tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055598777203654547.post8791870372030326235..comments2024-03-01T06:20:29.087+00:00Comments on qualia and other wildlife: elephant, amnesia and ant holes... or 'don't give up the day job'rosellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00971482422276765335noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055598777203654547.post-17234594055516103942012-01-28T08:40:37.753+00:002012-01-28T08:40:37.753+00:00Chris, some days the blog is the only writing I do...Chris, some days the blog is the only writing I do at the moment! So it's a kind of practice. Thanks, as ever, for your generosity.<br /><br />Rrosellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00971482422276765335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055598777203654547.post-32902140699784972922012-01-28T03:49:39.870+00:002012-01-28T03:49:39.870+00:00Yeah, the ones about "writing and promiscuity...Yeah, the ones about "writing and promiscuity" - that sounds sufficiently saucy! :-)<br /><br />Anyway, tagging is pretty easy - it's also called "label" in Google's blogger, which you use. But there's probably not much point in spending your precious writing time going back thru all those posts and tag them, even if you wanted to start doing so from here on. :-)<br /><br />What I like about your blog is, in any case, that it is so intensely personal. There's a lot of wisdom and beauty in much of what you write, and a sharing of, well, the experience that we all have - more often than we'd like, I suppose: That life is fragile, topsy-turvy and sometimes downright rotten. But also very, very beautiful. In other words: paradoxical! :-D Ha, I guess that's the best term I've come up with for life in a long time! <br /><br />Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I feel, with your blog, I can pretty much dive in anywhere and dig up a treasure. It's not like I have to have a list of '10 things you can do' or a smart index to find something valuable here. So I hope it did not come across like *that* ;-)<br /><br />Sigh ... I wish I felt like I could take time to update my own blog as much as you do yours. But right here and now it is just a small repository of personal thoughts. But I'm glad to be part of the conversation over here, and to get plenty of thought for thought - enough for several blogs!<br /><br />Best,<br /><br />ChrisChristopher Marcushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03077904474530085769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055598777203654547.post-89562649287328108562012-01-23T23:18:09.140+00:002012-01-23T23:18:09.140+00:00:-) Cups of coffee I find are a good distraction f...:-) Cups of coffee I find are a good distraction from - er I mean addition to - writing. (Absinthe would be better. Sigh.) And watching the birds. And going for a walk. And urgently needing to think about creating a - filing system. Or tags. Sorry Chris - haven't mastered (mistressed) the art of tagging yet... Do you mean posts of mine re not earning a living?? Or e-publishing? Or both or neither??<br /><br />PLEASE don't apologise for not trawling back through all this verbiage of mine! Not worth the effort.<br /><br />Thanks as always for taking the time to write.rosellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00971482422276765335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055598777203654547.post-35103275391386793402012-01-22T09:57:22.588+00:002012-01-22T09:57:22.588+00:00:-) - Yes, I am very pleased that you are allowing...:-) - Yes, I am very pleased that you are allowing yourself an extra option for income. I mean, it's a win-win situation, isn't it? You get to reach a broader audience and you reach more people who will compensate you for your work. Maybe it is not going to be a goldmine for you, but you won't be leaving dollars on the table - even if it is just a few to begin with.<br /><br />Now, as for the other posts about this topic ... I would love to read them. Are they tagged with a special term, or perhaps there is one you'd recommend that I started with?<br /><br />Sorry, for being so lazy but I have to spend as much time as possible writing (cough, cough) ... <br /><br />Or, er, something ... <br /><br />All the best,<br /><br />ChrisChristopher Marcushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03077904474530085769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055598777203654547.post-72500791241441371352012-01-19T11:54:55.803+00:002012-01-19T11:54:55.803+00:00I love it, Chris, thanks. Yes it is like being in ...I love it, Chris, thanks. Yes it is like being in love, too - wonder if you read one of my early posts on writing and promiscuity?? - and I write because in every way other than financially my life would be poorer if I didn't. And as my writing friend Mario Petrucci said this morning: 'A human being is not an economy or an economic unit. We are creatures not of consumption but of something timeless.' And yet, and yet. Chris, you'll be pleased to hear that I've just signed my novel over to (also) Kindle. Dammit!rosellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00971482422276765335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055598777203654547.post-17481264636533471582012-01-19T07:57:34.648+00:002012-01-19T07:57:34.648+00:00When I think about my own writing, the 'world&...When I think about my own writing, the 'world' I'm creating, the various interlinked websites, planned ebooks, perhaps print books which go with it ... then just about every second day I end up with: 'It's never gonna make me a living, nobody is going to read this in sufficient numbers to ... '<br /><br />Yadayadayada...