--You read an article about seven necessary exercises for men and you read this, "Functional exercises train the muscles that are used for everyday activities like mowing the lawn..." and you think, Damn it, mowing the lawn IS my exercise.
--Followed immediately by: Now it's an everyday activity I need to exercise for?
--You put two bricks into the ground to complete a planting barrier, and then surround a plant with six more bricks that you basically just stomped into the ground, and you think that's a good day's work in the sun.
--And it's just in the high 40s. And it took just half an hour.
--You wake up the next morning and your body is a tad sore from this "rigorous work."
--You appreciate sitting in the sun--in a room in your house that gets a lot of sun.
--And you appreciate this room, like you never knew it got so much good sun.
--Because you didn't know, though you've lived in the house for almost five years.
--You realize you're as old as your father was when you thought he was old.
--Your doctor says, "We need to think about your prostate."
--And, "When was the last time you had your cholesterol tested?"
--After hearing this, you feel your blood pressure spiking and you're grateful they've already done that test.
--You monitor how much coffee and water you're drinking, so you don't have to do #1 when you know you'll be in the middle of something important.
--Like, going to see a movie. Or "working" outside.
--You're seriously considering fiber bars and cranberry juice.
--You find yourself typing articles about what gettin' old feels like.
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Comfort by Ann Hood
When a 5-year old child dies...Well, I can't really even finish the sentence, much less write a book about it. Such loss is inexplicable. It is impossible to imagine, even by a person like Hood who makes her living from her literary imagination. The talent to do so must be immense.
You have to do honor to yourself, your own emotions, the child, to the death, to the reality of how it happened. The details. The exact details. Details so exact you have to live your own worst nightmare over and over and over and over just to get the details right. Because to get them wrong--purposely wrong--is a sort of blasphemy. Yet you also don't want to sound whiny, or maudlin, like you don't realize other people have lost their kids, too. You have to write about the cold hard facts, and how do you describe emotions at all, especially as cold hard facts?
And you have to write it well, not like a diary or a journal. You have to write it over and over, drafts innumerable, to get the tone of everything above, and everything I can't even think of, just right. It is a high-wire act, a balancing act of art, and therapy, and confessional, and literature, and a sort of diary-journal in memoir form.
I'm a writer--hopefully a pretty good one--and I can't imagine ever being able to do this. Ann Hood, a former (or current?) Rhode Island College professor [full disclosure: I attended RIC but did not have the good fortune to get Ms. Hood as a professor, though of course I did have some good ones] does the high-wire act and succeeds because her writing is that direct, that honest, that good. This book will jab you with its simplicity and it's reality. Not realism, which is a fakeness of literature that makes the unreal real. This book is all real, all the time. It is one of the heavier 186-page book you'll ever read, and read it you should.
It doesn't matter if you've never lost a child. When you reach a certain age, as I guess I have, you've probably lost somebody, and no matter how old they were, I'll bet you thought they weren't old enough. And you're right. At least, I think you are, because that's how I've felt about my loved ones who've died. In fact, I feel that way about everyone I know who've died, even those who were quite old.
More than the death of her child, that's really what Comfort is about: Death. The death of anyone. Anyone you've loved. Anyone you thought died too young. Weren't they all too young?
Of course, it's harder to explain when they are really that young. How do you explain the death of a 5-year old girl? Especially when it's your own daughter, how do you explain that? Another thing this book tells you is that there is no explanation. There's no Why. How can there be? How can we possibly understand why such a thing happens? Hood makes it very clear right away, and reminds us throughout, that she doesn't know why it happened. She doesn't have a belief about it, either.
It happened. That's the source of the grief, and maybe of the comfort.
It happened. And there is no why.
A remarkable work that deserves to be read. When you're done you'll feel something, which is what good books are supposed to make you do.
Monday, June 29, 2015
No Longer A Vet--Now I'll Pay the Toll at the Gate
If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know I never write about my job. Few of you know what I do for a living, and any reference to it in a comment--good, bad or neutral--makes me delete that comment.
For the most part, that won't change now. I won't write about the job, but I do have an announcement to make. In keeping with my policy of not writing about my job, it may seem like code to those who aren't associated with it.
This entry is for those of you who are.
It is with great regret that I have to announce that I am [see title]. This was a brutal decision to make, and I even (almost) had an emotional moment after it was said and done. There was paperwork to sign, and a long walk back to my seat. (And they forgot to sign something, so I had to do it again.) I'm told that I made that walk both times with my head down, and that I did not look happy.
Though the job itself remains the same, I will be at a different building, working with a different community.
(However, it seems like I will be allowed to continue with the after-work program at the first building, so stay tuned for that. It is still on my way home, and so I can still run the program on Wednesdays, from 2:30 to 3:00, which was the plan anyway. Stay tuned for further details on that.)
I worked for 14 years at the building I left. I ran an after-work program there for 14 years, with good-to-great success. I served the same building in a different capacity for 4 years a long time ago. Overall, I spent 18 years--a large percentage of my life--in that one building.
But the building will be a different type of building in two years, and I could not see myself being successful with the new job requirements. I may have been transferred to another building anyway--quite possibly to the building I am now. But there was a small chance that I would have been transferred to another building, or asked to stay where I was, with new workers and new requirements, where I felt I may have been less successful at my job. The bottom line: for me, and to support my loved ones, I felt compelled to switch to a different building so I can work with the same type of workers--the same ones I've worked with for the past 14 years.
I will miss the workers I worked with, many of whom joined the after-work program I ran, as well as the other workers who stated they were very happy to be able to work with me again next year. Some of them had to talk to people to make that happen, and it seems like they went out of their way to do so. Now that won't happen. I do feel, a little bit, that I have left you and that I have let you down. I hope you don't feel the same way, and I hope you understand my explanation.
Job certainty is an important thing. So is knowing I will be able to stay in the same type of work environment for the foreseeable future--now, and long after any current worker has moved on. Hopefully, I'll be doing this for the next 25 or so years. We'll see.
And I may be seeing some of you again in two years, when you are sent to work at my new building.
I also look forward to the challenge of my new building. I have already met with some of the other workers (literally, the workers) and everything seems great. This new building also has an after-work program of the same type, so it would be cool to compete against this building's after-school program, should I be allowed to do so. Maybe I'll be asked to anchor it. I'd rather anchor the program of my former building, but we'll see. I look forward to a successful year with my new fellow workers--both literal and figurative--and I look forward to every challenge this building offers.
I take my job very seriously--perhaps too much so, on occasion--and I take the responsibilities of supporting my loved ones very seriously, too. As much as I, they deserved to know that I had job certainty, and that I was able to work in a situation where I felt I would do the most good, and to be the most successful. If I am not successful at my job, I am not happy. Nothing else at work matters.
I did what I could for the building, for its workers, and for the community--for 14 years. I spoke publicly against those who wanted to shut down or transform that building. I care for the building, its workers and its community, and don't let anyone tell you different.
I will always be a vet; I'll always be very pro-veteran.
And so I say goodbye. Maybe just for now; maybe for good. Even if we had our differences, I hope that you agree that I did the best I could at my job, every single day. And that my best was good.
Be good.
Be safe.
Be happy.
For the most part, that won't change now. I won't write about the job, but I do have an announcement to make. In keeping with my policy of not writing about my job, it may seem like code to those who aren't associated with it.
This entry is for those of you who are.
It is with great regret that I have to announce that I am [see title]. This was a brutal decision to make, and I even (almost) had an emotional moment after it was said and done. There was paperwork to sign, and a long walk back to my seat. (And they forgot to sign something, so I had to do it again.) I'm told that I made that walk both times with my head down, and that I did not look happy.
Though the job itself remains the same, I will be at a different building, working with a different community.
(However, it seems like I will be allowed to continue with the after-work program at the first building, so stay tuned for that. It is still on my way home, and so I can still run the program on Wednesdays, from 2:30 to 3:00, which was the plan anyway. Stay tuned for further details on that.)
I worked for 14 years at the building I left. I ran an after-work program there for 14 years, with good-to-great success. I served the same building in a different capacity for 4 years a long time ago. Overall, I spent 18 years--a large percentage of my life--in that one building.
