Another advirt

I just posted another add on Craigslist. I wonder what kind of replies I’ll get to this one…

Subject: I Just Need $5000
Body: I will do anything for $5000. All offers of employment excepted for contemplation. Email with the details of your job. Thank you.

(Update:  Oddly, no takers.  Not a one.)

Funny Ha Ha

I haven’t offered many links of this site, but I had to share this one. Jon Lajoie had me laughing all afternon today. Check him out! —> JonLajoie.com

Writing Partner Needed

Here is an add I posted on Craigslist New York today…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First of, let me start by saying “I am not a writer.”

Okay, that’s not entirely true, for I am writing these words right now, aren’t I? So perhaps it would be better for me to say “I am not a novelist.” - But I hope to be one one day, with your help.

Yeah see, I am looking to find a writing partner who will help me accomplish this goal of writing a novel. I need a co-author.
But perhaps a bit more information is needed first…

Other then what was required in two semesters of “Creative Writing” in college (which was a selection of short stories, a one act play, and a compilation of poetry), I have never sat down and written a work of fiction. I can write a humorous letter to friends, but a novel? Not so much. BUT…

For the last year or so I have had this “big idea” brewing in my head. I have a very complicated setting, a very week plot line and some generic characters. Sure, it doesn’t sound all that great so far, but this “big idea” is one I can not shake. I can’t get it out of me head! I just know I have to do something with it; it has to be used, to be forged into the full form of a novel. I have tried to sit down and write the “big idea” that I have, but I am just not able to get started. I don’t know if I have a block, or if because I am unexperienced in the realm of creating fiction, but I don’t know where to start.

So, I’ve come up with the idea of finding a “co-author” to help me along. Basically, I am looking for an experienced writer of fiction. You need not be a published author, just someone who is experienced. Also, I am looking for someone who is willing to collaborate as well as mentor, who is willing to take as well as give. The scheme in my mind is this…

* First, I share with you the “big idea” of mine. (It may not be the greatest idea of all time, but it’s mine and I enjoy it.)
* Second, together we work to strengthen the storyline and characters and come up with an outline.
* Third, you begin the first pass of writing, then it comes back to me to edit and rewrite.

If my confidence grows and I want to give it a pass, perhaps I will write a section and then you edit it and rewrite it. Or perhaps we bother write parallel storylines within the larger work. Who knows, we’ll work all this out later.

I am not going to give away my “big idea” here, but to flush out my needs a little more, I am looking for someone who is familiar with the genera of “alternative history”, like the work of Harry Turtledove. I would like to find someone who is familiar with the history of the NASA and the space race. I am looking for someone with a bit of science fiction experience, but who works with the real life hard science aspects of the genera, and not the space opera type of sci-fi. I am looking for someone who enjoys speculative futurism (is that a term , or did I just make it up), especially the way people in the past thought of their future, which is now our present. I also am looking for someone who enjoys a good “government cover up/conspiracy theory” story.

Right now, I just want to find someone who is willing to collaborate. Polite collaboration is a big key here (I’m not big on confrontation - no bullies please). Someone who, even though is more of an experienced writer then I, someone who is still willing to listen and thoughtfully consider my ideas.

As I said, it’s not necessarily my goal to be published, but that would be great. However, I do plan on releasing the novel online for free, under a Creative Commons license. (See rickdakan.com and his novel “Geek Mafia” for an example of an author who did this well.) Also, because I’m the unexperienced writer, I will allow your name to be first on the cover. It can read… By “You” & “Me”, story by “Me”. Any profit made from this endeavor will be split 50/50, though money making isn’t my main goal.

Now a bit more about me (begin ramble)… I am a stay at home dad in Portland Maine. I am posting this to Craigslist in New York, simply because I expect to get more responses in a larger city. (if I don’t get a good reply in NYC, then I’ll try LA, or London, or somewhere else.) I figure, with email, phone and IM, we don’t necessarily need to be in the same room to work. Also, I love to visit New York as much as I can, and this project would give me the excuse to come visit again and meet new people. — Because I am a full time dad, my free time is limited, so if you are willing to undertake this project with me, please do not expect us to rush right through it. It can be a “back burner” project for you. — I have a degree in History and enjoy doing research. I am 35 and am having a bit of a “mid life crisis” as of late. I am really feeling the need to create lately, to leave behind some kind of “work or art” that will outlast me. I grew up in New England, but have lived in Texas and England, and would do anything to move back to London. I am racked with student loan debt for my degrees which I am not using. I have a crappy computer, and have been fighting the strong urge to just run out and by a new MacBook Pro; to just stick it on my credit card and let the consequences be damned. (but my wife would kill me). I have a bunch of comic books for sale online, to hopefully pay off my debt, at Longboxes.com. (end ramble)

