Not historical, no. But, a double narrative. Two young men who lived in the same house in the same Umbrian valley years apart, each of whom have committed grievous crimes, one of whom is certifiably insane, the other who, having come out of the violent backwaters of Trump's America, was insane there, but redeems himself here. I had to give each man his due, hence, the length of the book. I'll shop it around but I'm not going to self-publish. I'm far more vain than that. Peace and blue skies, Stacey.
Well, it sounds like a really compelling narrative. I don’t need to tell you how dismal publishing is these days, even for superb writers. I hope you will reconsider self-publishing, if it comes to that. It beats having the book molder on your hard drive.
Yes! -- bring on the revolution and resistance to the mass(ification) of culture and travel. When I look around NYC I see more people who appear to be living/experiencing life as tourists rather than as travelers open to genuine adventure, which involves the unknown, the uncomfortable, etc. I see the dulling and fear in academia too, a place I used to call home and now see as a job. I've become an idea salesman trying to entice my "customers" to deploy their imaginations.
For anyone reading down the comments, run--do not walk--to your nearest bookseller and get Marin's ART MONSTER. I am a huge fan, and I know you will be, too.
As far as academia goes, my more academically inclined friends describe it as a straitjacket. Anyone deviating from the orthodoxy gets hauled up on the academic carpet. The fact that you navigate those waters so successfully, Marin, speaks to an adaptability I find remarkable. Also diplomacy.
I suck at diplomacy. Once the thought is in my head, it's out of my mouth, and that's never good.
Omg. Hahaha My diplomatic skills are shot. My adaptability waning. Although I see this as a sign that I’m human, one of the last standing among bureaucrats and robots.
Jesus, that sounds lonely. It makes me wonder how many professors feel exactly the way you do, only they, too, are constricted by the same code of silence that has fallen over most of academia.
Much the same market driven destruction crushing art is visible in academia as well, so I can congratulate myself on being undramatically rejected by both. And, again in common, academia continues to wring its hands about finances while pay shocking 7+ digit figure salaries to top admins and coaches. (The highest paid state employee in every state is either a football or a basketball coach at a state school.)
At this point, I don't even care about the money. I think I made something in the neighborhood of $65.00 from my first scholarly book; the second one (where I was coauthor) saw nothing but glory. Both books did quite well for academic works and are highly respected within the scholarly community. One thing I know for certain, if I do end up self-publishing this next trilogy as I did the first, I'll be damned before I do so on Kindle Direct. Give it away for free, you assholes? I've got ideas for my own marketing campaign that will put those bums to shame.
BINGO. Don't you dare cast your pearls before the virtual swine, Gares. Also, I find that the financial "success" of a book is often in inverse proportion to its merit. So you should congratulate yourself on writing for your legacy and earning the respect of your peers along the way. If you won't, I will ;-)
I couldn't agree more re: over tourism in Europe - I long to escape there BECAUSE of the lack of big box, chain, touristy stores, etc. And now that's becoming more and more difficult. Finding authenticity off-the-beaten-path is becoming a challenge, and it breaks my heart. I plan on spending part of each year in Europe once I retire - I dread to think what will be left of the authenticity in 6.5 years.
Standing on my chair, cheering. Watching Italy twist itself into a Disneyland version of itself while the actual Italian people get shut out has been enraging.
I think it's going to take exactly that. It doesn't have to be bloody--or even loud. But we're going to have to be the ones to change it from within. My heart is in Italy. No matter where I am, it always will be. Like you, I hate what's happening to Italians who are the ones paying the real wage of hypertourism.
I committed a sin, Stacey. The novel I just completed clocks in at just over 111,000 words. Why's that a sin? Because when querying agents or publishers your first sentence should include the word count. Why? They just don't want too many damn words. What they are looking for is a "consumable" and the attention-challenged consumer these days has been trained to follow market trends, which requires zinging and punching their amygdala not seducing their prefrontal cortex. Agents and publishers are following the same trends, which reinforces the consuming addiction in themselves and in their customers. Art is not a consumable, and those people who take up the pen, the brush, the chisel etc to chase the market are not producing art, and they are not, ipso facto, artists.
