On Writing...CJ takes the thread-derail off to another road...

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Casey Jones

Train left the station...
GIM2 Refugee
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Location
Western Montana
To continue an off-topic sidebar from the Tulsi thread:

Goldie -- I have never met CJ -- He was "Just Passing Through" 20-odd years ago. And for at least half that time, having read perhaps 15,000 of his posts (TINS) I have been at him to seriously write. Why? Because what I recognise as an author is his unpolished talent.

So, at the moment, I am both pleased and appalled.

VERY pleased he is going to start.

Appalled because he plans to write/publish "raw". <-- C.S. Forester hisself couldn't do that. It is a sure way NOT to give your work a snowball's chance to be seen, remembered, discussed.

A practical point to the above -- Please take note, CJ -- this is important:

You write a chapter, and you are three chapters later in writing, and you remember an anecdote that would triple the interest in that previous chapter. Or you made a grievous, dumb-ass mistake in that previous chapter. Or you regret the fargin dead-end that chapter sticks you with. Or a hundred things yer Unca has already fargin experienced!!

If it is already out there when you discover it -- warped, crooked, "oh shit" flat wrong, potentially poisonous, somehow awful to the bone... you cannot touch it -- even if it costs you every reader you ever had. The Internet is forever. Got that?

Jack Kerouac did that. (Unedited stuff) Other than nutcases, does anyone know what he wrote?

The guy whose novel I am now editing (as he writes/adds gems/re-rewrites it) humbles me. And when he first started a few years ago, I saw his talent with words. We worked together, and his first novel was great.

This will be his second, and it is ten times better than his really good first.

That's where I want CJ -- Not out panhandling day to day.

All good points. But here's what's kept me from putting serious effort into this First Stab:

It's unsaleable.

Ergo, it's the PERFECT Writing Lab.

In the past, would-be writers might, as they get to my age, crank out their Trunk Novel. Never intending it be read, or published. Do it because they're driven.

But I read, long ago, the history of 50 Shades of Grey...not that that's the kind of novel I'm intending; but it started out as a series of free web postings. Not sure of the veracity, or even of my memory of it - I came across it in passing, and it's not worth researching.

Stephen King...drunken hack that he is, he had his youthful brilliances. He got started writing filler for girly books...not Playboy, but the real swill, that should have been titled Naked Girls Who Look Like Drug Users. Thirty years later, the publishers he sold those stories to, long gone...he pulled many of those stories out, published them in anthologies, and rewrote a few into full-length novels. Shawshank Redemption was one such.

Not saying I'm right, or you're wrong, or declining your services, Walt. In fact, we may be talking further on this. But it's a long way before I have a large, long selection to publish, or post, or edit or hang out.
 
Goldie -- I have never met CJ -- He was "Just Passing Through" 20-odd years ago. And for at least half that time, having read perhaps 15,000 of his posts (TINS) I have been at him to seriously write. Why? Because what I recognise as an author is his unpolished talent.

So, at the moment, I am both pleased and appalled.

VERY pleased he is going to start.

Appalled because he plans to write/publish "raw". <-- C.S. Forester hisself couldn't do that. It is a sure way NOT to give your work a snowball's chance to be seen, remembered, discussed.

A practical point to the above -- Please take note, CJ -- this is important:

You write a chapter, and you are three chapters later in writing, and you remember an anecdote that would triple the interest in that previous chapter. Or you made a grievous, dumb-ass mistake in that previous chapter. Or you regret the fargin dead-end that chapter sticks you with. Or a hundred things yer Unca has already fargin experienced!!

If it is already out there when you discover it -- warped, crooked, "oh shit" flat wrong, potentially poisonous, somehow awful to the bone... you cannot touch it -- even if it costs you every reader you ever had. The Internet is forever. Got that?

Jack Kerouac did that. (Unedited stuff) Other than nutcases, does anyone know what he wrote?

