Status: On vacation till the end of the month due to a lot going on.
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: Nothing at the moment.
Listening to: "In Winter; Pain"--by Kittie
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 404.
STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION: WAR DRUMS. Page 78.
TOPIC: YOU JUST GOTTA BE YOURSELF. NO ONE CAN BE THAT FOR YOU.
It's funny how some people react so negatively to an idea.
I thought it would be beneficial if I had posted my publishing ideas and plans on one of these writers' sites--which is dealing with the fallout from NCP, and all I got was from the majority: "If I had a publisher like that, I'd take my pocketbook and run."
Run to where--exactly? To someone else that doesn't appreciate you or your work? Someone whom doesn't pay you for what you're actually worth? Just where do you plan on taking your money to? Hmm?
Anyone want to answer me that one?
How about taking your works to a publisher that understands the writer? The art of a good book? What will connect the reader to such books in the first place? That will cause these newfound readers to come back wanting more--because they are of a different fare than those seen in commercial bookstores?
How about a publisher that treats their clients like assets instead of commercial liabilities?
Or publishers that treat their first-time clients like crap?
It makes me wonder just how different most publishers are from the ones that go out and deliberately try to schnooker their way onto an unsuspecting writer; steal away their rights (and their money)--and don't give nothing back?
Or the ones that give so little to that first-time author to start out with--but in turn, heavily FAVOR their top 1% with everything but the kitchen sink?
And I in turn get shot down because I want to be a different writer and future publisher?
It's not like the same model of writing success has been equally applied to each and every writer/author which has traveled down the pike in the last hundred years or so.
The same thing can be applied with a business model.
Outside of the basics, you could run it however you see fit. But from what I gathered, so many writers are still fixated on nothing but the money; acting like my stance is something of a pariah against whatever they've been taught to believe in.
Y'know?
Personally, I don't find anything wrong with what I want to do.
Being different, acting differently, is not a weakness or a business liability. But not many people see that as something they can live with.
Pretty much why so many McCain supporters and other GOP trolls are so terrified of Obama on Yahoo! Answers: They can't take the chance of everything that's worked for them (and not everyone else) going down the drain or stopping entirely--in order to favor the struggling American man, woman, or child.
Much like my openly transparent publishing ambitions. Y'know? I want to try something different that hasn't been tried before. Instead of focusing on pure profit, how about focusing on the writer and the book in question?
Oh, no!...we can't have that, now can we, people?
Nope.
Everything has to follow the same failed capitalistic model of greed, power, and most importantly...? MONEY.
Screw personal endeavors.
Screw personal ambitions.
Screw delivering a well-made product.
Screw even the guy who had made it or fashioned it with his own blood, sweat, and tears.
Just focus on the business side of the model and fuck everything else along the way!
And people keep wondering why nothing in made in America anymore?Because we've outsourced all our damned ambition, hard-work ethics, and DRIVE--to places like China and India for cheap-on-the-fly business ethics!
PROFIT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE WORKER. PROFIT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM!
And people think I'm nuts for wanting to do things differently?
Maybe it's because I'm tired of seeing things the way they are and want to affect a little change for the common good!
Has anyone figured that out yet? Do I need to keep spelling it out until it finally sinks into those thick heads of theirs?
I DON'T FUCKING CARE ABOUT THE MONEY!!! IT'S NOT GOING TO DO ANY OF US ANY GOOD ONCE WE ARE DEAD!!!
HELL~O PEOPLE!
FOCUS!!!
If none of us can accomplish anything in our miserable begotten lives--what the fuck difference does it matter if we aren't able to get our hands on all that wealth, fame, and name-recognition in the first place?!?
What is so damned scary about doing things differently?
Did we all just fall off the highest branch of the tallest stupid tree in existance--and declare that ambition is no longer a necessity in our shortened lifespans?
But I look at the common writer and all I see is greed from those whom don't care about whether or not their books sell or not. For those few of us who are bucking the tend--I implore you to keep doing it.
Because one of these days, I'm going to come after you and sign your butts up.
***
I realize that having money is important, but what few writers (and some published authors) don't seem to realize is that if you don't have a good book (preferably one that connects to the reader), how is that "it's all about the money"-ideal going to help you when you can't even break even in book sales after you get published; because either your book--or book sales--sucked so bad from the start?
See, this is the dark reality the majority still doesn't want to face. They think if they can get TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED, everything will still be hunky-dorey F-I-N-E. (Or as my wife calls it: "Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional.")
Wish that were true, peeps! But...reality can be such a bitch sometimes, y'know?
Granted, I probably won't make enough for a down payment on a beat-up looking Gremlin--but at least I didn't go the same route as the rest of us struggling eggheads; by dumping all my hopes and dreams on traditional publishing and stubbornly believing that is where the big bucks lie.
(Because I already went and did that. Nearly 10 years wasted trying to beat my head against that unmoveable brick wall. After which I said: "Enough of this shit. Let's try something else.")
So to those who want to continue to shoot me down on what I want to do?
AT LEAST I'M DOING SOMETHING THAT WON'T BE CONSIDERED A CONSTANT EXERCISE IN UTTER FUTILITY.
I'm getting something out of this. A real life-learning, life-changing, experience.
That is what I apply to my books. To all of my characters. To every world I have built in the last 20+ years.
And if society in general can't understand that? Well, then, that's their loss.
Not mine.
Sky
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
SUCCESS SHOULDN'T BE A ONE-SIDED COIN
Status: On vacation till the end of the month due to a lot going on.
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: Nothing at the moment.
Listening to: Taped music from C-89.5 (Seattle): "Military Fashion Show"--by And One; "Dead Enough For Life"--by Icon of Coil; "Paper Angels"--by Punta Aga
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 404.
STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION: WAR DRUMS. Page 78.
TOPIC: THE FEW THINGS NOT BEING TAUGHT BY THE MAINSTREAM
In a recent debate of minds with a fellow writera and author over the issue of NCP screwing its authors out of their livelihood--hook, line, and bad stinker!--I posted some things about the relationship between the publisher and the author; and what they should do to ensure that success befalls them both--and not become a one-sided love affair that enriches one lover while spurning the other.
True, I'm always preaching to the choir over matters when it comes to things like business, fame, money, and name-recognition.
But it's always good to try and keep engaging the internet community whenever I can. :0)
***
Sara:
I know that. All I’m saying, is I’m going to try something different with what I want to do. There’s nothing wrong with being a dreamer.
At least I can sit here and say: “I have a vision. I have a dream.”
Most people don’t have them anymore. Everybody is seen struggling to make ends meet–and it’s just…disheartening. To say the least. People have stopped dreaming--for the most part--because their lives have left them feeling empty and without a reason to keep reaching for something special.
Myself? I’ve never had a shortage of ideas, dreams, and what have you. But practicality-wise? Things are a bit more challenging in real life than they are on the surface.
But it doesn’t stop me from trying anyway. It’s what has made my endeavors so interesting.
I get a lot of people telling me: “It can’t be done.”
And I say: “Why not?” And that’s where I have them.
Because no one thinks outside the box. We are so consumed with our linear existances, we never stop to imagine if things can be done differently–apart from the conventional and traditional business models.
You know? Mix things up. Add a little spice to our lives. Shake the tree and see what falls.
But given the odds that very few authors make that establishment of money in the long-term, there’s no real harm in trying what I’ve just discussed and shared.
People tell me: “Sky: You’re nuts.”
And I’m like: “Yeah? So tell me something I don’t already know.”
In order to survive, we have to be a little crazy. I’m sure Nora Roberts and authors like her thought along the same way–once or twice–when they started out writing.
Everyone has to start somewhere. We can’t go on being afraid of our shadows or the unknown every time we come across something we know little about.
That’s what I keep trying to impress upon people.
We’re too terrified a nation to even embrace the possibilities–we are always going back to what’s already been a broken-down system which offers little in return.
But seeing how so many people are being taken advantage of by their publishers or agents (even editors), I’m just going to draw up a simple contract that addresses the rights of the author in regards to the company, and make it pointedly clear that if something were to happen to myself or the company falls on hard times–the rights revert back to the author and any royalties earned for that year shall be paid to that author without delay.
No questions asked. NOTHING to hinder or impede the author. I don’t like dealing with courts and I’m certain that the authors don’t either.
I look at what’s happening here and it just infuriates me that there are some publishers whom just don’t give one whit about author rights and contractual obligations.
I want to change that perception. That’s one of my goals as an aspiring publisher. I don’t think that’s so wrong, is it?
But I won’t sit there in my chair, and pull the same crap over and over again–that NCP and others have–because they can, because they have the money and the power, and because (like I’ve read from Ellen Ashe’s blog entries), these “fakes” think that authors don’t have any real authority to challenge them on the matter in question.
I believe that in order for a publisher to be successful, they have to work with their respective clients, address any problems forthwith, and have a good line of communication open.
I’ve seen how divided this nation has become. One side against the other. Neither one wanting to budge because either side stringently believes that they are in the right.
With this…? The publisher and the author each have their respective obligations. Their respective duties. One publishes the book, one writes the book.
