This Blog: Presidential Elections

The author bio in my new novel (should be ready for your reading pleasure in a week or so...wait for the post!) lists my blog. This blog.

Hmmm...

Does one want to promote something that shows his struggling ability to maintain a simple blog?

So, this was added: "...he posts more often than presidential elections, less often than he would like."

That feels right.

But you writers with effective blogs have some major efficiency one-ups on me.

I have written fourteen novels, countless short stories, some really crappy poems, and even crappier songs. I am not lacking for words. I am, as they say, prolific in my writing. And yet, the blog. This blog.

I finished a "family" novel two years ago. Last April it received it's first major edit (after three minor personal edits). Since then it has undergone plastic surgery of extreme proportions, as should any novel, I am learning. But it's good. It's much better. And it's done. Ready to blog about it. This blog.

Not quite.

I start the formatting process for the publishing world I have chosen to enter called, "I will self-publish so that I can see my hardwork in paperback before I die." (Query letters occurred mid-editing.) Formatting (which has two "t"'s by the way) takes as much time as editing and is as much fun as eating carrots through your nose. (Sorry, that is something Cooligan, the main character of the novel, would say and this post is really for him.) For those of you wondering, carrots through noses is NOT fun.

Ready to blog? This blog?

Not quite. You need to create your cover. You take your own pictures. You play with fonts for years. Then colors for another few years. Then you change your mind. Then your name is too small on the binding (everyone who looked at my proof laughed...LAUGHED!). Then you change the interior again because it didn't look good. Then you spend four hours trying to figure out how to do the page numbers the way you want them. (Do NOT look at the page numbers.) By this point you realize why publishers take such a large commision.

You may have time to blog at this point. But if we select ourselves out of second person, we will note that I DO have time to blog now. This blog.

The pain and misery that is publishing a novel is complete.

A student asked me when I mentioned the soon-to-be published novel, "Are you going to stop teaching and become a writer?"

I thought about how much I enjoy writing (usually). And I thought that editing wasn't too horrible, either. Covers and formatting and spacing and lining up and page numbers and fonts and chapter headings and dedications and author bios and ISBN numbers and author photos for crying out loud...all of that, in its own way, is slightly appealing -- a challenge.

But I looked at the child and realized why I will not quit my job and become a writer.

I write because of experiences I have every day throughout normal life. Writing full time would take me away from normal life experiences. I write best under pressure, in those tiny moments between kids going to bed and my eyes collapsing. Writing full time would take away that pressure.

So, no time for blogging? We'll see. New years resolution? We'll see.

For now, take this blog. A post, just for you. A gift from someone who has finally finished the full circle process of publishing a second time.

Question: why will you not quit your job and become a full time writer?