So, if you find yourself intrigue by the idea of collaborating, and would like to consider working with me, to take me on as your apprentice, and to perhaps write the next great work of fiction, let me know. Please send me an email describing your writing history, your writing style, perhaps include something you’ve written, or anything else you think I should know, please send it along. I look forward to your replies, and hope that we can work together soon!

(Update:  No responses)

Rejected

Turkey Week - no posts. Too busy. Oh well.

This weekend I was turned down by Google Adsense. I believe this is because I had their adds on my old site, and made the mistake of asking people to visit the sites of the advertisers before they left my site. I phrased it in a polite, old time-y manner, but it turns out to be against the rules of Google. Oh well. I screwed up, and instead of allowing me to learn my lesson and give me a second chase I have been rejected. I’m not happy about this. I’m still a Google fan, but the shine is off their apple if you will.

Speaking of apples, now how will I find the coins to purchase a new computer? I need advertisers. But first, I need content to attract people, which will then attract customers. I really need a decent idea for content. Still working on this.

Look at me, I’m blogging about blogging again. Crap. i hate doing that. Gotta stop. Gotta go think of some original ideas.

nope, nothing is coming to mind. crap.

Definition

While in the car this morning, I was listening to “The Writers Almanac w/ Garrison Keillor” on NPR. (I believe that the day I started to enjoy and appreciate NPR was the day I matured and became an adult.) Anyway, he recited a poem that really struck a chord with me; that made me think for this site. Let me present it to you now…

“The Hour” by Michael Lind, from Parallel Lives. © Etruscan Press, 2008. NOT reprinted with permission. (please don’t sue me)

The Hour
Maybe the moment recurs daily at six, when commuters,
freed from the staring computers,
elbow and bump in unsought intimacy on a station
platform with you, and frustration
rots what is left of your strength. Maybe the hour comes after
dinner, when televised laughter
seeps from a neighboring room; maybe the time is the dead of
night, when you ponder, instead of
dreaming. Whatever the time, you will escape it—by sinking
down with a book, or by drinking
secretly out in the dark studio, or by unbuckling
pants on a stranger, or chuckling,
one with a mob, in a deep theater. Soon, though, the hour
comes to corrode all your power,
pleasure and faith with the damp dread that it daily assigns you.
How you evade it defines you.

I believe that the time I spend doing my “little projects”, such as this site, that is how I escape the “the hour”. And I wonder, how does this define me?

Comic Books

Instead of spending the day coming up with something witty to say, I spent it working on my other site, LONGBOXES.com. While making a few dollars is one of the things I want to do on this site, so I can get a new computer, over on LONGBOXES.com, I am selling off part of my comic book collection so I can pay off my student loan. If you’ve some how stumbled onto this site, please stumble over to LONGBOXES.com as well. Thank you.

Piss Poor Portraits

Darth Vader
Originally uploaded by senseless.babble

Not only am I a bad blogger, I am also a bad artist. Here are some of my recent creations, all part of a series of works I am creating which I call “Piss Poor Portraits”.

First up, an older piece, because I am such a Star Wars geek, a piece simply titles “Darth Vader”. Oil, from 1994. I painted this piece without reference material, just to see if I could. To test my inner nerd, if you will. (and my inner nerd is more often then not my outer nerd, as you will soon learn if you continue to check back on this site!)

Cory, number 1
Originally uploaded by senseless.babble

Second in my “Piss Poor Portraits” series, another oil piece. I call it “Cory, number 1″ - Notice the brush strokes on the face. Very interesting, are they not? (Wait, don’t answer that!)

Tay, unfinished
Originally uploaded by senseless.babble

And finally, a piece I call “Tay, unfinished”. I call it “unfinished” because the white back ground is simply raw paper. This piece was created with pencil, sharpie, crayola crayon, cay-pas oil sticks and watercolors. - And of course, all art seen on this page is one of a kind, and up for sale if you would like to make me an offer. - Check back again for more pieces in in this series of portraits that are so piss poor, that they are genius!