But…
They can work together also, they can bridge the gap of any differences or any problems which often pop up–from time to time.
But it can’t be one-sided–as it has been: Where the publisher leaves the author hanging with little or no “tech support” to help them with getting onboard and going strong–once their book is published.
Nowadays, the top 1% of published (established) authors get most of the lion’s share of the help and the newbies just get screwed, blued, and tatooed.
How fair is that? Does that do anything for the author–let alone the publisher? We all know that advertising and publishing costs are going to infinity and beyond (to coin a phrase), but should that mean that the publisher deep-sixes their new acquisition because times may be tough; and they can only spare enough time, effort, and money for their more priviledged few clientele?
I don’t think so.
But that’s what is happening, Sara. How many of us first-time authors have made a healthy living from our books in recent years? I can’t remember a single one myself. Every new book comes and goes, and very few fresh faces are tagged for a follow up novel.
The success rates for first-time authors is horrendous. Which is why I’ve been pushing for more cooperation between the author and the publisher. Make it mutually beneficial for both parties, so that the pair can win in the end.
That’s what brings in the money! All this yo-yoing around from one author to the next is just creating unneccessary expenditures for the publisher in question.
And not so much profit towards the end. And while the publisher may--more or less--survive the experience, the majority of authors burned by such dealings (or relationships) do not.
Even in economic tough times such as this one, both parties can still find ways to work together–instead of being driven apart solely on one issue or the next.
This is a team effort after all. Or am I wrong on this?
What NCP is doing is taking a page from Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “So long and thanks for all the fish.”
Sky
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: Nothing at the moment.
Listening to: Taped music from C-89.5 (Seattle): "Military Fashion Show"--by And One; "Dead Enough For Life"--by Icon of Coil; "Paper Angels"--by Punta Aga
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 404.
STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION: WAR DRUMS. Page 78.
TOPIC: THE FEW THINGS NOT BEING TAUGHT BY THE MAINSTREAM
In a recent debate of minds with a fellow writera and author over the issue of NCP screwing its authors out of their livelihood--hook, line, and bad stinker!--I posted some things about the relationship between the publisher and the author; and what they should do to ensure that success befalls them both--and not become a one-sided love affair that enriches one lover while spurning the other.
True, I'm always preaching to the choir over matters when it comes to things like business, fame, money, and name-recognition.
But it's always good to try and keep engaging the internet community whenever I can. :0)
***
Sara:
I know that. All I’m saying, is I’m going to try something different with what I want to do. There’s nothing wrong with being a dreamer.
At least I can sit here and say: “I have a vision. I have a dream.”
Most people don’t have them anymore. Everybody is seen struggling to make ends meet–and it’s just…disheartening. To say the least. People have stopped dreaming--for the most part--because their lives have left them feeling empty and without a reason to keep reaching for something special.
Myself? I’ve never had a shortage of ideas, dreams, and what have you. But practicality-wise? Things are a bit more challenging in real life than they are on the surface.
But it doesn’t stop me from trying anyway. It’s what has made my endeavors so interesting.
I get a lot of people telling me: “It can’t be done.”
And I say: “Why not?” And that’s where I have them.
Because no one thinks outside the box. We are so consumed with our linear existances, we never stop to imagine if things can be done differently–apart from the conventional and traditional business models.
You know? Mix things up. Add a little spice to our lives. Shake the tree and see what falls.
But given the odds that very few authors make that establishment of money in the long-term, there’s no real harm in trying what I’ve just discussed and shared.
People tell me: “Sky: You’re nuts.”
And I’m like: “Yeah? So tell me something I don’t already know.”
In order to survive, we have to be a little crazy. I’m sure Nora Roberts and authors like her thought along the same way–once or twice–when they started out writing.
Everyone has to start somewhere. We can’t go on being afraid of our shadows or the unknown every time we come across something we know little about.
That’s what I keep trying to impress upon people.
We’re too terrified a nation to even embrace the possibilities–we are always going back to what’s already been a broken-down system which offers little in return.
But seeing how so many people are being taken advantage of by their publishers or agents (even editors), I’m just going to draw up a simple contract that addresses the rights of the author in regards to the company, and make it pointedly clear that if something were to happen to myself or the company falls on hard times–the rights revert back to the author and any royalties earned for that year shall be paid to that author without delay.
No questions asked. NOTHING to hinder or impede the author. I don’t like dealing with courts and I’m certain that the authors don’t either.
I look at what’s happening here and it just infuriates me that there are some publishers whom just don’t give one whit about author rights and contractual obligations.
I want to change that perception. That’s one of my goals as an aspiring publisher. I don’t think that’s so wrong, is it?
But I won’t sit there in my chair, and pull the same crap over and over again–that NCP and others have–because they can, because they have the money and the power, and because (like I’ve read from Ellen Ashe’s blog entries), these “fakes” think that authors don’t have any real authority to challenge them on the matter in question.
I believe that in order for a publisher to be successful, they have to work with their respective clients, address any problems forthwith, and have a good line of communication open.
I’ve seen how divided this nation has become. One side against the other. Neither one wanting to budge because either side stringently believes that they are in the right.
With this…? The publisher and the author each have their respective obligations. Their respective duties. One publishes the book, one writes the book.
But…
They can work together also, they can bridge the gap of any differences or any problems which often pop up–from time to time.
But it can’t be one-sided–as it has been: Where the publisher leaves the author hanging with little or no “tech support” to help them with getting onboard and going strong–once their book is published.
Nowadays, the top 1% of published (established) authors get most of the lion’s share of the help and the newbies just get screwed, blued, and tatooed.
How fair is that? Does that do anything for the author–let alone the publisher? We all know that advertising and publishing costs are going to infinity and beyond (to coin a phrase), but should that mean that the publisher deep-sixes their new acquisition because times may be tough; and they can only spare enough time, effort, and money for their more priviledged few clientele?
I don’t think so.
But that’s what is happening, Sara. How many of us first-time authors have made a healthy living from our books in recent years? I can’t remember a single one myself. Every new book comes and goes, and very few fresh faces are tagged for a follow up novel.
The success rates for first-time authors is horrendous. Which is why I’ve been pushing for more cooperation between the author and the publisher. Make it mutually beneficial for both parties, so that the pair can win in the end.
We have to get more involved if we are going to survive.
Both sides have to get creative and start thinking about what they want to do, what they want to accomplish, and find a way to get there together.That’s what brings in the money! All this yo-yoing around from one author to the next is just creating unneccessary expenditures for the publisher in question.
And not so much profit towards the end. And while the publisher may--more or less--survive the experience, the majority of authors burned by such dealings (or relationships) do not.
Even in economic tough times such as this one, both parties can still find ways to work together–instead of being driven apart solely on one issue or the next.
This is a team effort after all. Or am I wrong on this?
What NCP is doing is taking a page from Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “So long and thanks for all the fish.”
Sky
MORE PROBLEMS ABOUND (Entry 3 of 3)
Status: On vacation till the end of the month due to a lot going on.
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: Nothing at the moment.
Listening to: Taped music from C-89.5 (Seattle)
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 404.
STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION: WAR DRUMS. Page 78.
MARVEL ZOMBIES TB
TOPIC: PERSONAL PAIN AND OTHER REFLECTIONS
To start off, I recieved a letter yesterday from the Providence Medical Center; saying that in order for me to get my 2 requested copies of my medical records for my upcoming hearing on the 30th, I would have to shell out an impossible $135!!!
I told my wife: "How the heck am I supposed to come with the money when I need to pay my bills next month--on top of everything else; including my compression stockings?!"
Gods and Faeries people! I was so angry yesterday! None of the other institutions charged me money for a simple release copies of my medical records.
So why this particular hospital? Are they suddenly strapped for money that bad that they have to harrass someone as dirt-poor as me--for funds that I can't even come up with--even on my best day? Is there a reason why I am made to suffer like this?
I can't imagine what the judge is going to say when he hears about what happened. After all--this is what he ordered me to do. But this is just getting so monotonous! I thought everything was going to be cleared up after Kiva got his surgery. I thought that I wasn't going to have to worry about anything else for a good long while. But this...is just driving me fucking batshit here!
Am I nuts, or does somebody have it out for me?! What the hell did I do to deserve this? Did I piss off the wrong rich slob in Congress? Did I piss off the religious wingnuts whom want nothing more than a complete authoritorian-ruled theocracy--to replace what's already here in the United States? Or is it just the fact that no matter how hard I try to make it in life--I can't get one fucking break?!
Just one!
Something that will be as uplifting and a solid morale booster that anyone can get out and deliver! Something that will tell me: "Sky, everything's going to be okay shortly. You'll just have to suffer for just a little while longer. But in the end...? It will be all worth it."
Is that so hard to ask? To want? To even desire? It's not like I'm asking for the world here. I just badly need some breathing space with my finances.
Working substandard jobs that pay well below the federal limit of poverty isn't doing my cause any special favors either. I've been doing that trip for the last 13 years and haven't come close to breaking even with what I really wanted to do with my life.
