Wow, it’s been a while.
First, let me start off by making the usual excuses. I was very busy, I had so much writing to do, I had a ton of editing jobs, and a lot of personal appearances (at least for me).
Now that I have that out of the way, let me knock all those excuses down.
Another layer and we’d be at Update Inception.
I’m in the midst of:
So yes, much going on, much knees-bent-advancing behavior. Expect reviews to be posted soon and plenty of up-to-the minute news once Pensacon starts!
As I’m up to my ears in work, today’s Musings will be short and sweet … hopefully. You all must know by now that I can ramble when I get into something, so no promises!
Optimism is a great thing. It helps gives us hope in our futures, in our life paths, and in our fellow man. The ability to see the best in the world around us can help us go on, even when events in the world around us may look bleak. When balanced with a proper dose of realism to keep your heads from going into the clouds, optimism is an incredible tool for writing and for life in general.
There is a problem, though, and that is the looming threat of complacency. If you get too wrapped up in optimistic thought, it can be easy to expect that things will go right all the time, even if you don’t put in 100% effort or when you expect all of your fellow men to be as optimistic and forward-thinking as you may be. In thinking the best about our fellow men, we might be willing to sit back instead of making sure to help them along the path to a better future.
Essentially, the ideas that we are our brother’s keeper, that we are all shepherds for our neighbors, and that it takes a village to raise a child all exist for a reason. It’s great to think the best of your fellow humans and of our future, but you still must do everything you can to make sure it happens.
Until next time, good reading, good writing, and good luck!
Just a quick one here to wish everyone a restful Labor Day, if you’re in a part of the world that celebrates it! It’s meant to be a day for those who work hard throughout the year to get an extra day of rest and, far too often, we continue to slave away through it. If you are able, take that well-deserved break instead!
Until next time, good reading, good writing, and good luck!
There are many days where I wonder if all the work I’ve put out in the past two years have been worth the time spent. Writing novels has cost more than time, to be honest. It’s cost money, it’s caused tensions with friends and family, and it hasn’t precisely made my life any easier. Even with the writing done (for the immediate moment), the strain continues, though this time it is struggling to breakthrough to where there is even the slightest chance for someone to take notice of what I have accomplished.
How do you deal with being swallowed up by the darkness of so many other louder voices? How do you continue slugging onward, hoping to be that one-in-a-million writer who actually manages to make a hardscrabble living on the power of your words alone? It would certainly easier to give up on it, to take the satisfaction of the attempt made as reward enough. I doubt anyone would blame me for it.
I can’t say I have answers for those questions. I can see why many writers are crushed under the despair of their situation and simply give up. For some reason, though I keenly feel that darkness rushing in, I can’t help but stubbornly throw another rock at the wall blocking out the sun, hoping to chip a hole through. Every day, I tell myself, maybe this rock rolling around in my hands will be the one to bring the light in.
I’m probably deluding myself, I know. The amount of books I would have to sell each month to make a living is staggering, if you do the math. I think the inevitability is that I will be dragged down into the darkness, just like almost all the others. Deprived of my creative outlet, these best years of my life will fade out into the sepia-toned pictures of nostalgia.
Until then, though, I am going to pitch another rock at the wall.
Next month, I’ll start writing my seventh novel. Later this week, I’m going to finish setting up a Patreon system to hopefully gather more money for that process. Maybe this next one will do it.
Good luck, good reading, good writing, and may you find your spot in the sun.
J. B. Garner - Musings of a Starving Author 