Stream of Consciousness
I was deep into my routine of Greco-Roman grappling with my inner daemons when nature called and I retreated from the mat with the latest issue of Interview (which, according to the front cover, retails for $12.00 an issue, yet I somehow manage to get for free). Inside, on page 142, much to my surprise, I came upon an interview with Ursula K. Le Guin. As I had only moments before been mentally assembling reasons why I couldn't sit down to write this evening, I found it serendipitous to stumble across a wonderful article on a much-admired fantasy author that snapped me from my writerly doldrums.
As I devoured the interview and succumbed to nostalgic yearnings to return to the land of Earthsea, one exchange in particular resonated with me. In response to the interviewer's (Choire Sicha) statement that "It's very important to have good counsel in this world." Le Guin responded by saying "It sure is, and that is where I sometimes tremble for the self-published people, who seem to get such various counsel that sometimes sounds to me lunatic. I hope people aren't being scammed and ripped off too much.
And that struck a nerve with me so profoundly that I felt like describing my brush with synchronicity, so I sat at my desk and thought of a pithy Google+ blurb to post, when I decided to try and capture something more substantial--and meandering--to share with the people who actually take the time to read what I write on this blog.
I also read a post this morning on Indies Unlimited by Melissa Bowersock about Synchronicity (a word, which I must confess, I associate more with the Police album than I do with the actual definition). And after reading this excellent article about Synchronicity, I felt a smack of it this evening reading the Ursula K. Le Guin interview. It's very possible that without reading Melissa's post, I would never have used the word 'synchronicity' to describe my experience of having Ursula Le Guin's words snap me from my writing lethargy. After all, serendipitous is a very apt word for the occurrence as well.
So to bring my rambling narrative full circle, regarding the importance of good counsel to the self-published writer, in my experience--and this is going to sound like a plug, but it's really not, as I have no vested interest in the site--Indies Unlimited is the very best collection of indie authors sharing good counsel with other aspiring writers. So, if you, like me, occasionally flounder with counsel that sounds lunatic, take a breath and ground truth your concerns at a place like Indies Unlimited, where authors do watch out for each other.
And now I'm off to write some fiction...
As I devoured the interview and succumbed to nostalgic yearnings to return to the land of Earthsea, one exchange in particular resonated with me. In response to the interviewer's (Choire Sicha) statement that "It's very important to have good counsel in this world." Le Guin responded by saying "It sure is, and that is where I sometimes tremble for the self-published people, who seem to get such various counsel that sometimes sounds to me lunatic. I hope people aren't being scammed and ripped off too much.
And that struck a nerve with me so profoundly that I felt like describing my brush with synchronicity, so I sat at my desk and thought of a pithy Google+ blurb to post, when I decided to try and capture something more substantial--and meandering--to share with the people who actually take the time to read what I write on this blog.
I also read a post this morning on Indies Unlimited by Melissa Bowersock about Synchronicity (a word, which I must confess, I associate more with the Police album than I do with the actual definition). And after reading this excellent article about Synchronicity, I felt a smack of it this evening reading the Ursula K. Le Guin interview. It's very possible that without reading Melissa's post, I would never have used the word 'synchronicity' to describe my experience of having Ursula Le Guin's words snap me from my writing lethargy. After all, serendipitous is a very apt word for the occurrence as well.
So to bring my rambling narrative full circle, regarding the importance of good counsel to the self-published writer, in my experience--and this is going to sound like a plug, but it's really not, as I have no vested interest in the site--Indies Unlimited is the very best collection of indie authors sharing good counsel with other aspiring writers. So, if you, like me, occasionally flounder with counsel that sounds lunatic, take a breath and ground truth your concerns at a place like Indies Unlimited, where authors do watch out for each other.
And now I'm off to write some fiction...
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