<br /><br />And I think about all the mistakes I've made thus far, all the time I've wasted, and the fact that the whole process has been so slow, and I do get overwhelmed with this feeling that it's just ... meaningless to go on.<br /><br />Well, from a rational perspective - for example, a perspective of one who is hellbent of making a living, or better. There are plenty of doubts to go with that dream.<br /><br />So I write because I'm incapable of stopping, right? I have to, right? It's not about the money, right?<br /><br />Well, yes - and no. It is about the money, too. It is not *firstly* about the money, but I don't think I could go on as much as I already have if I did not allow myself to dream of the day it might come true: That I could make a living from this.<br /><br />I have to hold on to that dream, no matter how impossible it is. I can't detach completely from it, all though it would probably give me a whole lot more peace of mind.<br /><br />But in a way ... perhaps that is all right. It's a choice and with it comes a certain amount of pain and frustration, because there is every chance I fail in achieving my dream. It would probably be easier to [insert vocation of your choice].<br /><br />And still, it's okay, isn't it? To make that choice, to allow oneself not only to stoutly affirm that 'yes, I write because it is my passion' but also admit that 'yes, I dream of one day when ... '<br /><br />It's almost like saying yes to being in love. You can't stop it, really - it is something you have to be, because it is so powerful. <br /><br />But you may choose to be in love at a distance -- having resigned yourself never to 'get' the one you love. But OTOH you can't be hurt if you keep that distance, or so the tortured logic goes.<br /><br />Fortunately, most of us don't choose that kind of Shakesperean martyrdom, at least not when we beyond the teenage years - or so I'd like to think. Most of us just acknowledge we're in love ('damn - again!') and that we have to be ready to face the pain of having our love rejected by the one we love. <br /><br />Or at least life pushes us to that particular realization. And then we must be ready to fall in love again ... <br /><br />... As with the dream of making a living from writing.<br /><br />Hmmm ... I think maybe we writers have more in common with the rest of the human race than we have hitherto suspected ...? :-]<br /><br /><br />(End speech. On to writing more ... )Christopher Marcushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03077904474530085769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055598777203654547.post-29221596453841339332012-01-18T17:19:16.048+00:002012-01-18T17:19:16.048+00:00Thanks, writers both. Always very heartening to be...Thanks, writers both. Always very heartening to be reminded we're in this together! Glad to read Dahl's words, B. S, thanks for reminding me re pale - I remembered the gist but not that it related to Dublin! Makes me wonder about etymology of 'pale' – Old Irish? And I think probably what sells a book is sex and death... And I don't mean that cynically. But if I say 'sensationalism plus a celebrity name', too, that is cynical - but it sure as hell sells! Oh well. And yes, Sharon, I see over and over that far more people want to write and be published than seem to read and buy books...rosellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00971482422276765335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055598777203654547.post-29544606561477446832012-01-18T14:11:20.418+00:002012-01-18T14:11:20.418+00:00All sounds horribly familiar, Roselle ... as a sma...All sounds horribly familiar, Roselle ... as a small publisher as well as a writer all I can say is that there seem to be more people writing books than buying them. Selling fiction unless it's by blockbusting household names is close to impossible. Debut fiction IS impossible. Good reviews even in the big nationals don't sell books. What does sell a book? When someone figures it out we'd love to know ... meanwhile, writers suffer and small publishers go out of business. Such a hard business to be in for all of us ... Keep meditating, keep carrying the flame. What else can we do??(Oh - and it's beyond the pale - the pale in this case being the enclosed area of old Dublin city which was deemed to be safe from invaders. Pale = fence. Beyond the pale therefore = unsafe.)Sharon Blackiehttp://www.earthlines.org.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5055598777203654547.post-32840187380304368032012-01-18T13:50:35.521+00:002012-01-18T13:50:35.521+00:00Rereading Roald Dahl's 'Boy' the other...Rereading Roald Dahl's 'Boy' the other day - wonderful description of the life of a writer, beginning 'The life of a writer is absolute hell compared with the life of a businessman' and ending 'A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it'.<br /><br />Loved the extracts from the Burnside poem yesterday.Mad Englishwomanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11007656187981921211noreply@blogger.com