The Eyes Of The Beholder

Look, I know that we all have different taste. In many things. Food, Music, Art, Writing. Well, you name it. I know people who, honestly, enjoy eating Brussels Sprouts! Can you imagine? *shudder*

So, when I hear supposed ’smart’ people denigrating things, simply because they exist for, or appeal to, the ‘common man’, I have a pretty good idea that they are elitist snobs who need to eat some Nachos, sip some cold beer, watch some Three Stooges short films. Why do they need these things, or something similar? Because they’ve been poisoned.

Yep! Poisoned! Ever hear this, or something like this: “If you have to ask what it is, you just don’t understand ‘art’.”

I have. Oh, not aimed at me! Nosir! I don’t usually parade my plebian tastes to the Elite, y’know? But I’ve heard it. What that person usually means is, “I have no idea what it is, but the label says it is ‘Peace’ (or ‘Horse with Love Ankles’ or ‘Heart Sack One’ or … see?) and I’m not going to look foolish by saying it looks like a twenty pound slab of bacon, dipped in chocolate, and dropped from a twenty-story building.”

Thus, the Elite have denigrated Norman Rockwell for ages. They poo-pooed Maxfield Parrish. The composer of “The Nutcracker Suite”, Tchaikovsky, was nothing. And so on, for many creative people whose only crime was to create things – music, art, poetry, books – that everybody understood and enjoyed.

This is a painting that I enjoy. It’s “Garden Of Prayer” by Thomas Kinkade.

Not my favorite, mind you. My favorite is Maxfield Parrish’s “Moonlight”. But this I find beautiful. Thomas Kinkade is a solid, talented painter. He’s found a niche in the market, and his fans love him. Therefore, to the Elite, he’s dull and his work is garbage.

The same is true of some of the most popular novelists. When did you last read the book that won the Nobel prize for literature?

Thought so.

Can you look at the above and not enjoy it? Be honest, now.

How I Became an F2K Mentor

F2K is a free writing course hosted by Writers’ Village University. It’s a really good writing course. So good, in fact, that I signed up for it three times! After the second session I joined WVU as a member. Been there ever since! I highly recommend it to any writers out there.

Anyway, back to F2K.

Very early during my first trip through, I found that staying in my own classroom was not quite my ‘cup of tea’. I liked to peek in at the other classes, see who was in there, read what they were writing. And I’d give a little feedback, too. Hey! For me, that was fun. And I had the time, being single – hint! hint! Ladies! – and curious.

Got to know quite a few writers – fellow students – and came to be known as a ‘kibbitzer’ around F2K. Truth is, I know I infected a few others who then became ‘kibbitzers’ as well. Hehehee!

There are always a few writers who, for some unknown reason, do not get many comments or feedback on their writing. Some just show up late, and they never catch on with the others. Some don’t feel qualified to give feedback, so nobody gives feedback to them. And, yes, some write horrible stuff.

It’s true.

So it feels good to add some feedback to an empty board. Know what I mean? Besides, I read some very nice things in my Kibbitzing travels.

Well, fast forward to my third trip through F2K in the Autumn of 2005. I may be a better writer now, but I still enjoy the ‘kick in the pants’ that F2K can provide to any writer. So there I am. Taking the lessons again, and doing my thing. My thing being … remember the word? … Kibbitzing!

Heheheee! Yep, Ol’ benning was kibbitzing the different classrooms again, even ticking off one of the Mentors. Mentors are volunteers who guide the students, answer questions, and keep an eye on things. There’s a Mentor for each classroom. So, for me, nothing had changed, really. Except …

Well, seems they needed another Mentor or two. Seems they did notice that Ol’ benning got around, met the students, gave advice or steered the students to the right people to ask, and just generally helped out. Did Ol’ benning know that’s what he was doing? Hardly. Ol’ benning was having fun. Period.

So the Head Mentor, whom I call ‘MA’, emailed me and asked if I’d be interested in becoming an F2K Mentor. Sheesh! Me? But that’s a responsibility, right? *sigh*

Well, ‘MA’ and the others are friends of mine, y’know. We’re all members of WVU. If they ask, they must think I can do it. Right? That’s what I figured. So, I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.”

Some procedural things followed, and then ‘MA’ wanted to know if I had a Name for the room I would have. See, all the classrooms bear the name of a writer. Some I’ve never heard of, so I know the Mentor named it for some obscure favorite. One room is named for a former F2K Mentor – Colin R. Onstad – who passed away. Well, I’d think about it, right? I’d want a good writer to grace the nameplate of my room, right? You betcha!

Emailed ‘MA’ a few minutes later. “Can I have the Robert A. Heinlein room?” If you never heard of him, look him up! Sheesh!

And that’s the room I’m Mentoring in right now. LOL

So far, in this, my first run at Mentoring, it’s been interesting. But it’s still very early. We’ll see if I can actually do what the veteran Mentors can. But I haven’t scared any students away. Yet.

We’ll see.

Hit those links at the top of this post, or over to the left there. Great places for writers. Trust me! I’m not a politician!

Not so hard, but …

Well, it seems this isn’t terribly difficult to do, supposing one has a lot of opinions and plenty of time to express them. I have the opinions, but not so much the time. Free time I use reading blogs, writing – or attempting to – my novel, and just generally goofing off. That’s me – a goof off.

Now, I do have a completed novel, at a publisher, waiting to be readied for the buying public. As I understand it, my book is behind another that is having some production problems. Were this a large publisher I doubt my book would be held up. However this is a very small publisher, with limited resources. So what was supposed to be a December publishing date is now, tentatively, a January publishing date. Make sense? LOL

Fact is, the manuscript was accepted in Late May 2005. By all rights I would not have expected it to hit the shelves for nearly eighteen months, anyway. Seems they liked it enough to put an editor on it right away. And then we struggled with revision and corrections for a few months. Sometimes it was fun. Sometimes it was hell.

Trust me, after you’ve written a novel, gone through it for errors, had it read by people whose judgement you trust, revised the daylights out of it, and sent it to a publisher … well … you are damned well tired of it. The last thing you want to do is look at it again. And again, and again, and … Get the idea?

From my main editor, the manuscript went to two others. Same things from them. My choice was always make the changes or don’t. “It’s your book, benning. You decide.”

After the three of them were finished, guess what? HAH! One more editor. AND I was asked what sort of cover I wanted.

“Can I do my own?”

“Well, we do have someone who’s done a few covers for our authors.” And I just know they’re thinking, “Oh, Lord, he’s gonna do a cover in Sharpie and crayons!”

“Well, lemme give it a shot, and you decide if it sucks or not, okay?” Yes, I did say that. Hey! I used to be a fair hand with a pencil, and painted some nice pictures in my youth. Well, I did! Hmmmph!

Here’s the main picture I worked up. Not too bad, is it? Be brutal!

This is my work, folks. My sketch, my arrangement, my cover. Any good? well, I hope so. Besides it’s the inside that counts, right?

My novel is “Benning’s War”. It’s a novel about the American Revolution. I think it’s quite good. I hope once it’s published that you buy a copy. AND that you agree that it’s good.

My publisher is . ePress Online is a small publisher, but they’re growing. Why not visit them? See if the books now available aren’t interesting enough to buy? I know most of the authors there, and they write some entertaining things. The non-fiction books are well worth the small price, too!

Go! Buy! Come back and see if I’m on sale yet, too! LOL

Starting out

This is new for me. Although I’ve created web pages in the past, I found I needed a place that would not have pop-up ads or banner ads covering everything, and getting in the way. Those things are also a huge annoyance! So here I am! We’ll see how easy this is and whether I can figure it out.