But the building will be a different type of building in two years, and I could not see myself being successful with the new job requirements. I may have been transferred to another building anyway--quite possibly to the building I am now. But there was a small chance that I would have been transferred to another building, or asked to stay where I was, with new workers and new requirements, where I felt I may have been less successful at my job. The bottom line: for me, and to support my loved ones, I felt compelled to switch to a different building so I can work with the same type of workers--the same ones I've worked with for the past 14 years.
I will miss the workers I worked with, many of whom joined the after-work program I ran, as well as the other workers who stated they were very happy to be able to work with me again next year. Some of them had to talk to people to make that happen, and it seems like they went out of their way to do so. Now that won't happen. I do feel, a little bit, that I have left you and that I have let you down. I hope you don't feel the same way, and I hope you understand my explanation.
Job certainty is an important thing. So is knowing I will be able to stay in the same type of work environment for the foreseeable future--now, and long after any current worker has moved on. Hopefully, I'll be doing this for the next 25 or so years. We'll see.
And I may be seeing some of you again in two years, when you are sent to work at my new building.
I also look forward to the challenge of my new building. I have already met with some of the other workers (literally, the workers) and everything seems great. This new building also has an after-work program of the same type, so it would be cool to compete against this building's after-school program, should I be allowed to do so. Maybe I'll be asked to anchor it. I'd rather anchor the program of my former building, but we'll see. I look forward to a successful year with my new fellow workers--both literal and figurative--and I look forward to every challenge this building offers.
I take my job very seriously--perhaps too much so, on occasion--and I take the responsibilities of supporting my loved ones very seriously, too. As much as I, they deserved to know that I had job certainty, and that I was able to work in a situation where I felt I would do the most good, and to be the most successful. If I am not successful at my job, I am not happy. Nothing else at work matters.
I did what I could for the building, for its workers, and for the community--for 14 years. I spoke publicly against those who wanted to shut down or transform that building. I care for the building, its workers and its community, and don't let anyone tell you different.
I will always be a vet; I'll always be very pro-veteran.
And so I say goodbye. Maybe just for now; maybe for good. Even if we had our differences, I hope that you agree that I did the best I could at my job, every single day. And that my best was good.
Be good.
Be safe.
Be happy.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Free Contest and Pics--The Zombie's Lament in Black Chaos II
On page 65 of Black Chaos II, edited by Bill Olver and published by Big Pulp Publications, you'll find my short story, "The Zombie's Lament."
The cover looks great: bright colors, cool image from a known artist--Ken Knudtsen, who has worked on Wolverine for Marvel Comics, and on projects for David Geffen.
I've been very lucky with covers of magazines and books for my short stories. "Hide the Weird" was in an issue of Space and Time Magazine. That cover was really cool, too. Not too nerdy, very bright and colorful, and a skeleton is laying back, chilling out on the beach, having a drink--as the nuclear apocalypse mushrooms in the distance. What else can you ask for?
The book's print is in good shape. The ink is solid and it doesn't look unprofessional or cheap. The author bio came out great. There aren't any typos anywhere, and the book as a whole just looks good.
Anyway, the ISBN for Black Chaos II: More Tales of the Zombie, is 978-0-9896812-2-3. It's available via bookstores, both brick-and-mortar and online. The stories and poems are about zombies in relationships, zombies in the circus, zombies in a Christmas special, a mother-in-law zombie, and pissed-off zombies. In short, if you like your zombies a little bit different, you'll like this book.
So, now, the contest!
On my published works blog (just click the tab above), you'll find "Everything's Connected" and "So Many Reasons to Celebrate the Season." These stories were written by me and purchased and published by OverMyDeadBody.com and OnThePremises.com. And they're free! The first one is a very short, light detective piece and the latter is a very short (and, IMO, very funny--yet very not) slice-of-life piece about a writer coming home to a failing marriage and a houseload of people on Christmas Eve. Jack Nicholson in full The Shining mode makes a brief appearance in that one.
Anyway, to enter the contest, all you have to do is go to my Published Works page, choose one of those two free stories, click the link, read it, and leave a thought or two about the story as a comment on my Published Works blog beneath that story. Read both stories and comment on each and you get entered into the contest twice! The winner gets a free copy of Black Chaos II: More Tales of the Zombie. You don't pay for the book and you don't pay for the postage.
The contest will run until the end of June. I'll notify the winner via email and get the mailing address at that time. And because I have many readers outside the U.S., I'll leave the contest open to anyone in the world who wants to enter!
Thanks very much for doing so, and good luck!
And, by the way, if you've read "The Zombie's Lament," and you've found this blog entry from my author bio in the book, please feel free to leave a comment here and let me know what you thought of the story. Please and thank you, and thanks for reading my work!
Monday, May 25, 2015
Beta-readers
A quick message:
I have 7 beta-readers lined up, and I would love 10, and I haven't asked any of my e-friends yet. I mean, haven't we all been buried by people asking us to read their books and manuscripts? And I especially feel bad because I haven't had the time to read and comment on too many of anyone else's work lately.
But if you're an e-friend of mine, and you wouldn't mind being a beta-reader, please let me know by Wednesday the 27th. My email is on this blog page somewhere.
Please and thank-you!
I have 7 beta-readers lined up, and I would love 10, and I haven't asked any of my e-friends yet. I mean, haven't we all been buried by people asking us to read their books and manuscripts? And I especially feel bad because I haven't had the time to read and comment on too many of anyone else's work lately.
But if you're an e-friend of mine, and you wouldn't mind being a beta-reader, please let me know by Wednesday the 27th. My email is on this blog page somewhere.
Please and thank-you!
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Novel Manuscript Finished
Spent much of the week getting my beta-reader email packages together, plus calling a few people so I didn't have to send them emails.
Why?
Because the 37th novel-length edit of the book is done!!! That's right--37!!! This week I'll send out my beta-reader queries and work on the next book. This weekend I'll spend one day incorporating all of the red comments in this last manuscript edit, save it all to one long document, and back it all up.
Then, out go the agent queries as I work on the next book, tidy up and send out a few stories, and take a look at the new book my zombie story is in. And, please, wish me luck!!!
Why?
Because the 37th novel-length edit of the book is done!!! That's right--37!!! This week I'll send out my beta-reader queries and work on the next book. This weekend I'll spend one day incorporating all of the red comments in this last manuscript edit, save it all to one long document, and back it all up.
Then, out go the agent queries as I work on the next book, tidy up and send out a few stories, and take a look at the new book my zombie story is in. And, please, wish me luck!!!
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Quick Jots for 5.6.2015
Just a few quick things:
--When a Star Warsgeek fan said, "May the fourth be with you," I was automatically urged to respond, "And also with you. Let's lift up our hearts. It is right to give thanks and praise..."
--Seriously. Like, I feel I've been unwittingly programmed. And I'm as self-aware as anyone I know. In fact, a lot more. This is a very uncool, borderline terrifying, feeling for me.
--And I've never heard of "May the fourth be with you," before. And I've been around my share of that kind ofdork geek enthusiastic fan.
--I'm only four chapters or so from finishing my novel manuscript, for those of you who've been keeping track.
--It feels like minor-league summer around here. To the extent that I feel like I will run over innocent women and children in my hurried attempt to get out of my workplace and go home. And I usually stick around there a while longer to finish things up and to get things done.
--Despite that, I have two rose plants that I tried to save, but couldn't. Their stems were snapped by the incredible weight of all the snow that had settled (and been shoveled) upon them. I taped them, and propped them up, and watered them, and...yeah, well, my landscaper told me I should cut it at the place it snapped, and hope for the best. Everything above that snap had died.
--This same guy told me the name of a bush I did successfully save last week. It's the full, thick, green thing that the small purple snappy things come out of. Begins with H, I think. [Please leave the name in a comment below if you know it. People have tired of me calling it "the purple poppy plant, with the little snappies."
--But, anyway, I saved that thing by getting a lot of leaves, detritus, and who-knows-what-else out of it. The green is now fuller and more lush than it's ever been, and the poppy things are coming out. Last year those purple snappy things didn't come out until June, and they stayed out for a couple of weeks. Drove me crazy. Meanwhile those purple snappy things had sprouted in everyone else's yard for miles around me.
