Skip to main content

Back to School

For the past few years, since departing sometime in late '04, I have planned a return back to school to obtain an ever-elusive degree in English or Literature or Journalism. The fact is I will never be satisfied with whatever success I may inherit due to writing without earning an education like most Americans. And for that matter, the aforementioned success may turn out to be very minimal without this education. It is turning out that these two things are hand-in-hand.

I have always been very distractable. It would make sense for me to turn the Orioles game off, tell my lady love I'll call her soon and set my phone to vibrate, and keep my head in my laptop where I can concentrate ever more with getting this first novel and my query letter perfect. My perfect. I'll know when they are perfect, and as of this moment, they are not perfect. Far from it.

But I never do that. And this upon the heaping pile of school work I will soon be knee deep in worries me that I am still not completely commited to my education. But this Fall I will once again try to prove to myself--as well as my friends, family, you--that I am worth more than what I currently have produced. Which is to say crap little.

I have aspirations that are well beyond my capability as of today. Working retail is not my idea of a career, but writing for the magazine and publisher of my dreams is just out of reach for someone with simply a high school diploma.

And as always, I'll post my triumphs and bumpy roads here.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Marketing

Is it ever too early to market your book? This question is retroactive to pre-publishing, too. I know very little about marketing. In fact, I guess I know nothing at all. My plan has always been, from the beginning, to get my story out there . To have people read it - that's the point to all of this. That's why this blog exists. And yet now I find myself searching for new, constructive ways to market this book. So far, I've been searching for an artist for the cover. I have it completely planned out, but I could screw up a stick figure, so I'll leave this to the pros. I'm wondering if it's too soon to design a website. Would a website even work for an unpublished work? I don't know. These are things I am looking into to help market my first novel. I've never had much use for an ego, but is self-promotion really egotistical? Or will it only hasten my prospect for publishing? Hmm.

BEING ELTON ALWINE

This is something that I've not give much thought about, and I'm not one to self-diagnose, but I have to find out if I have an anxiety disorder. All the symptoms are there: sweating, shortness of breath, headaches, etc. The list goes on. It's hard to concentrate, and I'm sick of excuses for why I'm not writing. It's certainly not lack of love or passion. And I am just a bit too affected on Sundays. The Baltimore Ravens are one of my loves in life, but this football team should in no way affect my attitudes and moods after game day . This, to me, is completely unacceptable. As of late, I've also developed an unnatural fear of death. I have witnessed this transformation seemingly outside of myself. I've never actually been the "worry wart" type, and I'm far from letting this behavior continue. Depression, Anxiety - these are words that I have always abhorred ; figments of the Pharmaceutical Industry's Utopian dream. Quite a bit of this d...

Dear Spring, Please Get Here Soon...

I've been away for a while, but I'm staying busy. The Spring semester kicked off this week, and so far my classes are great, especially Astronomy. This is something I would want to do for the rest of my life, if my written word doesn't pay so well. Baseball is so close I'm beginning to foam at the mouth. Barely 8 weeks away and I have my season tickets for Sunday games almost purchased. There is just something about Spring in Baltimore... Anyway, the Script Project was going really well into page 30. One quarter down, and I stumbled like I do so often. But I will finish it, because I think it's a really good script. And vampires are still keeping me up at night. I revamped my BLADE story for MARVEL, and I'm mailing my Idea Proposal tomorrow. So, that's three projects on my lap. No problem.