I Love to Write... but I Won't Self Publish... and Other Things

I love writing, the whole process, and my day is not complete without writing a few lines on my blog. Some days I don’t have anything to write, so, um, I bum around, today is one of them. Am working on another novel, is it another exercise in futility? I don’t think so, because I love to write. There’s this character in a movie I saw who says, “I know people have differing views on my writing skills, but I write because I love to, I am at peace when I am writing.” Ditto here. People should do what they love to do. At least it keeps them away from frustration, depression and downright decrepitude.

Is the first novel published? No. several publishers offered to print it if I paid them. No, I say. I don’t mind my novel not being published, but I won’t pay money to get it printed. I have to be paid for my efforts and not the other way around. The money should flow from them to me not the other way around.

But some publishers are persistent. I guess there’s great vanity at play here, much more than what Tom Woolfe wrote about in “Bonfire of the Vanities.” I don’t know of a single author who self-published and achieved some fame and name, they have all descended into anonymity. They are even embarrassed to talk about it. I guess, quite unashamedly at that, I want a little recognition. I am not there yet, but soon I may be. So, meanwhile, I continue to tap my keyboard with my light fingers, drawing out my thought, my feelings, my imagination, the essence of my life....