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I had an epiphany in the middle of the night, thanks to the Zen nun I left murmuring on my iPod. I've been feeling frustrated and unworthy because I haven't yet got an original SF novel published, let alone won the Hugo, Nebula, Tiptree, Ditmar, despairing love of all humanity, etc. This is doing things backwards. An apple tree isn't trying to make apples, or thinking 'Why haven't I made apples yet, all my mates are making fantastic apples, I'm never gonna make these freakin' apples'. It just makes a bunch of apples, because that's a hoot, and also because it's an apple tree. Like everything in nature, then, I shall be goalless.
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Date: 2011-02-06 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-06 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-06 10:13 pm (UTC)There is really nothing you must be.
And there is nothing you must do.
There is really nothing you must have.
And there is nothing you must know.
There is really nothing you must become.
However, it helps to understand that fire burns,
and when it rains, the earth gets wet.
Japanese Zen scroll
This is what enlightenment is all about: a deep
understanding that there is no problem. Then, with no
problem to solve, what will you do? Immediately you
start living. You will eat, you will sleep, you will
love, you will work, you will have a chit-chat, you
will sing, you will dance. What else is there to do?
Osho
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Date: 2011-02-11 11:41 pm (UTC)- Planet of the Spiders
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Date: 2011-02-06 11:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-07 08:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-06 11:18 pm (UTC)Well, it didn't work out that way. I turned out to just not be a novelist. 25,000 words seems to be a pretty damned hard and fast limit for me, and even stories of that length tend to be written over the course of years, with long breaks in between 5,000 word bursts. 5,000 words, actually, seems to be my natural habitat. A little longer or shorter, depending, but always fairly close to that.
But as long as I tried to follow my list, I sold nothing. It wasn't until, a couple years ago, that I threw the thing away and decided to take a year off from submitting (just write for grins n' giggles) that I started to make semi-pro sales. These days I've gotten a little too lax (I really need to get back to a daily quota, that worked well for productivity if nothing else), but I'm enjoying everything I write again, since it's coming without that deep seated dread question: "I wonder if *editor* will like this?' :)
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Date: 2011-02-07 08:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-07 09:05 am (UTC)http://www.dhammaloka.org.au/downloads/itemlist/category/46-rains-talks.html
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Date: 2011-02-07 10:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-07 11:29 pm (UTC)Good, because goats would eat all your apples.
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Date: 2011-02-07 11:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-08 12:21 am (UTC)Two copies, even. One to read; one to keep.
:P
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Date: 2011-02-08 12:22 am (UTC)Stoopid hands
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Date: 2011-02-08 09:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-08 10:02 am (UTC)Were you there on GB when I mocked up this daft novel cover?
(I'd just read In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami.)
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Date: 2011-02-08 11:52 am (UTC)And, based on the praise he lavished on "Chimaera", it wouldn't surprise me a bit if Mr. Di Filippo agreed to write a short introduction to a collection of yours. :)
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Date: 2011-02-09 01:09 am (UTC)(And here is the part where I will also repeat to myself how super smart it is in spite of that little voice in the back of my head saying, 'but I wanna write Doctor Whooooooo' at me. HUMANS. What on earth is wrong with us?)
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Date: 2011-02-09 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 01:17 am (UTC)Instead, we are working on Hold Something tonight. And a novella. And school.
*pats crazy writer bits on the noggin*
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Date: 2011-02-09 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 03:08 am (UTC)I'll just be here, safely concealed under a blanket of crunchy snow.