Some things I want in life I can't get, and even the smaller things are getting hellishly expensive.
College has become a such a joke because no matter what we do with our lives, very few of us actually get where we want to be today.
Many of us end up spending our lives working one dead-end job after another--and getting very little appreciation for the hard work we put in as a result.
From working moms and dads, to single guys and gals.
All I ever wanted was a good-paying job, a place to live, and finish what I started in college back in 1993; when I moved up to Washington state from Vermont on August 16th, 1995.
I never said: "I also want to rule the world, have a gazillion dollars and a Mercedes Benz EX-900 to show off my stature and importance to the rest of the planet."
Pfft!
If I wanted that, I could just write about it. I don't have to live it. My imagination and talented writing skills are enough--thankyouverymuch.
I thought I was good with discerning conspiracy theories before, but this has got to be the one of the most cruelest thing anyone can ask of somebody whom is 275% below the federal poverty level. I do what I can on what I have, but...come on! You know, this is just...ridiculous! I need my medical records so that I can have proof of my disabilities. Have proof of what's going on with my blood-clotting issues and my edema problems--which just recently surfaced after my last week's visit to the ER.
So that I can tell Social Security to go fuck themselves royally for treating me like I was some kind of common criminal these last 25 years--all because they don't think I'm either disabled enough in their eyes, or they think I'm some kind of suave "Thomas Crown" character whom can smooth-talk or steal his way out of a small $537-pittance of a monthly stipend from the US Government; which doesn't even begin to compete with what's happening with today's rising food and energy prices!
Or just simply fake my illnesses and disabilities like a hard-core hypochondriac.
Everyone I talked to--from my family down to the few close friends I have left to me--knows that cerebral palsy can't be cured through wishful thinking on Social Security's part. My Factor Five Leiden isn't a figment of my deluded imagination when I have to go to the hospital every few months or so to get treated for blood-clots in one leg (or both), or like this past week, I found out that I also have edema--which is causing a significant amount of pain in my legs; and both my feet and ankles show signs of swelling and more edema scarring.
I did get my 3 compression stockings on prescription--because there's no way that I can spend between $90 and $180 for three pairs by myself.
There's no way. (But the co-pays are going to kick me in the pants as is. At the minimum, I'm going to be shelling out $45 on the third--when I get my next monthly check--but there's nothing I can do. I have to do this so I can start walking around normally. Everything feels unhinged and wrong when I walk.)
That's why I am trying so hard to get my books out. I want off this poverty trip! It's been long enough. After 34 years, I want something else. Something I can take pride in and be happy with.
I can't get ahead in life working one dead-end job after another--and going back and forth on disability if I lose my jobs. But as I said: "College is a joke..."
I have enough of everything floating around upstairs that I don't need another "education"--which isn't going to advance me to where I want to be.
So these last seven years, I've spent my time really working on my books. Try to get them as polished and legible as possible for my reading audience. Share what I have done so far with the internet community--and build my fan base from there.
It's never easy--when you're living on severely restricted income, and your dreams and aspirations of self-publishing your own books under your own special imprint is years away at best.
But I try anyway because it's all I have left to me. All that's important in my life.
That's why I didn't ask for a lot of money when I petitioned the internet community nearly 3 months ago. I just needed enough to cover my basic bills. There were some other things that I threw in--because I was having one of my famous zen moments and thinking: "Wouldn't be so cool if..."--just so I can feel good and feel accomplished.
Because other people cared about me enough to do that for me.
Like the world isn't going to crash on top of me and I can feel free.
Sigh...
But those moments are such rarities in my life, I've begun to forget what that sensation, no...that emotion feels likes.
(Deep breath here)
This is why I sometimes think I'm made to suffer--because no one else will do it for me in my place. I have to do things on my own--because very few people believe it can be done. Very fewer still lack vision and imagination when it comes to reaching for that all-important dream.
I've been seeing strong evidence that people are forgetting to dream and just stop worrying about whether or not it will work.
Me? I'm just struggling and clawing my across this freshly paved road full of razor blades and broken glass of life.
But the only thing that keeps me going--is that someday, I'm going to be able to look back at this and smile. And say to myself: "Yes, this was all worth it. And I won't forget the struggles and the pain I had to endure getting there."
But I'm not there yet.
So until then, I'm going to continue to anguish, suffer, and struggle mightily. Because that's my beck and call for the time being.
Only because I believe in something greater than myself.
Hope. Faith. And a VISION.
It took 40 years for America to see an African-American candidate get elected President, then I will take the time to see things through and do it right to the best of my ability.
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: Nothing at the moment.
Listening to: Taped music from C-89.5 (Seattle)
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 404.
STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION: WAR DRUMS. Page 78.
MARVEL ZOMBIES TB
TOPIC: PERSONAL PAIN AND OTHER REFLECTIONS
To start off, I recieved a letter yesterday from the Providence Medical Center; saying that in order for me to get my 2 requested copies of my medical records for my upcoming hearing on the 30th, I would have to shell out an impossible $135!!!
I told my wife: "How the heck am I supposed to come with the money when I need to pay my bills next month--on top of everything else; including my compression stockings?!"
Gods and Faeries people! I was so angry yesterday! None of the other institutions charged me money for a simple release copies of my medical records.
So why this particular hospital? Are they suddenly strapped for money that bad that they have to harrass someone as dirt-poor as me--for funds that I can't even come up with--even on my best day? Is there a reason why I am made to suffer like this?
I can't imagine what the judge is going to say when he hears about what happened. After all--this is what he ordered me to do. But this is just getting so monotonous! I thought everything was going to be cleared up after Kiva got his surgery. I thought that I wasn't going to have to worry about anything else for a good long while. But this...is just driving me fucking batshit here!
Am I nuts, or does somebody have it out for me?! What the hell did I do to deserve this? Did I piss off the wrong rich slob in Congress? Did I piss off the religious wingnuts whom want nothing more than a complete authoritorian-ruled theocracy--to replace what's already here in the United States? Or is it just the fact that no matter how hard I try to make it in life--I can't get one fucking break?!
Just one!
Something that will be as uplifting and a solid morale booster that anyone can get out and deliver! Something that will tell me: "Sky, everything's going to be okay shortly. You'll just have to suffer for just a little while longer. But in the end...? It will be all worth it."
Is that so hard to ask? To want? To even desire? It's not like I'm asking for the world here. I just badly need some breathing space with my finances.
Working substandard jobs that pay well below the federal limit of poverty isn't doing my cause any special favors either. I've been doing that trip for the last 13 years and haven't come close to breaking even with what I really wanted to do with my life.
Some things I want in life I can't get, and even the smaller things are getting hellishly expensive.
College has become a such a joke because no matter what we do with our lives, very few of us actually get where we want to be today.
Many of us end up spending our lives working one dead-end job after another--and getting very little appreciation for the hard work we put in as a result.
From working moms and dads, to single guys and gals.
All I ever wanted was a good-paying job, a place to live, and finish what I started in college back in 1993; when I moved up to Washington state from Vermont on August 16th, 1995.
I never said: "I also want to rule the world, have a gazillion dollars and a Mercedes Benz EX-900 to show off my stature and importance to the rest of the planet."
Pfft!
If I wanted that, I could just write about it. I don't have to live it. My imagination and talented writing skills are enough--thankyouverymuch.
I thought I was good with discerning conspiracy theories before, but this has got to be the one of the most cruelest thing anyone can ask of somebody whom is 275% below the federal poverty level. I do what I can on what I have, but...come on! You know, this is just...ridiculous! I need my medical records so that I can have proof of my disabilities. Have proof of what's going on with my blood-clotting issues and my edema problems--which just recently surfaced after my last week's visit to the ER.
So that I can tell Social Security to go fuck themselves royally for treating me like I was some kind of common criminal these last 25 years--all because they don't think I'm either disabled enough in their eyes, or they think I'm some kind of suave "Thomas Crown" character whom can smooth-talk or steal his way out of a small $537-pittance of a monthly stipend from the US Government; which doesn't even begin to compete with what's happening with today's rising food and energy prices!
Or just simply fake my illnesses and disabilities like a hard-core hypochondriac.
Everyone I talked to--from my family down to the few close friends I have left to me--knows that cerebral palsy can't be cured through wishful thinking on Social Security's part. My Factor Five Leiden isn't a figment of my deluded imagination when I have to go to the hospital every few months or so to get treated for blood-clots in one leg (or both), or like this past week, I found out that I also have edema--which is causing a significant amount of pain in my legs; and both my feet and ankles show signs of swelling and more edema scarring.
I did get my 3 compression stockings on prescription--because there's no way that I can spend between $90 and $180 for three pairs by myself.
There's no way. (But the co-pays are going to kick me in the pants as is. At the minimum, I'm going to be shelling out $45 on the third--when I get my next monthly check--but there's nothing I can do. I have to do this so I can start walking around normally. Everything feels unhinged and wrong when I walk.)
That's why I am trying so hard to get my books out. I want off this poverty trip! It's been long enough. After 34 years, I want something else. Something I can take pride in and be happy with.
