Sunday, June 29, 2014

happy pride!

Yesterday we had our pride celebration here in Cleveland, OH, and what a celebration it was! The weather was hot and sticky but that didn't stop thousands from attending. It started out with a parade which ended at Vounivich Park, the festival site, and went on until about seven or eightish PM. It had all the typical features of a pride event : drag shows[which I love] a beer garden[which I can do without]vendors, dancing, food and special guest performers.
     All of the performers[that I saw] were great but Debbie Gibson stood out for me. Yes, we had that 80's teen diva right here in person at Cleveland pride yesterday! Of course she's no longer a teen and the 80's are long gone, but Debbie looked amazing, and her show was flawless. Well, she did have some sound trouble. She said she didn't have a chance to do a sound check before her show, so she sort of incorporated it into the show. It was very clevor. I didn't even realize that that was what she had  done until a freind pointed it out to me after the show. You could tell that Debbie is a seasoned professional who's been performing for along time.
    Looking around the audience I was aware that very few people were under forty. It made me think of how fast time flies and of how old I am, seeing as I remember her music when it was topping the charts! Okay, I'll admit it, I'm actually a couple years older than Debbie! But hay, what are you gonna do? I can say that being a forty something, okay an upper-forty something, didn't stop me from wearing my red skinny jeans and form-fitting pullover! I looked better than half of the twenty somethings there and I got enough attention from some of them to prove it!
    Anyhow, age and looks aside[ wait, did that statement come from a Gay man?] it was a great pride. In fact it was the most enjoyable pride I've ever been to and the only one where I stayed all the way until the end.
   One more thing. I met a guy[no, not the guy who I'm going to spend the rest of my life with] named Robert banks who is a short film maker. I'm always fascinated by people with ambitions, especially creative one's, and so I just had to talk to him and hear about his work. Also, the friend I came with got a business card from a women has written and self-published a book. I didn't get to meet her but it did make me think that I should have business cards made. Pride would have been a great place to pass them out, and I'm always telling people about my book anyway. Why not give them something to hold on to?

Saturday, June 21, 2014

a writer's fast

We had our writer's support group last night.  Two people couldn't make it but there were still four people there including myself. We talked about writer's block vs. motivation/ having time to write, the structure of a short story and three people read some of their work. I was one of the three. Now, this meeting went on for two hours! I guess only true writer's would find conversations about the structure of a short story and writer's block vs. motivation/time to write interesting enough to talk about for over an hour. Most people would find those topics to be an instant cure for their insomnia! But not us writer's. We all left feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.
   Another thing we touched upon was what I call ''speed noveling.'' One of the group members had recently done it. Speed noveling is when you write an entire novel in some insane time frame, like one month. It's an exercise that people do to hone their chops or to simply get the job done. I guess you could say it's like a writer's fast. When you fast you do anything but eat but when you ''speed novel'' you do nothing but write! What else could you be doing if you finish a novel in a month? Now mind you, these novels are far from publishable but that's not the goal/point. And the writer can always go back and take all the time that he or she needs to edit it and turn it into something publishable because all the basics, story line, characters, etc. are there.
   If my writer's fast stuff makes no sense to you don't worry because I'm not so sure I get it either. Look, I had a late night last night, Okay! And it's still early[if you call 2:12PM early]. Anyhow, I need to go a ''writer's fast.'' At the rate that I've been writing for the past month or so you could say I'm on a writer's gluttony. At least I have been doing some marketing and promotions for Rainbow Plantation Blues.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Okay, Okay, I'm pathetic!!

So, it's been nine months since I've been on this blog. Nine months! Is that pathetic or what? Actually, I'm being too hard on myself because even though I've not been blogging I haven't been totally feckless. I increased my readership toward the end of last year simply by telling people about Rainbow Plantation Blues and back in March of this year I started a fiction writers support group. We meet at a local book store every two or three weeks. It's been really successful so far. There are four amazing people that have been coming since day one and one person that started coming with the past two meetings. The group has really helped me to get my motivation to write back by connecting with other local writers. I call the group psychotherapy for writer's. We read our work for feedback and talk about all aspects of the writer's life and world. It's very stimulating and refreshing. I just hope the group last.
    Back in April I started contacting LGBT book clubs/groups nationwide to drum up interest in Rainbow Plantation Blues. So far I've gotten six book clubs to take notice and two lending libraries. My goal is to spread the word across the country. I know there are still a lot of people who don't know about the book but would like to. I want people all over the nation to know about Kumi and Jonathon and their lives at Rainbow Plantation.
   When I stopped blogging I pretty much stopped working on the sequel, too. I didn't pick it back up again until after I started the writer's group. I had left off on page 317[longhand] and now I'm on page 341 or so. I have not been writing everyday, or I'd be a lot further along, but I have been doing the promotional stuff I mentioned earlier. So, I've not only been watching keeping Up Appearances[ a BBC sitcom], Castle, Globe Trekker TV and a host of old black and white movies, while stuffing my face with fresh fruits and vegan chicken[it's made from soy].
    My last post, you know the one from nine months ago, is a analysis of my study of the book A Queer History of the United States. I stopped studying the book when I stopped blogging but I'm going to pick that back up, too. I'm not going to push myself to blog five days a week like I did before. I think I'll try one to three days a week this time. But as of this posting I'm officially blogging again!