Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
At a certain point, there are no more Mondays in your life, no more Saturdays, no more weekends. There are just days of the sun rising and climbing, dimming and setting. Even the years lessen in importance, becoming more moot, except for those matters like taxes and voting. And you learn you can treat every day as you want.
Carpe diem, brothers and sisters. Treat this day as you want it.
Rob has come up with the perfect rallying cry for just about every day, every week, every month, every year, and every event.
We watched ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ last night. Great tale. Great mythology. Sensational imagination on display. Wonderful artwork. Neat, different ideas – at least for me. Some, of course, predictable. That’s to happen if you’re a thinking reader or movie watching.
Themes develop. Characters are established and arcs developed. The story unfolds. It’s rarely totally new or fresh. The beauty and pleasure often arrive with the nuances of execution and the story’s internal truths. This reflects humanity, art and history. We build on what’s gone before, even when we can’t remember what’s gone before, even when it’s been distorted to portray another existence.
The song at the end was an unexpected pleasure. George Harrison could have been thinking about Kubo’s tale when he wrote ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’. Regina Spektor’s presentation chilled and moved me. ‘Rolling Stone’ called it haunting. I agree with that. I have a new regard for the shamisen.
I could just about add this to my blog intact as my experience, save I haven’t gone the paperback route and my parents don’t have a zoo selling my novel. But the rest stays true to my experience. It’s been a learning experience. After learning for a while, you reset, or as Bob Mustin posted, you go back to Square One.
My three biggest takeaways from Joynell’s post:
1. The digital marketplace is a swamp.
2. Not one single good source exists out there.
3. Despite the body of knowledge about publishing (self, traditional, e-publishing, etc), you end up doing a lot of trail and error to find what works.
Bonus fourth: it’s hard work. Far easier to write a book than to publish one, even if you publish it yourself.
There’s a reason for the man you hate,
and another for the one you embrace.
There’re reasons for where the sun shines,
reasons for why the blind man’s blind.
Reasons for getting drunk as a skunk,
reasons for staying chaste as a nun.
There’s a reason for why that man lies,
and another reason for why that woman dies.
There’s reasons for hoarding gold,
and reasons for selling your soul.
Just remember reasons always abound,
and try to find reasons that remain morally sound.
Today’s song is one that used to start up whenever I’d hit the road during my military and civilian career, or during holidays. For a while, it was a lot of traveling. It looks glamorous on paper between all those countries, states and cities, but it wasn’t.
It’s simple beat and lyrics make it a terrific song for singing while walking around, to. From 1980 and the movie, ‘Honeysuckle Rose’, here’s Willie Nelson with, ‘On the Road Again’.
Michael Seidel, writer 