Category Archives: real life

Too Much Stuff in My Stuff

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WRITING 02

When you’ve been writing and publishing for a while, and especially if you started in the Stone Age, back before Cloud storage and more reliable backups were invented, you tended to accumulate paper: Plain rough drafts, marked up rough drafts, galleys, proof pages, the occasional hand-written manuscript (which technically is the only real manuscript there is) , contracts, copies of preliminary illustrations, you name it. I was no different. I think at that time I had some vague idea of shipping it off some day to some equally vague university collection that wanted that kind of thing. I even used to sign and date first drafts of stories before I filed them away, if you can believe that. Yes, it was that bad. Continue reading →

Goodbye to the Far Horizon (II)

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PeavyH2Never mind the writing stuff for a bit. This afternoon I’m saying an official goodbye to my Peavey Horizon II guitar. I wrote about acquiring it some time ago. It was and is a beauty, and one of the most well-made guitars I’ve ever owned, but as space dwindled and what I laughingly refer to as my playing focus started to develop, I realized that ax just wasn’t meant for me as either a guitar student or player. I know I did the right thing, rescuing it from that flea market. I also did the right thing when I sold it, for about four times what I paid for it, to someone who will treat it well and play it as it deserves to be played. I will also point out that the buyer still got a really good deal, even at that multiple. I got it cheap, and so did they.

I “only” have five guitars now, which is really three or four more than I need at this stage of my development, but I’m not giving up any of the others for the forseeable future. Just so you know.

 

We Are the Champions

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Yamada_BTG_cover-V06b-PrimeEven as I started thinking about this subject, I had to flash back on a classic George Carlin routine: “My needs aren’t being met!” The answer to which was: “Then get fewer needs.”

We try. In some ways the tools of being a writer are some of the simplest for any avocation you can name. Most of our tools are internal, so no stocked shop, power tools, grinders, wrenches…just time, space, paper and pen. Which is, of course, rubbish, and you can see the flaws right away. I mean, sure, you can write with a pen and paper, but when it comes time to actually do something useful with what you’ve written, at the very minimum you’re going to need a way to produce typed copy. In theory a working typewriter will do, but in practice you’re generally talking about a computer and email. Perseverance is a matter of personality and just how long one can bash your head against a brick wall, but basic functioning as a working writer is another matter. There are things required. So that got me thinking about what writers really need, as opposed to, say, what we want. Continue reading →

What I Would Have Said

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chaI had originally planned to make some anouncements about changes to the web site. I’m still going to do that, but a little less so. Sorry to be cryptic, but I had a plan, as so many of us do, and then the plan got changed. You know the old saying, “You want to make God laugh? Tell God your plans.” Even a former Southern Baptist, agnostic Buddhist-curious animist like me can get behind that one.

Ahem. Where was I? Right. Changes. Well, one change. It’ll be a little one. I plan (there we go again) to add a page which will probably be called “Things I Like” since I believe in truth in advertising. I even believe in truth in politics, though it’s only revealed by accident, and usually with dire consequences for the one who so trips up. Regardless, reviews and such will still appear in the main blog, but I’m going to create a separate page, probably mostly books and authors that have been significant to me over the years, with links to their work when there are links available. Maybe some comment as to why it’s there. I’m still figuring that part out. Oh, well. It’s my blog and I’ll put whatever occurs to me at that moment. One thing I do promise is that I will be consistently inconsistent.

And a final note–The ebook sale will be ending today. Thanks to all who participated.

To Those Who Wait

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Heavenly Fox - eBook1You’ve heard the old saw, “Good things come to those who wait.” And of course, bad things as well. “Good” and “Bad” are matters of perspective. Something happened late last month that I consider very bad. However, it may lead to good things eventually, perhaps even better than matters would otherwise be. I just don’t know. Time and perspective are required, so I’ll wait for both, in the sense that I’m paying attention for when they arrive. In the meantime, I’m not waiting for anything. I’m doing my job and trying to accomplish things I consider important, so perhaps when more time and perspective have arrived, I’ll be ready for them.

That’s the key, of course—it’s not about waiting. It’s about being prepared. Doing your work, no matter what else may be going on in your life. Sowing the fields. And while you’re busy not waiting, crops can suddenly appear. Within the last week I’ve sold one new story and given permission for two reprints: one for production as a podcast and another for reprint in a new Mammoth anthology. More details when everything is set and ironed out. The new story is called “The Manor of Lost Time,” and, pending editorial approval of some relatively small revisions, it’ll be published by Beneath Ceaseless Skies, probably in late spring.

None of which would have happened if the work hadn’t already been done. I’ve told this before but it certainly applies here–I remember when one of our old writing group comrades, then still unpublished, was marveling at those of us who were selling—sporadically, sure, but selling—“Any day you check your email or go to the post office, something good might come to you.” When I pointed out that, on any given day, it was more likely that nothing at all would happen, she rightly dismissed that. “But it might. I can’t imagine what that’s like.” I understood what she meant, since I’d been on the other side too for a lot of years. Yet even then you’re laying the foundation, plowing the fields. Preparing for what may yet arrive.

Now and then, you get a sprout. But not if all you do is wait.