Writing
Eric San Juan
October 26, 2012
I never saw my hometown ’till I stayed away too long. –“San Diego Serenade,” Tom Waits This sort of sums up Lakehurst: Barrens, Blimps & Barons, a book I wrote and self-published about the tiny Pine Barrens town I spent years trying to leave. That’s right. For most of my teen years, I wanted to get the hell out of that place. So if I spent years trying to leave the town — and I jumped ship as soon as I could, fleeing at the age of 19 — why would I spend the time to write and publish a book about it? Tom Waits nailed it in the above lyric from “San Diego Serenade,” featured on 1974’s The Heart of Saturday Night. There is…
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Eric San Juan
July 24, 2012
Creation is an act of defiance against fear. Whether writer, musician, artist, or other variation on the theme of Creative Person, all of us at one point or another struggle between our insatiable need to create and a nagging demon whispering to us, “You can’t do it. You will never be great.” So when we sit down and put words on the page or send musical notes to the ears of our listeners, we are rebelling against that fear. Where others are intimidated by failure, by the sometimes insurmountable challenge of turning their creative vision into reality, we fight on. Sometimes. Because at other times, that fear can grind us to a halt. We realize that what we’re trying to do borders on insane. Wouldn’t…
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Eric San Juan
July 20, 2012
Writers want to be read. That is why you write. You write to express yourself or to earn a living, yes — for me writing is as much a job as it is a joy — but it begins with a desire to say, “Look at this. These are my words.” That’s why it’s very easy for aspiring writers to get suckered into doing free work they should be getting paid for, or worse yet, for established writers to get tricked into doing the same. In the world of freelance writing especially, there are plenty of people out there ready and willing to prey on your eagerness, naivety, or desperation to get some writing work. Here’s one trick I see a lot when prowling freelance…
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Eric San Juan
July 9, 2012
Here’s a super easy way to win a signed copy of Geek Wisdom: The Sacred Teachings of Nerd Culture (Quirk Books 2011), a book the Florida Times Union said had a premise that was “nothing short of brilliant.” This book has been a huge hit among fans of all things science-fiction, comic book, fantasy, and just plain cool. So obviously you want to win one. And it’s easy. Do nothing more than surf over to Your Awesome Editor on Facebook and click “like” in the upper right to like the page. That’s it. It’s that easy. If you are not on Facebook and don’t want to be, instead share this link on Twitter and post a link in the comments of this post (and let…
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Geek Stuff, Works by Eric, Writing
contest, editing, editors, free book, geek, geek wisdom, geekdom, geeky, giveaway, Quirk Books, the book of geek, Writing, Your Awesome Editor
Eric San Juan
June 22, 2012
One of the great joys of working on Pitched! and Pitched! Vol. 2 (you can purchase them here and here, respectively) was having the opportunity to work with a wide range of people while delving into genres I don’t usually write. One of the highlights — and there were many — came when working on a horror story called “Some Time With the Family.” I don’t usually write horror, but I wanted to try my hand at it and had some folks in mind to help me bring a twisted little tale to life. Artist Logan Reilly brought the story to the page. Inker James Pipik, who illustrated “The End of all Summers” from the first Pitched! anthology, gave Logan’s excellent pages weight with his…
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Comics & Graphic Novels, Works by Eric, Writing
anthology, anthology2, Comics, graphic novel, james pipik, John Mietus, logan reilly, pitched, pitched 2
