Pockets Full Of Wishes

Pockets Full of Wishes

BJ Neblett

© 2006

This story appears in Short Story Me. For a free read please follow the link below:
http://www.short-story.me/fantasy-stories/596-pockets-full-of-wishes.html

Discipline: Why Write When You Can Be Writing?

Discipline

           

It’s an old axiom that ‘writers write’. And, since I am indeed a writer, it would follow that I should devote a large portion of my waking hours writing. Not so.

            Writers are notorious procrastinators. And I am a choice example.

            When it comes to writing, discipline is everything. Having attended Catholic grade school in the fifties, you’d think I would be fairly disciplined; again, alas, not so. There is a vast difference between having discipline and having been disciplined. Yes, all of those stories about Catholic school killer nuns are unfortunately true. The reports from those of us who suffered through eight years of straight backed wooden desks, (nine years in my case, I liked fifth grade so much I did it twice) are anything but exaggerated. I once owned a T shirt which unabashedly proclaimed: I survived marriage, Viet Nam and Catholic grade school… what else you got? As for me, discipline, as dealt out by the order of Sacred Heart Sisters, had quite the opposite of its intention.

            But something of value did emerge from knuckles battered by yardsticks, faces reddened by palms and self esteem squashed by ridicule: I am working on a wonderful memoir of my growing up and coming of age during the Kennedy era, which just happened to fall at the end of my Catholic school experience.

            So, I have my memoir; my two collection of short stories; my auto biography of 35 years as a radio DJ, and the sequel to my first novel Elysian Dreams, which my publisher is clamoring for me to complete. If ever discipline were needed…

As a result, today, after a protracted coffee and Sunday Funnies session at the local bean brewery; a leisurely stroll through the local farmers market, and a prolonged visit to my favorite record seller, I determined that I needed to get back to the pen and pad (a lot of my writing is actually writing).

And hear I sit, watching the NASCAR boys circle at 200 MPH, while Timi Yuro circles at 33 1/3 RPM, writing this blog.

Peace,

BJ

To Book Or To Blog?

            Getting a work published has never been an easy task. While computers, E mail and the internet have all lessened the mechanics and logistics of submitting a manuscript, finding a potential publisher is still a very daunting task. And with the proliferation of the internet comes of course the proliferation of unscrupulous individuals looking for anyway to separate you from your money. In trying to sell Elysian Dreams I ran into many. What’s an author to do?

Around the turn of the century… the 20^th century that is… it was common for writers, especially those as of yet unknown, to serialize their work in newspapers and magazines. Edgar Allan Poe, O Henry, Mark Twain and F Scott Fitzgerald all at some point in their career utilized the pages of popular periodicals to showcase their latest work before it went into formal print. While affording the writer and editor weekly reader feedback, serialization placed unknown works into the hands of many who, save for the likes of the Sunday Times or Colliers Magazine, may never have heard of the author. These weekly treats naturally boosted book sales.

Today, newspapers only carry what they consider to be news worthy; literary mags are a dying breed, and the weekly periodical has morphed into non-syllabic photo montages for the attention deficit pop culture set. Once again enter the Internet. Blogging is the new journaling, where a potential audience of multi-millions can read your thoughts, hopes, dreams, ideas and ravings at the click of a key stroke. And once again, the struggling author can reach the multitudes that otherwise may never have heard of him or her.

Is this a good thing?

Let’s save the politics and policies of public blogging for a later discussion.

For now, it is with great anticipation and some trepidation that I have decided to serialize. In the grand tradition of publications long past, starting next Sunday, February 5^th, and continuing for the next few Sundays, you will be able to read one of my short stories. If the experiment goes well I may publish more work in this fashion.

And so check back next week. Read. Enjoy. And most of all comment. Keep those cards and letters coming in as they say. There is only one true measure of an author’s success… and it’s not sales. A writer has done their job well when they have made the reader think. As always… let yours truly know what you think. After all, that’s what blogging is all about!

                                                                                                            Peace,

                                                                                                            BJ