Category Archives: Other than literary days….

September 11, 2012 · 5:36 pm

The difference between demand and suggestion–what “paying the piper” actually means….

Hi, folks!  This is another non-literary day, which I have singled out as a writer’s day for making better contact with potential readers than I evidently have heretofore.  When I first set up my website, I based it somewhat on my former site, which wasn’t through WordPress.com, and which had an obligatory “Buy now” PayPal button on it for the long works of fiction and poetry which I had or planned to have on it.  That meant that if people wanted to read something from that site, they had to pay in advance.

On WordPress.com, however, I have a “Donate” PayPal button.  While this at first seemed like a disadvantage for financial reasons, and while I did encourage people to pay for what they read, I think the time has come for a bit of clarification.  In short, despite everything I said about wanting people to feel fine about reading the long works for free if they felt they couldn’t pay, probably only about 30 or so folks have done so since the week I put the works on my site, and that’s a generous estimate.  So here’s a guideline:

In the category section of the PayPal post, I have a category called “Time to pay the piper.”  I must confess, I was thinking of this in a sort of traditional cultural way, following the ages-long historical method of the piper who first plays a tune or tunes and at intervals passes around the hat to collect contributions.  It didn’t at first occur to me that this would seem like a preemptive strike for money:  that’s not what pipers do.  It’s after they play for the audience and please them, one hopes, that the hat is passed around.  My suggestion of a $5 bottom limit is to eliminate the problem resulting from a donation which is too small (less than $2) to count on PayPal’s system.

So, you see, I’m not a money-grubber, just a person who would like to receive some real-life recognition for work which I hope will amuse and inspire you; but the first step of this is absolutely being read, and if all you feel like contributing is a comment about what you’ve read, know that comments too are very welcome, and will let me know what you like about the fiction or find wanting in it.

Another point a person brough up who viewed my site from my computer was that the cover art page of each book and the size of the pages of the fiction are too large; I don’t know how it looks on your site, but on my site, it’s simply a function of the zoom level needing to be adjusted (when I added the .jpeg cover art to the text and .pdfed it, it automatically increased the size).  Just find your zoom level on your computer and adjust it to 100% or 75%, or whatever size is best for your own eyes.  The zoom level usually appears on a computer text in .pdf at the top of the Adobe Reader page, and it’s easy to adjust.

That’s all I really wanted to say today.  I recently finished (in August) putting the poetry I’ve written to date on this site, and a little later my fourth novel in what I hope to finish as a loosely connected series of 8 novels (but they aren’t connected as to plot and aren’t serials, so you can read them in any order you want.  The connection, slight as it is, comes in because I have chosen to try to link them loosely to the 8 family signs of the I Ching, which you will see in the upper right-hand corner of the cover page.  These signs are connected to a mother, a father, three daughters and three sons, and each novel is related in a marginal way to some of the symbolism associated with the signs, that’s really the size of it).

I hope that whether you can or want to pay or not, you will find something which you like in the novel(s) you read or the poetry, and that you will feel free to write in and discuss it with me.  Even negative criticism can be instructive to both parties because it shows human involvement, and may generate a dialogue, though of course one hopes most people will like one’s work.  In any case, I’ve made my argument for you, and I really should sign off on this post.  Until I hear from you, then, happy reading, whether you cover the posts or the longer works–I’m always happy to discuss writing and literature, my own or someone else’s.

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August 28, 2012 · 8:49 pm

“Where the hell have I been all day? What have I been doing?”

Hi, I haven’t written a new literary post for today.  If you’ve already been online to my site, you know this, of course.  So, where have I been and what have I been doing?  Clearly, this is one of those “other than literary days” I have noted down in my categories.  Yes, it is.  Here’s what I’ve been doing since about 9 o’clock yesterday morning:

I’m on the verge of finishing my fourth novel, which is very, very exciting (that is, the prospect of finishing it is–as to whether or not the novel itself is exciting, it’s a matter of opinion, though of course I’ve been having a fantastic time writing it).  It’s hard, yes, but with this novel I have written in bits and pieces, and then stopped sometimes for a week or more, until I had something else to say, or had an idea of how to continue.