As to Lincoln Center (and all other venues that were designed to accommodate an attentive audience viewing or listening to a work of art), the challenge of the venue owners is not to decorate the withered old art forms with spangles and bangles, but to figure out how to use the performance space to entertain their contemporaries. The four dimensions of a performance space offer an awesome opportunity to create astounding, amazing, and thrilling experiences. Do that and word of mouth will put bums in seats. Those types of experiences are created by artists, not by merchandisers.
And tourism. Don't get me started. Suffice it to say...the whole sorry state of it is to cater to consumers almost all of whom are disconnected from and disinterested in history. The promise of those that sell mass travel is the promise of an escape from the hum drum of our day to day lives. It is a promise that is always broken.
Well, I do love a good sin, Vian. If you're expecting criticism, I'm not your girl.
Your manuscript. Is is historical? Because historical fiction is usually given a more generous word count--up to 120,000 words.
I wholeheartedly agree with you about how creating astounding, amazing, and thrilling experiences will put bums in seats. That's why it deflates me to see so many remakes, flash-and-spectacle Broadway shows, and crappy franchise movies instead of more thought-provoking fare. Art MUST uncouple from the market. It's not going to support us anyway, so we might as well stop feeding its arteries (social media) and start creating the things that are meaningful to us.
Yes, I am! Its funny you mention the Mozart program. I listened to a count down somewhere of the top composers, the ones people love. I think Mozart is still in the top 20. The only one of the dead classical music guys. Of course there were women composers, but the guys usually managed to bury their music.
Right? Pretty much always. I think Mozart's eternal appeal might have something to do with Milos Forman's AMADEUS, which portrayed him as a dimpled, rakish prankster/man of the people type.
Not Shelley, but these guys (The Rest is History) did a few great episodes about Byron and friends that you'd enjoy:
https://youtu.be/KvA7kMTvpjc?si=CADgkEy7WQAVlTW3
How great are you? Many thanks. I’m all over that catnip.
Not historical, no. But, a double narrative. Two young men who lived in the same house in the same Umbrian valley years apart, each of whom have committed grievous crimes, one of whom is certifiably insane, the other who, having come out of the violent backwaters of Trump's America, was insane there, but redeems himself here. I had to give each man his due, hence, the length of the book. I'll shop it around but I'm not going to self-publish. I'm far more vain than that. Peace and blue skies, Stacey.
Well, it sounds like a really compelling narrative. I don’t need to tell you how dismal publishing is these days, even for superb writers. I hope you will reconsider self-publishing, if it comes to that. It beats having the book molder on your hard drive.
I think you mean "smoulder"... :) Burn baby, burn!
Yes! -- bring on the revolution and resistance to the mass(ification) of culture and travel. When I look around NYC I see more people who appear to be living/experiencing life as tourists rather than as travelers open to genuine adventure, which involves the unknown, the uncomfortable, etc. I see the dulling and fear in academia too, a place I used to call home and now see as a job. I've become an idea salesman trying to entice my "customers" to deploy their imaginations.
For anyone reading down the comments, run--do not walk--to your nearest bookseller and get Marin's ART MONSTER. I am a huge fan, and I know you will be, too.
As far as academia goes, my more academically inclined friends describe it as a straitjacket. Anyone deviating from the orthodoxy gets hauled up on the academic carpet. The fact that you navigate those waters so successfully, Marin, speaks to an adaptability I find remarkable. Also diplomacy.
I suck at diplomacy. Once the thought is in my head, it's out of my mouth, and that's never good.
Omg. Hahaha My diplomatic skills are shot. My adaptability waning. Although I see this as a sign that I’m human, one of the last standing among bureaucrats and robots.
Jesus, that sounds lonely. It makes me wonder how many professors feel exactly the way you do, only they, too, are constricted by the same code of silence that has fallen over most of academia.
