Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Roll call, with contest
I may be sending out a mass emailing soon, so I wanted to make sure I had all my li’l pals in my address book. In the comments below, stand up, wave your hands, make a scene. And I’ll sweeten the deal, too: I’ll choose one of you at random to receive Paul Meloy’s short story collection, Islington Crocodiles, which is just plain WOW. (My more literate review should appear soon at The Fix.)
Note that it’s especially important to respond if you haven’t commented lately. I have lots of folks on that blogroll who rarely if ever comment. I don’t know if you’re still reading me or not!
Thanks for the comments to yesterday’s post, by the way. I thought it was a little over the top, but maybe I’m selling myself short. I do know that Karen and Jake dislike it when I get literary. If I ever did get “serious,” I think I’d have to find different beta readers 🙂
As an aside: writing this stuff sure is different than writing humorous genre fiction. It’s a whole different mindset — almost a poetic or dreamlike space I need to get into. It hasn’t been intentional. Each time, I was in that space to begin with, and that’s the stuff I wrote. Is this making any sense? And now that I’ve found that space, perhaps I could re-imagine it in order to write more.
In one of the many self-help-for-writers books I read five or six years ago, one author said that when he writes, he imagines himself to be a much better writer than what he truly is. When he does so, he creates material that is far better than his usual fare.
Some pretty weird mystical shit, eh?
D.
Howdy 🙂
Not trying to win anything. Just letting you know I’m still here, still reading.
I’m your constant reader.
I’ve moved to gmail. Not completely happy with t, but at least I can make the text big enough to read. 🙂
I’m a lurker (and I don’t think I’m the FL you were thinking of, btw).
It’s a mystical kind of job, pulling words out of the ether. Or butt, at least in my case. 🙂
And, yeah, I’m a frequent flyer here.
(I’ve got two semi-connected thoughts here, fueled somewhat by a couple of glasses of a decent cheap-ass Rioja, so bear with me…)
FWIF, some of your memoirist stuff really doesn’t do much for me. The pieces about you and your family I’ve generally found interesting; the pieces that are just about you… less so. Speaking strictly as a layperson with strong opinions, your voice isn’t as confident when it’s Doug-on-Doug action; it certainly isn’t the stuff from which Jacob’s Ladder was built. On a good day, perhaps a step stool; a ladder, no.
And so it was that I wasn’t really engaged with your previous post – until that last paragraph. It showed a clarity and vision – and a confidence – that isn’t quite there in the rest…
***
Re: finding your voice and ‘selling yourself short.’ It’s funny – when I set out to ‘write’-write, I’m far more comfortable writing in a more literary voice, despite my reading preference for more fantastic literature. My genre pieces have all felt juvenile and/or stilted.
I’m reading, but you knew that.
I’ll write more about your writing style tomorrow morning, perhaps. At the moment, I have to go to sleep.
What beta? Have you got a new tome on the go and I missed the call for betas? Can I bow out of the contest though? I won a book from you already, which I love, and am happy to let someone else have a turn.
Also am looking to beat you in word twist.
Do I detect vague echoes of the hoary old joke about the family who didn’t want treatment for the relative who thought he was a chicken?
Salût, mon ami!
I’m still around sometimes, just not as much as I’d like to be 😉
Still here, lurking lately, but here.
*POKE* i’m here!
I’m here, too! From work, even.
I didn’t know Tracy, Carrie, and FL were still reading. Thanks! And thanks to the rest of you, too; I’m glad my recent funk hasn’t scared y’all away.
I’m here. Imagining myself to be a better writer than I am. It can’t hurt.
I’m here, too. Not as often as I’d like, either. But the Day Job computer won’t let me visit Balls & Walnuts. Something about the site containing inappropriate material… 🙂
I want one!
I read you every day.
I’m here. Super swamped with teaching training for a tutoring gig and getting ready for the holiday (in Phoenix) but I’m here.
Yes, please explain the weird missives I’m receiving.
M
Yep… still reading!