Mark Terry

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Anything But

April 5, 2011
Yes, today and yesterday's posts are both about politics. Does that mean I'm going to turn this blog over to politics?

No. Not entirely.

What's happened is I've been going back through my blog posts since 2005 and 2006, looking for essays that might be repurposed. What I have discovered is there's a lot of repetitive whining and a huge focus on what's going on in the publishing business. And it's boring me right now.

I suspect this blog's at its best when I'm actually offering useful information about writing and the writing business, like my FREELANCE WRITING FOR A LIVING series, which will soon be out in an expanded e-book format.

But going through the posts I thought I was sounding rather Johnny One-Note, so I'm going to try for a while to write about ANYTHING BUT writing and publishing, so expect current events, politics, history, archaeology, business, etc.

Or not. But I'm going to try very hard not to go back and whine about my writing fiction - a recurring theme over 6 years - and my frustrations with the publishing industry, because it makes me feel a lot like an animal with its foot caught in a trap that's trying to chew its leg off.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Eric Mayer said...

Sounds great to me. I try to avoid politics on my blog and from my comments on politics you can probably see why. Besides, sometimes it is best not to know a writer's politics. Dean Koontz writes good books but as for his politics -- I wish I didn't know.

I used to be much less rigid politically, more willing to see both sides, but over the years I have observed how right-wingers have used reasonable people's tendency to want to compromise against them and the horrendous destruction the right wingers have brought down on our society and I have concluded that you can't give them an inch.

1:32 PM  
Blogger Mark Terry said...

Eric,
I can see that actually. I'm fairly willing to compromise, but then I end up detesting what we get, and there's a definite "give them an inch they take a mile" thing going on with today's GOP, or perhaps it's just as has been noted, politics overall in the US keeps shifting to the right, so the Dems seems very middle of the road and the GOP seems increasingly reactionary. That's hardly an original observation on my part, either.

1:36 PM  
Blogger rkfinnell said...

I'm trying to avoid political discussions when it comes to writing, but I do love a good debate.

On politics I find I'm libertarian in some respects but have a twinge of conservative and liberal. I let commonsense guide me. The left does just as much wrong as the right whether or not either side wants to admit it.

As a newcomer to your blog I've enjoyed your posts whether I agree with you or not. Which proves we can get along even if our politics are different.

4:59 PM  
Blogger Mark Terry said...

RK--
i don't talk politics much with "normal" folk because it so often gets out of control, but I have some friends who, shall we say, sit on the other side of the aisle that we can discuss politics in a rational way. Generally they're pragmatists rather than zealots, which allows us to find some common ground, usually starting with our common needs and the realization that it's always easier to spend other people's money, often ending with the realization that both sides of the aisle LOVE to spend other people's money, but there's often great variation on what to spend it on.

5:26 PM  

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