The guy whose novel I am now editing (as he writes/adds gems/re-rewrites it) humbles me. And when he first started a few years ago, I saw his talent with words. We worked together, and his first novel was great.

This will be his second, and it is ten times better than his really good first.

That's where I want CJ -- Not out panhandling day to day.
The Confessions of a Confessed Writer...
To continue an off-topic sidebar from the Tulsi thread:
Maybe Bug will consolidate it all here? That's what I used to d....


I hear AMZN will print and publish you for a nominal fee...
 
The Confessions of a Confessed Writer...

Maybe Bug will consolidate it all here? That's what I used to d....


I hear AMZN will print and publish you for a nominal fee...
AMZN screens for non-Wokeness.

Several of the Manosphere (loose association of MGTOW/Black Pill Millennial commentators and writers) types, had whole books Cancelled by Bezoszon. One, a slimebucket who calls himself Roosh...he's a Russian who came here decades ago as a student; and found American females very easy to manipulate. He wrote a series of seduction-related how-to primers, with such title as "Game"

His sister died suddenly; he found Jesus; he had a change of heart (so I'm told; I don't follow him) but somehow Bezos' people decided he needed Cancelling. Whether it was because he advocated masculinity, refused to promote Beta-Cuckdom; or that he later became a Christian...I have no clue. Point is, he had about five books just disappear, and his account locked down.
 
Yeah that is a very real possibility, but don't they also publish books as in you write it, send in the script and they print the books and send them to you for a fee, or is that a 3rd party...?
 
Yeah that is a very real possibility, but don't they also publish books as in you write it, send in the script and they print the books and send them to you for a fee, or is that a 3rd party...?
Don't know the specifics.

But I do know, that I write what I know. What I know is a gritty world, where men do manly things, where women are often treacherous, where crime exists in the Organized cities that the Woke Peeps have pronounced Utopias.

Where my killer-protagonist is half-Mexican, leaving Texas partly because he wanted to flee that racial baggage. Where he steals a car in a complex scheme, to give himself personal mobility. His genetics, those of a drunken father, lead him the same route.

The FBI man who discovers his later serial-killer pattern...is married to a woman who in her previous life was the town pump and whore. His own older sister, also loose, happened to be at the wrong place, the wrong time...a student at Akron University, at the time when (nearby) Kent State went down, her rebellion at her parents led her to get in with an SDS cell, get out of Kent as the authorities were locking it down after the shooting.

Her body is found in a pit toilet on the Indiana Toll Road, two months later.

Yeah, it's not very flattering for the wombyns, the "vibrants," small-town living, the Tex-Mex social pressures of the 1970s...the FBI, the institution of matrimony. Not of law enforcement in general. Not of happy endings - my FBI man may resolve things by going on a hike up Mt. Marcy, and throwing himself off. His wife is dead, his job is lost, his sister never avenged. Not sure how I'll have him wrap it up.

This is not going to be the kind of sanitized pro-sodomy Woke story the Left so demands.
 
To continue an off-topic sidebar from the Tulsi thread:



All good points. But here's what's kept me from putting serious effort into this First Stab:

It's unsaleable.

Ergo, it's the PERFECT Writing Lab.

In the past, would-be writers might, as they get to my age, crank out their Trunk Novel. Never intending it be read, or published. Do it because they're driven.

But I read, long ago, the history of 50 Shades of Grey...not that that's the kind of novel I'm intending; but it started out as a series of free web postings. Not sure of the veracity, or even of my memory of it - I came across it in passing, and it's not worth researching.

Stephen King...drunken hack that he is, he had his youthful brilliances. He got started writing filler for girly books...not Playboy, but the real swill, that should have been titled Naked Girls Who Look Like Drug Users. Thirty years later, the publishers he sold those stories to, long gone...he pulled many of those stories out, published them in anthologies, and rewrote a few into full-length novels. Shawshank Redemption was one such.

Not saying I'm right, or you're wrong, or declining your services, Walt. In fact, we may be talking further on this. But it's a long way before I have a large, long selection to publish, or post, or edit or hang out.
IMO You're the only thing standing in your way.
 
