Don’t ask me why, but I felt like sharing this link: http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley.html

I have a sort of fascination with language, so I think this will be an interesting series to listen to.  But, I’ve only listened to one of the broadcasts so far, so I can’t truly endorse it yet.

I also wanted to share this blog by bottledworder: The paradox of blogging

I empathize, because I never know why the blog posts that get the most likes get them.  And some of the ones I’ve liked the most have received very little attention or likes.  So, it’s all kind of a crap shoot, really.

(I don’t think it actually is.  I just think I don’t have a well-developed style yet and that people read or follow this blog for wildly different reasons which means I’m not writing for a homogenous audience.  Good on one hand, because I can explore different ideas or themes and find someone who will like it.  Bad on the other hand, because it’s hard to build momentum if you aren’t moving in one direction.)

And, finally, I just had to share Chuck Wendig’s 25 Writer Resolutions for 2013 (And Beyond)

There’s some good shit in there.  A few quotes:

“Creators are passionate people; they have to be. Passion drives us to do what we do. But that passion easily goes septic and next thing you know, instead of pointing it toward our work and our desires, we’re instead letting it fuel some bullshit argument or be the rope that binds us into some crass emotional tangle.” (From #7)

“As we challenge ourselves with our writing, so too should we seek similar challenge in our reading. Read that which you would not normally read. Seek new input. Don’t let your mind grow indolent and complacent, a sluggy psychic blob covered in mental Dorito dust.” (From #9)

“Just the same, I shouldn’t be savaging the architecture of my flesh with gross indolence and needless diet. The mind and the body are inextricably linked — it’s time to stop dragging down the mind with the negligence of the body.” (From #15)

“Know who you are as a writer. This is, I find, the curse-iest curse that plagues us — and it doesn’t just plague us at the beginning of our journey. Oh, if only. It’s a nettling, nibbling, nattering imp riding on our shoulders years into the great egress from our old, uncreative lives. Find your process. Uncover what works for you. Find your voice. Find what you like. Discover why you tell stories. Discover your desires. Find your frailties. Find yourself in your fiction and find your fiction in you. The faster we can start to figure out who we are, how we work, and what we want, the faster we can move forward telling the kinds of stories we want to tell — and the more confident we become in doing it.” (From #25)

Seriously, just go read the whole list.  It’s awesome.  And in the twisted, psychotic way that only Wendig can write it.

And, I won’t link to it here, but a newer author shared their first three or four years of revenues after a significant contest win.  Most folks who read it found it inspiring.  It reminded me yet again that I should not be trying to do this for the money.  Unless I plan on living in the back of a campervan and borrowing friends’ showers.  (And I’m too old for that…)  So, as much as I’d love to be in this for the money, I’m not.  I think I just enjoying thinking.  About people and life and what’s possible in this world.

Anyway.  Time to go spend an hour trying to learn some more Czech.  Right now I have the basics I need which are, “Excuse me?  I don’t understand.  Do you speak English?”  Although, I can tell you, I will be slipping into random Russian phrases when I get tired or confused.  Good day and goodbye are just too similar not to.  (What can I say?  I had a weird father who taught me random Russian phrases for no reason when I was growing up.)