Musings from the basement...

You want to write? Then read this

March 5, 2009 0 Comments

I spotted this post over at A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing and couldn’t walk away without passing it on, because it’s about as essential as essential gets. Confident or Delusional? ‘Tis a brilliant (and entirely true) entry. Some highlights: Confident writers expect to be periodically rejected. Delusional writers are shocked every time someone fails to recognize their brilliance. Confident writers take suggestion. Delusional writers believe their words are written in stone. Confident writers work even when it’s hard. Delusional writers believe they need to be inspired first. If you write or have any inkling of writing, you need to read this. Read it and ABSORB it. A lot of those lessons are hard learned. You need to set aside the naive arrogance of youth or,…
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Writing

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Eric sings for you

February 28, 2009 0 Comments

A week or so I started another blog meant to be nothing more than an archive of my music. (Follow it on Facebook here.) Last night I posted an album I recorded three years ago. An album with (gasp!) singing. I am a terrible singer. I really ought not try to sing. But here is the album, anyway: X-Sweet One Last Goodbye 1) The New X-Sweet (0:37) 2) Goodbye, My Friend (4:15) 3) Roll It Over (2:53) 4) Purple Rose (2:40) 5) Blue Moon (3:02) 6) Breaking (4:57) 7) Rowhouses (0:50) 8) The Bottom of Things (2:09) 9) Martha Dear (4:35) 10) Holy Roller (4:07) 11) Oh Sister (5:38) 12) One Last Goodbye (1:32) All songs (c) Eric San Juan 2006. Free to distribute, just…
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Music

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How I got published, part 6 – all that other stuff

February 27, 2009 1 Comment

There is a lot of stuff they don’t tell you about getting a book published. You hear about the process of writing, and crafting cover letters, and how to approach agents and publishers, and on and on and on, but what about all the stuff the happens after you secure a deal? No one tells you about that. By this point I had done a pretty good job of educating myself on The Process. Thanks to loads of reading — books, articles, and blogs — I knew what to expect at almost every step of the way. But I had no idea what would come after we had gotten a contract. Well, here’s what happens: You still have a whole helluva lot of work to…
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Works by Eric, Writing

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How I got published, part 5 – Revising and rewriting

February 23, 2009 0 Comments

A Year of Hitchcock

(If you’re joining me in progress, this is the 5th part in a series devoted to outlining how my co-author and I managed to get our book, A Year of Hitchcock, published.) So here’s the part where the joy of getting a contract is smothered in the giant pile of WORK no one tells you about when you first start writing. Because make no mistake, writing is not what you think it is when you daydream about a career as an author. It’s WORK. Never forget that. As noted in my last post, it took a full year from the moment we first made contact with a publisher interested in our work to actually getting a contract. And getting that contract meant agreeing to a…
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Works by Eric, Writing

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