Over the past few days, I’ve come across a variety of interviews and blog postings by published writers talking about the difficulties of the profession. (The most recent is on the wonderful blog Type M for Murder http://typem4murder.blogspot.com.) Of course, as someone who has yet to see any of my fiction appear in print, I can only imagine the challenges that must be involved in that. But, while I appreciate that they must be formidable–as they are in any business or profession–writers like Phillip Roth just come across as complaining when they say they wouldn’t have gotten into the profession if they’d known what was involved. Nobody’s forcing them, after all.
I’ve been writing since I was a child and have only recently begun to pursue publication. Although there’s no guarantee I’ll reach that goal, it will not stop my private communion with notebook and keyboard. For those of us who are not yet published, perhaps it’s easier to remember that those are two separate things. Let’s hope my theory holds true when–or if– the day comes.
READING: I just completed the fascinating book called Methland by journalist Nick Reding. It’s the Pulitzer-prize winning story of how meth nearly destroyed the small town of Oelwein, Iowa, and what the town leadership did to turn things around. It would have been easy for him to focus only on the horrors of meth addiction, which are many, but he goes beyond it and analyses the social forces that contributed to the problem. Did you know that if you eat commercial meats, you could be supporting meth dealers? (Another day, another reason to love tofu.) I couldn’t put it down and finished the whole thing in an afternoon.
