Sep 6, 2011
Lose yourself.
I started writing a story (the one I excerpted here a few days ago). The story was supposed to be quick and simple. Short, probably 2,000 words. It was a situation story. When I think about situation stories, I think mostly about Stephen King. King doesn’t plot most of his novels. Instead, he thinks about a situation and some characters to go into it and then goes from there. Most of my stories come around like this. “Wouldn’t it be hot if…” Sometimes, I tell myself stories when I masturbate, even when I’m looking at porn. I like a narrative to my fantasies. Sometimes, one of those stories sticks. This one was like that.
Like I said, though, it was supposed to be short. As I was writing it, I thought about how it should end. I’m not going to spoil anything. The ending involves more then the two characters. Actually, it involves another situation. I needed more characters to make the situation happen. So I started thinking about those characters, and how they got into their situation. Now, this story that started with two guys in a car has branched off into this Rashomon-like story about how these characters come together.
When I started writing it, I quickly named the file “Short Cuts.” The story was meant to be short. Anyone who has seen Robert Altman’s Short Cuts knows that this title may be a little more fortuitous.
I’ve been having an interesting conversation with Marlen Boro ever since I posted a handful of his photos last week. It’s nice to find someone as talented as Boro and then begin a winding conversation about pornography and art and the likelihood of collaboration. I wouldn’t have guessed posting his photos would have struck up such a fruitful conversation, but this blog has brought me a great many of talented conversationalists and collaborators.
These photos are from the slide show Joey in the Shower.
Richard Nash of Red Lemonade Publishing explains why RLP publishes DRM-free ebooks, and it’s really similar to why any ebooks you buy from me will always be DRM-free (although I can’t do much about the DRM used by Amazon and B&N, and they make up too substantial a portion of my sales for me to drop them):
Well, here’s a theory about DRM-free that’s widely-held by advocates of DRM-free.
“Don’t treat your customers like criminals.”
That’s true, though it’s not the only reason we do it. Another theory is:
“Make something convenient for folks and they won’t pirate.”
Also true, though also not the only reason we do it.
The deep reason we do it is that we want you to forward the ePub to someone you think will really like it.
It’s not that I trust you not to pirate it—it’s that I trust you to appropriately pirate it!
Because the primary reason folks don’t read a particular book isn’t because it costs money (though for some folks that can be an issue), it’s because it takes time, and brain power, and emotional commitment. And you don’t give those things up lightly. You give them up mostly when a trusted friend advises you to.
Artist Felix D’eon returns from Burning Man and shares an awesome photo:
