Love in Dark Settings

"I figured out early on that writing is about failure. Almost 100 percent guaranteed failure. You'll never write it as well as you want, you will always fall short of perfection, a typo will always slip in, rejection is more certain than death and taxes, and, if you are lucky enough to get published, a horde is waiting to happily rake you over the coals. After a while, you build up great layers of scar tissue. At this point, I don't care what anyone thinks except my readers, who are my only customers. And, in a way, they are among my closest, most intimate friends. So why should I care if some scared writer [who condemns self-publishing] tries to apply a stigma? If you're a writer, you should be scared, but if you go around worrying about other writers, you have your eyes on the wrong prize.

"Listen to readers. They rarely apply stigma. The only labels they care about are 'good' and 'crap.'"

--Scott Nicholson.

How I reply to comments at this blog.


( Dear writer who wishes me to read their book/e-book )

( What writing I'm working on, now and in the coming months )

( In the I'm-so-proud-of-my-boy department . . . )

( Muse Marathon )

( My Muse and my mental health )

( About the Doctor Who episode, 'A Good Man Goes to War' )

( Reply to comments )

A due warning to all you folks who find discussions of real-life leather to be squicky: You'll want to skip this entry.

( Leather Seminar #1: Basics of Resistance Management )

"Working as a servant was as much a rite of passage for young people in the late Middle Ages and early modern era as going off to college is today. In contrast with other societies around the world, where servants were usually a class of people doomed to servitude for their entire lives, in northwestern Europe large numbers of young people passed through a phase of service before forming their own households and working their own lands or trades. In northern Europe, anywhere between one-third and one-half of all young people put in time as servants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the early 1700s, according to one study, 60 percent of all English youths aged fifteen to twenty-four worked as servants at some point in their lives."

--Stephanie Coontz: Marriage, a History.

Topics in this post: military history, orders, leather history, service, protocol, schedules, family hierarchy, religious hierarchy, business hierarchy, support networks for hierarchy.

( Read more... )

I mentor Jo/e Noakes. I began by mentoring him in writing, but after a few months, it became clear to both of us that, although he is about the same age as I am, he could also benefit from having me pass on to him some life skills.

Our model is apprenticeship: Noakes learns by helping me do tasks. We also use protocol to help keep our mentor/apprentice roles in mind. In January 2011, Noakes moved in with me, since chronic illness has made it difficult for me to do some daily tasks.