Regrouping

It's one thing to be tired due to work, exercise, or family stress, financial pressure and such, but it's another thing entirely to be tired due to the daily carpet bombing of my sense and sensibility by stories of mentally disturbed politicians, deceptive leaders, rats in suits and ties, and the unfathomable deaths of children at the hands of madman. I don't even know how to make a smooth transition from this to the rest of my post, so I'll just get on with it.

Somewhere, I think in a cover story in a business mag, someone wrote that one of the important features of a "successful" blog -- whatever that is -- is to post daily, without fail. This I have not done over the last month. It's not that my life has been that crazy, but it has been going off in many directions. Here's what's up:

The Show
The solo performance piece I did last month went well -- I give it a 97%. The audience was most appreciative, several described the show as enriching, and two members said they felt "changed," which is magical. I have been invited by a member of an organization to perform it again at a large conference in November, and I have accepted.

I didn't plan on a second performance, and I don't plan on a third. I've been around enough to live by simple but important rule, which is "one gig at a time," which allows me to focus on the gig, and prevents me from entertaining any inclinations to think, imagine or fantasize about the future, which doesn't 'exsist' anyway.

The Book & Movie Thing
The book rights are about an event and its aftermath, and at its center is a gun, but IT'S NOT A GUN RIGHTS/GUN CONTROL/SECOND AMMENDMENT story; whether the gun thing puts publishers off or not, I'm in no position to really judge. My agent believes that the story is now stale, and that's his belief as to why so many publishers have passed, even after taking the time to hold editorial review meetings with senior editors to discuss the story.

The Strive Agency, that biggest ape in Hollywood agency who wanted the movie rights to the story, have said they're really interested in repping the story to studios, but they're not willing to include optioning the book, nor are they willing to entertain any notions about my involvement in bringing the story to the smaller screen (they firmly see it as a cable TV movie, not a big screen thing). The people at the heart of the story have said they don't want to do anything -- especially within the limitations dictatd by Strive -- without me, and, thus, the entire deal has fallen apart after a year of haggling.

My Job
Yep, had to get a part-time job, for a shitload of reasons, but really because I've invested three years of time and money in the book project, and it's just not feasible to continue on. Where does a writer/media guy go when he needs to get a part-time gig? Why, to a book and media store, of course. It's with one of the 'big' bookstore chains, the pay is shit, but it's interesting to constantly interact with people who like to, who HAVE to read. In one of those buzzy moments, on the first day of training, I walked past a book for which I had been content editor. There's just an odd feling when you're walking past a book that you may have to ring up in your job as cashier, and the book has a short paragraph in the acknowlegments where the author thanks you for your work.

As a writer, I welcome every opportunity to study the human race, to observe, to question, to decipher, and to wonder about, well, about us. In this reagrd, I'm getting a headful of material, observing a wide spectrum of types and behaviors. Some quick observations:

- Just because a stylish woman is decked out in expensive clothes, with a haircut that costs more than the yearly salary of people in many developing countries, and with a level of intelligence and apparently successful career, doesn't mean she isn't a slob. She's not the only one, but to actually see her take a stack of magazines from one end of the store to the kids department, flip through them for an hour, then get up and stride out of the store and leave them in a pile for some poor worker like me to pickup after her is a revelation. She's not alone, though, and I only use her because the irony of her appearance and comportment vs. her actions is an eye-opener.

- For many people, the only difference between spending an entire day or evening in a large bookstore and spending the same amount of time in a public library is that you can't get coffee at the library.

- People who come in looking for a specific book are overjoyed when you find it for them. Really.

I'll try not to bore y'all with work stories for however long this period of employment goes on.

The Future of Story & Pictures
Yeah, I'm still going to get off Blogger (see my earlier post about Google and Blogger if you need a refresher), and I'm working on the concept and look for the next generation of S&P. I'll also be posting on a regular basis, because, well...just got to do it, y'know?

Peace.