--I just so happened to be watching a little black ant (not big carpenter sized) stroll into a tiny opening between the gutter of my deck extension, and the house. So I sprayed half an entire container of ant killer in there, with the plunger you pull back and the gun nozzle you can point right in there. Only twenty or so ants came out, staggering and dying. (Made me feel bad, but those things aren't staying in a colony there.) And the whole situation gave me PTSD flashbacks from the time thousands and thousands of ants came down upon me and my real estate agent in a former house. Long story.
--And I know that there's a lot more than just those 20 up in there. They just learned to stay further away from the stream of poison coming in. I'll spray a lot more up there (which I already have, and no more of them have come out) and then seal that hole up. Hopefully anything left alive in there don't eat their way in.
--I looked into bombing it out, but the hole is way too small, and apparently you only do that in an enclosed room, not in the outside air beneath a TimberTek deck and a gutter. I also looked into the poison ant food that you place down and they bring it back to the colony, thereby killing the queen and everyone else. But there's no place to place such a thing. The deck and gutter are too far away, and the ants don't actually go onto those things, anyway. They stroll beneath the gutter and into the hole. They could've been doing so for who-knows-how-many years. But I checked the deck, the gutter, the closet and washroom, and the office upstairs, and there's no evidence of penetration, sawdust, or anything else.
Any suggestions of what else I can do with that situation, please comment and advise. Thanks!
--When a Star Wars
--Seriously. Like, I feel I've been unwittingly programmed. And I'm as self-aware as anyone I know. In fact, a lot more. This is a very uncool, borderline terrifying, feeling for me.
--And I've never heard of "May the fourth be with you," before. And I've been around my share of that kind of
--I'm only four chapters or so from finishing my novel manuscript, for those of you who've been keeping track.
--It feels like minor-league summer around here. To the extent that I feel like I will run over innocent women and children in my hurried attempt to get out of my workplace and go home. And I usually stick around there a while longer to finish things up and to get things done.
--Despite that, I have two rose plants that I tried to save, but couldn't. Their stems were snapped by the incredible weight of all the snow that had settled (and been shoveled) upon them. I taped them, and propped them up, and watered them, and...yeah, well, my landscaper told me I should cut it at the place it snapped, and hope for the best. Everything above that snap had died.
--This same guy told me the name of a bush I did successfully save last week. It's the full, thick, green thing that the small purple snappy things come out of. Begins with H, I think. [Please leave the name in a comment below if you know it. People have tired of me calling it "the purple poppy plant, with the little snappies."
--But, anyway, I saved that thing by getting a lot of leaves, detritus, and who-knows-what-else out of it. The green is now fuller and more lush than it's ever been, and the poppy things are coming out. Last year those purple snappy things didn't come out until June, and they stayed out for a couple of weeks. Drove me crazy. Meanwhile those purple snappy things had sprouted in everyone else's yard for miles around me.
--I just so happened to be watching a little black ant (not big carpenter sized) stroll into a tiny opening between the gutter of my deck extension, and the house. So I sprayed half an entire container of ant killer in there, with the plunger you pull back and the gun nozzle you can point right in there. Only twenty or so ants came out, staggering and dying. (Made me feel bad, but those things aren't staying in a colony there.) And the whole situation gave me PTSD flashbacks from the time thousands and thousands of ants came down upon me and my real estate agent in a former house. Long story.
--And I know that there's a lot more than just those 20 up in there. They just learned to stay further away from the stream of poison coming in. I'll spray a lot more up there (which I already have, and no more of them have come out) and then seal that hole up. Hopefully anything left alive in there don't eat their way in.
--I looked into bombing it out, but the hole is way too small, and apparently you only do that in an enclosed room, not in the outside air beneath a TimberTek deck and a gutter. I also looked into the poison ant food that you place down and they bring it back to the colony, thereby killing the queen and everyone else. But there's no place to place such a thing. The deck and gutter are too far away, and the ants don't actually go onto those things, anyway. They stroll beneath the gutter and into the hole. They could've been doing so for who-knows-how-many years. But I checked the deck, the gutter, the closet and washroom, and the office upstairs, and there's no evidence of penetration, sawdust, or anything else.
Any suggestions of what else I can do with that situation, please comment and advise. Thanks!
Friday, April 24, 2015
Notes from A Stephen King Interview, Part 1
Photo: Stephen King's house in Bangor, Maine. From his Wikipedia page.
Stephen King gave this sort of loose interview to The Atlantic on April 12, 2011. (I don't know why I'm reading it now, four years after the fact. And...It's not called The Atlantic Monthly anymore? Was I napping when that happened?) The interview was in conjunction with a new-at-the-time short story, "Herman Wouk Is Still Alive," which you can read here. (You should read the story first before continuing on with this blog entry.)
King said a couple of things I thought were interesting, things I didn't always agree with. So, without further ado...
James Parker: Would you mind filling our readers in just a little bit on the back story to "Herman Wouk Is Still Alive"?
Stephen King: Every year my son Owen and I have a bet on the NCAA March Madness Tournament, and last year the stakes were that the loser would have to write a story [with a title] the winner gave to him. And I lost. Except I really won, because I got this story that I really like. The title that he gave me for the story was "Herman Wouk Is Still Alive," because he'd just a read a piece saying that the guy was still alive and he's still writing even though he's 95 or 96 years old.
So I thought about it a lot--believe me, I thought about it a lot. The tournament was over by the first of April that year, and I mulled that over in my mind until about July. So there was a period of about four months when I thought, "What am I gonna write, what am I gonna write?" Usually you get an idea yourself and then you write a story -- you don't think of a title and then write a story to go with it. So it was kind of an ass-backwards kind of thing. And my first thought was to write a story about a guy in a mental asylum who believed that he was keeping certain writers alive by brainpower. And it was going to be kind of a funny story, and there was going to be a list of writers that he'd gotten tired of and that he had allowed to die.
Belanger: These are the minds of writers. He started with a title and no story (99.9% of the time it's the other way around) and then had a thought about a mentally unbalanced guy who thought he was keeping writers alive out of his own will. And when he tires of the writer's stuff--boom, the writer's gone. Now, that's not normal thinking--on the part of the character and on King himself. But that is how the minds of writers work.
Stephen King offers another moment of how he gets ideas for his writing:
The other day I went out to the mailbox at the end of the road and there was a flyer in there, one of these things where they give you coupons and you get a dollar off mouthwash or makeup or whatever, and on the back there's a number of pictures of children, missing children. It says: "Have you seen me?" It's just a sort of throwaway -- you get it and you don't really look at it. And I was looking at it on the walk back from the mailbox, and I thought: "What if there was a guy who got one of these and one of the pictures started to talk to him and say 'I was killed and I'm buried here in this location or that location, in a gravel pit or stuffed into a culvert ...'"? And I thought: "You know, a guy like that, who could find bodies, would be under a lot of suspicion from the police. And there's a story there.
Now, that's messed up. But, interesting, right? I mean, that's not a bad story idea, right there. But it's still messed up. King always calls such moments his "What If?" moments.
I've had these moments. Not to the same degree, of course. (Or to the same benefit.) But these are indeed very cool moments.
Writers speak differently, too, because they think differently--and, hopefully, we've all learned to think before we speak. Here's what he said about having too many good story ideas at once:
In the old days, it would seem like ideas were crammed in like people in an elevator. And my head was sometimes a very noisy place to be.
Now that's a great comparison! I'm going to bet that your average intelligent person (the question of whether the average person is intelligent is a different conversation) wouldn't be able to have that thought or explain it in quite that way. And, by the way, he's right: This is exactly how that feels. To this I would add the extended metaphor that, when the small elevator gets too crowded with ideas, the elevator gets stuck between floors. At least, mine does. They're all so busy pushing and jostling everyone aside to get to the front, closer to the doors, that nobody ever presses any buttons, and the damn elevator can't move.
And what happens when all these ideas come at you, but you're busy working on something that's going very well?
The other thing that happens with that is, say you're working on something and it's going along pretty well, and two or three ideas occur, and they're all yelling "You should write this! You should write this!" It's almost like being married and all of a sudden your life is full of beautiful women. You have to stay faithful to what you're working on. But it can be uncomfortable.
Again, just not a thought, comparison, or verbal explanation that most people would have. And, again, he's perfectly right. My problem is that I've "cheated" and, sometimes, I've just run away from all of them, because there was just too many. This is why novels take years and years...
