And Another Thing...

For you to read and me to write

Whenever a new thing is started, there's an element of risk and uncertainty. Like this newsletter. I sat looking at the blank screen for a long time, thinking about what I wanted to write. Something momentous? Not really my style. I can be a pedant, sure, but that’s not the tone I take for most of my writing. Something deeply researched? Oof. I miss, really miss, writing papers (I know, I can see that expression of disbelief right through both our screens) but rarely have the time any longer to dive down the rabbit hole of research deeply enough to do it justice.

No, it was going to have to be whatever fell out of my head through my fingers and onto the screen. I wish I was a profound thinker, but I’m not, and no amount of time staring at the screen wishing is going to change that. The writing inside my head is not the writing on the screen, and the only way to change the actual words is to write them out and look at them. 

Which may be a summation of all these years of blogging. The Substack newsletter is not intended to replace the blog, but to be an extension and expansion of it. It will be highly eclectic, as always. I may focus more on imagery here, as the blog host I currently have is a bit of PITA about that. I may not. I may post book reviews there, and book releases here. I honestly don’t know yet. I may abandon this entirely due to lack of interaction.

The one thing I do not have is time. I have to sleep, and eat, and I must do the Day Job to the best of my scattered abilities. Hereafter, I shall be working on writing fiction, with art on the side, and marketing coming in a scant third. Probably not the best way to conduct business, but then again, without the creative there’s nothing to market. 

That is the struggle, between time to make things, and time to sell them, because without the first, you haven’t got the latter. Without the latter, you have no incentive to continue the former. In internet terms, the wave of social media marketing, selling things could take all day every day if you let it. Which means you have to create a schedule, stick to it, and manage your time jealously. 

Doing all of that with an ADHD brain (it’s the only one I’ve got, and they don’t let you change out the originally issued parts very often) makes for an interesting life, at least from my viewpoint. I’d like to think you’d be interested, too. I could be wrong, I could just be shouting into the void. That’s ok. I think best when I’m writing, so if nothing else, this will help me think through all the things.

I’ll be back in a week. Tonight you can catch the BroadCast livestreaming on the North Texas Troublemakers Youtube Channel. Tomorrow I’ll be chiming in with Live! From the Blanket Fort! On the Old NFO Youtube channel. For the written, you can find a snippet of my WIP at my blog, CedarWrites. 

A new book? Well, I believe the last one up with a story of mine in it is Space Cowboys which can be found in ebook and paper at Amazon or other fine retailers. Ask your librarian to get it in, if you prefer. It’s all good.