JOURNAL ENTRY #18

May 31, 2008

The Florida Writers Association had me in as guest Saturday May 17, at Ponte Vedra Beach. This kind of event always makes for a rousing time, because the place is filled with people who are passionate about writing. A few admitted during asides that they had finished projects, but had not submitted them to editors. And were reluctant to do so. There's a tendency among beginning writers to assume they will never see publication, and consequently they don't really make the effort. The reality is that there's only one way to find out: A person who wants to write professionally should, rephrasing Heinlein slightly, finish his work, send it to one of the top publishers, and find out what happens. No one wants to reach a point in his life where he has failed to do something he really wanted to do, because he didn't think he could manage it, and consequently never really tried.

I've said this elsewhere, but for what it's worth: my experience is that most people underrate their own abilities. If you want to write, if you want to win the gorgeous young woman in the accounting department, if you want to be a doctor, whatever, make the effort. Make it happen.

Obama has withdrawn from his church. One deranged pastor too many, I guess. Whatever happened to the line from Article vi: 'No religious test'? Can anyone who has honestly looked at our world not at least wondered at the notion that we have a divine protector? This is after all a world in which hawks routinely gobble down kittens, armies of kids are born with a wide range of deformities, tidal waves and earthquakes kill thousands, planes go down, cranes fall over, and idiots in uniform prevent supplies from getting to people who are dying. But if you ever hope to run for political office, do not admit publicly that you might have a few doubts about sacred assertions.

We saw the "Crystal Skull" the other evening. Indy is always fun to watch, but I'd have preferred to see him taking on HUAC. THAT would have made for a fascinating two hours.

I've been reading John Lewis's =Walking with the Wind=, and the Ellison essay (from =The Essential Ellison=) both on the Selma marches. John Lewis led the first of the three marches, the "Bloody Sunday" event in which Alabama state troopers and the sheriff's deputies launched an unprovoked attack on the demonstrators, a group that included elderly persons, women, and children. They used clubs and tear gas. Harlan also has a blood curdling description of one of the marches. He was a participant, while most of us were off doing something else. (I was vacationing in Mexico.)

I've also been digging into "Cicero" from =Plutarch's Lives=, and Tom Paine's =The Crisis=. If any of this sounds as if I'm working on a time travel project, I'll plead guilty. Other characters will include Winston Churchill, Galileo, Charles Lamb, and Ben Jonson, among others. Readers will have a chance to sit in on the first production of =Hamlet=, and will visit the Alexandria Library in its heyday. With a guy who can read Greek and Latin.

— Jack

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Journal Index

Home