Posts filed under ‘WALT’S OBSERVATIONS’
AFTER A LONG ABSENCE, I RETURN
Forgive me for not communicating for a month and more, but there has been much on my mind about the state of our country. I know this blog is intended to benefit writers, but life also effects our writing in one way or another. Many events, which I follow daily, are beyond belief. I shall leave the discussion of the current political climate to those more knowledgeable and eloquent to express the opinions which I feel.
One last comment. Do our elected representatives have their constituents in mind with their decisions, or are those decisions governed by their perceived power and a warped ego.
I will return this blog to its intended purpose; to aid writers in finding their way to publication. My next topic will be one with which I struggle: The challenges of the elderly writer and the rapid pace of modern technology.
One last comment. You may have noticed my reblogging work from other blogs. I follow many blogs posting information for writers. I hope to spread the knowledge.
THE FUTURE
My daughter, Lynn, is marching on Saturday.
She is an great daughter and outstanding person.
Just recognized by the USDA as a woman farmer, she is making her mark in the world.
Let’s hope her generation gets involved to make this country and world a better place.
And takes notes for the future.
REMEMBERANCES: A MEMORY OF MY CHILDREN
My then wife, Joni, and I were playing work tag. She began work at Chester County Hospital at 3PM, and I left my research job at 3PM. Our girls spent minimal time at the babysitter’s home. After going to the hospital and searching out my wife’s car, I transferred their car seats and picked up Annie, 4, and Lynn, 2. Annie was always the big sister during those times, sharing her knowledge of the world with Lynn. One day, as I listened to them talk buckled into their seats, I heard Annie say, “You know, Lynn, there are people so poor that they don’t have a pool.”
I silently chuckled to myself. We have an in ground pool. The reason I found this amusing was that until I went to college, I lived in a house with no running hot water and no bathtub or shower. How the times of my life have changed.
Another experience fondly remembered is Annie drawing on post-it notes and hanging them in the room which is now my study. These were Annie’s drawings. She then brought her little sister into the room and asked her if she would like to buy any of them. They all had a price on the post-it note.
Innocent Lynn said, “I’ll take this one, and this one and on and on.” At the end of her selection Lynn handed Annie imaginary money.
Annie looked at Lynn and said, “This is reality. No imaginary money accepted.”
I don’t remember how the incident ended, but it is an incident I will always carry in my heart.
WRITERS CROSSING THE LINE
While attending a dinner with a friend, his wife said, “Glad you have a hobby like writing.” My then-wife saw me bristle and understood why. This incident occurred some time ago but not forgotten.
At the time of this event I had already been published and aware of the agony associated on being a writer on the quest to being an author. I have pondered the issues of writing and differences of the title as writer as a hobby or writer as a profession and arrived at the following conclusion.
My thoughts are these. As I went for putting words on paper to attempting publication, I felt writing could no longer be deemed a hobby after experiencing the rejections, multiple times of my work. After some thought, I realized writing can be a pleasant pastime; that some write for the sheer joy of the experience. Never seeking publication, only enjoying the mind wandering to places they would never have considered. Simply enjoying the process of creativity.
Writing is a hobby until you decide to publish. It is then you crossed the Rubicon. There is no going back. You crossed the line from hobby to profession, and God help you. For unless you are extremely talented, a writing gem hidden from the world, you will most likely experience rejection. The words you consider magnificence will push upon the brick wall of reality.
But if you goal is to become an author you will experience a level of doubt and rejection you never anticipated. But someday, if you carry on, your work will find a home and you are on the road of being an author. The difference between writer and author is perseverance.
You made it!
You’re an author now and the years of writing as a hobby are behind you.
THE WRONGS OF THE PAST CONTINUE: A REVIEW OF YESTERDAY’S FICTION AND TODAYS REALITY
This could be considered one of my RANTS & RAVES pieces, but since it’s also a book review, it stands alone as a unique species.
The wide gap between the top 1%, the people of wealth, and the working class is beyond comprehension.
The products sold to the American public, behind the falsehood of corporate manipulation of the truth, is beyond belief. Unsafe and contaminated products are sold, money is exchanged, and the trend will continue as long as there is a profit to be made.
The wealthy manipulate society to their benefit, robbing the working class of a better life as they fill their coffers of greed. Something must be done for the common man as his world sinks into an abyss of despair.
If you think these facts were torn from the current condition of our society; you would be wrong. Although these revelations sound much like the current state of affairs in this country they are products of the past.
We now live in a world where wealth thumps conscience and the benefit of the average citizen. Where the greed continues worldwide, and the richest 85 individuals in the world have more wealth than the bottom 50% of the world’s population (Time magazine). Where, in this country, the gulf between the common man and the legendary 1%, which if you do the math is over 3 million individuals, control and manipulate our lives to their own benefit. The conditions of the past and the present mingle in a disturbing never-ending situation for the people of this country.
