Musings from the basement...

Thinking about doing some self-publishing, part 1

January 27, 2011 0 Comments

The world of self-publishing, especially in the digital realm, is an exciting one. Not for what it currently is, but for what it could be. There are some established authors who are doing well in self-publishing. So good, in fact, they hope to get the publishing rights back to some of their traditionally published books because they can make more money doing it on their own. Other established authors are getting together to do the same. In theory there is a very exciting future ahead for self-publishing, ebooks in particular. I say “in theory” because I also have some strong reservations about the self-publishing boom, but that’s a discussion for another time. Right now I just want to talk about my own foray into that…
Read more

Random Musings, Writing

, , , ,

It’s been a while

January 21, 2011 2 Comments

So it’s been a little while. Hell, it’s been a long while, really. No, not THAT. I mean since I last wrote. The folks who know me know that in recent years I’ve tackled project after project after project. From the time I took on editor duties at the now defunct DVDinmypants.com to this holiday season it’s been a relentless stream of projects. Four years of Books both published and pending. Anthologies. Articles. Freelance stuff. Music. And lots more. All while holding down a full-time job, trying to be a good family man, and attempting to have something resembling a social life. Shortly into the holidays, I finally hit the wall. Hard. I realized I had to take some time off. Since the completion of…
Read more

Random Musings, Writing

, , , ,

BEER: Founder’s Breakfast Stout

December 14, 2010 0 Comments

OOPS! Sorry, readers, this post wasn’t meant to go live when it did. Most of my blog entries are written in advance and set to auto-post at a later date. Occasionally I’ll set down a rough draft with the intention of returning to it later. This post was exactly that, a mere skeleton of my intended rambling about a beloved beer, but I accidentally set it to auto post. And it did. And it’s here. It posted itself hours ago. You’ve already read it. So I’m letting it fly as is, despite the fact that it’s a batch of incomplete notes rather than a coherent post. Eh. So be it. Enjoy. Appearance – Thick, creamy, brown head and a deep, deep brown (nearly black) appearance….
Read more

Craft Beer

, , ,

On writing: when hatchet jobs are a good thing

November 15, 2010 2 Comments

I’ve mentioned before that good editors will almost always improve your work. Writers (myself included) are often too close to their own work to be completely objective about it. It’s difficult to get outside your own head and read your work the way a reader would — and that’s a vital part of the polishing process. After all, if you’re not writing with readers in mind, you may well be writing crap. Another blogger recently made an excellent post about working with editors, specifically newspaper editors. That’s what I happen to be Monday through Friday, so I was especially delighted to see that this guy got it. He stood there, reading the draft, occasionally eying me over the top of the page, then pulled out…
Read more

Writing

, , , , ,