I can't get ahead in life working one dead-end job after another--and going back and forth on disability if I lose my jobs. But as I said: "College is a joke..."
I have enough of everything floating around upstairs that I don't need another "education"--which isn't going to advance me to where I want to be.
So these last seven years, I've spent my time really working on my books. Try to get them as polished and legible as possible for my reading audience. Share what I have done so far with the internet community--and build my fan base from there.
It's never easy--when you're living on severely restricted income, and your dreams and aspirations of self-publishing your own books under your own special imprint is years away at best.
But I try anyway because it's all I have left to me. All that's important in my life.
That's why I didn't ask for a lot of money when I petitioned the internet community nearly 3 months ago. I just needed enough to cover my basic bills. There were some other things that I threw in--because I was having one of my famous zen moments and thinking: "Wouldn't be so cool if..."--just so I can feel good and feel accomplished.
Because other people cared about me enough to do that for me.
Like the world isn't going to crash on top of me and I can feel free.
Sigh...
But those moments are such rarities in my life, I've begun to forget what that sensation, no...that emotion feels likes.
(Deep breath here)
This is why I sometimes think I'm made to suffer--because no one else will do it for me in my place. I have to do things on my own--because very few people believe it can be done. Very fewer still lack vision and imagination when it comes to reaching for that all-important dream.
I've been seeing strong evidence that people are forgetting to dream and just stop worrying about whether or not it will work.
Me? I'm just struggling and clawing my across this freshly paved road full of razor blades and broken glass of life.
But the only thing that keeps me going--is that someday, I'm going to be able to look back at this and smile. And say to myself: "Yes, this was all worth it. And I won't forget the struggles and the pain I had to endure getting there."
But I'm not there yet.
So until then, I'm going to continue to anguish, suffer, and struggle mightily. Because that's my beck and call for the time being.
Only because I believe in something greater than myself.
Hope. Faith. And a VISION.
It took 40 years for America to see an African-American candidate get elected President, then I will take the time to see things through and do it right to the best of my ability.
That's all we can ask of others.
That's all I can ask of myself.
Simply because I believe.
Sky
Sunday, June 22, 2008
THE BOOK EXCHANGE (Entry 2 of 3)
Status: On vacation till the end of the month due to a lot going on.
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: Knight Rider on RTN.
Listening to: Taped music from C-89.5 (Seattle)
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 404.
STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION: WAR DRUMS. Page 69.
STAR TREK-NEW EARTH: BOOK 1: WAGON TRAIN TO THE STARS. Page 35.
TOPIC: INDEPENDENT BOOK STORE TRIALS
One of the things that I want to explore with The Starchild's release is to approach local and indi-run bookstores--instead of hitting one dead-end after another with the major chains.
Stores like Borders and B. Daltons which have pretty much popped up across the country like daisies.
Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to run into a very nice woman named Shelly DeWitt. What struck me about her was the fact that she was open-minded and easy going, and we had a lot to talk about over the course of the past few months or so.
Including our love of books.
Her aspiration was to open a small book store where she lived--and I saw a prime opportunity to try my luck with her in regards to my novel, The Starchild. (When it becomes available in a few years.)
Of course, we are both in uncharted territories here. Her business revolves around the idea of exchanging books or buying them based on price; while building up a saleable account with her store at the same time. (Click the link at the bottom of this page under "Sky's List Links"--for further details.)
My aims are to use her bookstore as a jump off point (amongst others) for my book--to see what kind of positive reaction I can get from my target audience and go from there.
So when Shelly recently e-mailed me, I found out that she had just opened her store this past month. And like myself, she's looking for potential customers and some good karma to come down her way.
So I thought I would give people whom visit this site of mine a heads up on her modest little enterprise--and see if anyone would be interested in exchanging a book or two in the process. (Pretty cool idea, huh?)
Because you never know what you might come across. Or read. :0)
So check her place out and spread the word if you can. We both would appreciate it!
Sky
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: Knight Rider on RTN.
Listening to: Taped music from C-89.5 (Seattle)
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 404.
STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION: WAR DRUMS. Page 69.
STAR TREK-NEW EARTH: BOOK 1: WAGON TRAIN TO THE STARS. Page 35.
TOPIC: INDEPENDENT BOOK STORE TRIALS
One of the things that I want to explore with The Starchild's release is to approach local and indi-run bookstores--instead of hitting one dead-end after another with the major chains.
Stores like Borders and B. Daltons which have pretty much popped up across the country like daisies.
Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to run into a very nice woman named Shelly DeWitt. What struck me about her was the fact that she was open-minded and easy going, and we had a lot to talk about over the course of the past few months or so.
Including our love of books.
Her aspiration was to open a small book store where she lived--and I saw a prime opportunity to try my luck with her in regards to my novel, The Starchild. (When it becomes available in a few years.)
Of course, we are both in uncharted territories here. Her business revolves around the idea of exchanging books or buying them based on price; while building up a saleable account with her store at the same time. (Click the link at the bottom of this page under "Sky's List Links"--for further details.)
My aims are to use her bookstore as a jump off point (amongst others) for my book--to see what kind of positive reaction I can get from my target audience and go from there.
So when Shelly recently e-mailed me, I found out that she had just opened her store this past month. And like myself, she's looking for potential customers and some good karma to come down her way.
So I thought I would give people whom visit this site of mine a heads up on her modest little enterprise--and see if anyone would be interested in exchanging a book or two in the process. (Pretty cool idea, huh?)
Because you never know what you might come across. Or read. :0)
So check her place out and spread the word if you can. We both would appreciate it!
Sky
Friday, June 20, 2008
NEW POLL AND PRICE CHANGES IN EFFECT. (Entry 1 of 3)
Status: On vacation till the end of the month due to a lot going on.
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: "Look Who's Coming To Dinner."--Battlestar Galactica on hulu.com.
Listening to: "Perpetual"--by VNV Nation; "The Darkness"--by Zombie Girl
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 404. (I blew through 100 pages during my recent 7-hour stay in the ER on the 18th.)
STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION: WAR DRUMS. Page 69.
TOPIC: THE STARCHILD E-BOOK (PRICING OPTIONS)
Over the past several years, I've been dinking with the price payment options for The Starchild; trying to see what will work and what will be more effective.
Granted, most e-books will cost you so little in the pocketbook, but come on guys! lol
This is The Starchild we are talking about! A novel I hope to add to Amazon's Kindle device when it becomes available. (I figure: "What the hell"--right? You only live once.)
Two? This isn't a "shortie" or a "mini" novel that runs between 40-100 pages e-book-wise.
This is over 1,200 pages of intense action, intrigue, mystery, and all sorts of cool stuff going on. There is nothing boring about this book or its future companion novels at all.
This is me giving people their money's worth and then some. Aren't any of you the least bit tired of novels without substance, without depth, without strong and vivid characters, without anything that will make you recall with fondness about how much you even liked that book?
I hope to change that with this book of mine. My brainchild, my flagship novel, my baby.
I can't promise you the world, but I can guarantee that this book won't leave you disappointed one iota.
When I started The Starchild 12.5 years ago, it was based on a dream that I had which I could not explain nor understand in detail. Images like I was in a fog, trapped in some kind of interdimensional "interphase" of some kind--or surrounded by an energy field so vast that I thought I was floating in an expansive void without a beginning or end. I saw...people...dressed in some really exotic and elaborate costumes which I could only begin to comprehend, and voices that spoke to me like I was hearing God for the first time; which left me feeling small, insignificant, and humble.
And a sentence sprung out from the ether which said: "Write about us. Write about who we are. You are special." And it kept repeating for what seemed like ages.
I didn't tell my brother about this, because he would've thought I was nuts.
But it was a powerful enough vision that it got me "hooked" onto developing this unforeseen universe--which currently has no counterpart in today's commercially published books.
It took me awhile just to get a grasp of what I saw that night! And what was baffling, was that it wasn't influenced by anything I read, saw, or could read in books, papers, and even comics.
The whole experience...I could only compare it too seeing the image of the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast. A freak occurance which cannot be easily explained.
But how to write what was shown to me in that dream-vision of mine--? It just took a great deal of time just to figure out everything and come up with what I thought was a suitable universe fraught with an astounding array of characters, worlds, histories, and lores.
You would have to understand...that what I've written has been challenged and fought against because The Starchild and its companion novels aren't done by the...well...?
Book.
Commercially-published fiction is so limited in its own rights. Few books published these days can honestly say they've reached out and grabbed the imagination of that said reader--and be able to hold it without.
While there is some commercial potential with The Starchild, that's not what it was intended to become: An engine of perpetual commercialism designed to exploit a hard-fought and hard-written novel.
This book not only bends the rules of the industry, but it breaks them as well. Do you sometimes get annoyed when you simply "rush" through a book--and you find out there's nothing more? Not even a hint of things to come? Or when you buy certain books, they appear to be getting smaller and smaller as the years wear on?
The Starchild is the answer to these questions. There's nothing 'rushed' about the novel because of one important thing: The word count is 4 to 5 times longer than your average 'dimestore' novel.