I have just finished reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. First published in 1906, the work changed our country with the introduction of laws to protect the public from buying contaminated meat products and labor reform. The novel is an historical work of fiction, and through the primary character’s eyes, we are allowed to see the conditions, beyond imagination, which provide food for our nation at that time. Where children are forced to work at unbelievably young ages to support their destitute families.
As mentioned earlier, this novel resulted in laws changing our society’s conditions for the better. Yet, to some extent, the same conditions remain in effect. Greed has a way of refusing to die. Industries, today, continue to provide inferior products, causing damage and death to the population. When these inferior product are discovered massive fines are imposed. But the profits reaped before the discovery of purposeful negligence far outweigh the fines. Today, this is good business practice. I have no proof of this conjecture beyond common sense. I assume, perhaps wrongly, but I think not, that these companies providing products recalled and deemed hazardous, have a massive army of lawyers and accountants running the dollar amounts for possible fines vs profits.
I will not name the prime industries involved. But if you have access to any form of news, and also a memory, you know the industries of which I speak. All you need to do is read or remember the massive recalls and billion dollar lawsuits resulting from the death and injury of consumers caused by unsafe products.
This piece reveals nothing new if you follow the current situation of our society. The only truth it does reveal is that our use and manipulation by the wealthy has not changed.
This could be considered one of my RANTS & RAVES pieces, but since it’s also a book review, it stands alone as a unique species.
The wide gap between the top 1%, the people of wealth, and the working class is beyond comprehension.
The products sold to the American public, behind the falsehood of corporate manipulation of the truth, is beyond belief. Unsafe and contaminated products are sold, money is exchanged, and the trend will continue as long as there is a profit to be made.
The wealthy manipulate society to their benefit, robbing the working class of a better life as they fill their coffers of greed. Something must be done for the common man as his world sinks into an abyss of despair.
If you think these facts were torn from the current condition of our society; you would be wrong. Although these revelations sound much like the current state of affairs in this country they are products of the past.
We now live in a world where wealth thumps conscience and the benefit of the average citizen. Where the greed continues worldwide, and the richest 85 individuals in the world have more wealth than the bottom 50% of the world’s population (Time magazine). Where, in this country, the gulf between the common man and the legendary 1%, which if you do the math is over 3 million individuals, control and manipulate our lives to their own benefit. The conditions of the past and the present mingle in a disturbing never-ending situation for the people of this country.
I have just finished reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. First published in 1906, the work changed our country with the introduction of laws to protect the public from buying contaminated meat products and labor reform. The novel is an historical work of fiction, and through the primary character’s eyes, we are allowed to see the conditions, beyond imagination, which provide food for our nation at that time. Where children are forced to work at unbelievably young ages to support their destitute families.
As mentioned earlier, this novel resulted in laws changing our society’s conditions for the better. Yet, to some extent, the same conditions remain in effect. Greed has a way of refusing to die. Industries, today, continue to provide inferior products, causing damage and death to the population. When these inferior product are discovered massive fines are imposed. But the profits reaped before the discovery of purposeful negligence far outweigh the fines. Today, this is good business practice. I have no proof of this conjecture beyond common sense. I assume, perhaps wrongly, but I think not, that these companies providing products recalled and deemed hazardous, have a massive army of lawyers and accountants running the dollar amounts for possible fines vs profits.
I will not name the prime industries involved. But if you have access to any form of news, and also a memory, you know the industries of which I speak. All you need to do is read or remember the massive recalls and billion dollar lawsuits resulting from the death and injury of consumers caused by unsafe products.
This piece reveals nothing new if you follow the current situation of our society. The only truth it does reveal is that our use and manipulation by the wealthy has not changed.
ec
RANTS & RAVES: COMING OUT
I am heterosexual.
There, is said it.
Can I get some media coverage? I’m a little know writer in need of some.
Okay, I’m old (68), and perhaps uniformed as I should be with the current media, entertainment. Yet I try to follow the news and I see a constant revelation of persons, I guess in the public eye although their name provides no recognition (old age) coming out as being homosexual and making the news. This certainly increases their media exposure. So I thought I’d give it a try. I’m walking out of the heterosexual closet.
ARTHUR C. CLARK AND I: WE THINK THE SAME BUT HE IS THE BETTER WRITER
I’m sure you’ve read multiple blogs and messages wishing you ‘Happy New Year’. Well of course I wish you that, but I also wish you a ‘Productive New Year’. Whatever you do, do more of it and do it well. Make this a year you’re proud of and can look back on with happiness. I’m going to try to accomplish those goal. We’ll see what happens.
He is the better writer by about 100 orders of magnitude, but I’m trying to catch up.
But seriously, I am in the process of reading his novel, The Songs of Distant Earth. I was lucky enough to be able to search a mass of science fiction novels donated to a small local library. Books for which no room existed. When I saw this novel in the boxes of donations, I immediately acquired the book to bring home. I’m happy I did for now a novel I planned to write, formally on the back burner, is now going into the incinerator.
