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This article is inspired by an old book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig.

Let me say from the outset, the notes below apply to me, most of all. wanting something to be, doesn't make it so, straight away.

Writing is often treated as production: word count, deadlines, output, performance. Zen offers a different frame. It does not ask, “How much have you written?” It asks, “How present were you while writing?”

To explore Zen and writing is not to adopt mysticism or...

If you've ever done B2B sales, a Literary Agent is basically a Buyer. And, like Buyers, Literary Agents are not monoliths. Some are personable, with well-developed senses of humor and engaging personalities - some are not.

Like Buyers, Literary Agents have "buying criteria" and "open-to-buys" that they must adhere to if they want to keep their jobs. "Open-to-buy" is simply a restriction on what agents can buy right now! They may have too many Romance novels at the moment, or a glut of Epic...

"Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things already made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends anymore". - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The Little Prince.

From Wikipedia:

The Little Prince (French: Le Petit Prince, pronounced [lə p(ə)ti pʁɛs]) is a novella written and illustrated by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal &...

A lot of people will tell you they've read a book, when they haven't. This is particularly true for so-called Classic Literature. Maybe people feel guilty because they feel they were supposed to read those books? Or maybe they're just bored with your conversation?

Here's why I think reading the Classics is important: I learned all about the contrasts between good and evil from reading The Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen. They also taught me about moral ambiguity. This knowledge...

What inspires you?

For me, it's simple ... art, music, literature, nature, people.

This is Pieter Bruegel The Elder's "The Triumph of Death" painted in 1562. Yes, even a depiction of the "end of all life on earth" can be inspirational. Sometimes, it's a butterfly.

POET, the first book of my Indrajala Trilogy, is done!
Copies are going out to readers and editors then, if I'm lucky, I'll score a good Literary Agent to promote and sell my book :)

I hate waiting.

By far, the single worst part of writing a book is AFTER you have completed the book.

First, you have to wait for a proof.
Then you have to wait for editors to do their thing.
Then you have to wait for friends and family to read the book. (Hint: sometimes this takes longer than actually writing the book)
Then you have to find a literary agent.
Then you have to wait for agents to reply to you - IF they reply to you.
Then you have to make changes based on the feedback of all the above...

each page we read
inside a book
another look
at poetry
and discord

each flaw that gnaws
at our subconscious
furtively
as if to hide
a right of
no more than
desperation
and mortality
encased in words
both beautiful
and trite

to die a sigh
that whispers to
the universe
as if our verse
significant
to stars

each page we read
another look
in hope the book
will somehow
this time
end its tale
much differently

Hi all.

I'm toying with the idea of this cover (or similar) for POET.
What do you think? Love it? Hate it? Don't care?
I'm not married to the cover, just getting a feel for it.

Picture features James Clear Quote: “Motivation is overrated, environment often matters more.”

Two minutes on any social media platform will find you a thousand memes and articles on motivation. Most are hokey "you can do it" phrases and rarely will you find discussion on why various motivations matter.

Zuck's motivation for creating Facebook was banal - he wanted to get laid. The GOP's motivations are transparently transactional - more money, more power, more racism, more misogyny....

There's Something Wrong

There's something wrong with my biology,
a flaw inside my complicated mind,
to make me want to write a trilogy.

Conceptually, it is a symphony,
six movements without meter, without rhyme;
there's something wrong with my biology

that shapes a story from soliloquies.
There must be depths that I have yet to mine
to make me want to write a trilogy.

Analogous, like all analogies,
I cannot see my neurons, yet I find
there's something wrong with my biology.

The scan came back, my...

There's Something Wrong

There's something wrong with my biology,
a flaw inside my complicated mind,
to make me want to write a trilogy.

Conceptually, it is a symphony,
six movements without meter, without rhyme;
there's something wrong with my biology

that shapes a story from soliloquies.
There must be depths that I have yet to mine
to make me want to write a trilogy.

Analogous, like all analogies,
I cannot see my neurons, yet I find
there's something wrong with my biology.

The scan came back for my...

Sometimes I can be doing chores, walking the dog, watching TV, or a host of other activities when the urge hits me - WRITE!!!

And if I neglect that internal command I often pay the price by forgetting what my thought was, forgetting the exact plot twist or word usage that inspired me, forgetting that I am a writer who has no choice but to write - whenever the urge hits me.

What's worse, is forgetting what you wanted to write WHEN you're in the middle of writing it!

We all have our crosses to...

Very few people still use a pen and paper for writing but I definitely do for keeping character notes, geographic notes, plot profiles, that sort of thing.

But when it comes to the actual story itself, it's laptop and/or phone. I used to be a "laptop only" guy but converted to the phone when I realized how handy it is to access Google and other research, in real-time, while you're writing.

Both phone and laptop have their benefits and downsides so it is individual choice, sometimes in the...

When you are in the business of creating characters you will eventually be faced with the question: "Should I kill this character off?" And very soon after that, " ... and how should I kill him or her?"

Some characters are easier to kill off than others. An evil dictator, morally repugnant, with little to no redeeming features, is quite easy to kill. Sometimes, it can even be fun. Or cathartic. A heroine with a kindly and pleasant disposition, someone who continually does good deeds, and...

I have lived in multiple cities around the world, and visited many more.
One thing I have learned is that the Eagles were correct in their song, The Last Resort,
when they say " ... call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye."

Nowhere is perfect but some places are more "human" than others.
I came to Calgary, Canada, because there are many humans here - and I happen to love humans.
Calgary, and Canada overall, are not perfect but they try to get as close as they can. Do they always succeed? No. Do...

Way back in the 20th century, authors would mail out book copies to newspaper columnist journalists or magazine journalists in hope of getting a favorable review. And they would complain about the cost of postage and how long they had to wait to see if they got reviewed or not.

Even though we had functional email from the early 90's it was not really fully implemented as a marketing vehicle or solid alternative to snail-mail until the 2000's. Even then, it was the advent of social media...

To be a writer or not, that is indeed the question for anyone flirting with a literary career.

It may come easy for you, or you may have to work at it. Either way, you must get to the point where compulsion and love and need outweigh the vagaries of money, fame, and recognition, else you collapse under the weight of the idea instead of rising to each potential height.

This blog, and this website have nothing to do with the heading at all.

In each of the categories above, there is a small army of people ready to take your hard-earned money for the "secret" to success. If you fail, you mustn't have done it right or you didn't send enough money.

Throughout human history scams all look different but they are fundamentally the same, whether someone is selling you a piece of the original Cross, a piece of the Berlin Wall, a digital marketing solution or an AI bot...

Most of you would have seen the unflattering balloon version of Donald Trump, wannabe dictator of the United States. They have popped up all over the world - at least in countries where they don't deport you to an El Salvadorean prison.

So, I thought, why not feature the same on the cover of a poetry book?

I don't care what your politics are, whether you consider yourself a "conservative" or a "liberal" or something in-between. Trump has nothing to do with politics as you think you know it. He...