To be continued, in another blog entry, in a couple of days...
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
To Sell or Not to Sell: An Open Plea for Ideas or Advice
A quick blurb about some housekeeping on this site and on my other blogs, plus some ideas.
--I deleted the AHS blog because a) the season's over, and b) despite my best intentions, I didn't have time to keep up with it.
--I'm running into the same problem with this season's Walking Dead blog, but I'm hoping for a revival of my own, much like the characters had in the latest episode from Sunday, February 15th.
--The analytics show that I can make some money off this blog, and my Walking Dead and my baseball blogs, if I can keep them up. To do that, I'd either have to sell stuff on them (like, my already-published stories, if the rights have reverted back to me) or I'd have to place ads.
--I'm open to anyone's ideas and / or comments about this. (Please send me an email [address above] or place a comment. Thanks.)
--I am loathe to put up ads, but who couldn't use more money? And what if they weren't obtrusive? I've seen sites where the ads were just off to the side, or down below. Though that makes me wonder how much money was being generated that way. And if you're not bringing in revenue, why have the ads to begin with?
--But I could create links to pages to sell my stuff. Or I could set up such links on this page. But then I'd have to figure out how to get PayPal on this page. And how much would that cost? And is it worth it?
--Anyone have any ideas about how I could sell my short stories, once the rights have reverted back to me? (I believe the rights to all of the pieces shown on my Published Work tab have reverted back to me by now.) Again, emails or comments are fine, please and thank you.
--I deleted the AHS blog because a) the season's over, and b) despite my best intentions, I didn't have time to keep up with it.
--I'm running into the same problem with this season's Walking Dead blog, but I'm hoping for a revival of my own, much like the characters had in the latest episode from Sunday, February 15th.
--The analytics show that I can make some money off this blog, and my Walking Dead and my baseball blogs, if I can keep them up. To do that, I'd either have to sell stuff on them (like, my already-published stories, if the rights have reverted back to me) or I'd have to place ads.
--I'm open to anyone's ideas and / or comments about this. (Please send me an email [address above] or place a comment. Thanks.)
--I am loathe to put up ads, but who couldn't use more money? And what if they weren't obtrusive? I've seen sites where the ads were just off to the side, or down below. Though that makes me wonder how much money was being generated that way. And if you're not bringing in revenue, why have the ads to begin with?
--But I could create links to pages to sell my stuff. Or I could set up such links on this page. But then I'd have to figure out how to get PayPal on this page. And how much would that cost? And is it worth it?
--Anyone have any ideas about how I could sell my short stories, once the rights have reverted back to me? (I believe the rights to all of the pieces shown on my Published Work tab have reverted back to me by now.) Again, emails or comments are fine, please and thank you.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Cheap Shot--Book Review
Photo: The book's hardcover...cover? From its Goodreads page.
Another good, compulsively-readable entry into the series by Atkins.
There's not much here you haven't seen before if you've read the others by Parker and Atkins. But this one still stands apart from the others because of its purposely scattered structure. Spenser's all over the place, from Boston to NYC and back again. He speaks to old characters (Gerry Broz runs a fish store?!?), only some of whom are actually useful for this case.
This is the one startling aspect of this book. Old, non-regular characters either come up (Broz; Tony Marcus; Ty-Bop) or are brought up (Rachel Wallace; April Kyle) simply to stir them up in the readers' minds. Doing this could've led to disaster, almost like name-dropping, but Atkins handles it well. It doesn't distract. It adds.
This one reads a little more gritty, a little more true-to-life. This is also different than many, but not all, of Parker's. His often tended to get wrapped up neatly. The better ones, now that I think about it, didn't end that way: Looking for Rachel Wallace and April Kyle's second (and last) come to mind.
Who-dun-it is not a surprise, exactly, although I was a little surprised about how it suddenly came to a head. I mean this in a good way. It makes sense, and the reader and Spenser were kind of heading there, but it all gets sidetracked, as did Spenser, as does the reader. So when the ending happens, it all makes sense, and isn't really surprising, and yet it was a nice, little twist at the same time.
In a gritty, realistic kind of way. Would it really happen that way? The motel room? The trunk? Yes, I believe it really could happen that way. But in the trunk? Yes, because he just didn't care. (I won't reveal the end, so you'll just have to read it to fully grasp what I'm talking about.) Would it have ended that way in Parker's hands? Nope. But that's okay.
It works. That's all that matters. Things change. People change.
And, often, they don't change. The bad ones, when they get really pissed, tend to stay that way. And then they do bad things. And then everything sort of goes to hell.
Sometimes that kind of thing ends well. Other times--I'm thinking Cormac McCarthy here--they don't. As it is in real life as well.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
What Do You Do To Keep Hope Alive?
The question asked to me was: What do you do to keep hope alive while you wait? The insinuation was: While I wait for the reply from a literary agent, or while I wait for the editor of a magazine I'd just sent my story to, or while I wait for my taking-forever novel to be done.
My response:
1. I look around at others who are only their jobs. I remind myself that I don't want to look like that, for they often look miserable.
2. I write for myself. To better understand my world. To better understand me.
3. I don't feel bitter about the success of others because they don't write what I write and I don't write what they write. Each artist and his work are a unique tandem, and so I remind myself that such comparisons are impossible.
4. I don't write because of my dreams. I write towards my dreams.
5. I remind myself that, although agents are not infallible (re: J.K. Rowling), they are also not idiots. They have to take on projects they believe they can sell, period. They have mortgages, too.
6. I write different things. Though my current novel is taking beyond forever, I have finished and sold some short stories. Though only Alice Munro and two or three lucky others can make careers out of selling short stories, the fact remains that I have sold some, and this gives me confidence--which is invaluable, and can't be taught.
7. I think, "Why not me?" Stephen King used to work in a laundry. He lived in a trailer and typed Carrie on a laptop--a busted, old typewriter on his lap. J.K. Rowling was a single mom on welfare with three kids.
8. I remember that it's a business. Dreams don't sell. Good writing does.
9. I always have something to work on next. After I send out a short story, or a query letter, etc., I get busy on the next page of my story and novel. I don't leave myself time to worry about the stuff I just sent out. I'm not J.D. Salinger or Harper Lee anyway: One novel probably won't make a career for me. Best to be working.
10. I write.
What do you do to keep your hope alive? What are you hoping for?
My response:
1. I look around at others who are only their jobs. I remind myself that I don't want to look like that, for they often look miserable.
2. I write for myself. To better understand my world. To better understand me.
3. I don't feel bitter about the success of others because they don't write what I write and I don't write what they write. Each artist and his work are a unique tandem, and so I remind myself that such comparisons are impossible.
4. I don't write because of my dreams. I write towards my dreams.
5. I remind myself that, although agents are not infallible (re: J.K. Rowling), they are also not idiots. They have to take on projects they believe they can sell, period. They have mortgages, too.
6. I write different things. Though my current novel is taking beyond forever, I have finished and sold some short stories. Though only Alice Munro and two or three lucky others can make careers out of selling short stories, the fact remains that I have sold some, and this gives me confidence--which is invaluable, and can't be taught.
7. I think, "Why not me?" Stephen King used to work in a laundry. He lived in a trailer and typed Carrie on a laptop--a busted, old typewriter on his lap. J.K. Rowling was a single mom on welfare with three kids.
8. I remember that it's a business. Dreams don't sell. Good writing does.
9. I always have something to work on next. After I send out a short story, or a query letter, etc., I get busy on the next page of my story and novel. I don't leave myself time to worry about the stuff I just sent out. I'm not J.D. Salinger or Harper Lee anyway: One novel probably won't make a career for me. Best to be working.
10. I write.
What do you do to keep your hope alive? What are you hoping for?
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Deleted Comments---My Bad
Ummm...Yeah. So...it turns out that when you delete comments from
the published folder, you also delete them from the blog itself. Didn't
know that. Doesn't make sense to me, because once you've posted them,
why are they still tethered to the published folder? Wish I knew that
before I deleted the last 50 or so comments...
Well, anyway, I am working hard to find these comments again and re-post them. I'm taking this very seriously, since if people are nice enough to take their precious time to read my blog and post a comment, they shouldn't get said comments deleted.
