Happy to be here

Okay, so why is the picture not showing up?

Well, let's just pretend I know what I'm doing anyway.

In a few days, I will no longer have my cableone.net email address. This is going to be odd after all these years. I am primarily going back to my zette@sff.net one, or zette@lazette.net which is the wisest one to use, of course, since it will stay no matter if I move, or change providers again.

I hope the new provider turns out to be good. Oh, and I'm going to have basic cable again, which means I can at least watch the Weather Channel again. Not that I'll have time to, but I could.

I've decided that I've read enough negative stuff about writing and authors lately. No one pretends like this is a perfect business, or that places like Forward Motion are going to be full of perfect authors, just waiting to hear the words of wisdom and apply them. It would be great if it worked that way, but it doesn't. Some are better at listening than others. Some will always have their own opinions and if Shakespeare himself appeared to give them advice, they'd argue with him. I guess I've become immune to some of that attitude after so many years at Forward Motion. I know there are those you'll never reach, but there are others who are happy with advice, even if it doesn't always work for them. And it won't always work, of course.

There are those who are going to find the right publisher and fit right in without any problems. Others will have trouble of one kind or another. It's going to happen. It's good to know and be prepared, but don't let it affect your love of writing. Be prepared for potential problems, but don't let the thought of them overwhelm you.

I post often about things that aren't working in the publishing side as well. Afterwards, though, I thought about why I am still at Forward Motion and DTF -- and Vision, for that matter -- and realized it's because there are those who are problems, but there are far more people who are not. It's just that the problem people are always the loudest and going to take the most of your time. If you could just do away with that time sink and devote your energy toward the people who are really looking for answers (rather than waiting to be told they're already perfect), but like everything else in life, you have to take the bad with the good. It even makes you appreciate the good more.

Publishing is never going to be quite the dream that most of you imagine. It's still great.