Yeah that is a very real possibility, but don't they also publish books as in you write it, send in the script and they print the books and send them to you for a fee, or is that a 3rd party...?
They published some hardcover books I have written, and there are a jillion "e-book only" serial novels out there, so that kinda covers the gamut.
 
Don't know the specifics.

But I do know, that I write what I know. What I know is a gritty world, where men do manly things, where women are often treacherous, where crime exists in the Organized cities that the Woke Peeps have pronounced Utopias.

Where my killer-protagonist is half-Mexican, leaving Texas partly because he wanted to flee that racial baggage. Where he steals a car in a complex scheme, to give himself personal mobility. His genetics, those of a drunken father, lead him the same route.

The FBI man who discovers his later serial-killer pattern...is married to a woman who in her previous life was the town pump and whore. His own older sister, also loose, happened to be at the wrong place, the wrong time...a student at Akron University, at the time when (nearby) Kent State went down, her rebellion at her parents led her to get in with an SDS cell, get out of Kent as the authorities were locking it down after the shooting.

Her body is found in a pit toilet on the Indiana Toll Road, two months later.

Yeah, it's not very flattering for the wombyns, the "vibrants," small-town living, the Tex-Mex social pressures of the 1970s...the FBI, the institution of matrimony. Not of law enforcement in general. Not of happy endings - my FBI man may resolve things by going on a hike up Mt. Marcy, and throwing himself off. His wife is dead, his job is lost, his sister never avenged. Not sure how I'll have him wrap it up.

This is not going to be the kind of sanitized pro-sodomy Woke story the Left so demands.
You are looking at the wrong end of the fargin horse, bro.

EVERYBODY HERE LISSEN UP TO THE SEKRIT:

Step The First: You must write your story. <-- Can you believe that is what you do before you worry about book contracts, or movies being made?

Step The Second: YOU must read your story after you have written it. (There are gazillions of things you will change. Trust yer Unca)

Step The Third (Optional, but strongly recommended): Get a literate ass to read/critique it.

Lookit here as an example -- The Second Step line of the above as written was this:

Step The Second: YOU must read your story after you have read it. <-- When I re-read my post (writer's habit) I noticed I had typed "read" where I meant "written".
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You WILL DO THIS -- or analogues of it -- as you write... in lots of ways. So edit yourself if you feel you must, but the fact is that a solid human trait is to be blind to one's own errors.

Very much like editing your own answers on a math quiz. Better than nothing... sometimes.
 
Step The Third (Optional, but strongly recommended): Get a literate ass to read/critique it.
Very good advice here!

It's akin to building a house... you've seen the walls so many times you are blind to imperfections, however a new pair of eyes 'see's things you missed, or ignored.

Especially if they do a walk through with a roll of blue tape!
 
It's akin to building a house... you've seen the walls so many times you are blind to imperfections, however a new pair of eyes 'see's things you missed, or ignored.
Absolutely true. Recent conversation with my 79 year-old mother regarding this. I mentioned dirty hand prints around some light switches, a couple of cobwebs on a chandelier, some toast crumbs in the silverware drawer, and some small stains on a white table cloth. She said that she had not noticed until I pointed them out. When I visited again about a week later, she was proud to show me the improvements and asked me to point out other things she had not noticed. She really appreciated the honesty (she is very proud of her house and an excellent housekeeper.)
 
And old folk don't see as well as the young folks do...
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Careful there, youngun'... whisper: "He's still got the ring of the potty 'round his hiney..."
 
You are looking at the wrong end of the fargin horse, bro.

EVERYBODY HERE LISSEN UP TO THE SEKRIT:

Step The First: You must write your story. <-- Can you believe that is what you do before you worry about book contracts, or movies being made?

Step The Second: YOU must read your story after you have written it. (There are gazillions of things you will change. Trust yer Unca)

Step The Third (Optional, but strongly recommended): Get a literate ass to read/critique it.

