Yesterday, Paige Nolley nominated this blog for a Liebster Award (Thanks, Paige!) The award is really sort of a vox populi way of shining a light on newer blogs (those with followers < 200), which means I most certainly qualify.
The procedure for award nominees is:
Posted in Culture, Writing | Tagged blogging, creative writing, Liebster Award, Writing | 6 Comments »
“You’ve just finished your novel! What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to Disneyland!”
This, unfortunately, is not the case for me. I’ve been rather blue since writing “Fin” on the last page. A lot of the messages that came my way in the past couple of days congratulated me on the “birth” of my latest novel, so it’s rather fitting that, when I look up the symptoms listed for postpartum depression, I find that I am experiencing a lot of them.
Why isn’t this a happy time? Why am I not ecstatic over having completed a major opus?
There are lots of reasons, many having to do with the sense of loss that comes from any major separation, but there are other factors that I know are weighing on me.
Maybe it’ll rain today. I’m always happier when it rains.
k
Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing | Tagged Beneath a Wounded Sky, creative writing, Fallen Cloud Saga, FC:V, novel writing, Writing, writing tips | 2 Comments »
Last week, we lost two Armstrongs, and in this era where “hero” is grossly overused, we lost a true one.
Lance Armstrong, seven-time first-place finisher of the Tour de France, essentially went nolo contendere against doping charges. And now we learn that News International is reviewing their out-of-court settlement, made in response to libel charges Lance raised.
Lance was one of those public figures who, the more you looked and the longer the limelight shone upon him, the less “heroic” he seemed. My initial admiration, based on his comeback from cancer and his strong devotion to family, faded as charges of doping persisted and he dealt with marital commitments in a manner that at best can be described as cavalier. His thirst for celebrity—all in the name of his foundation, of course—began to acquire a hint of desperation. Lance needed to be on top, needed to be the best. His retirements came and went as fast as his marriages. Then, last week, when Lance decided to give up the fight against the doping charges, it was the final stroke. Stripped of his titles, he is now just another fallen hero.
In contrast, Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, shunned the limelight. This man, a veteran of the Korean War, a test pilot who flew with giants like Yeager and Knight, quietly and expertly did a job that rewrote history. He was a man who could have made a fortune cashing in on his celebrity. As George Carlin famously quipped, if Neil’s first words on the moon had been “Coca-Cola!” he would have been set for life. But instead of fame, he opted for humility and relative obscurity. I have friends who, until they saw pictures of him this past week, couldn’t have picked a picture of Neil out of a lineup. His passing is bittersweet; he lived a remarkable and yet a humble life, he achieved great things but did not boast of them. We no longer live in a world that has Neil Armstrong in it.
We’ve all become accustomed to “heroes” that have feet of clay. We are perfectly comfortable with role models draped with felony convictions. Society turns a blind eye when high-profile celebrities misbehave or commit crimes. We forget easily their bad deeds, and accept the facile apologies crafted so well that they admit no real responsibility.
We do this because real heroes are thin on the ground, these days, and we hunger for someone to look up to. Unfortunately, we’ve lost one of those who was worthy of that admiration.
But only one.
k
Posted in Culture | Leave a Comment »
You’ve heard it before; my big deal when I’m writing is to “Write, don’t edit.” You know…don’t put off ’til tomorrow what you can put off for months, right? Well, now that I’ve finished the writing bit, I can’t put it off any longer. I have to sit down and do what I’ve successfully avoided.
Editing is hard; everyone knows that, but why? I mean, why edit at all? Just run that puppy through the spell-checker and send it out, right? Wrong. Seriously wrong. Continue Reading »
Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing | Tagged Beneath a Wounded Sky, Characters, Fallen Cloud Saga, FC:V, novel writing, novels, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips | 2 Comments »
Main production on Beneath a Wounded Sky is now complete!
That’s right. The last swoosh from my fountain pen is on the pad, and the first draft is officially done. This weekend will be busy, as I transcribe the last few chapters from longhand to disk, and start working on all those <?> items scattered in there.
And then begins the painful process of editing.
Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing | Tagged Beneath a Wounded Sky, creative writing, Fallen Cloud Saga, FC:V, novel writing, Writing | Leave a Comment »
The end of any writing project is an emotional time for me, and the level of that emotion marches in lockstep with the amount of time I’ve invested. Be it poem, short story, or novel, there is a point at which it’s time to say “goodbye.”
With novels, it can be a tough period to get through. As a kid, I was always labeled as “too sensitive.” I was the easy target for gibes and teasing. I’ve grown a tougher hide in recent years, but it’s just a façade. I still feel things deeply, and goodbyes are never easy. Continue Reading »
Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing | Tagged Beneath a Wounded Sky, Characters, creative writing, Fallen Cloud Saga, FC:V, novel writing, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips | 2 Comments »
There was a time when we admired people who knew stuff, people who invented things. When did that change?
We used to admire people like Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and Albert Schweitzer. We admired our educators, our scientists, our doctors. We used to value intelligence, and it was something we thought was important for our leaders to have. After all, who wanted a buffoon running the country?
Then something happened. We started to belittle our teachers, we began blaming our doctors for every bad outcome, and we began to discount everything our scientists told us about our world. Gut feeling trumped empirical data. Sound bites overrode sound reasoning.
Soon, we no longer cared if our leaders and representatives in government were smart enough for the job. Intelligence didn’t matter; what mattered was whether they talked like we did. And now, we don’t even care if a candidate can string a coherent sentence together. High intelligence is now a detractor, a tick in the minus column. It is more important that we enjoy sitting down to have a beer with our candidate than whether s/he has a single clue about the complex and manifold issues that face this country.
The result? We now have mainstream political parties that completely deny entire bodies of established and accepted scientific analysis. We have politicians who believe that the female body has some sort of whoop-whoop alarm system that will keep women from getting pregnant in case of “legitimate rape.” And we now have a candidate for the presidency who has a budget, but his team admits that they haven’t “run the numbers.”
It’s ludicrous. Why would I listen to someone who’s “read a book” on a subject instead of someone who’s studied that subject for decades? Do I ask a scientist for spiritual advice? Hell, no! So why would I give more credence to a preacher than a scientist in areas of scientific study?
Why don’t we want our leaders to be the smartest guys we can find? More to the point, why don’t we demand it?
Aw, hell. Hand me another beer, will ya?
k
Posted in Culture, Politics | Tagged Akins, climate change, current events, intelligence, legitimate rape, politics, science, value intelligence | 2 Comments »
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 