by Brooks Mendell | Jan 1, 2023 | Writing
In mid-2017, I started submitting and tracking my fiction writing, and have since posted updates in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. How did it go in 2022? In 2022, I submitted versions and revisions of 26 stories 74 times to 46 different outlets. This included three...
by Brooks Mendell | Dec 7, 2022 | Communication Skills, Writing
You wake at 5:40 in the morning to write for an hour before the family circus starts. Several ideas fight for space in your head, eating your limited time. Finally, you pick one and plow ahead. Here, I focus on how to quickly produce an editable and operable blog post...
by Brooks Mendell | Nov 9, 2022 | Communication Skills, Leading/Managing, Sports
Recently, I attended the visitation in Reading, Massachusetts for Francis O’Brien, my college baseball coach at MIT.[1]In his eulogy, Kevin, the oldest of Coach O’Brien’s five children, said, “As Jackie Robinson said, ‘A life is not important except in the impact...
by Brooks Mendell | Oct 10, 2022 | Communication Skills, Forestry, Leading/Managing, Learning
When I missed the mark in my role as a log buyer and harvest manager in northeast Georgia in the 1990s, Danny Hamsley had a way of setting me straight. It would start with a phone call. “Brooks, I’m riding with you in the woods tomorrow.” Early...
by Brooks Mendell | Sep 20, 2022 | Communication Skills
I’ve given a lot of presentations, mostly about forest finance, timber markets and communication skills. When preparing, I use current data and recent research overlaid onto basic “themes.” Then I practice with new stories or examples. Even though I may be fluent and...
