Ernest Dempsey and I met in 2007 when he reviewed my book "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary" on TCM Reviews--Tami Brady's review site. Since then we've become writing friends across the waves. On Riehlife I've often referred to him as "Our Man in Pakistan."

Have some fun reviewing the Riehlife archives that feature Ernest Dempsey's wit and wisdom.

Often I'll be typing along on my email and the chat box pops up with a greeting from Ernest. Something interesting always emerges. Here's today's chat that we wanted to share with you.

--Janet
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Ernest: Happy Christmas!

Janet: And to you. Do you celebrate?

Ernest: I used to celebrate in a very unusual way, not at all religious. Now I just remember those memories; and it brings a warm feeling.

Janet: What did you do?

Ernest: Hard to explain briefly. Twenty years ago I would make short films in my mind, involving the characters from my favorite TV shows. It’s like I had my own "film industry" which celebrated Christmas all day long: films, games, and songs.

Janet: Wow. Sounds like the birth of you as a writer.

Ernest: Actually that was when I in class 9th in school, but I already had started writing when I was in 6th. The time in 9th was the peak of my creativity.

At home, I would go up on the roof and take a paper and pen, and then it was all me and imagination and words and joy.

Janet: That's lovely! A good topic for a little essay. Or a blog post?

Ernest: I actually have been thinking of writing an entire book, though one extremely nostalgic.

Janet: Well, you can write about the goodness of the past without being nostalgic.

Ernest: Yes, especially now when I am an internationally published author. In those days I only dreamt of being a known writer. How are you and Erwin? Do convey my greetings to him.

Janet: Daddy just got up and is taking his medicine. I just conveyed your greetings to him. He said, "I'm glad to be greeted from Pakistan. I'm glad to be here other than Pakistan. I'm glad to be here at all."

Ernest: Erwin's wonderful!

Janet: Yup, he's pretty special. Thanks for the chat. Will you have an imaginative film festival today?

Ernest: I’m afraid not. But I may be keeping a game tradition alive. Actually it's interesting. Earlier this month, I played that game with my writer friends’ names, including you.

Janet: What did you come up with?

Ernest: An American writing friend held the contest, and I won. She wanted to send me a gift basket as my prize.

Janet: And what's in the gift basket?

Ernest: For men, it was snacks; for women, spa items. I didn't want her to send me the basket all the way from America. So I thought of letting her send it to an American friend on my behalf.

Janet: Sweet!

Ernest: Yes, but the question was who to send it to, since all my writer friends are so wonderful. So I wrote down the names of my most special American friends, all writers and/or editors.

Janet: You're a generous fella.

Ernest: Thanks! I played that coin game with the names as the contestants for the prize. I would like to post the score of the game after the winner gets the prize. For now, I’m keeping the name of the winner to let the gift arrive as a surprise.

Janet: Nice! Got to leave now. Always good to be in touch.

Ernest: Likewise. Bye for now!

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Ernest’s unique coin game’s score will be made public after the winner receives that prize. Don’t miss checking out his journal Recovering the Self.

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PART 2: Life with the Written Word - Ernest Dempsey's Story from Pakistan

JGR: Your home is in Pakistan, currently a turbulent part of the world. Can you speak to how you manage to maintain internet access?

Ernest: Using internet has always been a problem here. Internet speed has generally been slow and, for years, I had to go to an Internet café to use the Internet, where of course I had to bear with the all the noise and disturbances combined with outdated computer systems on whose keyboards I had to literally bang my hands in order to type the intended text.

In summers, most of Pakistan is out of electric power and if you don’t have your own laptop and/or alternate power source, it means you can’t use the Internet (even if you don’t count serious sleep disturbance as a distraction). But for the past over a year, having a laptop and my own USB Internet connection has helped me to keep working online despite the power crisis and all that.

JGR: Ernest, The general situation in your country as we see and hear it in media sounds very uncertain and risky for any citizen there. How do you manage to maintain your inner peace and confidence through all the fear filling your surroundings? Does writing help keep you balanced and sane?

Ernest: I must say this is just the question I had been looking to come my way. You see, long before Pakistan became famous (or infamous) for terrorism and turbulence, I had sensed that for a person like me, being by myself meant peace.