That means that this book embodies the whole principle concept of a 'full-bodied' novel.
Why it took me so long to get this puppy right. When you're dealing with giant tomes such as mine (including The Price of Freedom), you can't just rush through the process of writing.
You have to delicately walk amongst the fragile flowers of your creation--and start laying down the groundwork for your characters, the settings, the world they'll inhabit, and overall...?
The powerfully moving plot that is sure to grab your reader and hold him or her in place.
You can't do that so well when you are restrained and limited to a certain word count.
If you want to make it as a respectable author and reputable writer, you have to start bending and breaking the rules these days. It's not grand or glorious, but if you want to be taken seriously with your work, then you will have to prove to your audience that you have what it takes to keep them turning the pages of your book.
Stop living the perpetuated lies of the industry. They aren't the least bit interested in the novels we writers write. All they want is money. But they don't take the necessary risks to broaden their horizons, fatten their bank accounts by leaps or bounds.
They are hopelessly stuck in the mindset of 'forward-backwards'. Going farther than their limited scope of imagination will allow is something foreign as well as alien to them.
Thusly, they limit themselves with their choice set of books--and in the end--? Don't reap the whirlwinds of profit.
They are stuck with an unsaleable novel which they believed would get them some suitable traction against their rivals or competitors--but got burned in the end.
The Starchild shatters those misconceptions. Here is a novel that tells of a story behind the resurgent legend behind the Starchild of Ancient Lore; and a 14-year-old girl struggling to hold herself together as the universe's newest guardian.
There's a lot to be said about imagination. And whether or not we all have that potential within ourselves: Our ability to go beyond our own limitations and start tripping the light fantastic in the process.
As much as I keep peddling this bit of advice and philosophy to the ears of the open-minded, there are still some whom are resistant to my approach. They still believe in an obsolete mechanism which can no longer promise them a stable career as a published author.
Or give them the lavish lifestyle they believe they are entitled to.
My choices in the matter came after years of trying and not getting anywhere as a result. I didn't see the point in constantly banging my head against the proverbial wall--so I moved on.
I hired an editor, I got a book cover artist, and now I'm trying the e-book route along with the standard limited print runs (to save on trees and the environment).
But the pricing issue didn't bug me at first because I thought I could attract more flies with honey if I kept things on the low-brow and affordable.
I know that you can set any price for an e-book, but as I've been finding out; the cost of everything is just going up, up, and up.
I had the original price set at $15 until I dropped it down to $7.50 a couple years ago; thinking that might be the ticket. I would've kept it that way, but to be honest? I won't make enough to sustain either myself, nor my wife--let alone afford the high costs of rent and health insurance we are both faced with nowadays.
So I started raising the price of the e-book slowly, and not many objected. I've been thinking about slowly ratcheting it up to maybe $12, possibly $13.50--but it depends on how things are going with the economy.
These changes won't take effect just yet. Maybe in 2 more years--I'll have to see.
Again, this isn't greed ruling my decisions, but the sad fact that we are living in a world that doesn't give one whit about people's state of affairs or personal finances.
I'll do what I can to keep things reasonable, but I also have to take into account my needs as well. I'm not looking to make a whole lot of money, but just enough to give me some much needed breathing space.
Which is why I'm not rushing the production and release of The Starchild too soon. I need to make sure that the book is close to perfect as it possibly can be, and that it will be worth it to my targeted readership in the years to come.
Oh, and if you have a chance? Take a moment to vote. Let me know what you think is reasonable.
Sky
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: "Look Who's Coming To Dinner."--Battlestar Galactica on hulu.com.
Listening to: "Perpetual"--by VNV Nation; "The Darkness"--by Zombie Girl
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 404. (I blew through 100 pages during my recent 7-hour stay in the ER on the 18th.)
STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION: WAR DRUMS. Page 69.
TOPIC: THE STARCHILD E-BOOK (PRICING OPTIONS)
Over the past several years, I've been dinking with the price payment options for The Starchild; trying to see what will work and what will be more effective.
Granted, most e-books will cost you so little in the pocketbook, but come on guys! lol
This is The Starchild we are talking about! A novel I hope to add to Amazon's Kindle device when it becomes available. (I figure: "What the hell"--right? You only live once.)
Two? This isn't a "shortie" or a "mini" novel that runs between 40-100 pages e-book-wise.
This is over 1,200 pages of intense action, intrigue, mystery, and all sorts of cool stuff going on. There is nothing boring about this book or its future companion novels at all.
This is me giving people their money's worth and then some. Aren't any of you the least bit tired of novels without substance, without depth, without strong and vivid characters, without anything that will make you recall with fondness about how much you even liked that book?
I hope to change that with this book of mine. My brainchild, my flagship novel, my baby.
I can't promise you the world, but I can guarantee that this book won't leave you disappointed one iota.
When I started The Starchild 12.5 years ago, it was based on a dream that I had which I could not explain nor understand in detail. Images like I was in a fog, trapped in some kind of interdimensional "interphase" of some kind--or surrounded by an energy field so vast that I thought I was floating in an expansive void without a beginning or end. I saw...people...dressed in some really exotic and elaborate costumes which I could only begin to comprehend, and voices that spoke to me like I was hearing God for the first time; which left me feeling small, insignificant, and humble.
And a sentence sprung out from the ether which said: "Write about us. Write about who we are. You are special." And it kept repeating for what seemed like ages.
I didn't tell my brother about this, because he would've thought I was nuts.
But it was a powerful enough vision that it got me "hooked" onto developing this unforeseen universe--which currently has no counterpart in today's commercially published books.
It took me awhile just to get a grasp of what I saw that night! And what was baffling, was that it wasn't influenced by anything I read, saw, or could read in books, papers, and even comics.
The whole experience...I could only compare it too seeing the image of the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast. A freak occurance which cannot be easily explained.
But how to write what was shown to me in that dream-vision of mine--? It just took a great deal of time just to figure out everything and come up with what I thought was a suitable universe fraught with an astounding array of characters, worlds, histories, and lores.
You would have to understand...that what I've written has been challenged and fought against because The Starchild and its companion novels aren't done by the...well...?
Book.
Commercially-published fiction is so limited in its own rights. Few books published these days can honestly say they've reached out and grabbed the imagination of that said reader--and be able to hold it without.
While there is some commercial potential with The Starchild, that's not what it was intended to become: An engine of perpetual commercialism designed to exploit a hard-fought and hard-written novel.
This book not only bends the rules of the industry, but it breaks them as well. Do you sometimes get annoyed when you simply "rush" through a book--and you find out there's nothing more? Not even a hint of things to come? Or when you buy certain books, they appear to be getting smaller and smaller as the years wear on?
The Starchild is the answer to these questions. There's nothing 'rushed' about the novel because of one important thing: The word count is 4 to 5 times longer than your average 'dimestore' novel.
That means that this book embodies the whole principle concept of a 'full-bodied' novel.
Why it took me so long to get this puppy right. When you're dealing with giant tomes such as mine (including The Price of Freedom), you can't just rush through the process of writing.
You have to delicately walk amongst the fragile flowers of your creation--and start laying down the groundwork for your characters, the settings, the world they'll inhabit, and overall...?
The powerfully moving plot that is sure to grab your reader and hold him or her in place.
You can't do that so well when you are restrained and limited to a certain word count.
If you want to make it as a respectable author and reputable writer, you have to start bending and breaking the rules these days. It's not grand or glorious, but if you want to be taken seriously with your work, then you will have to prove to your audience that you have what it takes to keep them turning the pages of your book.
Stop living the perpetuated lies of the industry. They aren't the least bit interested in the novels we writers write. All they want is money. But they don't take the necessary risks to broaden their horizons, fatten their bank accounts by leaps or bounds.
They are hopelessly stuck in the mindset of 'forward-backwards'. Going farther than their limited scope of imagination will allow is something foreign as well as alien to them.
Thusly, they limit themselves with their choice set of books--and in the end--? Don't reap the whirlwinds of profit.
They are stuck with an unsaleable novel which they believed would get them some suitable traction against their rivals or competitors--but got burned in the end.
The Starchild shatters those misconceptions. Here is a novel that tells of a story behind the resurgent legend behind the Starchild of Ancient Lore; and a 14-year-old girl struggling to hold herself together as the universe's newest guardian.
There's a lot to be said about imagination. And whether or not we all have that potential within ourselves: Our ability to go beyond our own limitations and start tripping the light fantastic in the process.
As much as I keep peddling this bit of advice and philosophy to the ears of the open-minded, there are still some whom are resistant to my approach. They still believe in an obsolete mechanism which can no longer promise them a stable career as a published author.
Or give them the lavish lifestyle they believe they are entitled to.
My choices in the matter came after years of trying and not getting anywhere as a result. I didn't see the point in constantly banging my head against the proverbial wall--so I moved on.
I hired an editor, I got a book cover artist, and now I'm trying the e-book route along with the standard limited print runs (to save on trees and the environment).
But the pricing issue didn't bug me at first because I thought I could attract more flies with honey if I kept things on the low-brow and affordable.
