Once more with feeling

Dec 28, 2014 | Personal

And the site is changed around again. I’ve decided that I need to get real, for once and for all, and concentrate on… well, being a writer. Doing the thing that I’ve wanted to do since I was twelve and figured out that storytelling is my calling in life.

AND SO IT BEGINS…

Anyway. I’ll be self-publishing, because I’ve spent a long, hard time staring at the traditional publishing industry and alternatively laughing or being horrified, and it looks like that isn’t going to change any time soon. Now that Amazon and the big publishing houses have settled down somewhat and all the drama is over, I figure it’s the right time to get back into the basic, hard work of narrative. The good news is I brought my longsword and I’m ready for the battle. The bad news is the damn novel isn’t finished yet and the ETA is at least three months out.

But I’ll get back to that some other day. I’m pretty sure the actual craft of writing isn’t exactly interesting to readers. Newsflash, my dears – it’s exactly like getting teeth pulled, only with more shouting and drugs. (That could just be me though.) I’ll write an article here and there on the publishing industry and various silliness thereof, but from here on out, I think I’d rather just write and post silly stuff. Like whether a longsword could defeat a rapier one-on-one.

(Psst – the answer is always “whoever is more skilled”.)

So I went into Chapters here in Vancouver over the holidays, just looking for a few presents. And indeed they had a lot of gifts on sale, which was nice even though I didn’t actually buy any of them. I think I was just a little bit depressed by the sight of the e-reader section slowly migrating across the main sales floor, buoyed up on a wave of unrelated electronics and accessories, or perhaps the vast, vast piles of completely unrelated hardcover books, prominently placed front and center due to the gargantuan marketing budgets of the traditional publishers, and none of which I had even the slightest interest in.

I swear, finding something good to read among all this kitsch is painful. At least online I have options…

And now I have work to do. I’ll be back later, assuming I haven’t fallen asleep on my keyboard.