by john | Jan 11, 2010 | Writing
So Saturday afternoon I left our work event in Winston-Salem to attend a poetry workshop at the Main Street Rag offices outside Charlotte. Most of my hangover faded by the time the workshop kicked off, and I got some pretty valuable information out of it. It was essentially two workshops, the first half dealing with revising and polishing your work before submitting, and the second half dealt with how to select literary journals and places to submit your work.
I found the second half of the workshop really valuable for the information I gathered, because I’m very new to the whole submission process and have no idea how simultaneous submissions work, or things like that. So that was good as a learning experience, but I got a lot more out of the first half. Mostly because it woke up a part of my brain that I haven’t used in years, that piece that takes apart a poem and puts it back together stronger. There’s a certain analytical bent to revising your work that has been pretty dormant in me since I got back to creative writing, and I think it will make my work stronger, not just in my poetry but my short stories as well.
This whole “be a writer” kick is an interesting ride, and I need to make sure that I refine my technique and acquire all the skils that I can to augment whatever minimum of talent that I might have started with. Because talent isn’t enough, and there’s no real judge of whether or not I have any. But if I polish my technique as much as I can, I can create good work, and with the right information behind me, I can get some stuff published and maybe the next time I publish a book, it won’t be on my own nickel. And maybe, just maybe, sometime I can make a few pennies doing this.
by john | Jan 6, 2010 | Penis Exploits, Writing
Since posting that I wanted to churn out at least one poem each week I’ve found myself bursting with stuff to write about, and have cranked out several poems this week. I posted one, “Aftermath” below and have received some good feedback on it. If you haven’t read it, scroll down and let me know what you think. I’m trying to do what I did when I wrote Choices, force myself into at least half an hour each night of focused writing time. I can usually squeeze that in, and that’s about the minimum that I can do and get away with anything useful out of it. I’ve also started to actually make use of the journal I bought at the ArtsMarket in December, which is cool because I’m awful about buying myself cool little notebooks and never doing anything with them.
Case in point: I bought a badass little notebook from Re:Paper and have yet to do anything with it. I was thinking that I might fill it with finished poems and see if anybody wanted to buy a handwritten book of poetry in a handmade book, but that would take a long time to do and I’d probably have to charge some exorbitant amount of money for it, and then I’d be sad if nobody bought it and appreciated the one-of-a-kindedness of it, not to mention I’d have another thing lying around the house useless, so maybe I’ll just do it as a gift. If I can think of anyone to give it to. Or maybe a raffle or prize or something. I dunno. But Sarah at Re:Paper makes some cool stuff, so if you like neat things you should check her out. But pay attention to the details, because the books are small, which I didn’t really pay attention to so when I got it I was all like “wow, that’s small.” But then I looked back at the description and I was all like “yeah, that’s what size she said it was going to be.” And then I got into the standard guy joke of “that’s why women are bad at math, because we’ve been telling them ________________________________ is eight inches.” Which explains a lot really, but let’s not go there because nobody really wants to read about my penis, or its exploits, which frankly, as a married dude, are appropriately non-varied. It kinda only goes a few places, and most of them are my pants.
I’m not sure how we got on a discussion of the exploits of my penis, but we apologize and neither I nor my penis want that to ever happen again.
So there we are, and in the immortal words of Parker Posey, “Scene.”
by john | Jan 6, 2010 | Writing
Please mark your calendars for a couple of upcoming events that I’ll be performing at. As a shameless self-promoter, there couldn’t ever be any doubt that anybody that gave me a chance to read (and maybe sell and sign a few books) would get plenty of pimpage here, could there?
First up – this has been going on for a couple of years now, but this will be my first appearance there, and I’m pretty excited about it. Just Do It at Theatre Charlotte kicks off the new year next weekend, January 15th at 8PM. Admission is only $5, and there’s booze, art, and a cute frickin’ puppy, so what else do you want? Check out their website for more info, but this is a cool theme-based evening of multi-genre art featuring some of Charlotte’s best performers. And for five bucks, whattaya got to lose? Come on check it out!
Back in November we did a Carolina Writers’ Showcase at Story Slam, and we had such a good time we’re gonna do it again. This time we’ve got former Creative Loafing Editor John Grooms joining me and the Spongetones’ Steve Stoeckel to share segments from his new book, Deliver us from Weasels. If you enjoy John’s grumpy boomer columns in the Loaf, you oughta come out and have a few drinks with us at Story Slam on January 23rd. This one is also at 8PM. They haven’t set the ticket price yet, but it’ll be something reasonable, and it’s gonna be a fun night.
So I hope some of you who are in town will come check out these events, I think they’ll both be a lot of fun, and I’ve got a lot of great folks to share the stage with both nights, so if you think I suck, there’ll still be plenty to keep you occupied. I’m also the featured guest of the Charlotte Storyteller’s Guild this month, but that’s not really a public performance, although if anyone was interested in the art of storytelling, you’d certainly be welcome January 14th at Barnes & Noble at the Arboretum.
by john | Dec 23, 2009 | Writing
So I want to quit my job and write for a living. And I want to do creative writing. Poetry, novels, short stories, that kind of thing. But I still have a mortgage (and soon to add another one), car payment, student loan payment (they last longer when you don’t start paying them until age 35) and various other living expenses and bills to deal with.
How do I reconcile these two truths? On the one hand, I want to focus on my writing as a profession. On the other hand, I’m very good at my job and am paid well to do it, which allows me to feed myself and support my family.
