My newest novel
I’m a writer, sometime software consultant, and gadabout living in the dead-center of San Francisco. I’m currently selling a novel, I run a bunch, and I probably spend far too much money on consumption and experiences…wait. No, I spend just enough. Consume and experience is what one should do. Thanks for stopping by!
Posted By Dan on January 4, 2012
I passed the 75,000 word barrier just now on the Big Thing I’m Working On. I started working on it at about this time last year, which means that I’m averaging something like 200 words per day, averaged out. Not too bad, considering how hard it is for me to find solid hour or two blocks for writing these days.
It’s a nice feeling, though - I’m so, so close to done. Then it’s a couple of weeks off to research and think about the second phase of this writing project, and then it’ll be time to plug in old things, rewrite, edit, and find the story that lies somewhere inside all of the prose.
Posted By Dan on December 22, 2011
And so ends 2011 (although, I might write here a bit more before the end of the year). I did a ton of writing stuff this year, just not so much here. I’ve got 70,000-odd words written of The Thing I’m Working On With Zero Commercial Potential.
(Well, it’s not poetry or anything. So it’s got slightly more than zero potential, I suppose)
And did a bunch of fun things with The Perplexing Problem, which I’m not sure what I’m going to do with through the next year.
Per my last post - the problem for fiction writers in this current environment is that putting together a fan base for fiction is tough; you can’t tour, you can’t release singles (well, you can, but not as a set of long-form stuff) and the editing process means that stuff takes a long, long time. There’s some way to do it, but…well, there you are.
Also, came up with an idea for yet another website; it’s burning in the back of my head. We’ll see.
Anyway, ’twas a very good year for me and what I’m trying to do with myself. So there is that.
Posted By Dan on December 14, 2011
By now, most people who know who he is have bought Louis CK’s special. I’m going to buy and watch it this weekend. What’s most interesting about it is how he did it - made a video, put it online, priced it fairly (less than a movie! a bit more than a couple of episodes of TV on iTunes), but in a way that basically says “hey, fans, you know me. I trust you. Go ahead and buy my special and do what you will.”
It’s very heartening for those of us who do produce content of any kind. It’s less heartening for those of us who don’t have a rabid fan base. Louis can do this because he’s got that base. It’s a base that he’s worked and bled for, and now he’s basically totally in control of his own destiny. As long as he keeps being funny, people will buy his stuff, watch his show on FX that he has total control over, and go to see him at the clubs.
No pressure on that, BTW. I’d never sleep.
But for those of us trying to break out…how does this new world of distribution work? Louis is almost the reverse of the ideal - he had to go through the standard system to build his base, getting a terrible sitcom, appearing on unfunny late-night shows, all of that. In a system where the creators are their own distributors and promoters, how do you break out? Being a brilliant writer/funnyman/musician doesn’t mean anything if nobody hears.
And…no sour grapes here; if I had the time and energy to really promote the book, I’d have done a better job promoting it. As it is, I got married this year, got laid off and found a new job, and managed to keep my life together. That’s pretty good. And I’ll get a decent tax writeoff on all of the book stuff for the business side of my life. So I’m OK.
But man, I’d love to sell 100,000 copies of the book at $3 apiece. It’s not that much money, really. So how to do it?
Posted By Dan on November 16, 2011
This came up at work - what’s the difference between “inactive” and “disabled”?
Well, here’s my answer:
“Disabled” means that the object/thing in question is broken, i.e. no longer able to perform its function without some kind of fixing. “Inactive” means that it can become active by performing some normal thing to it - not a repair. A car with the ignition set to “off” is inactive. A car with a four flat tires is disabled.
But now that I think about it, is that even a grammar question? Hm.
Posted By Dan on November 10, 2011
I was getting back from my run this morning, and there was a scuffed white van parked on the west side of the street. The door was open, and the inside was spattered with paint. On the walls of the main cargo compartment, someone had installed vertical dowels in pairs, about eight inches apart. They were racks, for the cans of paint that the painter carried in his van. For whatever reason, I thought that was really neat.
