My Very Own Blogetary (Blog: Web Log; etary or ary: engaged in or pertaining to)

First day of my new part-time job.

Got some weird notification about changing of SSL security certificates for my website and blog today and I just don’t understand whether I need to do something or not. I pay them $10/month so I don’t have to think about it. If something needs to be fixed, they should fix it, not me.

I’m tired of having to figure stuff out - let them figure it out.

Got a “no thank you” today.

Sent out two submissions today.

It’s way too hot today. I wouldn’t mind it so much if I had an air conditioned home and an air conditioned car. But when it’s hot like this, there’s no break from the heat on the bricks and the heat on the sidewalk. And there’s not near enough shade on this street when you want to walk around to run errands. And it just makes me too tired to do anything but melt.  If I just had air conditioning, I would be okay. But when it’s so hot the glass of water on the side table is warm and the wood floor is dry and cracking, it just sucks.

And I’m tired of having an empty cupboard and empty fridge and being creative ALL THE TIME. It would be nice to just open up the fridge or cupboard and be able to just grab something to eat without thinking - “gee - what can I do with what I have.” It will get better, but

I’m tired.

In case anyone is interested, the next issue of Electric Velocipede will be coming out soon. It will be a double issue (#15 Summer and #16 Winter) as the floods in Iowa this summer seriously hampered getting anything out. They have some advertising space open for anyone interested.

I am particularly attached to this upcoming issue because I have two poems in it. However, there are a lot of other stories and poems in that issue that will be worth the read. I’m honored to be listed among the authors in this issue.

That’s right!  Celebrate the right to READ!  Read Huck Finn, Harry Potter, or whatever! Just go forth and READ!
Happy Banned Book Week!

That’s right, folks. This is a tough year, so you better start shopping soon so you can take advantage of sales, deals, and sloooooow shipping.

And if you’re interested or curious, then why not start shopping at my very own Cafe Press and Amazon stores.

For Christmas, try looking here.

For a more Solstice-y look, try here.

This Sunday, September 28, 10AM - 6PM, will be the West Hollywood Book Fair at West Hollywood Park. Now, last year we were able to get a booth and hand out flyers all day. That was great. Our average number of attendees rose by 80% (from 7.5 per meeting to 12.5 per meeting) because of the outreach we did there. We got lots of cool people to come on board and it’s been great.

This year, we were not able to get a booth so we may be missing out on getting more people in the group. Getting a few new people in every year is a way to insure that there’s always fresh ideas and new outlooks coming through. As writers, that’s always a good thing. So, this year, we’re having to be a little more creative to get the word out about our writers club. What we’re doing is asking club members who are able and willing to commit to spending 1-2 hours at the book fair handing out flyers to people who look like they may be looking around for a writers group to attend. In fact, it would be a good idea for anyone in the club to have a copy of the flyer to just have and print out occasionally to pass out to people when they attend other writer events.

It’s always good to get new blood. Ask any vampire.

So, if you’re reading this and in the Mid-Wilshire Writer’s Club and would like to participate, or would just like a copy of the flyer, let me know and I’ll send a flyer your way.

I’ve watched a couple of episodes lately that made me wonder about what happens in our brains when we writers write about ourselves. I don’t mean ourselves individually; I mean ourselves as a collective, or an idea, or an idea of particular character.

On an episode of Law & Order: SVU, for example, there was a writer character who had papered his walls with his rejection letters, kept his books in a perfect area with a dehumidifier thing, and had started a serial killing spree of copying a famous serial killer because one of the rejection letters had told him the serial killer subject of his book was too old. They wanted something more recent. The writer wanted to be known. He wanted to be famous. So he became the serial killer he had written about.
Maybe he wasn’t really a writer. I mean, he was a writer. He wrote books, according to the story line, but he wrote books to be known, not necessarily to because he liked writing. Or else that part of him had been killed off by his insanity. Anyway, when I was watching that episode, it made me wonder about the writers on the show. Had they been laughing at themselves when they wrote it? Poking fun at themselves and other writers? It was just a thought.

Then, tonight on Bones, the body found had been a science fiction writer with OCD. After his first two books, his publisher had cut him off because he, the writer, was not marketable enough. They had hired someone as a stand in for the photo and had written a totally fictional blurb about the writer. The editor that Bones interviewed about it was so despicable she was ready to throw away the books she was writing cuz she didn’t want to be seen through the jaded eyes of this publisher. Again, I wondered about the people who had written the episode. Were they making fun of writers? Publishers? Editors? All of the above?

What happens when writers write about themselves?

Yes, believe it or not, September 24 is National Punctuation Day. Yeah!  Really!  They said so here!  So, honor the lowly punctuation mark. The . , ! ” ‘ : ; - and — and don’t forget ) and ( and now a days even a & % $ # and @.

So, remember the punctuation mark today!

Okay, not sure I did it right, but I have three shops because I want it all for free and I’m willing to put up with a little inconvenience for free. So, if you’re interested, take a gander at my three shops:

• Putt Putt Productions Shop
• Putt Putt Productions Shop Two
• Putt Putt Productions Shop Three
• Putt Putt Productions Shop Four

Let me know what you think.

I may do another one for another design, but I need to work that design out first.

Last night I was up too late and ended up watching a Law & Order SVU rerun. The serial killer they were tracking down was actually a copycat killer. And get this, he was a writer who had written 27 books and papers his walls with his rejection letters. His book on the serial killer he was copying had been rejected because it wasn’t “current” or “recent” news. So he decided to make it “recent”.

I don’t know. It just made me laugh. I bet the writers who wrote that episode had a good laugh as well.

In case you haven’t heard yet, the Mid-Wilshire Writers Club is now on MySpace. If you’re already on MySpace, come by and take a look. Friend us!  If nothing else, bookmark, subscribe to, and read our blog!

The most recent blog talks about a time capsule find we had at our last meeting, including this instruction sheet on how to submit the perfect manuscript:

We complain now about what it takes to submit a manuscript, but we don’t know. Not really. And this wasn’t typed up all that long ago. When you consider that the Bronte sisters wrote their rough drafts on the wall, well, we’ve got it pretty easy.