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On days like these, when blog-inspiration is minimal, you can't go wrong with a good meme. Here's one borrowed from Reluctant Blogger.
1) What was I doing ten years ago?
Oh, good start. The terrible truth, professionally, is exactly the same as I'm doing right now. And if you'd told me ten years ago that this would be the case, I'd probably have jumped under a train. However, I do feel surprisingly chipper about it today. Things are looking up on the creative front. No, really. Well, you've got to be positive, haven't you?
2) What are five things on your to-do list today?
Five things? Is this a busy day?
i) Continue to promote PJANG #1.
ii) Write some more stories for PJANG #2 or 3 or 4.
iii) Finish off this week's Elephant Words story (it's a long one).
iv) Go see Wanted. It's based on a Mark Millar comic, so my expectations aren't high.
v) I dunno, some kind of work-related stuff. If I get the time.
3) Things I would do if I became a billionaire...
I don't have a lot of truck with people who say coming into money ruins their life. Chance'd be a fine thing and all that. What would I do if I became a billionaire? Write. Self-publishing would be a lot more affordable for a start. Wait, billionaire? There's a certain company based in New York I might set my sites on... that's probably the only chance I'd get of ever writing for them.
4) Five places I have lived.
I'm sure I answered this one here before. It's very dull, so I'll skip it.
5) Three of my bad habits.
Oh god - ask Louise, she'll give you a list. These probably deserve whole posts to themselves. I'll give you the bones, if you want further detail, just ask.
i) Itching in public.
ii) Eating certain items of food at too loud a volume and taking double-sips of hot drinks. (I'm not entirely sure why the latter of these is a bad habit, but it drives Louise insane.)
iii) I twitch my neck like Glenn in Nighty Night. (Damn BBC and its embedding disabled by request!) Well, actually I don't. Occasionally, if I have a stiff neck or shoulders, I might roll my head around a bit to ease it, but I don't (TWITCH) do what Glenn does. OK?
6) Five jobs I have had.
i) Cataloguing a radio station record library.
ii) Answering phones on a phone-in show.
iii) Co-presenting a radio show.
iv) Working in Sponsorship & Promotions. (I lasted six months. It was hell.)
v) Writing rubbish radio ads. God, I can't believe some people brag about that.
7) How did you name your blog?
I live on the hills over Slawit. I like watching sunsets. Put them together and what have you got? Bippity boppity (TWITCH) boo.
Is it Friday yet?
THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN by GARTH STEIN
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*Inspiring! Uplifting!* It's the next [fill in the blank with a comparable
former bestseller here]. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to run hug
your d...
30 minutes ago
9 rants and reactions:
i went to see Wanted last night.
Ir was a reasonable enough film but every single character was a sociopath and so I had trouble feeling positive about any of them. But I'm a guy who likes his heros to be wearing a white hat.
I used to work with a trade union rep (I was also one...) who had a twitch - actually more of a chicken-jerk, like Mr Mackay in Porridge. One day I was meanly doing an impersonation of him in the pub and ricked my neck so badly I nearly passed out. You'd have thought that would have taught me a thing or two about the nature of poetic justice, but no - I am still mean and belittling of others... (add to list of my bad habits)
I think your bad habits are worse than mine!
But I disagree re the money thing. I do think it ruins people - or changes them and takes them away from their friends. Not that I have any hard evidence upon which to base this ie I am talking out of my arse really. But it is what I think and who needs silly empirical evidence eh. But a bit more money would be rather nice!
Enjoyed reading your answers although disappointed that you didn't do the places one. I haven't read your answer to that before and I'm horribly nosey.
When you say "itching in public" what *exactly* are you meaning by that? It concerns me rather a lot.
Love your priorities on your to-do list, Rol. Totally right. A standard I also live by (not promoting Pjang, I mean, but moving "official work" right down to the bottom of the list).
Dan - I'm with you. Of which, more later.
Lucy - I think that's a habit to be proud of.
RB - Click here.
Penelope - you mean YOU have a problem with people who strip down to their underpants in public and scratch themselves like a lice-ridden ape TOO? There's so much intolerance about...
Steve - obviously, during worktime ALL my attention is devoted to number 5 on the list.
You'll be glad to hear you don't need to be a millionaire to go into self-publishing, particularly with print-on-demand technology at our fingertips.
Some fellow writers and I published 'The Sixpenny Debt & Other Short Stories' through WritersServices.com two years ago for a whisp over £600 (which I believe included 200 books). The 13 of us then proceeded to have a launch, do all our own marketing and our self-published book became one of the most successful local-interest books for some while in the bookshops of Oxford. Then again we made sure we had a killer wraparound cover (kindly donated by local artist Valerie Petts) and a jacket compliment from novelist Katie Fforde, whom one of our group knew and got her to read it.
So not such an impossible dream. Agree with you re the billionairedom - money is not a burden to those with the imagination to use it!
Well, as my return to self-published comics has shown me, it's a lot easier and cheaper to do a professional-looking package than it used to be.
But I still have ideas above my station...
I wouldn't even be able to fill in the 5 places I've lived yet..only 4 till now..
I've got worse habits though..poking my nose, pulking nails (not as worse as biting I might add), postponing things.
nice meme.
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