Creating a world of imagination on paper in a lonely corner always meant ‘peace’ for me; out among people felt like ‘threat’. Decades later, I intrinsically remain unchanged while the madness around me has grown to the point of obvious, attesting my choice of staying aloof, creating a world and not destroying it through acts of terror or mere dawdling out there in confusion.

In my childhood, some of my family members expressed concern over my loneliness and intensive reading, sometimes questioning if I was a normal child. Today, everyone is wondering whether someone going out in the dangerous crowds is normal.

Time has sealed my writing obsession with a ‘Go!’ stamp and I am proud to say that my direction has been clear and my writing journey is my card of sanity and peace through all the madness that I find all around me.

Does writing help me keep balanced and sane? Absolutely! Writing is the only thing that can and does this for me. In fact, it is this very hobby (and now profession) which has the potential to keep me going, like a powerful magnet that attracts a piece of metal in its direction despite the millions of other things surrounding it.

I have been a lonesome soul, not quite socializing easily, and my psychological and social needs were satisfied mostly through the activity of writing. Without it, I can’t say what possibly could have become of me. But one thing that is quite evident is that I would not be me without writing.

JGR: Ernest, I’m grateful that we became internet buddies. You’ve opened many windows in my world. Thanks for sharing your experiences and Village Wisdom on Riehl Life today. Until next time!

One of my most staunch and most fun Blogging Buddy relationships is with Ernest Dempsey who in previous posts I've referred to as "Our Man in Pakistan." For a real treat go to the Riehlife archive to access Ernest Dempsey's 28 appearances contributing to our village wisdom.

Ernest Dempsey is the pen name of Karim Khan who has written several fine books. He conducts interviews, writes articles, professional book reviews, essays, and poetry.

We first met in 2007 when Ernest reviewed "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary" on TCM, and subsequently posted an interview for World Audience. Ernest is the Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of "Recovering the Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing."

Join in our conversation below for tips and inspiration about how to create a network of colleagues and supporters over the internet--no matter where you live. --Janet

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JGR Ernest, you've built a strong on-line community. How old were you when you began? How did you know how to do that? Have you concentrated on making connections with people in the United States and Australia?

Ernest: Though an avid reader and writer since my school days, it was in imagination at best to connect to people in the writing/publishing world before the year 2001, when I was finishing graduating from the university and used the Internet for the first time. With a low-speed internet, this new medium was so exciting and so very inviting to my passion for books and writing that before long, I found myself typing my writings on a computer.

I was 25 when I first contacted an author of a book that I was reading and liked a lot. It was Peer, Prejudice, and Discrimination, a book by the late Professor Harold Fishbein of the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Fishbein’s response to my correspondence was very positive and encouraged me to connect to people of intellect and learn from them.

It was in late 2005, coincidentally the time when Dr. Fishbein left us for good, that I moved to Peshawar city and started reviewing books regularly, posting my reviews on a my blog Book Corner.

Along with reviews came the passion for interviewing authors. This way, I became online friends with a number of authors who appreciated by reviewing work. In summer of 2006, I published my first book and soon became an editor at the World Audience Publishers of New York. As an editor, you get in touch with many authors, personally and professionally. So my circle of online friends grew. And since then, as they say, there has been no looking back. I am connected to lots of people in the writing and publishing world.

Since my sensibilities were more on the side of the literature and traditions of the west, I almost always addressed English publications, particularly American as my editorial positions have all been at American publications. There are some good friends in Australia, UK, India, and a few other countries. But mostly it’s America where I am connected to people more regularly and with greater harmony of thought and spirit.

JGR: You're quite young still. You've been enormously productive in several genres. How did you use your internet community to support and promote your work?

Ernest: Most of the writers, nearly all of them in fact, that I got in touch with had their websites and many loved to blog about their topics of interest. I found that interactivity lay at the core of online promotion of your work. Being a writer, this interactivity had immense appeal for me since all these writers and editors and publishers were also my readers, as much as I was theirs.

Just like one’s immediate social surroundings, being part of an online community required:

1) mutuality of interest,
2) a certain desirable decorum, and above all,
3) the will to engage in meaningful, very often a reassuring, and dialogue – whether in form of direct person-to-person communication or comments on blog posts.

It was living in a world of your choice.

