Soapbox Archives
Since the dawn of time, man has expressed himself through art, through ideas, through creativity. We drew on cave walls and tinkered with shit until we discovered awesome things like fire, the wheel, and words. Oh I love me the guy who decided we needed more than grunts and gestures.
I express myself primarily through writing. It’s what I know. It’s what I’m good at. (I think.) This world needs more expressing and less judging. Recently I got a tattoo, (I’ll get back to this later) my first and probably my last, and I find with every negative reaction to this tattoo, I’m pondering more and more why it is we have to judge how others express their individuality. It’s my body, my skin and my choice....more
I’m going to get up on this here soapbox because I haven’t really had a good rant in a while. Just let me take these shoes off so I don’t slip…and there we go. Ready? Good.
Today I was inspired by an article published in Salon written by (one of my favorite writers) Rob W. Hart. He discusses self-publishing and a trend that until reading his article, I thought was just something created by my sensitive ego to drive me batshit....more
After another Robert Langdon indigestible delivery, one would be justified to ponder with perplexity why a wealthy writer should continue to flog a horse, when the wretched animal has obviously been dead for a long time.
But publishing is a business. A nitpicking one, with asshole CEOs, corporate tentacles, and douchebag representatives. It's just like every other business enterprise out there, so how is it that these two – art and business – coexist, and even depend on each other?
There's a drycleaner that I pass almost every day on my way to work that posts weekly quips and phrases to get you thinking. This week's was, “Money won't buy you happiness. Happiness won't buy you groceries.” A-fucking-men. Contrary to popular belief, writers don't survive on coffee and inspiration alone. We have to eat too. So, some of us pull down “regular” jobs (I'm a server in beach town. I know, how cliché.). Others slave over the keyboard writing articles about herpes, drywall, and how to care for laminate flooring – all so we can spend the wee hours of the night churning out the writing that we want. So that we can publish the art that we are truly proud of.
But wait....more
For a long time I’ve encountered frustration when dealing with genre. While I believe categorizing books based on theme and such is a necessary evil, it’s annoying that those writing within each category have determined that only one formula or one set of criteria can fit that specific category. Do not challenge established norms. Do not disagree with popular ideas. Do not rock the genre boat.
Writers push aside these boundaries every day. We mix this genre with that and we make new genres. Yet, many of us won’t publish this work unless we do it ourselves. And if we do, we risk not being accepted by a large portion of our genre’s “community.” That’s sad....more
For most people, privacy is a precious possession. Seldom has a day gone by without hearing or reading stories about righteous citizens fighting tooth and nail to protect their privacy against the rapacity of governments and corporations. It seems a paradox, or at least a contradiction, that the same people would joyfully surrender another parcel of their personal space when they embrace the latest technologies. ...more
This is old news, but it’s taken me some time to digest, so I haven’t written anything about it. I’m not sure how I feel about my beloved Goodreads being swallowed by Amazon, not that I have anything against Amazon. It’s a business and it conducts itself as many businesses do, but Goodreads occupies a special place in my heart. It was my doorway into the writing world, and a priceless source of new authors and books I’ve come to love. I don’t want it to become Amazon-ized....more
As an author (and in general) I hate being stuck into a box. It's like those imaginary lines mock me, daring me to cross them. I loathe when authors are pigeon-holed into genres, as though creativity can be contained within the confines of a single style or theme. It irritates me beyond reason and has for a long time. But recently, I’ve realized that it’s not publishers or agents that do this to us. It’s not even a choice made by many authors. It’s readers that force us to stay within clear genre lines.
Don’t get all riled up. I’m not criticizing the readers. Actually, I get it, and I agree that we should keep to one genre. Sort of. Let me explain. This is not really a rant worthy of the soapbox, but it’s filled with frustration because I can’t have my way on something, so this is where it shall go....more
The race is on to figure out the means to stop e-book piracy. As a writer I would welcome a sure-fire scheme to prevent piracy; it’s ridiculous that almost any book can be downloaded free by anyone with a modicum of Internet savvy and five minutes to spare. But with age I’ve lost my blinding idealistic streak and accept the unpalatable facts of our era. Nothing will ever stop a determined individual from copying text, giving it any present or future format and make it freely available. That the poor bastard who burned his eyelashes creating the text will not get a cent for his troubles has never disturbed the thieves’ sleep....more
This post was shared by the author being criticized. The original post was actually from a disgruntled reader, who was also a writer. Here’s what the reader had to say:
“I’m sorry, I just can’t keep quiet. This is how I’m feeling. I’m going to piss off a lot of people, but you know what. I’m tired of keeping quiet....more
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