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darkoozeripple
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Name: Graham
Gender: Male
Interests: Prem Rawat and Knowledge. Writing. Reading. People. Martial arts. Films. Music. Animals. Light and dark. History. Travel. Androgeny. The East. The West.
Expertise: Oodles
Occupation: Writer
Industry: All the time. I'm knackered
Message: message me
AIM:  darkoozeripple
MSN: grahamworth@hotmail.com
Member Since:
3/15/2006
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| Canadian television is so bad that I once watched several episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in desperation. I think it was probably the ultimate pits of things I've ever tried in search of entertainment. I must therefore go by bad report alone, and avoid New Moon in case it has a cumulative effect, where you need to ingest so much of the shit before it proves fatal, like lead poisoning or arsenic. My amazon author's page | | |
| Driving through a park, I noticed a sign that amused me. "Please do not feed the wild animals," it requested, "it encourages them to begging and other forms of behaviour unnatural in wild animals." "What am I being told" I mused. "That I shouldn't pay my taxes?" Link to my first published | | |
| A Xangan on Featured Adults asked me a question about getting published, and as I felt like giving an answer long enough to be useful, I thought I'd blog it. There's a lot more to the question of course, bit let's start by setting some background.... How do you get published? That isn’t as simple an answer as it used to be. At one time – years, maybe tens of years ago – you submitted your manuscript to a publisher, and if they liked it, they would offer to pay you royalties on sales, and carry all the financial burden of printing and marketing thousands of copies. That situation still exists, but publishers are now so flooded with manuscripts that it is practically impossible for them to asses the flood, and it is rare that a publisher will take the trouble and expense to read a Ms by an author - unless he is known and successful. Selling books is a business, just like selling different brands of breakfast cereal in a store. Forget about success through the merit of your writing: you need the backing of proven marketing system, of which a publisher is the first step. Self publishing is a way to “force” the system. As it has no interest in you, the potential best selling author, why wait in frustration for recognition that it will probably never give? There are thousands of companies out there who will – for a fee – format a novel, design a cover, arrange for printing, and place it on the market. How you introduce it to massive numbers of the buying public you have to figure out for yourself, because unfortunately these companies have little or no access to the network of contacts that can make an author famous, probably because they are not respected much by such contacts. A point to watch is that these companies know that a new author is highly unlikely to make any real money, so they want money up front. In addition, they are businesses, run for the purpose of making money, not friendly literary enthusiasts, as they will often try to pretend. Consequently they will try to sell you all kind of junk services in addition to the basic package, knowing full well that these will help you not at all. The third method is to handle all the aspects of formatting, cover design, registration etc. yourself. I would not recommend that an author try this unless very determined, but it is possible. But a final word: before trying to publish by any method, make sure your work is worth reading. There is an ocean of trash out there already; try to improve it rather than adding to it. Link to my first published, Wake of the Raven | | |
| In a recent interesting post, Heidenkind says "....women are not, for the most part, subjugated by men but by themselves." I like the qualifying "for the most part," which implies that there is no solid, all-inclusive rule. In many ways I agree. While men may talk a lot of macho crap - mainly after a few beers, and whilst with The Boys - they have no organised plan or intention to keep women "in their place," and most are amiably willing to let them do what they want generally as a group in society. But pause.... do not men in general (I mean the average "man in the street") extend the same amiability or disinterested tolerance to the other persecuted groups? Take gay males for instance. After no public outcry against them that I've ever heard of, they were legally outlawed in the UK by Act of Parliament in 1876, which status - again after no public outcry - was returned to legality in 1967, and the gay movement has flourished since with mainly indiference from sexually mainstream males. Amongst all the beer-swilling, skirt chasing, get-into-a-punch-up-for-fun friends I've had over the years (copies of myself in fact) I can't name even one who had any strong opinions against gay men, lesbians, Jews, Muslims etc., and neither do I. Yet history proves that empowered persons or groups did, to the point of murder or legal sanctions. These two were of course often one and the same. My point is that these social persecutions do not arise from men in general, nor women in general, but from ideas imposed by the relatively few members of society who form the ruling classes and power groups, churches being a major offender. In fact, if you wish to name the biggest group that is manipulated, deceived, held down and made to feel grateful for even being allowed to breath, it is not women, gays, blacks, North American Indians nor any such small collection: it is ordinary people in general. My published work on Amazon | | |
| Fat people should be respected. They serve a useful purpose in society by highlighting the beauty of those few of us who are glorious, even as a sparkling diamond is best displayed by laying it on a dull cloth. Also, in time of severe famine they would be a valuable food resource. Link to my Amazon Author's page | | |
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