LESSONS (A New Fall Series)

Part One


"Hui-tse said to Chuang-tse, "I have a large tree which no carpenter can cut into lumber. Its branches and trunk are crooked and tough, covered with bumps and depressions. No builder would turn his head to look at it. Your teachings are the same--useless, without value. Therefore, no one pays attention to them."

"As you know," Chuang-tse replied, "a cat is very skilled at capturing its prey. Crouching low, it can leap in any direction, pursuing whatever it is after. But when its attention is focused on such things, it can be easily caught with a net. On the other hand, a huge yak is not easily caught or overcome. It stands like a stone, or a cloud in the sky. But for all its strength, it cannot catch a mouse."

"You complain that your tree is not valuable as lumber. But you could make use of the shade it provides, rest under its sheltering branches, and stroll beneath it, admiring its charachter and appearance. Since it would not be endangered by an axe, what could threaten its existence? It is useless to you only because you want to make it into something else and do not use it in its proper way."


Part Two

As we have likely recognized by now, no two snowflakes, trees, or animals are alike. No two people are the same, either. Everything has its own Inner Nature. Unlike other forms of life though, people are easily led away from what's right for them, because people have Brain, and Brain can be fooled. Inner Nature, when relied on, cannot be fooled. But many people do not look at it or listen to it, and consequently do not understand themselves very much. Having little understanding of themselves, they have little respect for themselves, and are therefore easily influenced by others............The way of Self-Reliance starts with recognizing who we are, what we've got to work with, and what works best for us.

....................Benjamin Hoff, Author of The Tao of Pooh


I've come to realize several things as we (my family and I) near the end of summer. Season endings are always the perfect time for measuring, evaluating, planning. First of all, I've had a great summer. I've spent it exactly as I had intended---not rushing to get anywhere, do anything, meet anyone. I'd said at the beginning that I wasn't going to fall into the deep dark belly of Camp. Payments, packing lunches, rushing to get there. No. I wanted this summer to be open. My kids have a great time just relaxing, playing, going to swimming and gymnastics, trucking off to the library and coming home with two bags full of books, going to the pool, the beach....family stuff. In regard to the novel, I reached about 75% of the goal I'd set. I wanted to have the whole novel outlined by the end of summer. Well, the outline is not complete (that is, it isn't cleaned up in it's entirety) but I have successfully managed to read the whole thing through and outline the contents of every single chapter. In other words, I know what every single chapter contains and I have it down on paper. That's a good thing.
I've started the publishing process for my chapbook and I've revised the second story that a few editors and readers have told me was really good but too predictable around the middle, leaving little motivation to read the rest. Okay, I can work with that. All of my poems are tight and ready to go. I've begun discussions with two local women interested in starting a co-op. I don't know where it's going just yet but I'm open to at least a discussion. I've read the books I wanted to read and I've come away with new ideas for the rewrites of my own novel. I've decided to keep the third person, distant narrator but I'm also going to intersperse chapters of first person from my protagonist's wife's POV. I've decided that she needs to have more of a voice in this story.

Another thing I've realized, after talking with my friend last week during a break from her conference: I am not using what I have to its best potential. We were talking about the boom of Black and Latino authors getting quite sizable book contracts. Many that we both know (some I know personally, some she knows) are not working other jobs. They've been blessed to write full time. Though all are writing different kinds of stories, the one common denominator is that all of them did a great deal of self promotion to get where they are. Some self published. Some sold books out of the backs of their cars, others spent long hot summers sending out mailers about their books before they came out. The bottom line for both of us, as we sat at that lunch table, we are not doing enough self promotion. My excuse? My novel's not done yet.But my girlfriend has two books and does a lot of speaking regarding her books, but she doesn't have a website and honestly, she doesn't self promote. When I examined my excuse further, I realized that sure, I don't have a novel in my hand just yet, but I do have a collection of poems, short stories and essays. I do own this blog. I have a love for teaching young people how to write. I do have quite a few venues in my area and even more down in the Capitol that I can go to to read my work. After all, I don't live in Boonstown. I do live near the Capitol of the United States. What I'm saying here is that I do have resources and a means to get my name out there. To self promote. There are many things I can do to increase my presence AND build an audience before the book is done. Change is in order. And so, rather than use this as a space for my own personal ranting and views, I am going to use it as more of a creative space in which to showcase my work, talk about my life as a writer, what I've learned, maybe even do a few book reviews. Perhaps I'll generate a newsletter of some kind. And maybe I'll even post a few pictures when I go to readings. I don't know. But I do know that where I am right now may not be a builder's tree but it is a tree nonetheless. And I need to do the most that I can with what I have.

Day before yesterday I was hit with the Worm that infected systems nationwide. Spouse and I couldn't figure out what was going on and spent hours trying to re-config this machine. But as the good Lord, Protector that He is, would have it I was driving down the road and heard the announcer mention an error message that was similar to mine. I raced home and sure enough, there was Dan Rather explaining what it was and how to get rid of it. I'm back in stride again. And in the spirit of moving forward, I've become the owner of myname.com. It should be available in a few days.

Anyhow, I'm going to try to scale back to blogging only once a week, more if there's something I really want to say. For now though, I'm doing the things I need to do to push my career forward. Two good friends have given me manuscripts to read and another and I are looking for venues to get out and read our stuff. I'm going to be doing a lot of reading up on Plot once I start these rewrites (target date: Sept 2, 1st day of school for Kid 2) and other general reading on pacing, etc. And finally, treat of all treats: I found a guitar last night for $25 bucks! One string is broken which I will have fixed but it's in pretty good shape. The kids are so excited to play on it and Spouse looks at me like I'm more of a bohemian than he'd ever bargained for. But he squeezes me and tells me he loves me anyway.

I love you too, babe. Happy Anniversary.

Be Good.
ANGEL