…What you get when you have ‘looks’, ‘sponsors’, ‘pull’, but little talent or good training.
I just listened to a bunch of performances by a self-applauding flutist of questionable talent.
Not impressed.
And, no, I won’t share name or links to their performance videos.
It makes me sad that this kind of lack of quality playing can be touted as ‘premier’.
I’m part of several writing groups around the Net. Where I used to be quite active, now, mostly, I lurk, unless the forum is absolutely private, and, even then, most of the time, I offer little input. Why might that be? Well, a recent incident in a private forum will illustrate one very pertinent reason.
Somebody asked a question. Several people cautiously answered with patently safe responses, namely of asking the OP (original poster) tangential questions about aspects of their topic, a technique which neatly avoids having to actually answer. Finally, somebody was candid enough to give an on-point answer …and immediately that person got piled on by people who hadn’t even yet participated in the thread.
Why?
Because, with typical ignominy, ‘The Collective Miffed’, as I’ll call them (and, yes, there were several), didn’t like the candor and the inherent implications that underlay the truth in that answer, namely that, if you want to target the specific demographic market that the OP was trying to reach, you have to target what that demographic market wants and avoid targeting what it doesn’t.
What caused the upset among ‘The Collective Miffed’ is that, in exposing that truth, the respondent also exposed a truism about one particular, very large demographic target market, a trusim that immediately marked books authored by ‘The Collective Miffed’ as inappropriate.
Can you say pitchforks and torches, feathers and tar?
Yep. That’s what happened.
The respondent was labeled harmful and rude, never mind that he was the only person to lay it out the way it is. Darn his pernicious impertinence, y’know? Give not answers of unpopular truth to the mob, but only flowers and icing, baldfaced lies, and lots and lots of steaming [*]! .
Doing taxes is always a stressor for me. But, hey, got it done. Everything is ready to send in. Happy camper, here.
There are some things in life that make it worth it:
all of them appreciated sipping that cuppa while out sitting in the ‘brisk’ on the top porch step.
Yes. That’s right. I’m writing a new fiction series.
No. I’m not going to tell you much about it, yet. It will be a surprise.
But I will share this: It features a female protagonist. It’s set in today’s rural West (as in U.S. West), but, unlike Through Better & Worse and To Have & To Hold, it’s NOT a Western Family Saga, and it’s certainly not Modern Western Romance. It’s got absolutely no profanity and no sex. It’s got no ‘gruel’ — no gratuitous cruelty, gore, and/or barbarism.
Will you like it? I think a lot of people will, yes.
Why am I writing it? Because I need something in my catalog that will appeal to a broader audience than my more literary efforts.
I write good books. But, unfortunately, what I’ve published doesn’t fit neatly into a genre. This series will, though. This series will fit right into one major fiction genre that people love.
More later.
