Links and Stuff
Hello, again! Or if this is your first visit to my blog, HELLO!! Sorry–was that a bit too loud and overbearing? No… wait… come back!! *sigh* Well, I guess it’s just you and me again, Mum! 🙂
It’s all packing and cleaning here at Chez Smith as the hunt for that elusive right-house-at-the-right-price continues. We’ve looked at some more houses this week, a couple of which have promise, and one in particular everyone seems to like. Except I’d need them to come down on the price. I know everyone’s getting sick of me saying it (“What do you think, Dad?” “Very nice… now, if they could drop the price by about $40k, we might be able to afford it and still eat!”), but someone has to make sure we don’t fall into ruin for the sake of having nice digs. Those who are of a praying inclination, please feel free to offer petitions on our behalf, mostly for wisdom, and patience.
Sam the Cat’s loving all this new empty shelf space, though. We’ve often pondered what he looks like. A loaf of bread? An oversize Pikachu? It seems he thinks he’s the next “Game of Thrones” novel:
Can you believe it’s August already? I set myself two goals for the end of July: finish ALEXANDER HAMILTON by Ron Chernow, and finish another short story. As you can see from the review I posted on Wednesday, I completed the first of those goals, and thoroughly enjoyed the book. I also managed the second, which is good since I’m trying to write a short story every month. My hope is to build a little collection of them that I can submit to magazines. Having stories published in well-regarded magazines always looks good to agents, and can give a little bump to the finances, which is not to be sneezed at when you’re contemplating the size of a mortgage.
Forbes issued its list of the World’s Highest-Paid Authors. Now, I know we don’t write for the money, but many of us would at least like to make some kind of a living with our words. So, in a strange way, it can be encouraging to see authors earn lots of money from their books. After all, if these few can make millions, then isn’t it possible for many of us to at least pay the bills and buy food? To me, it was fun to see Veronica Roth on the list. I remember reading the blog posts when she signed with her agent, Joanne Volpe, now with New Leaf Literary Agency. And then her YA dystopian novel, DIVERGENT, was published to great fanfare. It became a bestseller, then the sequel came out, then there was talk of movie deals… and now she’s in the Top 20 richest writers list. Well done, Veronica!
What are your thoughts on writing and money? If you’re a writer, have you ever written for the money–even if it was just one short story to help pay a bill?
That’s it for now. Have a great week! 🙂
Good luck on the house hunt. I am sure the right place will choose you. I believe houses choose their occupants.
Se searched for three years and visited 35 apartments. The year we finally bought the dream apartment, we moved three times. That year I didn’t write anything. Then when the house chose us I was in such a tissy I didn’t know what to do next. We finally had our place. I had no more excuses to keep me from working.
I, too, remember when Veronica Roth signed. I was following her blog.
Thank you, Angie! I hope that house finds us soon. Looking is fun, but we have some hard deadlines, so we will have to agree on some place soon. That kind of takes some of the fun out of it. But I’m hopeful! 🙂
I hope you find a house fit for both cats in bookshelves (without snakes – it’s a long story but snakes guarding bookshelves is a recurring nightmare of mine), and a place for you, and what is it? 20 kids, 25? Well, all your offspring, both the real and the fictional.
I have yet to get paid for writing fiction. I have on more than one instance been paid in copies of the periodical a short story has published in back in my college days. Which told me that making money for fiction might be a wee bit harder than Stephen King made it look. However, back in the 90s, I made quite a bit contributing to technical books on software engineering design patterns. It is barely recognizable as English to those outside the engineering world. Flyweights there have nothing to do with fishing for example.
I meant to tell you that I have the Hamilton book and have been slowly been making my way through it. I am very much enjoying it. Have you per chance read Citizens of London by Lynne Olson? Like Hamilton, it will give you another POV on some of American history as well as that of England. And boy, Churchill’s daughter was.,,well, you could read it and see for yourself.
This week I moved from Gary Corby (love him) to Jeffrey Somers’ We are Not Good People. I adore it to little pieces. Did you review that one yet? I can’t remember. Anyhow, cheers from the Reef.
Thanks for your thoughts on money and writing, and for your well-wishes for moving, Elise! 🙂 Oh, and thanks for the history book recommendations too. It took me a while to read ALEXANDER HAMILTON, mostly because I don’t have multi-hour stretches of time every day to read, so I snatch what reading time I can. And that’s a big book to get through in little pieces. Well worth it, though.
I read TRICKSTER, which is essentially the first part of WE ARE NOT GOOD PEOPLE, and I reviewed it (see under “Book Reviews”). I’ll definitely be getting WANGP so I can find out what happened next! 🙂
I’ve done a lot of writing for money, but it was mostly commercial stuff. My creative stuff has seen print as comic book scripts, for the most part.
Wow, well I would think that’s still validating, Silver Fox. Someone was willing to pay money for your words. Cool! 🙂