Though I have a very good idea of just how the novel is going to end (which I explicated to my ride on the way in to the eye doctor this morning), I was really dreading more the inevitable necessity to design the book cover and get it placed on the front of my novel file.  Previously, my brother the good and noble web designer has always done this for me, using PhotoShop of which he owns a download.  This time, I was on my own.

First, I took the background picture off my USB drive and put it in Windows Live Photo Gallery, where I played around with getting the logo from the I Ching in the right position (upper right-hand corner).  Then, when I discovered that Windows Live Photo Gallery would do this but wouldn’t allow me to switch the height and the width, I went to RoxioCreator and RoxioPhotoSuite.  Here, I was able to make changes to the size and shape of my picture.  By about 11:30 p.m. last night (Monday night), I had the lettering placed on the canvas in the correct positions, and was feeling mighty pleased with myself.

Next, however, I had to put the altered photo back into Windows Live Photo Gallery and transfer it into my Microsoft Word documents file so that I could place it at the beginning of my text.  This was when the fun began.  Rather, I’d been having a certain amount of fun so far proving to myself that I’m not a total ninny when it comes to computers; now, however, it was necessary to get my Photo Gallery to accept that yes, I really was not interested in putting together a slide show, or e-mailing my photos to anyone else, or doing any one of the nearly 110 other ingenious things that were apparently done by anyone else with photos.  I nearly despaired.

Then, however, I found something called Microsoft Office Picture Manager.  This became very grueling, because I kept trying to follow directions instead of being innovative (it’s hard to be innovative with the posted instructions unless you’re in a sort of devil-may-care frame of mind about experimenting and taking things down and putting them up again in a series of trial-and-error runs).  By 1:30, I was too tired to continue, and had to go to bed, because I had to travel about 45 minutes to get to the eye doctor’s office this morning.  So, knowing that I was almost there in terms of getting my photo project done (which just started out life as a .jpeg copy scanned from a watercolor), I went to bed and was unable to get to sleep because I wanted so badly to keep on working.  Finally, I slept.

When I got up this morning, I discovered that the “edit” button the Microsoft Office Picture Manager had described as having a “insert into text” option actually showed no such thing.  But you don’t know how stubborn I am; I tried again and again and again, until I was tired.  I’d gotten the thing to work one time, but it didn’t look the way I’d wanted it to, so I’d taken it down, and now couldn’t remember what I’d done.  Finally, I discovered that what I’d done the time it worked was to go to one of my favorite functions on Word and use the extremely useful “send to” button to send the picture to the front of my document.  And there it sits now, waiting for the title page and copyright page to be put in behind it, between it and the body of the novel.

True, it still doesn’t look entirely as I would like for it to, but I’m content to tinker and twiddle with it hoping to find perfection.  And the eye doctor even gave me a clean bill of health, so I haven’t totally ruined my eyesight from hours and hours in front of the computer!  Now, in place of my usual literary endeavors, isn’t that just about the most exciting story you ever heard (no, I know, probably not)?  Well, it’s at least exciting to me, because it proves I can usefully be stubborn instead of (what usually happens) being stubborn to no avail.  Now, if only perfection and I can work things out!

I hope to have another literary post up for you folks tomorrow or the next day, and I hope you’ll continue to visit my site.  Until then, onwards and upwards, as they say!

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July 30, 2012 · 2:50 pm

This is one of those days when I feel like I’ve forgotten more than I’ll ever know.

Hi, folks!  This is just a brief note to let my readers who follow me day by day know that I’m not putting up a new literary post today as I normally do.  Instead, I’m trying to verify my site with the search engines so that I can gradually learn a little search engine optimization, though that seems like a very optimistic venture at this point.  It’s hard, because each site has something a little bit different that it wants done, and all the wishes don’t match up.

As to my title?  Well, it’s derived from an old saying, often thrown at the head of an overly ambitious and confident upstart by some old-timer or other.  The original saying, from expert to beginner, is “I’ve forgotten more than you’ll ever know.”  This is what I sometimes feel about the kind people in all the site forums who’re trying to help me:  they’ve forgotten more than I’ll ever know.  But more than that, after trying variation after variation on the one theme of how to get my search engines to recognize me, and trying to be sure I don’t do the same thing twice,  I have honestly begun to feel that I’ve forgotten more than I’ll ever know!  I’m going to keep slogging at it though, until I either get the correct formula that will satisfy everyone, or just decide to give up and wait until all parties ask for the same details.  Someone who had encountered a problem with this a few years ago, back in 2009, I think, said on one of the forums that WordPress.com actually does a pretty good job of supplying the data you normally gets through optimization without you having to do it (unless of course you’re ready to upgrade or buy your own domain name, go on WordPress.org, etc).  So, there’s no real disgrace in giving up if nothing works.  But secretly, I would rather believe that my heroes on the forum sites are right, and that I’m just a slow learner–it makes life more bearable that way.

For those of you who are looking for my literary posts, however, I did go ahead and do two less intensive, shorter ones over the weekend (even though I originally said that I probably wouldn’t, due to having some wonderful family company here).  As it turned out, though, the company needed some rest and time away too, so during that time I went ahead and wrote one post on Saturday and one post on Sunday.  I hope you can make due with those and with my archives and novels until I can get some sort of handle on the issues I’ve trying to resolve with respect to search engines.  I’m really excited sometimes to see on my stats page all of the people in different countries who’ve been following my blog.  It keeps me going to know that I’m developing an audience.

I hope to be publishing literary posts again by the middle of the week.  See you then, if not before!  shadowoperator

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July 25, 2012 · 12:45 pm

“Imagination is a good servant, but a bad master.”–Unknown

Before starting on my topic for today, I’d like to ask anyone who knows where this quote comes from to respond with the author’s name.  I couldn’t find the source of the quote after a lot of looking, so I’d like to be able to attribute it to someone specific (it’s one of my favorite quotes).

Now then, down to business.  A few days ago, I wrote a post headed by a quote from Herman Melville which read, “Dream[ing] horrid dreams, and mutter[ing] unmentionable thoughts….”  Those of my friends who read the post commented to me in private (why, oh why, didn’t they post a comment, to open this issue to discussion?).  They said that in showing a sense of humor about women possibly being buried under the floorboards of a castle by men, a scenario which might well occur in a Gothic novel (I deliberately said “castle”–after all, how many of us ever do more than tour in one of those?), I was being too “glib” about some of the truly dreadful things that happen to women at the hands of men.  I was merely trying to make the point that in ordinary day-to-day life, too much imagination or imagination ill-used can lead us to view our loved ones askance unfairly (chances are if either men or women find themselves imagining too much too often, there’s something wrong in the relationship–at least one side of the equation isn’t happy).

The friend who was the main instigator in challenging me about this pointed out that with the recent shootings in Aurora, CO and all the other gun-related crimes that have occurred in recent history, as well as all the times in the late 20th-early 21st century when men have been known to abuse/do away with their wives and girlfriends, I should’ve shown more restraint in my sense of humor about Gothic notions.

First of all, these are two separate issues unless you’re firm and sure in your mind (as I can’t say I am yet) that things are totally worse now than they ever have been.  As to all the mass shootings which have occurred in the time span I’ve referred to, yes, I do think those are worse, and I can only recommend Diane Feinstein’s point, that we urgently need more and better gun control.

About the second issue, however, I would ask whether we really have more instances of abuse/killings of women by men than we’ve ever had, or whether it’s simply a matter of the men being oftener discovered and, one hopes, prosecuted for their crimes.  While this view of the crime passionnel, as it’s called, takes a dimmer view of men’s goodness in the first light (that is, men are doing nothing new), it takes a more hopeful view of the penalties men must pay for their criminal excesses these days.  Better investigation means more correct arrests (aided of course by the press when it is a responsible one), which means more adequate prosecution (again, one hopes.  My discussion lacks statistics, but where would we look, exactly, for reliable statistics on sexual savagery down through all of history?).

And it is in this light of the whole discussion of the issue that I raise the thought that both humor (taking things less seriously because one winces at them) and heightened Gothic horror (taking things at a fever pitch of seriousness because one shivers at them) are both defense mechanisms against what is too dreadful actually to be taken lightly in any real sense.  So, I like to think that in the space of a post I have dealt squarely with the issues my friend(s) raised.  I do, however, reserve both the right to joke about things that make me (and possibly you) uncomfortable–and by this means perhaps to relieve some of the tension–and the right and obligation to take things seriously when requested to do so.  Here’s to my friends and readers, for their forbearance and this topic for discussion.  Please leave a comment at any time:  your input is valuable.

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July 20, 2012 · 8:58 pm

“The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.”–William Butler Yeats

Ah, today is Friday!  Drink day!  At least, for those of us who are in this part of the globe, it’s Friday and for those of us who can’t drink much because of having too much avoirdupois, it’s that magical time once a week–you probably have your own–when we can indulge in getting just a little pie-eyed for the sake of posterity.

“For the sake of posterity?” you say.  “Pshaw, and nonsense!  How does posterity benefit from your drinking habit?”  Please do not call it a habit.  I can take it up or take it alone–I mean leave it alone, what am I saying?  But really, if I am to continue doing what I do and publishing what I hope is at least one well-considered post a day, I need a break.  And what better to share it with than my favorite tipple?  Are you all agog?  Do you want to know what it is?  Well, you may not be agog exactly, but for the sake of completeness and what some of you may come to decide is after all a good recipe, I’m going to share this.  Stop reading if you’re not interested, and pick up tomorrow, when I hope to have another purely literary post for you.

The first thing that is absolutely essential to this drink is that you really, really like the taste of cranberry juice, because the overall taste is one of cranberry juice that got into trouble with the law and never recovered its sanctity.  A year or few ago, a friend found out that I liked the taste of cranberry juice mixed with Campari (which also tastes of cranberry), and gave me the general recipe for a Negroni, which is a gin-based drink featuring Campari.  I don’t have that exact recipe ready to hand, but I do have a variation, which is what I’m using today.  Don’t worry if you basically hate gin; so do I, but I like it fine when it occurs this way:  1 part dry gin, 1 part Campari, 1 part vermouth Rosso (sweet vermouth).  It’s even better if you increase each part to 2 parts, because then you get more of what you like (cranberry heaven a bit askew).  Pour over lots of ice in a tall glass, stir, and enjoy!

I do realize that people are much more conscious these days of what drinking does that’s not beneficial, and I admit that this problem exists, but “Moderation in all things” is a good rule of thumb.  And if you’re just the average casual drinker who likes only the occasional drink, and are being reproached by teetotalling friends, you can always quote Sir Richard Burton, who is reported to have said, “I have to think hard to name an interesting man who does not drink.”  Granted, he was highly prejudiced (as well as highly soused sometimes, according to some reports), but even though you can be interested by watching an ant push a crumb across a table when you’re tipsy (whether you’re an entomologist or not), there’s much to be said for the subsequent release of tension (assuming that you’re a peaceable drinker.  If you’re not, forget this whole post!).  So to those of you who are trying my recipe and those of you who are doing your own thing, I say “Cheers!”  And to you abstainers, I still say “Cheers!”  I’m in a rosy mood, and there’s room for us all.

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