In the past, the path to wealth (or subsistence-level salary) for the creative writer has been something like this – toil in obscurity while collecting rejection slips for years until finally someone understands the true level of your genius and offers you more money than you’ve ever dreamed of to publish your first book. Alternately, teach English at a college and publish collections of poetry on the side. I’m having real trouble finding poets without other jobs, and most folks that self-identify as poets seem to be English professors.
But the world should be different today. With the advent of the internet and the ability to connect directly to readers and fans, people are trying to branch out from the normal path. Amanda Fucking Palmer has had some success with doing oddball fundraisers and outright asking for cash online to support her work, but I’m pretty sure there are still months where cash is tight for her. Kevin Kelly wrote a fascinating piece describing the phenomenon of True Fans, and the fact that most artists only need 1,000 of them to get by, and get by pretty well.
So here’s my request to you, my readers, and theoretically my fans. Email someone that you think would like my writing and give them a link to this site. I don’t want you to spam all your friends with links to me, but I’d like to see a little traffic bump, and maybe some of those friends really will like what I do. I’d prefer that you email someone who’s never heard of me, but we all know someone who likes poetry, because we’ve all got that one gay friend, right? So do me this favor, and at the end of next week, whoever has the most referrals to my site will get a signed and matted copy of the poem of their choice mailed to their house, suitable for framing.
Or tell me that’s a stupid idea and that you’d rather see me try to improve my marketing like this – then describe it. I’m a shameless whore, so I’ll try anything to move one step closer to artistic independence.
For the record – I like my job, and as long as I have to have one, this is the one I’d rather have. But I don’t know many people who wouldn’t rather be self-employed.
by john | Dec 23, 2009 | Poems, Poetry, Writing
So I’m trying to write something, anything, every day, and damn if it isn’t hard to get back on that horse. So tonight I locked myself in my hotel room at the lovely Marriott Century Center in Atlanta and cranked out a couple of first drafts. And these are truly hot-off-the-presses drafts, finished just a few minutes ago. So give me a little feedback on them, and then in a little while I’ll probably yank them off here to maintain their “unpublished” status for submissions and tweak them a little bit.
Yeah, I’m travelling right before Christmas, but I get Thursday and Friday off, so it’s okay I guess. I’ll probably blow out of here a little early tomorrow and head north so as not to get trapped in Atlanta’s hellish traffic. I think I’ll download Episode 4 of the Gambling Tales Podcast to listen to on the road. If you haven’t heard it yet, get your ass over to the website or to iTunes and check it out. I think Special K and I are really starting to hit our stride, and we’re working on getting some more great guests for upcoming shows. This episode features poker author, online card room manager and all-around prince of a human being, Lee Jones.
In the meantime, here are a couple of new pieces I’m working on. And if you’re in Charlotte on January 23, I’ll be hosting another Writer’s Showcase at Story Slam on Central Avenue. I haven’t locked in the lineup yet, but it’ll definitely be me and Steve Stoekel of the Spongetones fame. I’ll let you know more details as they become available.
EDIT: Can’t get both of them to post right so I’ll toss the next one up in a separate post. I would enjoy feedback on both.
EDIT: All unpublished poems have been taken down until I get through submitting them to various magazines so they’ll maintain their unpublished status.
by john | Dec 18, 2009 | Poetry, Writing
You like that? I got all artsy and French in the title. Good, huh? You can just see me sitting in a cafe wearing a beret smoking cloves, right? Ew. Don’t visualize. And fuck the French, cheese-eating surrender monkeys.
Okay, got that outta my system anyway. So last night was the second night of the All Arts Market at the Neighborhood Theatre, and it was significantly better than Day 1. Not only did I get my spot moved from the absolute ass-end of the frigid hallway into a room with other people, there were people buying things, too. I sold one book all night on Wednesday, and by the end of the night last night I’d sold eight books and bartered four more with other artisans. I traded books with Martique, another local writer and artist, and traded a book to my neighbor Desta (website coming live soon) for a great photo of a patina blue hippo, and swapped a book for some hand-painted bookmarks by another chick who was in the same room selling stuff. Of course then I promptly lost most of the business cards from the people who I traded stuff with, because I was woefully unprepared for self-promotion at this event.
You’d think I’d be better than that, after years of promoting my theatre company, Barbizon and myself as a poker writer, but I didn’t even have a tablecloth (that was bartered for another book) much less business cards. I did at least have pens and books, and some cash to make change for folks, so I wasn’t a complete waste of space. But if I’m going to sell books at these arts shows, I’m gonna need to step up my game a little. I enjoyed it, I like talking to people about poetry and about writing, but I’m also thinking that maybe the format of RTF isn’t exactly right for sales. Because it’s a collection of stories and poetry it makes it harder to get people to wrap their heads around the book. When I opened a copy to a couple of poems and encouraged people to read a poem or two, they got a handle on things, but when I just left it laying there closed people were less willing to pick up a copy and leaf through. I guess they didn’t wanna crack the spine and make it unsellable or whatever. So I’ll get a tablecloth and some business cards, and the next book I publish will be either all poetry or all stories (or Choices, it’s not dead I promise).
I also met a woman from the local storyteller’s guild, which meets every month at a Barnes & Noble, so I’ll check them out. I owe her that much – she bought a book. Still time to get your orders in for Christmas – click the button on the sidebar to order! (I’m re-learning the art of shameless self-promotion)