I know that you can set any price for an e-book, but as I've been finding out; the cost of everything is just going up, up, and up.
I had the original price set at $15 until I dropped it down to $7.50 a couple years ago; thinking that might be the ticket. I would've kept it that way, but to be honest? I won't make enough to sustain either myself, nor my wife--let alone afford the high costs of rent and health insurance we are both faced with nowadays.
So I started raising the price of the e-book slowly, and not many objected. I've been thinking about slowly ratcheting it up to maybe $12, possibly $13.50--but it depends on how things are going with the economy.
These changes won't take effect just yet. Maybe in 2 more years--I'll have to see.
Again, this isn't greed ruling my decisions, but the sad fact that we are living in a world that doesn't give one whit about people's state of affairs or personal finances.
I'll do what I can to keep things reasonable, but I also have to take into account my needs as well. I'm not looking to make a whole lot of money, but just enough to give me some much needed breathing space.
Which is why I'm not rushing the production and release of The Starchild too soon. I need to make sure that the book is close to perfect as it possibly can be, and that it will be worth it to my targeted readership in the years to come.
Oh, and if you have a chance? Take a moment to vote. Let me know what you think is reasonable.
Sky
Saturday, June 14, 2008
RICH AND POOR DISPARITY INCLUDES PUBLISHERS AND WRITERS TOO!
Status: On vacation.
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: TV still offline.
Listening to: "String Theory"; Politics of Dancing 2 (2-disc CD compilation)
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 292.
STAR TREK: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD-BOOK 1. Page 206.
STAR TREK: DOCTOR'S ORDERS. Page 14.
TOPIC: THE DISPARITY BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR GETS WORSE
Ever wondered why you're not making it on 2 or 3 jobs these days? Why your level of income never seems to put you in the much vaunted middle-class or upper class of America?
Why even going to college doesn't seem to be making that much of a difference in your take home pay--after you get that new job you've been studying and training for?
It's because of politics, politicians, and the rich who control both.
Yes, that's right: The rich control the politicians. And therefore control the directional policy of our government and thus our country's direction. (Ever wonder why Halliburton has been making such a killing in Iraq these days? Why upwards of $50 billion of your tax monies have suddenly vanished without a trace--and no one in the government can figure out why? It's because the rich have been enriching (or "stealing") their way of out from underneath you during this whole conflict.)
The more money they have, the more control they have over people like you and me.
It's the reason why--in the last 30 years--worker productivity has exploded 76% and your level of income (or hourly wages held by 80% of today's working-class American) has only increased a paltry 2% during that time.
That's right kids: TWO PERCENT. IN 30 YEARS!!!
Why not the other way around? Why not an increase of 76% of our hourly wages included in that 76% of worker productivity?
I'll get to that in a second. But here's a startling fact for you to chew on:
Back in the 1950s, your parents grandparents were making roughly the equivalent of $9.88 an hour--thus being able to afford to move into suburbia America and buy that nice house and afford good healthcare.
Live the American Dream!
But today?
That doesn't exist anymore.
Today, corporations like McDonalds are still paying their workers $5.85/hr--for the last 11 years--while companies such as Wal-Mart can afford to pay every worker of theirs substandard wages and still get away with it...
Why?
Because they keep their prices low. That's how they are able to get away with this. And like McDonalds--make billions in profits.
But you would think that corporate companies like these would generously include the workers and give them a leg up for each million the company makes--thus increasing their hourly wages...?
Unfortunately, that's not how it works. While fat cat CEOs can get either their 'golden parachutes' in life or death--the average American worker is stuck at substandard wages for the rest of their lives; always dependent on the same companies which have been milking them for years of their hard-earned monies.
So while Bush conservatives and die-hard neocons can blame the Democrats and liberals for wanting a redistribution of America's wealth--through 'living wages' and universal healthcare--the truth is, they are also in the same boat as we are.
Reason why I am stuck at $535 a month on Social Security instead of $10,368 a year on Social Security. (If our wages were $27 per hour today instead of $5.35 or $8.01 in some states.)
Because of what's been called the 'gilded age'. Where the rich and wealthy control the manifest destinies of those beneath them--and continuously reap the benefits of their hard labor.
When someone works for a company, they aren't getting the full benefits of their hard work. The years of dedication and labor aren't paying off for them in terms of steady salary increases or giant bumps up in their hourly wages--but the guys above them--are the ones whom are benefiting the most!
This is the reason why our wages haven't increased at all in the last 30 years! Because of the way the 'gilded' system has been set up in America's workforce--to primarily benefit the rich and wealthy. (Why do you think the Republicans are so intent on keeping those tax cuts for the rich? Because the rich control them. And they have every reason to keep being generous to them--at the expense of everyone else.)
Everyone else gets to take a massive pay cut and zero benefits. Because it's all about keeping the rich richer and the poor poorer.
And at this very moment in our nation's history (2008), the gap between the rich and the poor is so systemic, it's reached a point where the divide between the two classes had last met prior to the Great Depression of the 30s.
Which means...?
We are very well looking at another depression because of the affluent rich's command and control of American policies. And through them...? The American workforce.
If we had high pay and excellent health benefits, the middle class would be as strong as it was now as it was back in the 50s--when your grandparents were getting paid a living wage.
Nobody would be suffering!
People like myself wouldn't have to be struggling to make ends meet on such a pittance of an income! But that's the way politics--and the rich--have arranged it for these past three decades.
It's what has kept 80% of working-class Americans from both the middle nd lower class rungs so poor and unable to make ends meet.
So while getting a good education is key to a higher-standard of living, don't hedge your bets too quickly that it will translate the same way once you get that job you've been wanting. Because 9 times out of 10, most of us won't get there at all.
We will still be struggling to make ends meet. To provide for our families--because politicians, policies, and the rich, have dictated that for us.
It's where they want us.
Why do you think so many first-time authors don't make it after being published? Why they are given such a pittance for an advance and thus expected to do everything for themselves?
Why do the majority of publishers cater so much to their rich client lists and not to the newbie whom just started out?
Because the rich control the value of those chips. They decide on what you should get and what you can do without as a published author for the mainstream industry.
They dictate on what you can and cannot write. Because it's all about the money.
It's the same everywhere you look. An inequality in both living and finding that all important American dream.
Because the rich and powerful control it all. And only the way we can ever hope to break that cycle is by taking the money that's been flowing into our politicians' hands all these years--and back into our own.
But the question remains: DO WE HAVE THE COURAGE TO STAND UP AND TAKE BACK WHAT IS OURS? DO WE HAVE THE COURAGE TO SAY 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!'--AND TAKE BACK WHAT HAS BEEN STOLEN FROM US ALL???
Well...do you?
Sky
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: TV still offline.
Listening to: "String Theory"; Politics of Dancing 2 (2-disc CD compilation)
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 292.
STAR TREK: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD-BOOK 1. Page 206.
STAR TREK: DOCTOR'S ORDERS. Page 14.
TOPIC: THE DISPARITY BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR GETS WORSE
Ever wondered why you're not making it on 2 or 3 jobs these days? Why your level of income never seems to put you in the much vaunted middle-class or upper class of America?
Why even going to college doesn't seem to be making that much of a difference in your take home pay--after you get that new job you've been studying and training for?
It's because of politics, politicians, and the rich who control both.
Yes, that's right: The rich control the politicians. And therefore control the directional policy of our government and thus our country's direction. (Ever wonder why Halliburton has been making such a killing in Iraq these days? Why upwards of $50 billion of your tax monies have suddenly vanished without a trace--and no one in the government can figure out why? It's because the rich have been enriching (or "stealing") their way of out from underneath you during this whole conflict.)
The more money they have, the more control they have over people like you and me.
It's the reason why--in the last 30 years--worker productivity has exploded 76% and your level of income (or hourly wages held by 80% of today's working-class American) has only increased a paltry 2% during that time.
That's right kids: TWO PERCENT. IN 30 YEARS!!!
Why not the other way around? Why not an increase of 76% of our hourly wages included in that 76% of worker productivity?
I'll get to that in a second. But here's a startling fact for you to chew on:
Back in the 1950s, your parents grandparents were making roughly the equivalent of $9.88 an hour--thus being able to afford to move into suburbia America and buy that nice house and afford good healthcare.
Live the American Dream!
But today?
That doesn't exist anymore.
Today, corporations like McDonalds are still paying their workers $5.85/hr--for the last 11 years--while companies such as Wal-Mart can afford to pay every worker of theirs substandard wages and still get away with it...
Why?
Because they keep their prices low. That's how they are able to get away with this. And like McDonalds--make billions in profits.
But you would think that corporate companies like these would generously include the workers and give them a leg up for each million the company makes--thus increasing their hourly wages...?
Unfortunately, that's not how it works. While fat cat CEOs can get either their 'golden parachutes' in life or death--the average American worker is stuck at substandard wages for the rest of their lives; always dependent on the same companies which have been milking them for years of their hard-earned monies.
So while Bush conservatives and die-hard neocons can blame the Democrats and liberals for wanting a redistribution of America's wealth--through 'living wages' and universal healthcare--the truth is, they are also in the same boat as we are.