I especially apologize to Dreki, who has posted quite a few comments recently, and after a bit of a hassle. I'm working hard to get those back. And I apologize to Diane, who lost the most comments. I'm sorry this happened.
So please rest assured everyone that I am working hard to resolve this problem. If you have any advice to give about how I can do this, please leave me an email at sb[at]stevenbelanger.com, or leave a comment below. I promise not to delete those, too.
If you've commented on my website since February 2013 (!!!), and if you still have a copy of it on your computer somewhere, please either send it to me and I'll take care of it (though I'd rather not have to do that), or just re-post it yourself if you don't trust my computer savvy. I wouldn't blame you. If you don't want to do anything because you're as disgusted as I am with the whole thing, I wouldn't blame you for that, either.
Well, anyway, I am working hard to find these comments again and re-post them. I'm taking this very seriously, since if people are nice enough to take their precious time to read my blog and post a comment, they shouldn't get said comments deleted.
I especially apologize to Dreki, who has posted quite a few comments recently, and after a bit of a hassle. I'm working hard to get those back. And I apologize to Diane, who lost the most comments. I'm sorry this happened.
So please rest assured everyone that I am working hard to resolve this problem. If you have any advice to give about how I can do this, please leave me an email at sb[at]stevenbelanger.com, or leave a comment below. I promise not to delete those, too.
If you've commented on my website since February 2013 (!!!), and if you still have a copy of it on your computer somewhere, please either send it to me and I'll take care of it (though I'd rather not have to do that), or just re-post it yourself if you don't trust my computer savvy. I wouldn't blame you. If you don't want to do anything because you're as disgusted as I am with the whole thing, I wouldn't blame you for that, either.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Short Story Sale--"Everything's Connected" to Over My Dead Body! The Mystery Magazine Online
Just a quick self-serving note:
The rights to my short story, "Everything's Connected"--about a detective who catches a cheating spouse in the act, solves a kid's disappearance, and proves a little theoretical quantum physics--all in fewer than 2,000 words!--has been purchased by Over My Dead Body! The Mystery Magazine Online. There are some pretty cool stories there now--lots and lots of them, in fact. And they're all free! So if you like quick and easy (and short) mystery stories, or stories of murder and mayhem, check them out at overmydeadbody.com.
This is awesome for me personally for two reasons. The first thing is that Brad Foster, the main character of this story, is also the main character of a novel manuscript, Cursing the Darkness (Working Title), that is maybe 90% completed. So Brad Foster will see the light of day. Though it should be noted that the short story is very light, while the novel is very, very, very (many more veries) dark, gritty and brutal. But his character is essentially the same.
The second reason this sale is awesome is because it's a mystery story in a mystery magazine: yet another different genre for me to be published in. So far, the stories I've published, their location (and link), and their genre:
--"Everything's Connected," in Over My Dead Body! The Mystery Magazine Online. Mystery. Publication date TBA.
--"The Zombie's Lament" by Big Pulp. Anthology due April 2015. Horror.
--"So Many Reasons to Celebrate the Season," in onthepremises.com. March 2012. Contemporary / literary.
--"An Old Man." Poem.
--"Someone To Come Home To." Short nonfiction article about the benefits of adopting a greyhound.
--"Hide the Weird," in Space and Time Magazine, Issue #116 of Fall 2012.
It ain't Stephen King, but it ain't nuthin', either, I guess.
Look for a publication date soon for "Everything's Connected."
Click on the Published Work link above for more details.
As always, thanks for reading my blog, my stories, everything. I always appreciate (and need) your support.
The rights to my short story, "Everything's Connected"--about a detective who catches a cheating spouse in the act, solves a kid's disappearance, and proves a little theoretical quantum physics--all in fewer than 2,000 words!--has been purchased by Over My Dead Body! The Mystery Magazine Online. There are some pretty cool stories there now--lots and lots of them, in fact. And they're all free! So if you like quick and easy (and short) mystery stories, or stories of murder and mayhem, check them out at overmydeadbody.com.
This is awesome for me personally for two reasons. The first thing is that Brad Foster, the main character of this story, is also the main character of a novel manuscript, Cursing the Darkness (Working Title), that is maybe 90% completed. So Brad Foster will see the light of day. Though it should be noted that the short story is very light, while the novel is very, very, very (many more veries) dark, gritty and brutal. But his character is essentially the same.
The second reason this sale is awesome is because it's a mystery story in a mystery magazine: yet another different genre for me to be published in. So far, the stories I've published, their location (and link), and their genre:
--"Everything's Connected," in Over My Dead Body! The Mystery Magazine Online. Mystery. Publication date TBA.
--"The Zombie's Lament" by Big Pulp. Anthology due April 2015. Horror.
--"So Many Reasons to Celebrate the Season," in onthepremises.com. March 2012. Contemporary / literary.
--"An Old Man." Poem.
--"Someone To Come Home To." Short nonfiction article about the benefits of adopting a greyhound.
--"Hide the Weird," in Space and Time Magazine, Issue #116 of Fall 2012.
It ain't Stephen King, but it ain't nuthin', either, I guess.
Look for a publication date soon for "Everything's Connected."
Click on the Published Work link above for more details.
As always, thanks for reading my blog, my stories, everything. I always appreciate (and need) your support.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Blog Tour--My Writing Process
Thanks to my friend Jane Wilson, I am participating in the Blog Tour, in which authors write about their writing process, and their writing, by answering the same four questions. Jane posted hers last week, March 3rd, at http://redroom.com/member/
So, if you'resilly curious enough to read four questions and answers about my writing process and my writing, here you go:
1. What am I working on?
My goodness, what am I not working on? I'm always working on multiple projects, which I used to think meant that I was super-creative. But now I think it means I'm not as focused and organized with my time and with my projects as I should be. I'd get more writing finished if I did one thing at a time. For the record, I do not encourage the multiple-project method, unless you are much more organized than I am, and you tend to finish a piece after a decent length of time.
Anyway, I'm finishing a thriller / mystery, titled (maybe), Mattress Girl, though I may stick with its (too) old title, Cursing the Darkness. (I'm sort of sick of that title now, but it fits the work very, very well. And Mattress Girl is not the main character.) Feel free to comment on which title you think sounds more interesting. This is maybe 80% done. A sequel (or prequel) is in minor stages as well.
I'm also writing a short story, "Cribbage," about a father / son bonding memory, considered by the narrator after his father has passed. This has proven to be a little too close to home, and difficult to finish.
I'm also working on a historical horror novel about a nasty, evil creature that took part in the plague in Rome and the Great Fire; in The Black Plague that killed a third of Europe (though I focus on the village of Eyam, England, which quarantined itself during the Plague and lost about 80% of its people); in the TB epidemic in New England from 1880-1895; and possibly in the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918 and, if I'm really gutsy, in the AIDS Epidemic, circa early-to-mid 1980s. (Because that's what it was, and is, and I'm not sure, even 34 years later, that we've totally realized that as a society.) I'm actually about a third through this one, though it's in fragments. I speak of Book 1 of this project, which I expect to be a trilogy, at least.
And did I mention I was drafting a novel told from the POV of the maid (who really existed) or of a servant (who really didn't) of Lizzie Borden, in 1892? And two memoirs?
I also write book reviews for an online mystery magazine. You can see why I do not suggest this juggling-writing method.
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I try to turn each genre on its head, or to at least introduce something new to it. I'm writing Cursing the Darkness because I've been reading mystery, and noir, and detective novels, and combinations of those, since my early teens. The darkness, the loneliness, the lone man standing on his own (but not being as alone as he thinks he is) against the evils and ills of his society, of his world--all of that resonates with me. I feel I often do much the same thing, though I'm not a detective. I suspect, though, that I could be a good one, but I wouldn't be able to work in a constrictive environment, like a police force. I wouldn't be able to stand the politics, the red tape, looking in the faces of murderers and abusers and rapists and not being able to beat the hell out of them, the frustration of having to let go of an unsolved case because of the next case...
The memoirs I write because I have something very specific to say in them; to be honest, they're in such an infancy that I don't know how they'll be different yet. Except for its main subject, of course...