Lookit here as an example -- The Second Step line of the above as written was this:

Step The Second: YOU must read your story after you have read it. <-- When I re-read my post (writer's habit) I noticed I had typed "read" where I meant "written".
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You WILL DO THIS -- or analogues of it -- as you write... in lots of ways. So edit yourself if you feel you must, but the fact is that a solid human trait is to be blind to one's own errors.

Very much like editing your own answers on a math quiz. Better than nothing... sometimes.
Let's take this one stagger at a time.

I was gonna write this week, the past week and this coming week. Why? I was out in Moab...with no internet connex. I was with an online group of little dirt-bike riders, all of them my age. Since I wasn't gonna be drinkin, I figured I'd be alone after sunset.

Wrong. Very, very hospitable bunch. One person was pounding the beers (didn't get stupid; most had a couple or three. I was drinking diet soda; and the conversation flowed. Clear and entertaining.

I was gonna stay two weeks, but rain was working itself into Moab. We were dry-camping in a dried playa, with deep ruts from the last wet season. Four wheel drive or not, it wasn't a place to be pulling an RV out in a hurry at night.

One guy went home; another went to continue his wanderings; the organizer was going to look for drier campings that could survive the rain. I could have tagged along, but that promised to be, several muddy days inside the trailer.

Anyway, after four (count 'em, FOUR) hard falls on the trail at speed, it was time to bless my luck and load up for another time.

So, no writing.

Instead, I got caught on a mountaintop blizzard last night. And coming down with the Cold From Hell (nope, not Coof; I can still taste everything).

I got a few hours of sleep last night between attempts to make it northwest to home. Another hour of sleep in the bathtub.

But I'll be going to bed soon.

Another day I got nuffin done...
 
Absolutely true. Recent conversation with my 79 year-old mother regarding this. I mentioned dirty hand prints around some light switches, a couple of cobwebs on a chandelier, some toast crumbs in the silverware drawer, and some small stains on a white table cloth. She said that she had not noticed until I pointed them out. When I visited again about a week later, she was proud to show me the improvements and asked me to point out other things she had not noticed. She really appreciated the honesty (she is very proud of her house and an excellent housekeeper.)
They'd still had been there if visiting me. Run the vacuum once a month whether the rug needs it or not.
I grew up with family who'd live on clear vinyl slip covers. stick to you anywhere it touched your skin. I know how a fly feels stuck on fly paper.
In my life Cleanliness is not next to godliness. It's next to OCD.
Grandpa said "You'll eat a pound of dirt before you die". I've went beyond to build up resistance . ;)
 
Absolutely true. Recent conversation with my 79 year-old mother regarding this. I mentioned dirty hand prints around some light switches, a couple of cobwebs on a chandelier, some toast crumbs in the silverware drawer, and some small stains on a white table cloth. She said that she had not noticed until I pointed them out. When I visited again about a week later, she was proud to show me the improvements and asked me to point out other things she had not noticed. She really appreciated the honesty (she is very proud of her house and an excellent housekeeper.)
Fark, after 20 years as a carpainter (carpenter)I can't go anywhere without mentally running beads of caulk and spreading drywall mud. Visiting high end hotels are the worse. My eagle eye kicks in as I uncontrollably scan for imperfections.
 
I absolutely LOVE how you guys have pounded the fargin message from a dozen different angles into Casey J.'s head:

Write. Then GET SUMBODY TO READ/CRITIQUE IT.

Goes for analogues of electrical wiring, construction, house maintenance, yada, and most ricky-tick: Writing.
 
I absolutely LOVE how you guys have pounded the fargin message from a dozen different angles into Casey J.'s head:

Write. Then GET SUMBODY TO READ/CRITIQUE IT.

Goes for analogues of electrical wiring, construction, house maintenance, yada, and most ricky-tick: Writing.
He's a stub orne one
 
Ooooo, be careful there, NM.
- Farp

On another note, I did write a novel. It took me 9 years to finish it, but finish it I did--even adding 3 short stories. I decided not to go through the publishing labyrinths and give it away free to friends in a pdf. I don't care about the money, as I've been blessed in other pursuits.
 