Reason why I am stuck at $535 a month on Social Security instead of $10,368 a year on Social Security. (If our wages were $27 per hour today instead of $5.35 or $8.01 in some states.)
Because of what's been called the 'gilded age'. Where the rich and wealthy control the manifest destinies of those beneath them--and continuously reap the benefits of their hard labor.
When someone works for a company, they aren't getting the full benefits of their hard work. The years of dedication and labor aren't paying off for them in terms of steady salary increases or giant bumps up in their hourly wages--but the guys above them--are the ones whom are benefiting the most!
This is the reason why our wages haven't increased at all in the last 30 years! Because of the way the 'gilded' system has been set up in America's workforce--to primarily benefit the rich and wealthy. (Why do you think the Republicans are so intent on keeping those tax cuts for the rich? Because the rich control them. And they have every reason to keep being generous to them--at the expense of everyone else.)
Everyone else gets to take a massive pay cut and zero benefits. Because it's all about keeping the rich richer and the poor poorer.
And at this very moment in our nation's history (2008), the gap between the rich and the poor is so systemic, it's reached a point where the divide between the two classes had last met prior to the Great Depression of the 30s.
Which means...?
We are very well looking at another depression because of the affluent rich's command and control of American policies. And through them...? The American workforce.
If we had high pay and excellent health benefits, the middle class would be as strong as it was now as it was back in the 50s--when your grandparents were getting paid a living wage.
Nobody would be suffering!
People like myself wouldn't have to be struggling to make ends meet on such a pittance of an income! But that's the way politics--and the rich--have arranged it for these past three decades.
It's what has kept 80% of working-class Americans from both the middle nd lower class rungs so poor and unable to make ends meet.
So while getting a good education is key to a higher-standard of living, don't hedge your bets too quickly that it will translate the same way once you get that job you've been wanting. Because 9 times out of 10, most of us won't get there at all.
We will still be struggling to make ends meet. To provide for our families--because politicians, policies, and the rich, have dictated that for us.
It's where they want us.
Why do you think so many first-time authors don't make it after being published? Why they are given such a pittance for an advance and thus expected to do everything for themselves?
Why do the majority of publishers cater so much to their rich client lists and not to the newbie whom just started out?
Because the rich control the value of those chips. They decide on what you should get and what you can do without as a published author for the mainstream industry.
They dictate on what you can and cannot write. Because it's all about the money.
It's the same everywhere you look. An inequality in both living and finding that all important American dream.
Because the rich and powerful control it all. And only the way we can ever hope to break that cycle is by taking the money that's been flowing into our politicians' hands all these years--and back into our own.
But the question remains: DO WE HAVE THE COURAGE TO STAND UP AND TAKE BACK WHAT IS OURS? DO WE HAVE THE COURAGE TO SAY 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!'--AND TAKE BACK WHAT HAS BEEN STOLEN FROM US ALL???
Well...do you?
Sky
Friday, June 6, 2008
STRUGGLING WRITER HELPS COMPLETE STRANGER.
Status: On vacation.
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: TV still offline.
Listening to: "Go Zombie"; "Creepy Crawler" by Zombie Girl
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 288.
STAR TREK: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD-BOOK 1. Page 206.
TOPIC: POST OFFICE TRIP HAS A NICE ENDING FOR ONE GUY
With my hearing coming up on the 30th, I spent all day yesterday running around and getting copies of my medical records released for the ALJ--and keeping an eye doctor's appointment on time.
I also made a pit stop at the local post office too. It was there that I caught sight of some poor schmuck on the sidewalk with one of those cardboard signs announcing to the world how broke, homeless, and hungry he is.
Knowing the current state of the economy has everyone frazzled, I silently pitied the guy as I walked by to get that important errand done.
Since I wasn't carrying nothing but my debit card on me at the time--I thought about how much money I had on me. It wasn't much. I have so little after paying my rent (since I've been subsisting off of $537 for the last 8 months now)--that every dollar I have left to me is precious.
But seeing this guy the way he is...?
What the hell, right? You only live once. :0)
I knew from personal experience what being homeless is like. I've spent 14 months on the street during the mid-90s. It was no picnic, I can tell you that much.
So I went into the post office to get my business done and (hoped) got out; thinking that the guy would be there when I left.
He was.
So I crossed the street and headed up to the 7-11 to see what I could get him.
Going in, I thought: "Sandwich, apple, a small pie, and some water." (Junkfood and a soda will not help.)
The prices for everything was pretty steep. And even though I had other priorities which needed attending, I figured $8 wouldn't kill me much. (I found out today that I had more money left over on my card than I originally calculated! Am I as bad as Bush is, or what? lol)
So I paid for the food and left--hoping the guy would be there when I returned.
He was, but he was in the process of packing up and leaving.
As he came towards me, I handed him the plastic bag--asking: "Got a minute?"
He said sure, and that's when I handed it to him. The bag with the sandwich, apple, pie, and bottled water.
He said, "Thanks. It's been really tough."
I nodded in complete understanding. "Don't I know it." (Because in a few months, my wife and I will most likely be sharing in his fate--being homeless after so long.)
But I left with a good feeling in my heart. I did something for someone--even though I didn't have much.
Or the fact that I didn't know him at all.
Just some poor guy needing some compassion and caring from someone.
Sky
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: TV still offline.
Listening to: "Go Zombie"; "Creepy Crawler" by Zombie Girl
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 288.
STAR TREK: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD-BOOK 1. Page 206.
TOPIC: POST OFFICE TRIP HAS A NICE ENDING FOR ONE GUY
With my hearing coming up on the 30th, I spent all day yesterday running around and getting copies of my medical records released for the ALJ--and keeping an eye doctor's appointment on time.
I also made a pit stop at the local post office too. It was there that I caught sight of some poor schmuck on the sidewalk with one of those cardboard signs announcing to the world how broke, homeless, and hungry he is.
Knowing the current state of the economy has everyone frazzled, I silently pitied the guy as I walked by to get that important errand done.
Since I wasn't carrying nothing but my debit card on me at the time--I thought about how much money I had on me. It wasn't much. I have so little after paying my rent (since I've been subsisting off of $537 for the last 8 months now)--that every dollar I have left to me is precious.
But seeing this guy the way he is...?
What the hell, right? You only live once. :0)
I knew from personal experience what being homeless is like. I've spent 14 months on the street during the mid-90s. It was no picnic, I can tell you that much.
So I went into the post office to get my business done and (hoped) got out; thinking that the guy would be there when I left.
He was.
So I crossed the street and headed up to the 7-11 to see what I could get him.
Going in, I thought: "Sandwich, apple, a small pie, and some water." (Junkfood and a soda will not help.)
The prices for everything was pretty steep. And even though I had other priorities which needed attending, I figured $8 wouldn't kill me much. (I found out today that I had more money left over on my card than I originally calculated! Am I as bad as Bush is, or what? lol)
So I paid for the food and left--hoping the guy would be there when I returned.
He was, but he was in the process of packing up and leaving.
As he came towards me, I handed him the plastic bag--asking: "Got a minute?"
He said sure, and that's when I handed it to him. The bag with the sandwich, apple, pie, and bottled water.
He said, "Thanks. It's been really tough."
I nodded in complete understanding. "Don't I know it." (Because in a few months, my wife and I will most likely be sharing in his fate--being homeless after so long.)
But I left with a good feeling in my heart. I did something for someone--even though I didn't have much.
Or the fact that I didn't know him at all.
Just some poor guy needing some compassion and caring from someone.
Sky
Sunday, June 1, 2008
BOOKSELLERS IN A PINCH.
Status: On vacation.
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: TV still offline.
Listening to: Nothing at the moment.
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 288.
STAR TREK: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD-BOOK 1. Page 206.
TOPIC: TANKING ECONOMY FORCES CHANGES IN BOOK INDUSTRY
Despite some reservations about e-books and independent book sellers, many publishers are now having to come to grips with not only a changing economy, but the changing face of book publishing.
***
Booksellers talk big, act quietly at convention
LOS ANGELES (AP) — They spoke of revolution this weekend at BookExpo America, of changing how we read and how we shop.
But the biggest noise happened miles away from the Los Angeles Convention Center, at the Beverly Hills mansion of Prince.
"It was quiet, very quiet," Simon & Schuster CEO and president Carolyn Reidy said of the industry's annual national gathering, which lacked a "buzz" book or spectacular speech, but did offer a rare private concert from the enigmatic rock star.
"I think when this is over, we're going to do some soul searching," said CEO David Shanks of Penguin Group (USA). "There are people in this hall who have spent way more than a million dollars at a time when we all should be pinching pennies."
The numbers were harsh at BookExpo. New annual releases keep increasing (more than 276,000, according to researchers R.R. Bowker), while the number of books purchased is expected to drop, according to a report by the Book Industry Study Group, an industry-supported organization.
But the visions were big. In simultaneous presentations over the weekend, held in nearby conference rooms, Amazon.com head Jeff Bezos and the American Booksellers Association, representatives of the country's independent stores, each talked of revolutionizing the business.
