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I have been working on the revisions to Book 1. I am really being pretty brutal. It is a good exercise in humility. Even though I still think the original text was very good I have evolved over the intervening years.

I am very interested in the storyline now, like I am reading it with fresh eyes. That is kind of an eerie experience, especially since I know where this is all going. Then, again, the stuff beyond Book 3 is still open season for revisions, right? Really based on a conversation with my publisher that I had tonight, Book 3 may be open to a few minor changes as well. Sorry to disappoint but maybe it will not be out this spring after all. I know, I know I hear everyone of you. Well do you want it fast or want it right?

I really love Book 1 in a way that maybe no one knows. I worked on it for the longest period of time of anything that I have ever attempted to do. I learned how to write something of novel length while fooling around with it. I had done up a novel called Tarot when I was at Purdue but it was not really anything worthy of consideration. I may actually rework that someday who know?

When I had finished it it was just that I had no idea that I had something that would be an 800+ page book. It always intended the storyline to be a single volume. It has been hard enough to sell a single 400+ page book. Can you imagine convincing anyone to read something that is much longer?

Then everything else that has happened to me in the intervening years and the considerable inspiration of the Wolf subplot. Suddenly there were six books. Well suddenly being like over the course of a couple of years.

Yesterday's blog was about emotion and friendship but also materialistic reality. One of you that reads this daily tripe commented that it is not your fault that I am poor...again. I fully understand that it is my fault. Ultimately everything is my fault. I listened to this or that person. I didn't do this or that. I get it, okay? That was not the point I intended at all. Sorry that I didn't communicate, that I didn't make my point all that clear.

If you read other things I have postyed earlier on in this blog you may understand that I am not about making money from what I write. It has been a very good thing so far as I have not made anything yet, so no disappointment. I am an artist. Some other parts of me are more pragmatic but I have a pretty healthy grasp of the writing business and expect this to be a long journey not a quick trip.

Another reader loved the line about the IRS. I have to tell you all that I typed that even before I realized what I said. Sometimes the best lines that you ever produce come to you just like that. Someone I knew in my past called those things that I come up with on the spur of the moment 'elgonisms'. I will so take credit for that one even though I am sure some of my friends will pass it along enough that some comedian will pick it up and think that it was his.

One of you thinks I am in denial about my best friend. Serious I am not. I am very realistic about that. There is a real person ont he end of that so fantasy and bullshit does not enter into it at all. The 'thing' that I have for her is that her incredible mind and the way it works intrigues me and it always has. She is a remarkable individual. I really wish everyone could know her and learn to appreciate what she has to offer. If you like me you would like her a lot more. Why? Because I like her.

I also wish you would all post your comments to the blog so that others could read them some of you are pretty funny.

I have to say that I am beginning to attract a lot of aspriing would-be whatevers. That is kewl. (Kewl is cool pronounced like it is spelled.) As one of them told me we are all in this together. Yes we are. I just hope that everyone remembers everyone that they have in their address book when fame and fortune strikes. I can promise that I will and I am a man of my word. You may say bullshit but I will as it is in my nature and it is part of my being human. Being realistic though I doubt anyone else I know that happens to make it will ever remember to pull me along for the ride. So, I am out there on my own anyway.

I must say that this one blog posting received the most comments. I put it up on the spur of the moment and I have to tell you I am surprised how well it was received. I didn't think it was particularly good. Yes, when I wrote the line about the IRS I knew that would get some laughs. The really sad side of that is how true it is.

Most of the blog entry was written quickly and I admit it is pretty much train of thought style writing. If you were ever seeking insight into how my mind works, there is a sample.

Sometimes I get email from people seeing philosophical insight, words of wisdom or just general encouragement. I feel strange and uncomfortable giving advice. I feel there should always be a caveat at the end of whatever I lend in the way of words of inspiration - I am no better off than you.

I have been successful and I have been a failure. I have been scussessful often enough to know that you do not arrive there without experiencing a lot of failure and trying is not good enough to arrive at any destination except trying again. Despite Ben Franklin's generally wise council, trying again becomes self-perpetuating. Here is the proof, for whatever it is worth.

I did not come up with this on my own. Someone that had happened upon the knowledge demonstrated it to me so I will not take credit. Take your keys, drop them on the floor beside you and TRY to pick them up. One of two things will happy you will continue to try to pick them up never actually doing it or you will FAIL to try by actually DOING a SUCCESSFUL pick up. SO, it is not enough to try, try again.

I know I am playing with sematics but it is for a point and the concept is well worth understanding. Trying alone will never be good enough. You have to have clear goals and a destination in sight or withing grasp. What Ben Franklin was really 'trying' to say was something that Richard Fenton points out in his self-help books. I will not 'try' to state it more succinctly than he does. Failure is a interim step on the way to success. He even goes so far as to state that if you increase the number of negative responses that you receive you automatically increase the likelihood that you will FAIL to receive a 'no'. It is one of those concepts that is intuitively correct but since most of us feel that we are on a continuum between failure and success, it is good that someone comes along and points out that your world view is totally wrong. You are failing because you keep on trying. It is not necessarily a bad thing at all but without a destination or goal you will never succeed.

There are some quality people that I know who are struggling to make it in their own right. I have held back mentioning their names as I do not want to invade their privacy but then again they are attempting to become more public. Until they ask for promotional assistance I will refrain. They are aspiring models. Either the worlds is overstocked with aspiring models and writers or it is just my lot in life to always meet them.

It is strange though. I happen to meet only good people from whatever source I have happened upon. I am far too skeptical to think that the world is populated with so many good people that there is no synchronicity involved in meeting these good people. Quality, hard working, hungry people, eager people need to be helped. I hope that someday I can do more that offer words of inspiration, even if my words fall short of doing anything more than making someone laugh or just feel better.

I am certain that they will make it because I believe in my friends. There are no accidents. Coincidence is only an undefined purpose, exposed but not understood. I really believe that. I have seen it proven out again and again. It is not a theory as some have called it - as in 'that is an interesting theory'. It has become the axiom of my life.

I am working on Book 1 and as I am only setting out to 'fix' the first hundred pages, maybe I will post all of the changes here. Maybe I won't for copyright reasons. I have to float that idea past my publisher. I have materially altered copyrighted material which then needs a new copyright.

As so many of you that have Book 1 have told me, it would make a very good sci-fi movie. Well believe me that my changes to it are designed to better present this for a film translation. If anyone knows any producer, please hand them a book or tell them to check out my blog. Along that line of thinking I was considering senmding a hard copy of "Specter of Dammerwald" to some hollywood types. It is not a script but damn would it make a hell of a movie in the fantasy genre - my opinion for the most part although it is shared with the people that have read it.

I NEED TO GET BACK TO WORK.

Be at peace,

E

posted by Unknown @ 9:13 PM