Let me explain.
I had written a short story, December Omen, as yet unpublished. I will try to find this work a home in the coming year. The work dealt with the end of the world, not a unique subject, but I thought I had a lock on a new scenario. Turns out, Clark beat me to it. We both end the world, but by different means. We both send mankind into the cosmos in order to survive. I through frozen embryos; Clark through genetic material and robotic factories to manufacture mankind on some remote Earth-like planet.
At this point, let me include a fact I know I read somewhere. Whether it is reality or conjecture I do not remember. Chalk that up to maturity (senility). The article dealt with DNA, a very stable molecule, and the possibility to incorporate information using its structure. What a concept! How much information could reside in a gram of DNA?
However, what inspired this piece was a common scenario in both our stories. In the new planet was created no religions would exist. For reasons look at today’s newspaper or read a little history. I could not believe Arthur C. Clark and I had the same thoughts. The commonality, unfortunately, ends in that single instant.
OUR BIRDFEEDER DRAWS A CROWD
It may be time to upgrade our squirrel-proof birdfeeder after this new challenge by the masked intruder.
Believe it or not, this is in a sense, a memoir piece.
We live a suburban life where homes occupy half-acre lots. Not far from home are fields of corn and stands of forest. Our piece of land is bordered by a gully, once the home of railroad tracks. Overgrown now, it is a natural highway for wildlife.
Groundhogs and fox have made dens in the gully’s confines. The groundhogs can be seen lumbering around the front and back yards, or heading towards my garden. Foxes can be heard more than seen, although on winter afternoon I caught the sight of a red fox against a new snow. Summer nights they call, to one another or pierce the tranquility with a rabbit kill. In recent years, deer have appeared in the gully, up to five does occasionally accompanied by a buck, a sure sign of the species overpopulation in the area. Also, a sign of danger for our road is a busy one. Skunks are around, but see almost never only smelled.
The birdfeeder pictured attracts a host of birds, chickadees, cardinals, titmouse, goldfinches and the occasional woodpecker. Now, for two day running the sunflower seeds have also attracted our masked visitor.
“How is this a memoir piece?” those of you still with me are probably asking. The observations above reinforce in me the memories and contrast in my mind my present conditions and those I experienced while growing up in Newark, NJ. When looking out on the tranquil area I call home, I recall our backyard in Newark, dirt and cinder, defying the growth of grass. Our wildlife consisted entirely of squirrels. Our birds were limited to sparrows and starlings, with the occasional robin looking forlorn and confused. Those distant memories help me appreciate the surroundings I inhabit now, help me appreciate my Pennsylvania home.
Some future day, I hope to spend part of the year near the ocean. Its vastness provides a ceaseless source of peace and contemplation. I could never live on its shore year-round, for I fear that that endless body of water would become commonplace and lose its magic. My Newark youth provides no problem in keeping the wonders of nature in prospective.
STRUGGLING TO GET IT PUBLISHED: FINDING MARKETS, DUOTROPE
Back in the day when I was on the road to becoming a famous poet, a hint on where that road led – picture the final scene in the movie Thelma & Louise, I used books and magazines to fine markets where I could submit my work. Pounding out poems on my electric typewriter, going through gallons of white-out, off they would go along with the required SASE. This was long before the home computer came into existence, before the internet was even a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye. How things have changed since my early writing years. The books and magazines still exist, but I can guarantee, at least for the books, by the time they are published much of the information is outdated, unless the book is accompanied by a website to maintain currency, save your money.
My go-to source for finding markets for my work nowadays is the website Duotrope, providing over 4000 markets for poetry, fiction and non-fiction and constantly updated. Up until a few years ago it was free, now it will cost you $5 a month or $50 a year. If you register, you can get a free trial. If you are serious about submitting your work, you can’t go wrong giving this website a try. I’ve included a link at the end of this piece.
The site offers searches by the publisher’s name, or if you want to search all markets for your specific piece, you can do that too. In the later type of search, you are given the options of genre, length, pay scale, and a more specific breakdown within your genre. You can also query to see if the publisher accepts reprints, simultaneous and multiple submissions. Also available for most publishers is their response time and percentage of acceptances.
Upon completion of your search you are provide with a list of primary and secondary markets that meet your criteria. On the Duotrope page listing the publisher’s specifications you will also find a link to the publisher’s website. This feature saves tons of time in your submission process. Your search and then be saved if for some reason you first offer of the piece is rejected. I’m trying to be both ironic and humorous.
Finally, you receive a weekly email listing current market updates. One look at this list of weekly market activity will clearly demonstrate how rapidly a book of markets becomes outdated.
If you want to stay on the cutting edge of where to submit your work, I highly suggest you look into Duotrope.
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