Much the same market driven destruction crushing art is visible in academia as well, so I can congratulate myself on being undramatically rejected by both. And, again in common, academia continues to wring its hands about finances while pay shocking 7+ digit figure salaries to top admins and coaches. (The highest paid state employee in every state is either a football or a basketball coach at a state school.)
At this point, I don't even care about the money. I think I made something in the neighborhood of $65.00 from my first scholarly book; the second one (where I was coauthor) saw nothing but glory. Both books did quite well for academic works and are highly respected within the scholarly community. One thing I know for certain, if I do end up self-publishing this next trilogy as I did the first, I'll be damned before I do so on Kindle Direct. Give it away for free, you assholes? I've got ideas for my own marketing campaign that will put those bums to shame.
BINGO. Don't you dare cast your pearls before the virtual swine, Gares. Also, I find that the financial "success" of a book is often in inverse proportion to its merit. So you should congratulate yourself on writing for your legacy and earning the respect of your peers along the way. If you won't, I will ;-)
I couldn't agree more re: over tourism in Europe - I long to escape there BECAUSE of the lack of big box, chain, touristy stores, etc. And now that's becoming more and more difficult. Finding authenticity off-the-beaten-path is becoming a challenge, and it breaks my heart. I plan on spending part of each year in Europe once I retire - I dread to think what will be left of the authenticity in 6.5 years.
Standing on my chair, cheering. Watching Italy twist itself into a Disneyland version of itself while the actual Italian people get shut out has been enraging.
And you're so right about the revolution part.
I think it's going to take exactly that. It doesn't have to be bloody--or even loud. But we're going to have to be the ones to change it from within. My heart is in Italy. No matter where I am, it always will be. Like you, I hate what's happening to Italians who are the ones paying the real wage of hypertourism.
I committed a sin, Stacey. The novel I just completed clocks in at just over 111,000 words. Why's that a sin? Because when querying agents or publishers your first sentence should include the word count. Why? They just don't want too many damn words. What they are looking for is a "consumable" and the attention-challenged consumer these days has been trained to follow market trends, which requires zinging and punching their amygdala not seducing their prefrontal cortex. Agents and publishers are following the same trends, which reinforces the consuming addiction in themselves and in their customers. Art is not a consumable, and those people who take up the pen, the brush, the chisel etc to chase the market are not producing art, and they are not, ipso facto, artists.
As to Lincoln Center (and all other venues that were designed to accommodate an attentive audience viewing or listening to a work of art), the challenge of the venue owners is not to decorate the withered old art forms with spangles and bangles, but to figure out how to use the performance space to entertain their contemporaries. The four dimensions of a performance space offer an awesome opportunity to create astounding, amazing, and thrilling experiences. Do that and word of mouth will put bums in seats. Those types of experiences are created by artists, not by merchandisers.
And tourism. Don't get me started. Suffice it to say...the whole sorry state of it is to cater to consumers almost all of whom are disconnected from and disinterested in history. The promise of those that sell mass travel is the promise of an escape from the hum drum of our day to day lives. It is a promise that is always broken.
Well, I do love a good sin, Vian. If you're expecting criticism, I'm not your girl.
Your manuscript. Is is historical? Because historical fiction is usually given a more generous word count--up to 120,000 words.
I wholeheartedly agree with you about how creating astounding, amazing, and thrilling experiences will put bums in seats. That's why it deflates me to see so many remakes, flash-and-spectacle Broadway shows, and crappy franchise movies instead of more thought-provoking fare. Art MUST uncouple from the market. It's not going to support us anyway, so we might as well stop feeding its arteries (social media) and start creating the things that are meaningful to us.
Yes, I am! Its funny you mention the Mozart program. I listened to a count down somewhere of the top composers, the ones people love. I think Mozart is still in the top 20. The only one of the dead classical music guys. Of course there were women composers, but the guys usually managed to bury their music.
Right? Pretty much always. I think Mozart's eternal appeal might have something to do with Milos Forman's AMADEUS, which portrayed him as a dimpled, rakish prankster/man of the people type.