scott’s spot

A couple of weeks ago I was reading the NRF SmartBrief that gets delivered to my inbox everyday. (For those in retail, SmartBrief is crystal clear. For those not in retail, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. So find out more here.)

One of the articles, found here, intrigued me. It talks about how Borders and Lulu are putting together a package that will allow fledgling writers and authors (not unlike myself) to self-publish their work and have it stocked in Borders’ stores. Not only that, depending on the package you purchase, you will get additional services such as in-store readings and signings, etc.

I posted this article on the Silverthought forum, of which I am a participant and staff member, and it was met with the usual cadre of supporters, detractors, and pundits. The discussion waned quickly and I let the concept slip my mind.  After all, I have nothing that I’m about to self-publish, so it’s not pertinent to me (yet).

THEN…I see this little article in the NY Times. It appears that Borders may be up for sale (more on that in a later post…).  Having worked for Borders in the past (and loving it, and hating it), the first thing that popped into my head was how this development made me a little sad, especially considering where it once was (at one point I had stock options I was able to sell at approximately $36.) and how far the company seems to have fallen. 

But the very next thing I thought of was this partnership between Border and Lulu. And I couldn’t help wondering if this concept of the package and marketing of self-published authors was going to stay, or if it was about to die and quick and noiseless death…?

I ran across this opinion in the LA Times the other day.  It essentially suggests that writing and the craft of writing is better served when approached with a drink. Not too much, mind you, but finding that delicate balance between setting the mind free and snockered.  Great quote in here by Cratinus, who said “No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by water drinkers.”

So then, the question clearly becomes: is the reason I am having so much difficulty finding the muse, finishing my novel, the generally poor state of my poetry, and the inability lately to put on paper any fresh ideas the simple fact that I’m not drinking enough?  Is my literary impotency to be resolved by finding the bottom of a bottle, the age-old literary viagra?

 Hmmm…

Seems like I’m always tinkering with my website, huh?

Well, I think for now I’m done.  Streamlined and stripped down, it’s now more or less the bare essentials.  Check it out.

As per this post on silvethought, I am now a proud member of the Silverthought staff.  I’ve been doing writing projects with Silverthought for two or three years now, (most notably, “How It Ends”) and a few weeks ago, the executive editor Paul offered me a position as a staff member.

Proud and happy to be a contibuting member to a great indie speculative fiction website. I’m already working on some things for the site, including a fiction review of Max Brooks’s “World War Z” (which is a nifty read, BTW) and a potential ST newsletter to accompany each and every update.

I have once again picked up the pen and paper and have resumed my attack on my first novel, a sci-fi diddy entitled How It Ends.  The first draft of the novel was published as a serial on Silverthought, and I’m now working with Paul and crew at Silverthought to get this beast ready for their 2008 queue in print form.

How It Ends has been something of a back-breaker. This being my first novel, I finished the first draft in a pretty quick clip, eight months or so. Then I had to begin the ugly process of re-writing it. While re-writing it I ended up changing whole characters around and completely revisioning the style, which may actually make the novel worse (but that’s for readers to decide).

After finally finishing the second draft, I printed the damn thing and have mostly finished a “paper” edit. Now I’ve begun the process of getting those edits back into the Word doc. I should finish it up and have it to the publisher by the end of this year, or at the latest the beginning of next year.

One of the things I’d always wanted to do was to write a novel. Now I can see how exhausting a process it is. James Frey wrote a book called How to Write a Damn Good Novel (and it’s a damn good read on how to write a damn good novel, by the way). One quote that sticks out is that you know the novel is finished when, every time you look at it, you want to throw up.

Yeah. That’s about where I am.