One of the most amazing thing about having your book published is talking to people about your book, connecting with people. Whenever people talk to me or email me about my book, I’m amazed to find that they open up and share their own creativity-related experiences.I’m amazed because I didn’t think this would be part of the book.I know so much more now about the personal trajectories of friends & strangers alike. I know so much more about my own family now, and feel connected with them in ways which I didn’t imagine. I’m hearing from old friends from work & school & marveling that my own experiences ring resonant and true with them. True, and somewhat rue at the same time, because there really is the sensation that the corporate world can often be a crippling place to work, and yet, marginalizing yourself from society to create your art in secret isn’t the answer either. The story of Lisa’s father destroying his books is terrible but sadly all-too-common. There are Genius grants for a chosen few in the mainstream insider tradition, but there’s nothing to motivate all the other outsiders to work in an inspired way at their art. But like I said before, culture always thrives on the fringes, and art which is outside the mainstream tradition is often the most vital. I live in an area of New Mexico where the hills are scattered with isolated artists and independent cultural creators, but there’s no glue to bring them all together, and there are no rewards but those of their own devising. It’s hard to create culture in the outback in which we find ourselves, in the outback which becomes us, but that’s sometimes all that we can do. Enough moralizing! In further news, my book is available now in at least 10 countries (US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, South Africa, and Japan). Amazon is including my book in their “Look Inside the Book” program, which means that in a few weeks (months?) once they’ve ripped open the book with a razor blade and scalpeled out all the words, you’ll be able to see how often statistically improbable phrases like “persimmon-tinted dreams” appear. Until then, I’ve compiled my own concordance of words from my book, which will be of use to:
a) people who sell persimmon-tinted dreams and who want me to host their Google Adwords links,
b) curious readers, and
c) search engine spiders with time to kill.