The short story in general is a form I like a lot. It's immediately gratifying for the author, in the sense that they're finished faster than a novel, and the editor's Yes or No comes back quicker than an agent's or publisher's does. Mine are different, I think, because I focus on an aspect of the story's genre, or themes, that are not as tread upon as are others. "Hide the Weird," for example, differed because it focused on the minute details of one potential death, one incident, and it ended with a "knowing" detail that was a little different, a little quirky. I like that about short stories, that you can focus on one thing, and turn it around, or amplify it...
The historical horror novel will be different because it takes a bit of the vampire trope (though it's not exactly a vampire, per se) and focuses more on the European vampire myths rather than the American neck-biter. (There's no neck-biting, for example.) These bad dudes are quite nasty because they're more life-drainers and spirit-suckers, like the original European and Asian ones were. They are not Victorian blood-sucking stand-ins for repressed sexual urges--if I can be so bold. And these are not things you'd want to have a romance with! No one gets lovey-dovey about these guys. It's not even an option. These are things you want to run away from, fast--if you can. That's difficult because they tend to hide in the footsteps of bigger catastrophes--like fires, and plagues, and viruses. But they also hide in the biases of the society's reaction towards these catastrophes--and that's another way this trilogy is different. How can you run from such a thing in Eyam, England, during the Plague, when the town's already quarantined? While people in New England in the 1880s and 1890s, for example, were dropping from consumption, a few unfortunate folks were succumbing to this demonic thing--which hid in the footsteps of the TB, and its way to kill even mirrored TB's symptoms. So that's different, too.
3. Why do I write what I do?
Whoops--I kind of answered that in the paragraph above. Though, actually, the real answer for this is because it interests me. A lot. I've got something to say, something to show, and I know I can do so in a different way than what's already been done--at all, or recently, or both. My characters tend to surprise me, which is always good, and I tend to surprise myself. I write some things and I think--Wow! I didn't know I was going to go there! I'm rarely in love with what I write, but it's a blessing when something comes out just right, and a little bit different. "So Many Reasons to Celebrate the Season" worked like that. Didn't even know it was going to come out that way, and say what it said, until it did. "Hide the Weird" was a little more planned in my head, but the ending was still a nice little twist / surprise for me. And so that's why I write what I do as well--to surprise myself, to complete something of my own unique creation that really works. It's like a mechanic making his own engine and liking how it purrs. It's rare for me, but it's blissful when it happens.
4. How does your writing process work?
Oh, Lord. Well, here's the nasty, evil truth, and I'm very ashamed to admit this, but...I don't have a writing process. At all. I don't write the same thing every day, or even consistently. I don't write at the same time every day, or even (what I feel is) consistently. I don't outline. I do listen to music, and I do draft. A lot. When I can. Whenever my job doesn't consume me; whenever I conquer my own fear, or frustration, or lack of focus, or whatever it is (Steven Pressfield calls it Resistance, which is as good a name for it as any) that prohibits me from sitting my butt down and working on one project consistently, at the same time every day, until it's done. This is maddening beyond belief; I would literally tear my hair out if I thought I could afford to lose any more of it. I do not advise my working method, if I can even call it that, for anybody. Sit your butt down and work on one thing (or one big thing and one smaller thing) at one time. Otherwise it'll all paralyze you like it often does me. It is a minor miracle that I've gotten as many projects done as I have, and that I've been published as often as I have. Every finished piece is a miracle baby--even the ones that don't sell. I'm proud of them all, in some way. They're all a piece of me, and they all came out hard.
Well, that's it. Thanks for stopping by! Next week, please check out the writing processes of these three good writers:
So, if you're
1. What am I working on?
My goodness, what am I not working on? I'm always working on multiple projects, which I used to think meant that I was super-creative. But now I think it means I'm not as focused and organized with my time and with my projects as I should be. I'd get more writing finished if I did one thing at a time. For the record, I do not encourage the multiple-project method, unless you are much more organized than I am, and you tend to finish a piece after a decent length of time.
Anyway, I'm finishing a thriller / mystery, titled (maybe), Mattress Girl, though I may stick with its (too) old title, Cursing the Darkness. (I'm sort of sick of that title now, but it fits the work very, very well. And Mattress Girl is not the main character.) Feel free to comment on which title you think sounds more interesting. This is maybe 80% done. A sequel (or prequel) is in minor stages as well.
I'm also writing a short story, "Cribbage," about a father / son bonding memory, considered by the narrator after his father has passed. This has proven to be a little too close to home, and difficult to finish.
I'm also working on a historical horror novel about a nasty, evil creature that took part in the plague in Rome and the Great Fire; in The Black Plague that killed a third of Europe (though I focus on the village of Eyam, England, which quarantined itself during the Plague and lost about 80% of its people); in the TB epidemic in New England from 1880-1895; and possibly in the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918 and, if I'm really gutsy, in the AIDS Epidemic, circa early-to-mid 1980s. (Because that's what it was, and is, and I'm not sure, even 34 years later, that we've totally realized that as a society.) I'm actually about a third through this one, though it's in fragments. I speak of Book 1 of this project, which I expect to be a trilogy, at least.
And did I mention I was drafting a novel told from the POV of the maid (who really existed) or of a servant (who really didn't) of Lizzie Borden, in 1892? And two memoirs?
I also write book reviews for an online mystery magazine. You can see why I do not suggest this juggling-writing method.
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I try to turn each genre on its head, or to at least introduce something new to it. I'm writing Cursing the Darkness because I've been reading mystery, and noir, and detective novels, and combinations of those, since my early teens. The darkness, the loneliness, the lone man standing on his own (but not being as alone as he thinks he is) against the evils and ills of his society, of his world--all of that resonates with me. I feel I often do much the same thing, though I'm not a detective. I suspect, though, that I could be a good one, but I wouldn't be able to work in a constrictive environment, like a police force. I wouldn't be able to stand the politics, the red tape, looking in the faces of murderers and abusers and rapists and not being able to beat the hell out of them, the frustration of having to let go of an unsolved case because of the next case...
The memoirs I write because I have something very specific to say in them; to be honest, they're in such an infancy that I don't know how they'll be different yet. Except for its main subject, of course...
The short story in general is a form I like a lot. It's immediately gratifying for the author, in the sense that they're finished faster than a novel, and the editor's Yes or No comes back quicker than an agent's or publisher's does. Mine are different, I think, because I focus on an aspect of the story's genre, or themes, that are not as tread upon as are others. "Hide the Weird," for example, differed because it focused on the minute details of one potential death, one incident, and it ended with a "knowing" detail that was a little different, a little quirky. I like that about short stories, that you can focus on one thing, and turn it around, or amplify it...
The historical horror novel will be different because it takes a bit of the vampire trope (though it's not exactly a vampire, per se) and focuses more on the European vampire myths rather than the American neck-biter. (There's no neck-biting, for example.) These bad dudes are quite nasty because they're more life-drainers and spirit-suckers, like the original European and Asian ones were. They are not Victorian blood-sucking stand-ins for repressed sexual urges--if I can be so bold. And these are not things you'd want to have a romance with! No one gets lovey-dovey about these guys. It's not even an option. These are things you want to run away from, fast--if you can. That's difficult because they tend to hide in the footsteps of bigger catastrophes--like fires, and plagues, and viruses. But they also hide in the biases of the society's reaction towards these catastrophes--and that's another way this trilogy is different. How can you run from such a thing in Eyam, England, during the Plague, when the town's already quarantined? While people in New England in the 1880s and 1890s, for example, were dropping from consumption, a few unfortunate folks were succumbing to this demonic thing--which hid in the footsteps of the TB, and its way to kill even mirrored TB's symptoms. So that's different, too.
3. Why do I write what I do?
Whoops--I kind of answered that in the paragraph above. Though, actually, the real answer for this is because it interests me. A lot. I've got something to say, something to show, and I know I can do so in a different way than what's already been done--at all, or recently, or both. My characters tend to surprise me, which is always good, and I tend to surprise myself. I write some things and I think--Wow! I didn't know I was going to go there! I'm rarely in love with what I write, but it's a blessing when something comes out just right, and a little bit different. "So Many Reasons to Celebrate the Season" worked like that. Didn't even know it was going to come out that way, and say what it said, until it did. "Hide the Weird" was a little more planned in my head, but the ending was still a nice little twist / surprise for me. And so that's why I write what I do as well--to surprise myself, to complete something of my own unique creation that really works. It's like a mechanic making his own engine and liking how it purrs. It's rare for me, but it's blissful when it happens.