I at once took to the activity of promoting others’ work and providing feedback, allowing them to tell about their experiences and achievements and aspirations. In return, I found the same respect, involvement, and feedback from others. Through newsletters and citizen journalism sites also, I connected to productive people and found the activity very meaningful. Many like-minded people befriended me. I learned that interaction is the key to promotion, and what better way to promote your work than through socializing with those who are united with you in spirit despite living a world away?

JGR: What are some of the benefits of a strong online presence? Besides building a career, what personal satisfaction and relationships came out of that?

Ernest: Beside being cathartic, it was so very encouraging to get connected to the writing and publishing community. I found some truly wonderful friends out there. Whether it is Leonore Dvorkin in Colorado, Kat Nicotera in Connecticut, Dave Scotese and RD Armstrong in California, Mike Strozier in New York, Victor Volkman in Michigan, Matt Ward in Australia, or Janet Riehl in Missouri, computer-mediated friendship has affirmed my belief in extending the concept of friendship and care beyond the immediate surroundings.

Getting appreciated by the online community of writers (and editors and publishers) has a key role in boosting my confidence in my own penchant for creative expression and it has made life more productive, more meaningful.

One very important thing that my online community of fellow writers showed me is the power of writing as a healing tool. There are many of my contacts who had some kind of trauma, illness, or hard-lived past, but who got over the crisis and emerged as strong, confident persons. This has particularly been so ever since I started the journal Recovering the Self
through which I met so many people with stories of crisis/trauma in their lives and then recovering from it using writing to boost the healing or recovery process. This has all been very inspiring and reassuring for me on a personal level.

Tune in tomorrow for Part 2 of Ernest Dempsey's story as a passionate Man of Letters--in Pakistan.

Ernest's drive to write and talent has developed an online writing community and an impressive career. Ernest lives in Pakistan. His writing has become a lifeline.

Let’s ask ourselves, can a moment, let alone an entire 12-month period, suddenly vanish as the clock ticks 12 midnight? Boy! That’s almost like accusing the year of escaping in the middle of the night like a thief after stealing something from our lives. On the contrary, it always gives us more: more time to live and more life to spend.

And that’s why I love the departing year more than the new one. I feel that the year we leave behind contributes more to our lives than the one just beginning. But of course, that's thinking in bits. To live and feel whole, living time as a continuum is what we better choose. It works for me. And I hope you are there with me in this continuum.

My resolutions for the New Year are:
1) to value life more than before, in all its forms;
2) to reunite life with the beauty and wholesomeness of nature;
3) and to grow via the written word.

Just days ago, I posted the story of a brutally abused dog Rocko who has found new life after successful surgery and is now waiting for a caring family to adopt him as a friend for the rest of his life, however much remains of it.

Rocko’s story is symbolic of healing. I would always value 2010 as the year of Rocko and other loving creatures like him who look upon us as friends and for whose safety many caring souls are there.

Thank you all for making my life beautiful! The year 2011 will continue the good work we have furthered together. Love you for your beautiful souls!

Ernest Dempsey
Editor
Recovering the Self

Victor R. Volkman is the publisher for Loving Healing Press

Ernest Dempsey is Editor-in-Chief for "Recovering The Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing."

You can buy the latest issue of Recovering the Self here.

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This February Janet Grace Riehl, author of Sightlines: A Poet's Diary, touched on an important point regarding love and Valentine’s Day. Janet suggested that if we would extend the concept of love beyond romance to encompass all the good feelings we have for people, then our Valentine’s Day will be more special. The philanthropic appeal at once touched my heart, taking my thoughts to our self-centeredness and its resulting self-confinement characterizing our emotional attachments.

True that romantic love is a defining human characteristic (and more). But often, it has a blinding effect on our human potential to stretch the benevolence of love to all or many around us. In romance, we tend to forget others, many a time even ourselves, as a single person takes the center stage of our emotional being. We think primarily in terms of that person, not realizing that confining our emotional flow to a single channel takes us away from those hundreds of more channels that need this emotional elixir. It is through connecting these many other channels that humanity becomes complete and happy.

For Valentine’s Day, let's open a window that lead us to open our hearts more fully beyond those closest to us. Speaking from a land where violence and terror haunt our peace each day, I see the love-to-all motto as the path to peace. So it is worth sharing to suggest sending love greetings and cards/gifts on Valentine to all and not our Romantic connections only. To make the day and life happier, let’s widen the concept of love.

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