I’ve already made my order through Amazon. Now I just have to find a way to get work to reimburse for this sort of stuff.

This also seems a timely place to mention I still have that little contest running. Send me a picture of the best typo you can find in print. You can check newspapers (if you can still find one), advertising, even your junk mail. Still have that prize to give away.

Linda’s latest book, Seaworthy, is a recounting of her return to deep-water fishing after a ten year absence. Still holding the distinction of being the only female swordfish boat captain in America, Greenlaw shows that anything she lost in the last ten years because of age, she has more than made up for in experience. Her writing style matches her personality: straight forward, conversational and matter of fact. Sometimes you have to look up from the page to remind yourself that you are not sitting on a bar stool next to her.

In person Linda was easy going and easy to relate to. I found myself getting lost in her talk and the Q&A session was filled with great information and showed just how good she is at dealing with people, even the difficult ones. I love her no nonsense style. When asked about the trip chronicled in Seaworthy she said, “Was this trip a bust, yes. But I’ve been in the business long enough to know that some trips are like that.” Greenlaw was obviously un-phased by the financial calamity and went on to say that she is looking forward to getting back out on the water again. Her matter-of-fact reasoning is clear when the subject of her arrest for fishing in Canadian waters, which is covered in Seaworthy, came up. Her response was simply, “I was there and I was fishing.”  One very telling question asked by an attendee was, “Have you ever felt any pressure from you publisher to neutralize gender specific terms?” “No.” was the answer, “I’m a fisherman. That’s what I do.” She is the kind of person I would love to work for, just maybe not on a sword-boat.

Greenlaw splits her time between writing and fishing. I am looking forward to the next season of Swords – Life on the Line and delving into her first foray into fiction, Slipknot. She is someone I look up to a great deal. She has had more success as a writer than I can hope for and is more man than I’ll ever be.

Anybody out there running a ‘zine or know of any good ones? I’d be happy to post them here.

Also, I am open for business as far as my freelance business goes. So, if your in need of a writer, don’t hesitate to let me know.

I found them over at The New Yorker’s Book Bench. I followed their link and it looks like the only way to purchase these little green bits of creative success is from a website in Japanese. If anybody speaks/reads Japanese and wants to order some, I’d love to go in with you. Heck I’d pay for them all, just to get my hands on some.

While still in school, pursuing the English degree that has brought me vast riches, I would often go to the nearest bookstore and browse for a while. The occasional title of inner jacket synopsis would usually be enough to unearth the needed inspiration or clear my mind enough to knock loos the writer’s block. It was on one of these quests I discovered something would serve as a bottomless well of inspiration for both my writing and my life. It’s how I came across Stephen King’s On Writing. It’s part text book, part memoir. In it King shares insights into both his craft and the life that led him to be the prolific writer that he has become. Previously, I had not been a very big fan of Stephen King. I tried to read a couple books when I was younger but never got very far with them. After reading On Writing, I decided to take a look at his work in earnest and began with Carrie. Something about the passion King puts into his work has drawn me in. That being said, I haven’t made it to any of his later work and as such, I can not speak to any of the geeky criticism attached to his latter canon. So, don’t bother beating mean up with negative criticism of his latest work and how he has last his commitment to the craft blah, blah, blah. What I’ve read does it for me and that’s what counts.

On Writing will always have a place on my shelf. I find myself turning to it often. As I have experienced some family tragedy of late, I find my self turning King’s enlightening text, if for no other reason than to remind myself that who we are is constantly being shaped by experience. It’s these experiences that turn good writers into great writers. I’ll occasionally read a chapter here and there to remind myself that the only wasted experiences in life are those that we come away from having learned nothing. I have learned a whole lot the last year.

Where do you find your inspiration? What helps you refocus your efforts?

1,000 Words: With a View

Such an amazing space. I found this over at The New Yorker site. I wish I had a space anywhere near this inviting to write. I think I would get so much done. It also looks like a great place to curl up and listen to music, or watch a movie. At the moment I would love to have a space like this to lay down and forget the world around me for a while. Someday I will share the places I use to write. Nowhere near as inviting as the fresh, cool bedding of this little nest, but it all gets the job done.

Where do you write? Have any pictures? I love to share them. I could use some ideas.

