I look at my career and ask, “What’s next?”

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” –Walt Disney

As for me, good timing helped me get the contract to write my book of Georgia Ghost Stories. That single project prompted my publisher to ask me to write Everyday Voodoo for the Home and Office. Who knows what’s next as I “keep moving forward”?

I’m also reminded of my favorite quote, which comes from The Fellowship of the Ring:

“Not all those who wander are lost.” –J.R.R. Tolkien

I think it’s an apt description of my career: I may not be taking a traditional path, but I’m definitely getting somewhere. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get myself to the library to continue research for my next book!