4. How does your writing process work?
Oh, Lord. Well, here's the nasty, evil truth, and I'm very ashamed to admit this, but...I don't have a writing process. At all. I don't write the same thing every day, or even consistently. I don't write at the same time every day, or even (what I feel is) consistently. I don't outline. I do listen to music, and I do draft. A lot. When I can. Whenever my job doesn't consume me; whenever I conquer my own fear, or frustration, or lack of focus, or whatever it is (Steven Pressfield calls it Resistance, which is as good a name for it as any) that prohibits me from sitting my butt down and working on one project consistently, at the same time every day, until it's done. This is maddening beyond belief; I would literally tear my hair out if I thought I could afford to lose any more of it. I do not advise my working method, if I can even call it that, for anybody. Sit your butt down and work on one thing (or one big thing and one smaller thing) at one time. Otherwise it'll all paralyze you like it often does me. It is a minor miracle that I've gotten as many projects done as I have, and that I've been published as often as I have. Every finished piece is a miracle baby--even the ones that don't sell. I'm proud of them all, in some way. They're all a piece of me, and they all came out hard.
Well, that's it. Thanks for stopping by! Next week, please check out the writing processes of these three good writers:
Monday, January 20, 2014
Advice Needed: Putting Together My Sold Pieces
Two quick questions. Any advice offered would be appreciated:
The owner of a local boutique has offered me the chance to have a book signing at her shop. I've had a few pieces published, and the rights have reverted back to me by now. I've already requested 25 copies of a snazzy-looking magazine that one of my stories appeared in (Spring 2012 Issue #116; please go to the link here to see it), so I'll have those to sign. But I wanted something else, too: A collection of my other works that have sold to a) online fiction mags; b) a British (and, especially with the shipping costs, not cheap) book; c) a collection of essays.
So, I thought about putting these pieces together into one little book--nothing as official as something with an ISBN or anything like that, but also not something that looks amateurish or cheap. I thought I'd get something with a cover, a back, a photo of me on the back in a lower corner, and an image to present each of the five or so disparate pieces in the book. Therein lies a problem: I've got a piece of speculative fiction that sold to Space and Time Magazine, the one with the cool cover; a contemporary, literary piece that sold to OnThePremises.com; a poem that sold to the British publisher; an essay that sold to a specialized collection. That's four completely different works (I'd add a fifth, previously unpublished story), so they'd need four completely different images to represent them (they are not closely related at all, in either content, theme or style), plus a cover image that somehow did represent the tone of them all, or the theme, or the...I don't know.
There's question #1: How do I work with these images? Any ideas?
The other conundrum was, of course, cost-related. My friend is too swamped to do the work (which she sounded honestly interested in and excited about, as this is exactly what she does for a living, and is currently doing a few extra jobs that pay the bills, but isn't what she likes to do best), and I would never ask her to do all this for free, anyway, as I know it's a lot of work and time, and I don't believe in asking professionals to do work for free, even if they are my friends. But, of course, I can't afford to pay someone to do all this for a normal fee, either. My friend said this would cost about $1,000 to do, and that's unfortunately out of the question at this point.
So that's question #2: How do I do this myself, for minimum cost, without it looking amatuerish or cheap? Is this something I can go to OfficeMax, Staples or Kinko's for?
I was thinking of having book labels available for me to sign, and maybe one copy of the book I'm suggesting, and keeping a list of names so people can pre-order that, rather than making a lot of books that don't sell. But I'd rather have a lot on hand, too. And maybe I can sell the unsold ones later...Confusing.
Of course, it's possible I'm severely over-thinking things, and nobody will want anything, and I'll sob openly.
But if you're going to plan something, and dream something, why not go for it?
And, well, that's it. Please, any ideas at all would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, readers.
I hope the new year is treating everyone well.
The owner of a local boutique has offered me the chance to have a book signing at her shop. I've had a few pieces published, and the rights have reverted back to me by now. I've already requested 25 copies of a snazzy-looking magazine that one of my stories appeared in (Spring 2012 Issue #116; please go to the link here to see it), so I'll have those to sign. But I wanted something else, too: A collection of my other works that have sold to a) online fiction mags; b) a British (and, especially with the shipping costs, not cheap) book; c) a collection of essays.
So, I thought about putting these pieces together into one little book--nothing as official as something with an ISBN or anything like that, but also not something that looks amateurish or cheap. I thought I'd get something with a cover, a back, a photo of me on the back in a lower corner, and an image to present each of the five or so disparate pieces in the book. Therein lies a problem: I've got a piece of speculative fiction that sold to Space and Time Magazine, the one with the cool cover; a contemporary, literary piece that sold to OnThePremises.com; a poem that sold to the British publisher; an essay that sold to a specialized collection. That's four completely different works (I'd add a fifth, previously unpublished story), so they'd need four completely different images to represent them (they are not closely related at all, in either content, theme or style), plus a cover image that somehow did represent the tone of them all, or the theme, or the...I don't know.
There's question #1: How do I work with these images? Any ideas?
The other conundrum was, of course, cost-related. My friend is too swamped to do the work (which she sounded honestly interested in and excited about, as this is exactly what she does for a living, and is currently doing a few extra jobs that pay the bills, but isn't what she likes to do best), and I would never ask her to do all this for free, anyway, as I know it's a lot of work and time, and I don't believe in asking professionals to do work for free, even if they are my friends. But, of course, I can't afford to pay someone to do all this for a normal fee, either. My friend said this would cost about $1,000 to do, and that's unfortunately out of the question at this point.
So that's question #2: How do I do this myself, for minimum cost, without it looking amatuerish or cheap? Is this something I can go to OfficeMax, Staples or Kinko's for?
I was thinking of having book labels available for me to sign, and maybe one copy of the book I'm suggesting, and keeping a list of names so people can pre-order that, rather than making a lot of books that don't sell. But I'd rather have a lot on hand, too. And maybe I can sell the unsold ones later...Confusing.
Of course, it's possible I'm severely over-thinking things, and nobody will want anything, and I'll sob openly.
But if you're going to plan something, and dream something, why not go for it?
And, well, that's it. Please, any ideas at all would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, readers.
I hope the new year is treating everyone well.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
How Bookstores Pay Us Not to Go There
Photo: Barnes and Noble icon, from twimg.com. (Notice the brick and mortar name and the .com.)
So a few days ago I walk into the only large (chain) bookstore left in all of Rhode Island: Barnes and Noble. I wanted to go there because a) I'd forgotten if I'd pre-ordered Stephen King's latest, Dr. Sleep, his sequel to The Shining. (For the record, I'm a little concerned about how I'll like the motorcycle gang, but we'll see.) I ask the guy behind the help desk to look it up in my account, and it turns out that I hadn't pre-ordered it. I ask him if I can do so, using this 20% extra coupon I'd been emailed, and hoping I'd be able to use it with the 40% off new hardcovers usually come with, and maybe even the 10% off I sometimes get because I'm a member. (I realize that hoping to get 70% off a new Stephen King hardcover is extremely unrealistic, but as my previous blog entry mentioned, these are some hard times.)
He says No, that Barnes and Noble doesn't offer discounts on the pre-ordered books through BN.com because new books ordered online are already greatly reduced.
"How much reduced?" My ears perked up, because I like things greatly reduced these days.
He explains that to buy it in the store, I'd have to pay the $28 (or so) price, plus tax. That's over $30. I'd get the 30% off, not the 40%, and I'd get an additional 10% for being a member, and that's it. No other coupons allowed. No 20% additional from the coupon. I was about to start a discussion about the meaning of the word "additional," as in, the coupon says "get an additional 20% off," but instead I ask him how much it would be to just pre-order it online.
"Nineteen dollars," he said.
Huh? I quickly figured that 10% of $28 was $2.80, and that twice that was $5.60, and that twice that was $11.20 (that's the 40% off total, for those not so mathematically inclined), and that $30 (with tax) minus $11.20 was $19.80--essentially what it would cost me to sit on my butt at home and order it from there. Plus, I wouldn't have to pay shipping, because I'm a member and I get that for free. And no money spent on gas, etc.