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My mother (state and federally licenced wildlife rehabilitator -in her "spare time") wrote a children's book to bring awareness to white nose sydrome and it's devastation on our bats. 🦇Held a contest to choose a young illustrator.



In addition to her children's book and Rehabilitating Bats with White Nose Syndrome, Linda Bowen has published several articles in national journals (NWRA) and several New England newsletters. She was a contributor to the publication Topics in Wildlife Medicine-Orthopedics, Vol 4, 2017, Chapter 15 - Bats, available at:

https://national-wildlife-rehabilit...ics-in-wildlife-medicine-volume-4-orthopedics

She also contributed her extensive knowledge of bats to Medical Management of Wildlife Species, A Guide for Practitioners that was recently published in 2019 by Wiley Publishing of Hoboken, NJ well known for their work in the scientific and medical communities. The textbook was written with practicing veterinarians and vet students in mind, available at:



In 2020, Linda Bowen rewrote the standards for bat rehabilitation in the recently published: Standards for Wildlife Rehabilitation (previously known as ‘Minimum Standards…’) published through a joint effort by the NWRA and IWRC, available at:

https://national-wildlife-rehabilitators-association.myshopify.com/collections/standards-for-wildlife-rehabilitation/products/standards

She's currently writing an article for Mother Earth News after being approached by the editor.
 
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Ooooo, be careful there, NM.
- Farp

On another note, I did write a novel. It took me 9 years to finish it, but finish it I did--even adding 3 short stories. I decided not to go through the publishing labyrinths and give it away free to friends in a pdf. I don't care about the money, as I've been blessed in other pursuits.
Lol! It's my accent Mr Farp. I'll watch myself from here in out! 🙊
 
Ooooo, be careful there, NM.
- Farp

On another note, I did write a novel. It took me 9 years to finish it, but finish it I did--even adding 3 short stories. I decided not to go through the publishing labyrinths and give it away free to friends in a pdf. I don't care about the money, as I've been blessed in other pursuits.
Don't sweat the money side... ALL the money is made by the publishers. Unless your political party buys whole skids of your books and dumps them in the landfill. (*ahem*)

One of my hardcover novels (5-stars) -- which I had to travel to Holland to research -- goes for $39.75 plus postage ($5.25). The author (Your Humble Obdn't &tc) receives a grand, amazing, frabjous remuneration total of $1.85 of that $45.00 bonanza). <--TINS

So, yeah -- you got the right idea about just getting your writing out there for folks. But I recommend you publish via e-books. <-- Costs nuffin. Zerio. And e-books are the way to get your stuff out there.

How about sending yer Unca a copy?
 
Well now we know who we won't have renegotiating any of our contracts.
(*snork*) <-- In the book writing world, they ain't gots no negotiations. They set the price of the book, and your cut. Aint even cheatin' fair, but there it is.

Now if your name is such that you get advances... different game. The Writer's World is a lot like the Golfer's World:

A small tippy-top group gets paid to play, and the remaining 99% pay to play. <-- any hint of negotiations at the Tee-Time/Golf Pro Counter do not take place for mere mortals.
 
(*snork*) <-- In the book writing world, they ain't gots no negotiations. They set the price of the book, and your cut. Aint even cheatin' fair, but there it is.

Now if your name is such that you get advances... different game. The Writer's World is a lot like the Golfer's World:

A small tippy-top group gets paid to play, and the remaining 99% pay to play. <-- any hint of negotiations at the Tee-Time/Golf Pro Counter do not take place for mere mortals.
Wait Unca Walt, is that in 1780's dollars or sumfin?
 
If it wuz, I'd love it. I'd take it in 1804 silver dollars. Even just the Dexter would do fine:
The 1989 offering of the Dexter Original representative saw it go for $990,000.
 
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