 |
| The author/publisher, Dane F. Baylis |
THE TOUGH PART OF GETTING BACK INTO THE PUBLIC EYE
OR
HONESTLY, I WOULD LOVE TO BUT...!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As writers there is always that need to get into the public eye somehow. Whether it is reading your own work in some forum or event, or appearing as a panelist at a conference, or just showing up to support some other poor bastard trying to rise above the milling herd. Unfortunately, this can also become one of those places where you find yourself suffering from too much demand on your time. After all, your raison d'etre is the production and publication of the written word, the more time you spend gadding about from event to event, the less you spend maintaining the level of artistic competence necessary to move forward as a writer.
This is especially apparent in the digital age. It is very simple for someone to reach out to you, one writer to another, something that used to be confined to smokey barrooms and intimate writer's groups. It was a normal enough occurrence involving the exchange of ideas and progress where you could carefully pick and choose those few other souls to whom you felt a real bond.
Now, however, in the age of the 'friend request' and the 'contacts list', it is much easier for people on the periphery of your world to bombard you with long lists of events and gatherings. Many of these are more of the social consciousness or culturally sensitive variety. Those that are more a show of support for some local issue or cause and less about artists getting together to do what we used to be so damned good at - waxing profound on our latest hair-brained inspiration and waking up in strange locales.
Don't get me wrong. I have done time on the front lines of the moral struggle. I've stood shoulder to shoulder against wars, for equal rights, in union actions, and occasionally just because I came around a corner and there was an interesting crowd chanting a catchy slogan. But let's face it, I'm more prone to be introspective and a follower of Gandhi's saying these days, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." In other words, I'm out of the cause business and into the individual awakening realm.
A large part of what I do is simply to sit my ass in this chair and write. (That thing that 'writers' are supposed to do.) Lately I've taken up the publisher's hat in the hope I can help promote someone else along the road to calling themselves, "AUTHOR". This requires an enormous amount of time, concentration, stress, aggravation, and just plain staring at a wall trying to figure out my next move. But that's the idea isn't it? Writers write and the arbiters of social change polemicize, pamphlet, and sloganeer. All of which are writing also, just not the kind to which I am deeply committed.
So, if you need my support, send me a listing to your event, march, rally...whatever...and I will help by passing it along and spreading the word. If I can make it, and it's something I feel I can lend more than lip service to, I'll be there in a moment. Have a modicum of understanding when I say that life, family, and my own career as a writer are my most important motivators. Time away from any of them is a diminishing of me as a person and artist. But my saying no doesn't mean I disagree with you, just that I don't have the time to do it all.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile...live, love, write, and remember that is my goal, also.
Want to follow or
subscribe to this blog? There are gadgets for that on the right side of
the
page. You can leave
comments in the form below. I can be reached directly at dbaylis805@gmail.com . You can also find
links to some of the sites I visit from time to time on the right. I'm also
looking for submissions to the Your Work/Your Love page. Authors retain all
rights.
No comments:
Post a Comment