This gave me pause. I told the guy I gave him credit for bringing the whole online thing up to begin with, as I had been ready to buy it from the store the week of September 23rd. I said it was especially good of him to mention it, since everyone who orders a book at bn.com, and not at the store, makes his job more and more obsolete. It also would make obsolete the jobs of the cashiers and the cafe workers, and it would negate the sales of a great many other books and magazines that are sold to people who come into the store to buy A, and who leave the store buying A, B and C. From my experience, people who go online to a bookstore website to buy A end up buying A and that's it. ("From my experience" here means me and a few friends.)
He acknowledged all of this, though it was clear that he hadn't considered all this before, and nobody had had the gumption (or the arrogance) to bring all this up to him before. Times being what they are, I pre-ordered the book and had it delivered for free to my house, feeling badly as I did so, but at least congratulating myself for not waiting a few weeks or a few months and then buying it for just a couple of bucks on Amazon or Ebay.
To make myself feel a little better, I looked for a baseball card checklist / price guide I needed, but I was told that they didn't carry it in stock, but that their website did. Sigh. I bought a couple of coin books I needed instead, feeling that Barnes and Noble was at this point working against me as I tried to buy something in its store. I had to go through entirely too much hassle and brainpower to do so.
In the long run I'll have to admit defeat. Before long, the workers behind the registers, in the cafe, behind the help desk, and in the rows of books won't have a job, and the stockholders and CEO of Barnes and Noble will make more money because they won't have any workers to pay. And there won't be even one large bookstore in my entire state. Somewhere in there (though Stephen King himself probably doesn't need the money) the writers themselves, and the book publishers, will end up somehow getting screwed, as more and more people buy "books" online and then read them on their electronic devices, never having to actually be verbal with another person as they do so. For this, book-makers will disappear, as will printers, type-setters, and all the middlemen who are responsible for the sometimes high price of books--but who also keep the economy going by being a necessary worker, and by holding a job. This in turn makes them money, which they would spend on things that would also necessitate the jobs of other people. The economy is a house of cards this way, and it's all going to someday blow down.
People will wonder why the economy got so bad. And there won't be any economics books to teach them.
Or the teachers, for that matter. But that's another blog.
Friday, September 13, 2013
It's Been Awhile--and More Quick Jots
So I've been away for much longer than usual. Exhaustion, work, sinus infections and some serious insomnia (so bad that, despite a lifetime with the issue, I had to take a sick day for it for the first time), but I'm plugging along. Here are a few quick considerations in the meantime:
--From the Sick World File, as per my last blog entry about this sick, crazy world, I offer you the story of three teens who beat to death a father of 12, grandfather of 23, while he was collecting cans in an alley for some money (which you would need with 12 children and 23 grandchildren). As if that weren't horrible enough, it turns out that one of them filmed it on his cellphone, and then uploaded it to his Facebook page. The reason? Same as the one other teens gave when they shot a college ballplayer a few weeks ago: they were bored.
Filming a murder. Laughing during the filming. Posting a murder to Facebook. Killing...for fun.
What the hell is going on?!? Read it for yourself here.
--Speaking of which, the teens who beat to death the World War II vet in his 80s in Washington state recently pled not guilty today. Although they, and the beating, were videotaped by security cameras.
--And one of them said the man was trying to cheat them in a crack deal. I couldn't make that up.
--This past Sunday night, a neighbor and I met in the street while I put my barrels out. We talked about the Patriots game, the Sox game, and the tennis match, that we coincidentally both watched. Then I went back in and started yet another three-hour night of sleep. He went to bed early, as usual. And did not wake up.
--I'll miss meeting up with you at the mailbox and talking sports, my old friend. Shine on.
--It can happen just that suddenly.
--And not just to my neighbor, who was in his 80s. The guy murdered in Washington state was in his 80s, and the guy in the alley probably was, too.
--If I'd known that the Sox would make beards like those the Seven Dwarfs had the new big thing, I would have kept mine. It wasn't in Mike Napoli's range, but it got very full and gnarly when I just didn't give a damn about shaving.
--The Patriots are a very ugly 2-0. But as a co-worker said today, a win's a win.
--Putin isn't making Obama look bad. That's a whole lot of nothin' right there. Putin's the same guy who has recently sung bad songs to celebrities, who poses without his shirt, and who does many other things to increase his own visibility. The surprising thing here is that he did a relatively restrained thing, like write a commentary for the New York Times.
--Though he's certainly not as popular and well-loved by the world as he was six years ago, Obama is still very well-liked and well-respected. Nobody could have kept up his past level of world love. But to say he's now unliked by the world is ridiculous. You're talking about Obama's predecessor there.
--Up next: a blog entry about the evils of ebay.
--From the Sick World File, as per my last blog entry about this sick, crazy world, I offer you the story of three teens who beat to death a father of 12, grandfather of 23, while he was collecting cans in an alley for some money (which you would need with 12 children and 23 grandchildren). As if that weren't horrible enough, it turns out that one of them filmed it on his cellphone, and then uploaded it to his Facebook page. The reason? Same as the one other teens gave when they shot a college ballplayer a few weeks ago: they were bored.
Filming a murder. Laughing during the filming. Posting a murder to Facebook. Killing...for fun.
What the hell is going on?!? Read it for yourself here.
--Speaking of which, the teens who beat to death the World War II vet in his 80s in Washington state recently pled not guilty today. Although they, and the beating, were videotaped by security cameras.
--And one of them said the man was trying to cheat them in a crack deal. I couldn't make that up.
--This past Sunday night, a neighbor and I met in the street while I put my barrels out. We talked about the Patriots game, the Sox game, and the tennis match, that we coincidentally both watched. Then I went back in and started yet another three-hour night of sleep. He went to bed early, as usual. And did not wake up.
--I'll miss meeting up with you at the mailbox and talking sports, my old friend. Shine on.
--It can happen just that suddenly.
--And not just to my neighbor, who was in his 80s. The guy murdered in Washington state was in his 80s, and the guy in the alley probably was, too.
--If I'd known that the Sox would make beards like those the Seven Dwarfs had the new big thing, I would have kept mine. It wasn't in Mike Napoli's range, but it got very full and gnarly when I just didn't give a damn about shaving.
--The Patriots are a very ugly 2-0. But as a co-worker said today, a win's a win.
--Putin isn't making Obama look bad. That's a whole lot of nothin' right there. Putin's the same guy who has recently sung bad songs to celebrities, who poses without his shirt, and who does many other things to increase his own visibility. The surprising thing here is that he did a relatively restrained thing, like write a commentary for the New York Times.
--Though he's certainly not as popular and well-loved by the world as he was six years ago, Obama is still very well-liked and well-respected. Nobody could have kept up his past level of world love. But to say he's now unliked by the world is ridiculous. You're talking about Obama's predecessor there.
--Up next: a blog entry about the evils of ebay.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Spiderman
Photo: Wikipedia page for "Spiderman." From The Amazing Spider-Man #547 (March 2008); Art by Steve McNiven and Dexter Vines
A very cool entry about a missing house spider on Michael Seidel's blog amused me to no end, as I thought I was the only one with an odd connection to a pet-like house spider that was smart enough to stay out of my way.
I realized, however, that I have some very specific spider rules:
1. Don't fall on my face. This happened at 2 a.m. many years ago, right after an inner voice said, "Look up." I was reading a book at the time, on a typical insomniac night, when I heard that voice, and looked up. The spider, possibly more afraid than I was, scuttled beneath the sheets. Yuck.
2. Don't be hangin' in front of me so that I walk into you. This happens more often than I would've thought possible. Recently I guided a co-worker out of the way before one landed in her hair.
3. Don't go into my slippers. That wasn't fun, feeling a hairy, squirrely somethin' scurry between my toes and the top of my slipper.
4. Don't make your way into my bathroom water cup so that I feel your hairy, spindly legs when I take my allergy pill, and spit you out, and already hate the day at 6 a.m.
5. Don't create a spider nest in my car's vents and have so many babies that about eight of them crawled quickly out of those vents and onto my hands, which were on the wheel as I was driving. This caused my car to swerve as I was grossed out. I pulled into a Cumberland Farms, ran in, grabbed a box of Kleenex, smashed the spiders that were still on the wheel, and to this day the guy behind the counter calls me "Spiderman."
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