GUEST BLOG: ADVICE FOR WRITERS by Cory Mortensen

I’d say, just start writing. Write about your day, your trip to the grocery store. What happened? Something did. Go out to a bar, restaurant, park. Pick a couple across from you, describe them and create their stories, write it out. Who is she, who is he, is this their first date? Perhaps she wants to break up or tell him she has a new job. What’s her story?

Don’t get distracted by negativity. And negativity seeps in, even in the form of a back-handed compliment. “Oh, I didn’t know you could write?” or the “Ya, I’ve always wanted to write a book.” Ignore it. The only criticism one should take is that from a trusted editor.

When the time comes, vet your editor. Find a few, send them two pages and tell them to “edit”. You have to jive with them or it will fall apart. This is the hard part: listen to what they say. They are the pros.

Then you type or write, whatever you prefer. First round, I wouldn’t delete anything. Cut and paste it and store it on another document, I call it “random thoughts”. You might write something that doesn’t work here, but works there, and with a few tweaks, may be the cherry on top.

When your book launches to the world – don’t expect anything but embrace everything.

Life-Changing Journey…
…But this is NOT a typical blah-blah-blah memoir

Planning is for sissies. A solo bike ride across the country will be filled with sunshine, lollipops, rainbows, and 80 degree temps every day, right? Not so much. The Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, an alkaline desert, and the Sierra Nevadas lay miles and days ahead. Disappointment with unrealized potential, and the thirst for what’s next drew farther away in the rotating wide-angle shockproof convex rear-view mirror.

“I will ride my bike down a never-ending ribbon of asphalt wearing a backpack.”

Cory Mortensen began his bike ride across the United States from Chaska, Minnesota, to Truckee, California, without a route, a timeline, or proper equipment. Along the way, he gained more than technical skills required for a ride that would test every fiber of his physical being and mental toughness. Ride along as he meets “unusual” characters, dangerous animals, and sweet little old ladies with a serious vendetta for strangers in their town.

Humor ■ Insight ■ Adventure ■ Gratitude ■ Peace

From long stretches of road ending in a vanishing point at the distant horizon, to stunning vistas, terrifying close calls, grueling conditions, failed equipment, and joyous milestones he stayed the course and gained an appreciation for the beauty of the land, the genius of engineering and marvel of nature.

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Cory Mortensen has ridden his collection of bicycles over a million miles of asphalt, dirt, mud, and backroads. In addition to the cross-country journey detailed in this book, he has traveled to over fifty-five countries, cycled from Minneapolis to Colorado solo to raise money for children born with congenital heart defects. He’s completed sixteen marathons on five continents, and survived three days of running with the bulls in Spain.

Cory is a certified Advanced PADI diver, and has enjoyed taking in life under the waves in locations all over the world. In 2003, he took time off from roaming, and accidentally started and built a company which he sold in 2013. That same year he married his best friend and explored the state of Texas for two years. The couple sold everything they owned, jumped on a plane to Ecuador and volunteered, trekked, and explored South America for sixteen months before returning to Phoenix, Arizona, where he works as a consultant and is soon to be a bestselling author.

The Buddha and the Bee is his first memoir in which he shares how a two month leave of absence redefined his life’s trajectory of sitting behind a desk and his decision to break society’s chains so he could live life on his terms.