Hopefully, I’m preaching to the converted here. OpenOffice is a free software package that does just about everything you could need from standard office software. The standard download includes applications for: text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing and databases. The real kicker, besides it being free, it all works. It uses it’s own PDF printer and is every bit as powerful as it’s Microsoft counterpart. It looks like Sun Microsystems has something to do with it now, I’ll have to check into things and see what that is about. I use OpenOffice exclusively on my laptop and it will save into native Microsoft formats. I haven’t had an opportunity to try out it’s compatibility with the latest release of Microsoft Office myself but I have heard good things.

This is a great way to save money for students and their parents, and pull a little money out of the big M’s pocket at the same time. Stories, documents, illustrations and all. There isn’t much reason to pay for office software anymore.

Any other satisfied users out there? I’d love to hear about it. What free software do you use?

There are plenty of comic books out there are good for little more than light reading. Featherweight reading. Maybe even just for killing time. Some, however, are so much more. DMZ, for instance, is an amazing book. Writer Brian Wood mined the feelings and attitudes of post 9-11 New Yorkers to create a world where America is embroiled in her second civil war. Manhattan is caught between the united States and the Free States, and Matty Roth is the only embedded journalist. In the four years DMZ has been published Wood has shown impressive character development. Matty Roth has gone from the punk with a bad attitude whose daddy secured his internship, to a mature journalist who cares about showing the wider world the truth about what is really going on in the DMZ. Wood draws from the then, and still, current condition of the world and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for material and brings it home. The setting makes the story more accessible and Wood’s storytelling makes war a tangible thing to those who no personal experience with it.

I have been a huge fan of Wood and DMZ, until now. In the recent series, “Hearts and Minds”, which I will admit I have not read all five issues of, Matty’s development and the comic itself take a darker turn. It wasn’t exactly cheer before. Matty has shed his responsibilities as a journalist and has gotten involved with the politics. He is no longer concerned with telling the true story and has taken to aiding Parco, self-installed political leader of the DMZ, in his quest to establish the DMZ’s sovereignty. As a half-assed journalist myself, this hurts, but only because I am so invested in the character. I really wanted him to do some good as a journalist, but that’s just opinion. The development is realistic, just heart breaking. I don’t know what this move will mean for the over all story, I really need to finish that series, but it does show considerably development in Matty’s character.

I will continue to drink the Kool-Aid on this one. I like Matty’s character far to much to give up on him now. Besides, Wood has a habit of delivering in all of his endeavors (check his DEMO stories, a new series launches this week), so I will hang in for the long haul. If you haven’t done DMZ before, now would be a good time to start.

Every once in a while though, I feel like I need to indulge in some modern literature. It’s an area I know surprisingly little about. I can wax philosophical all day about Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and Shakespeare, but I can hardly tell you who the hot pen is at the current moment. I have indulged in the Stephanie Myers devotion, but that was more out of idol curiosity than a quest for a great story. I have only made it through the first two, but I feel like I need something to clean my pallet between doses. We’ll get to that another time.

The practice I have when I am in need of something new and different, the supernatural and the fantastical can only hold interest for so long, is to sell myself to hype and look up the New York Times Bestsellers List. I know, great literature is not always what the unwashed masses are reading, but those titles are there for a reason. In my experience, if they are on “The List”, somebody is enjoying them. That means I might too.  I don’t always find something that will go down as a member of the canon of great American literature, but I almost always enjoy the read. So next time you looking for something to read, take a leap of faith. Look up “The List” a make a blind choice. You might be surprised.

So, what have you folks read lately?? Let me know in the comments.

I have clawed my way to the light and begun to emerge. I, and maybe even the world around, will be better for it all….. I hope. I have made a commitment to myself and to you, my tens of readers, to find my way back to my writing with the same dedication I left it back in November. First order of commitment, finish what I began with NANO. The next month will be spent in a pressured frenzy in an attempt to attain the lofty goal of 50,000 words that I set out for a long four months ago. I feel it still counts as an accomplishment, even if is to late to count. Right?? Who’s with me?? Second order of commitment will be to show this project the attention and love that it so richly deserves. That’s right my drowsy shiftless followers, the internet will once again be polluted with the ramblings of an over-educated cubicle slave. My apologies.