I thought for a moment that someone had been listening to me, because when I started this new Word file from the last blog post I wrote on my mini-laptop computer, it was in Calibri font right from the beginning! Then I went and closed the earlier file/blog post, and when I had returned to this one, the base font had reverted to Aptos (which I like to call “craptos” because I don’t think it merits a more sophisticated insult).
So, it turns out that no one was listening to me, of course.
It’s Tuesday now, and I’m writing this on my laptop computer as indicated above. This will probably make it faster to write, but whether it’s any better written than yesterday’s post, I cannot say. I felt that yesterday’s writing was fairly erratic and disjointed and borderline incoherent, but I often have a difficult time judging how my writing will be perceived by other people.
If it’s fiction, I can only care up to a certain point, because I write fiction that I want to read, so I cannot try to adjust it for others too much. I can only guess that somewhere out there exists at least one other person whose reading taste is similar to mine, and who might enjoy my stories. So far, not counting my sister*, I don’t know of more than three people who have read any of my fiction, so it’s hard to tell.
But, of course, though my tastes have been esoteric at times—especially when it comes to my love of relatively deep scientific and mathematical and philosophical reading—I have also enjoyed some massively popular books of certain kinds. For instance, my very favorite book of all time is The Lord of the Rings (taking it as one large book, as it was initially written), and that’s hardly a rare choice. Similarly, I’m a great fan of Shakespeare, and it’s not as though no one else ever reads or otherwise enjoys his plays.
There have also been popular series of books for which I waited eagerly and excitedly as each volume came out, including The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Belgariad, the various Dragonlance books**, and of course the Harry Potter books. I’m sure I’ve written here somewhere about how I read Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince seven times while waiting for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to come out. All of these books have been quite popular, and I enjoyed them, too.
Then again, I had no interest whatsoever in any of the Twilight books, though I have written about vampires (and a demi-vampire) in one of my own books. Likewise, I had no interest in Fifty Shades of Grey or the various Dan Brown books, and I haven’t read any new science fiction or fantasy in years, not counting Japanese light novels.
Speaking of that, I am very much impatient for some new volumes in a few light novel series I have read so far, but being light novels, they are much quicker to read than they are to publish.
In any case, I mean to say that just because I write to my own taste doesn’t mean that my stories are particularly esoteric in their nature and character. I may be an alien in disguise, even to myself, but that doesn’t mean that stories that are bad are going to interest me. Good stories have at least some degree of universality. Even the Klingons love Shakespeare!***
My point is that, though I know I am a peculiar bean, I also think there are probably a lot of people (maybe not a majority, but a lot) who would enjoy at least some of my books and short stories. But I am not good at promoting myself and making other people aware of my work. This is probably related to my ASD and the related social anxiety, but also to my general self-hatred. I tried to do a little promoting of my stuff at first, but it quickly became too stressful and irritating for me to tolerate.
So, if anyone out there has it in them—and so desires—to promote my stuff, even if just by sharing links and references in your own social media, that would be appreciated very much. And while we’re at it, if anyone out there has a quick and easy cure for chronic pain*****, let me know. Also, I want a unicorn. (Actually, I want a dragon, but that might be harder to keep safely.)
Well, this post has probably been just as goofy and incoherent as yesterday’s. My apologies. That is, unless you like that sort of thing, in which case: enjoy. And try to have a good day.
*Not to imply that she doesn’t “count” in some important sense—she most certainly does—but just that it’s difficult to tease out the family relation from the other variables in the mix, so I cannot draw too many conclusions too easily.
**The ones that involved Raistlin, at least. I didn’t have much interest in stories involving only the other characters of the stories. Those of you who know those books can probably understand why this is so.
***Indeed, as the Klingon ambassador said in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country****, “You have never experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.”
****The title itself is a Shakespearean reference, though in the movie, the undiscovered country is peace, whereas when Hamlet said it, he explicitly referred to death as the undiscovered country, one from whose bourn no traveler returns.
*****I don’t want to hear anyone saying “death” because that doesn’t count as a cure. It makes the problem go away; it doesn’t solve it. There is a difference. And, don’t worry, as readers of my plan know, that is my own intended course of action if I cannot reduce my pain enough.
Robert Elessar 