hey all! been a while, eh? life has been crazy busy for me lately and I haven’t been able to mess around on the internet as much as I have in the past. if I own you an email, please be patient. I’ll get back to you probably this weekend. if not, early next week.
that being said, I’ve also been getting a lot of requests for blurbs, etc. people sending me their books and whatnot, despite the fact that on my contact page I specifically request that people don’t do that. apparently, there are some folks who think that request must not apply to them, even though I have no idea who they are, never heard of them at all. if you are one of these people, I apologize for not getting back to you, but I don’t know how I can be any clearer on the matter. I don’t have time to read everything people send me-not to mention it’s not a smart thing to do, legally. so, you’re wasting your time and mine and your stuff gets deleted unread. if that makes me a bitch, so be it, but there are a lot of other people you can ask for blurbs and whatnot. please contact them instead.
so, now that that bit is out of the way, I can get onto the real purpose for this post which is that I have decided to take a sabbatical from writing. in truth, I’ve been on sabbatical for somewhere around a month, give or take, and I have felt amazing. like a huge weight has been lifted. it’s not easy to stop doing something you’ve done you’re whole life-even harder to stop thinking about that something-but I’m doing it and I’m currently much happier for it. the constant stress of deadlines-but mostly promotion-has taken it’s toll and I just need a break from it all. not sure how long that break will be, but I’ve got a lot of other things I’m interested in doing and just interested in, in general. I do a fair bit of activism type stuff that I don’t talk about online very often because I feel like my online presence is all about the fiction stuff, so I’ve mostly kept quiet about most other things. I’ll probably continue that thread for the time being, but you never know.
am I quitting writing for good? hell no. I doubt I could if I wanted to (and I DO kind of want to) but for now not worrying about it has been pretty blissful. so, mostly, I just want to say, that if my presence has diminished somewhat, that’s why. just doing other things that make me happy right now, which is what everyone should do, whenever possible.
I hope everyone out there is having a phenomenal autumn and that this post is okay, given that it’s been total stream-of-consciousness.
oh and one more thing before I go: I have a new book out called Mothman Emerged. check it out over there in the sidebar if you want. if not, that’s cool too.
with endless mad love,
g.
Because I still don’t have any official news yet (it’s coming very soon tho! I swear on the Flying Spaghetti monster!) I figured I’d pop in here and share one of my favorite Bukowski poems. I’m probably violating some sort of copyright rule, but eh. If you can’t beat ’em and all that. I hope he wouldn’t mind. 🙂
So You Want To Be A Writer
By Charles Bukowski
if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it for money or
fame,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
if it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
if you’re trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.
don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was.
“While wandering a deserted beach at dawn, stagnant in my work, I saw a man in the distance bending and throwing as he walked the endless stretch toward me. As he came near, I could see that he was throwing starfish, abandoned on the sand by the tide, back into the sea. When he was close enough I asked him why he was working so hard at this strange task. He said that the sun would dry the starfish and they would die. I said to him that I thought he was foolish. there were thousands of starfish on miles and miles of beach. One man alone could never make a difference. He smiled as he picked up the next starfish. Hurling it far into the sea he said, “It makes a difference for this one.” I abandoned my writing and spent the morning throwing starfish.”
― Loren Eiseley
I don’t normally do this type of thing but sometimes you read something that is so spot-on, you just have to share it with the masses (however small they might be.)
I have been a fan of the DC character of Catwoman pretty much my whole life. I got even more into her in the early 90’s with her Chuck Dixon/Jim Ballant run. I have a rather large tattoo proving my love for the character. If you ask me nicely, I might show it to you sometime.
But, sadly, I’m not a fan of the current incarnation of my beloved character. I don’t like how she’s being written. I don’t like how she’s being drawn. And, I gave the current run a lot more issues than it deserved, hoping to be proven wrong. But, nope. Still hate it.
Anyway, I digress.
But I came across this great little essay that sums up the abomination that is DC’s Catwoman Issue 0 cover.
I wish I knew who wrote it so I could give the author the proper credit he or she deserves and tell he or she that I may have just a little bit of a crush on him/her.
Read it HERE
Hope you’re all having an awesome weekend. I’ll have news for you soon, I promise.
addendum: author of the linked post is Andrew Wheeler. Bless his heart. 🙂 lots of good stuff from him.
Not much happening on Planet G these days. Was supposed to have a new book out in April, but that obviously didn’t happen. Kind of unsure when it will happen, but I’m promised it will at some point. Fingers crossed it’s soon because I really like this new book and think you guys will too. I hope so anyway.
In the meantime, here’s a wonderful quote from one of my all-time favorite writers, Mr. Ray Bradbury.
Enjoy!
“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”
— Ray Bradbury
“EVERYTHING YOU DO RIGHT NOW RIPPLES OUTWARD AND AFFECTS EVERYONE. YOUR POSTURE CAN SHINE YOUR HEART OR TRANSMIT ANXIETY. YOUR BREATH CAN RADIATE LOVE OR MUDDY THE ROOM IN DEPRESSION. YOUR GLANCE CAN AWAKEN JOY. YOUR WORDS CAN INSPIRE FREEDOM. YOUR EVERY ACT CAN OPEN HEARTS AND MINDS.”
– David Deida
this has been on my wall for so many years, thought I’d share it with you tonight (though it’s not the entire poem, just the last stanza. enjoy!
But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future’s sakes.
I’ve heard a LOT of talk lately about the death of bookstores and why it’s happening. most people blame ebooks, but I think it’s more than that. or less, depending on how you look at it.
here’s what I think the reason is, and you are more than welcome to disagree with me, but in a nutshell: hardly anyone wants to pay for their entertainment anymore. they pirate music, movies and books. they want what they want, they want it NOW, they want it to be stellar and most of all, they want it to be FREE. as someone who has ebooks that are priced at only 99 cents and people STILL steal them, I can see that they don’t want to actually get up, leave their houses and then PAY for the art they consume. (where the joy in browsing stores went, I don’t know. maybe it’s a generational thing.)
piracy is a cancer and it’s killing artists. e-readers can-and are-being used as weapons against us. (but in case you’re wondering, I am most definitely NOT in the anti-e-reader camp. I own one and I love it and I’ve never pirated anything in my life.) I don’t have any answers, unfortunately. this is totally off the cuff and I just wanted to jot down my thoughts before they floated away.
so, take this or leave it. it’s all good. 🙂
hope you have an amazing weekend!
g.
“America… just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.” ~ Hunter S. Thompson
GINA RANALLI 