Bezos continued his advocacy of the Kindle e-book reader, billed as "revolutionary" by the retailer, although at this point more as a concept than as a way of life. His talk disappointed many attendees, who had hoped that he would announce some major news, but it did continue the ongoing discussion of the e-future. Reidy said Simon & Schuster would make thousands of additional titles available on the Kindle, even as one famous futurist, "Fahrenheit 451" novelist Ray Bradbury, envisioned only paper.
"There is no future for e-books because they are not books," said Bradbury, speaking to The Associated Press before a convention lunch Friday. "E-books smell like burned fuel."
While Bezos pushed the Kindle, officials at the ABA's annual "town hall" meeting rallied for their new marketing/branding campaign, IndieBound. Association president Russ Lawrence described it as, ideally, "a movement, a revolution, a force of nature" that would inspire the public not just to shop at independent bookstores, but at other kinds of locally-owned retailers. Booksellers, Lawrence announced, would soon be receiving "Literary Liberation" boxes that include cards, stickers and other materials meant to build communities nationwide.
The response was positive from a bookselling community that continues to shrink, nationwide, thanks in part to Amazon.com. Core membership dropped to 1,524 as of this spring, 56 fewer than the year before, and booksellers filled less than half of the roughly 500 chairs set up for their meeting. Still, said ABA vice president Gayle Shanks, noting that more new stores have opened in recent years, "We're on the way up, not on the way down."
Publishers wished success for IndieBound, but Reidy and Shanks questioned whether the public distinguishes between shopping at local stores and shopping at an independent, saying that a neighborhood bookshop could be a Barnes & Noble.
"I don't think people see it in terms of independents or chains. A bookstore is a bookstore," said Shanks, who doubted, with sadness, whether independents can regain their old power. "Real estate is major. It's not lost on people that the most successful independents often are in out of the way places. They have been ceded those areas."
The idea of "revolution" differed among attendees, like Deborah Shnookel of the Ocean Press, which publishes "radical books" about Latin America and will issue the tie-in to Steven Soderbergh's epic film about Che Guevara. "A lot of smaller stores and publishers have been wiped out by the so-called revolution in publishing," she said, referring to the industry's dramatic consolidation over the past two decades.
"When it comes to revolution in the business, I'm kind of a reactionary. I'm one of those people who'd like to see things go back to the good old days."
Guevara likely would have sympathized with the roughly 300 food workers at the convention center who staged a brief walkout Saturday, in protest over wages and benefits, according to union leaders. BookExpo staffers helped serve lunch in the main ballroom, where the news was taken far more lightly than if one scheduled speaker, filmmaker/activist Michael Moore, had not been forced to cancel because his plane was stuck in Chicago.
Few releases at BookExpo inspired widespread interest, although attendees spoke hopefully about such novels as Marilynne Robinson's "Home," Andrew Davidson's "The Gargoyle" and "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society," co-authored by Mary Ann Shaffer, who died recently, and her niece, Annie Barrows. The real buzz boomed from the amps of Prince, who kept his guests — and perhaps some neighbors — up late with a poolside, after-after hours concert, in promotion for a planned book in the fall.
Publishers are better at indulging rock stars than behaving like them, as noticed by guitarist Don Felder, the former Eagle whose memoir, "Heaven and Hell," was just released. "Publishing people seem very upfront, very decent and very honest," he told the AP, adding with a laugh, "I don't think they'd last long in the music business."
The past matters for book people, who regret the decline of independent stores and adore the paper text. Shanks complains that the convention is in a "time warp," yet speaks fondly of a simple, low-tech tradition: Walking the floor in search of new books, like when some 20 years ago he spotted a novel being released by The Naval Institute.
"I didn't even know the Navy published novels, but I thought this had potential. We bought it for $49,000," he says, smiling at the memory of how he acquired Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October."
Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)
Watching: TV still offline.
Listening to: Nothing at the moment.
Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 288.
STAR TREK: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD-BOOK 1. Page 206.
TOPIC: TANKING ECONOMY FORCES CHANGES IN BOOK INDUSTRY
Despite some reservations about e-books and independent book sellers, many publishers are now having to come to grips with not only a changing economy, but the changing face of book publishing.
***
Booksellers talk big, act quietly at convention
LOS ANGELES (AP) — They spoke of revolution this weekend at BookExpo America, of changing how we read and how we shop.
But the biggest noise happened miles away from the Los Angeles Convention Center, at the Beverly Hills mansion of Prince.
"It was quiet, very quiet," Simon & Schuster CEO and president Carolyn Reidy said of the industry's annual national gathering, which lacked a "buzz" book or spectacular speech, but did offer a rare private concert from the enigmatic rock star.
"I think when this is over, we're going to do some soul searching," said CEO David Shanks of Penguin Group (USA). "There are people in this hall who have spent way more than a million dollars at a time when we all should be pinching pennies."
The numbers were harsh at BookExpo. New annual releases keep increasing (more than 276,000, according to researchers R.R. Bowker), while the number of books purchased is expected to drop, according to a report by the Book Industry Study Group, an industry-supported organization.
But the visions were big. In simultaneous presentations over the weekend, held in nearby conference rooms, Amazon.com head Jeff Bezos and the American Booksellers Association, representatives of the country's independent stores, each talked of revolutionizing the business.
Bezos continued his advocacy of the Kindle e-book reader, billed as "revolutionary" by the retailer, although at this point more as a concept than as a way of life. His talk disappointed many attendees, who had hoped that he would announce some major news, but it did continue the ongoing discussion of the e-future. Reidy said Simon & Schuster would make thousands of additional titles available on the Kindle, even as one famous futurist, "Fahrenheit 451" novelist Ray Bradbury, envisioned only paper.
"There is no future for e-books because they are not books," said Bradbury, speaking to The Associated Press before a convention lunch Friday. "E-books smell like burned fuel."
While Bezos pushed the Kindle, officials at the ABA's annual "town hall" meeting rallied for their new marketing/branding campaign, IndieBound. Association president Russ Lawrence described it as, ideally, "a movement, a revolution, a force of nature" that would inspire the public not just to shop at independent bookstores, but at other kinds of locally-owned retailers. Booksellers, Lawrence announced, would soon be receiving "Literary Liberation" boxes that include cards, stickers and other materials meant to build communities nationwide.
The response was positive from a bookselling community that continues to shrink, nationwide, thanks in part to Amazon.com. Core membership dropped to 1,524 as of this spring, 56 fewer than the year before, and booksellers filled less than half of the roughly 500 chairs set up for their meeting. Still, said ABA vice president Gayle Shanks, noting that more new stores have opened in recent years, "We're on the way up, not on the way down."
Publishers wished success for IndieBound, but Reidy and Shanks questioned whether the public distinguishes between shopping at local stores and shopping at an independent, saying that a neighborhood bookshop could be a Barnes & Noble.
"I don't think people see it in terms of independents or chains. A bookstore is a bookstore," said Shanks, who doubted, with sadness, whether independents can regain their old power. "Real estate is major. It's not lost on people that the most successful independents often are in out of the way places. They have been ceded those areas."
The idea of "revolution" differed among attendees, like Deborah Shnookel of the Ocean Press, which publishes "radical books" about Latin America and will issue the tie-in to Steven Soderbergh's epic film about Che Guevara. "A lot of smaller stores and publishers have been wiped out by the so-called revolution in publishing," she said, referring to the industry's dramatic consolidation over the past two decades.
"When it comes to revolution in the business, I'm kind of a reactionary. I'm one of those people who'd like to see things go back to the good old days."
Guevara likely would have sympathized with the roughly 300 food workers at the convention center who staged a brief walkout Saturday, in protest over wages and benefits, according to union leaders. BookExpo staffers helped serve lunch in the main ballroom, where the news was taken far more lightly than if one scheduled speaker, filmmaker/activist Michael Moore, had not been forced to cancel because his plane was stuck in Chicago.
Few releases at BookExpo inspired widespread interest, although attendees spoke hopefully about such novels as Marilynne Robinson's "Home," Andrew Davidson's "The Gargoyle" and "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society," co-authored by Mary Ann Shaffer, who died recently, and her niece, Annie Barrows. The real buzz boomed from the amps of Prince, who kept his guests — and perhaps some neighbors — up late with a poolside, after-after hours concert, in promotion for a planned book in the fall.
Publishers are better at indulging rock stars than behaving like them, as noticed by guitarist Don Felder, the former Eagle whose memoir, "Heaven and Hell," was just released. "Publishing people seem very upfront, very decent and very honest," he told the AP, adding with a laugh, "I don't think they'd last long in the music business."
The past matters for book people, who regret the decline of independent stores and adore the paper text. Shanks complains that the convention is in a "time warp," yet speaks fondly of a simple, low-tech tradition: Walking the floor in search of new books, like when some 20 years ago he spotted a novel being released by The Naval Institute.
"I didn't even know the Navy published novels, but I thought this had potential. We bought it for $49,000," he says, smiling at the memory of how he acquired Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October."
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