I still get amped seeing my name in print. Must be an (un) repressed need for attention. I received a package of 100 postcard flyers from the festival on Tuesday. My name is surrounded by the red circle. Really, I’m on there, in tiny print, on the back. Click for a close up.
I don’t think I realized just how big a deal this was until I got the confirmation, parking instructions and “meet at participants’ courtesy room 30 minutes prior to your panel”. Back in the bad old days, when I was the Fox 35 fox, I had to change in the car. Getting out of the vehicle proved challenging.
I’m getting ready for the panel, polishing my take on the genre, fiddling with my WIP and working out exactly what I’d like to say. For those you that attend these events regularly, you probably think I’m being a bit silly and going overboard with the excitement of it all. You may be right. I still think it’s cool!
I’m still waging war on the time suck of my day job. I have a feeling that it’s going to be an ongoing process. After some introspection, there are a couple of things I can do to make the writing process a little easier. One of them is my own expectations.
I need a schedule. I know, I know, it’s constraining, it doesn’t provide for a free flow of ideas, it sets artificial goals. My Twitter bio says “Aspiring author & podcaster. Actual husband, father & martial artist.” I’d like to get rid of the aspiring & actual altogether. I’m terribly goal oriented if I have a minder, even one as artificial as a schedule, so as boxy, constraining and artificial as it is, it is my path.
Besides, with a schedule I won’t have an excuse to not write. I’m afflicted with verbal story telling anyway (probably another reason I’m so stoked about the Baltimore Book Festival). Once I say it, I don’t feel compelled to write it down. Looks like I’m in the market for a digital recorder. Anyone have any suggestions?
I’ll share more speed bumps and solutions later. I don’t want to come off like Whineakan Skywalker. No, it’s not too late.
While I’m asking for help, does anyone have a good blogging client they would recommend? I use primarily use Windows Live Writer. I’m not opposed to Apple products on principal, but way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I’d tell an Apple user that I used Windows and I was treated like the devil incarnate. Didn’t I know that Bill Gates was the Anti-Christ? Was I stupid? It left a bad taste in my mouth for Apple, a knee jerk reaction I have to compensate for. My daughter has an iPod Touch, all the other apples are in the crisper drawer. All that is my long winded way of saying I’m looking for a Windows solution, not a discussion about operating systems.
Sorry about all that, reacting to a particularly trying day with a vendor. This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
