rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

back to work

THURSDAY

1st day of school, was on the road doing motivational speaking tues and cancelled 1st undergrad class
got paid, and every little bit helps when you on the financial edge, im thinking though that ima pull back

from the socialmedia thing, inclu rootsblog, im kinda tired of putting my business in the street, ima go into

stealth mode for awhile, or at least ima try, maybe restrain myself to political commentary

witness: repubs really repugnant these days aint they, their latest thing is that its folk too poor to pay income tax thats the problem, basically leave the rich alone, make the poor pay, its only fair - now they balking about FEMA helping the folk hurricane irene hammered in newengland, this new crew make you long for some compassionate conservatism, they getting meaner and meaner

im out, class prep

rdoc

 

 

MONDAY: 1ST WEEK OF SCHOOL

okay, back in the saddle, segueing from woodshed schedule (24/7) to schoolhouse schedule, which
is t/w/thur schoolhouse, f/s/sun my work -mon a toss, depending on how prepared i am for class

optimally i do 3 hr minimum daily workdays (2-6am) and 6 hr days on the weekend, thats optimal, ie doesnt
always work out - production is an ongoing process, writer got to arrange your life around production, so

that somehow, someway, everyday you getting your work done, regularly and consistently, only way you grow as a writer,
and you constantly tweaking your system - everyday pondering how do i get more product out of my daily bread

recently michelle bachman attributed earthquake and hurricane to gods wrath over budget excess

"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?'

i hope that idiot gets the repub nomination, even obama could beat her, whereas perry scare me
he just as loopy as she is, but he got a better front, that fool might win

 

 

 

have not done a lick of work

SATURDAY

for the last 4 days or so i have been reading dance w/dragons, geo rr martins latest thrones installment
my final days of sloth, school starts day after tomorrow and ima be on it again, but for the next few days

pure escapism, absolutely pure, glorious sloth, storm coming, im toasty in my cave, all caught up in another world,
literature doing its thing, should i be embarrassed its genre lit, nah, ima roll w/it, but how do i make this pay me realtime,

where is the path of significance here, (always got to be conscious of the most
significant use of my life/moments - thats what make me a conjureman)

maybe consider the literary trick of building a world so intense it supplants, for the duration of the read, the
real world, which is an integral component of what i hope to achieve on the lit plane, got to cast that spell

and hold it on them till they put the book down, at which point it becomes that lasting touch spell, bing, basically
cant have no flat notes that throw them out the song - everybody wont hear it, my song, but if they do hear it

got to hold it to them for the duration of the read -   okay, i feel like ive gone esoteric on you, im going back to my read

old friend of mine back home his mother died, wasnt able to make it home for the ceremonies

right about now, 130 saturday, but im there in my heart

all my love

 

WEDNESDAY

okay, this is actually a week later wednesday, and i only started working this weekend
about a week before school starts, took me almost a month off it appears, enjoyed it immensely

ive always resented a little that otherfolk be living life while im chained to the Sacred Desk
usually every discretionary moment i can beg borrow or steal given to that novel

part of it is that i was taking a break, part of it is i was afraid to try to take it to the next level
but now im in it and rolling, once i do this one im done until i hear from an editor, still waiting

on last call, not sweating it though, i refuse to sweat it - ran up on this great mit opencourseware site where
they put all these courses online in full, just started digging in so i dont know how deep the utillity goes

but i found their reading fiction courses useful, took notes for my own skilz, and i found their astrophysics
course impenetrable, totally totally, but ima keep trying, im determined to figure out how the universe works

as you know ima practicing metaphysician, w/emphasis on the meta, light on the physics
but if the evolution of humanity is my thing, and it is, i figure i need a better grounding in physics

and so on it goes -  lifelong autodidacts of the world unite

 

 

TUESDAY

have not done a lick of work, not a lick, since i turned novel in last month
not quite sure what thats about, ive enjoyed being free of the damned thing

but i need to get one more rewrite in before school starts, but just have not been able

the westsmiley road show ended up in memphis, if westsmiley had done me like they done
obama, i would kick them to the curb, this article say that black leaders working to enact

a reproachment before the election, obama will probably slide them the same slack he slide all
his sworn enemies, id kick them to the curb and leave them there, but as we know, obama aint me, if it

was me woulda been a lotta enemies splattered up against the curb by now

a new day

SATURDAY

fact that i havent heard from last publisher in 1st wave is a good thing really
means they considering it, a no you get right away, a yes you have to get folk

to sign off on it, im trying not to let my hopes get too high, just as likely to be a no
at the end of the process, depends on the power of the editor trying to buy it

then i got to worry about whether me and that editor going to see eye to eye
my 1st book me and the editor tussled for years over varying visions of what it should be

for that reason it might be advisible to go with a smaller press, ohwell, we will cross that bridge

when we get to it, i have worries sufficient unto the day

THURSDAY

on the nature of great books: "My view is that the right book has to reach you at the right time, and no person can be reached by every book. Literature is supposed to be beautiful and/or necessary—so if at a given time you don't either enjoy or need a certain book, then you should read something else, and not feel guilty about it."

took that quote from this article on great books that arent great, it was provocative
specially since i call myself attempting a 'great work' - there was another great line in this article

about joyce i think, somebody said he was too obviously writing for greatness instead of just writing
and i fear often that i have crippled whatever talent i had by trying too hard, but you know thats my nature

surely the potential of greatness have to entail being true to your nature, letting it come thru on the page
i tell my students if a novel dont cost you its probably not worth writing

reason i like that quote/article is because it speak to how subjective the judgment is, got to
keep that in mind when you writing (or selling) it, greatness dont read

the same to everybody

or write

all my love

 

WEDNESDAY

FB RESPONSE TO BARBARA: im not sweating it, im disappointed but im not sweating it - she sent it to her 1st string 1st and she told me she has more waves coming if the 1st one faltered - what i call myself doing is modeling the process for my students and anybody else come to the old rootdoctor for guidance on taking care of business, and i always tell my students, let the bigdogs tell you no 1st - im following babajohns footsteps here, as you know barbara he taught us not only how to write but how to be writers, and gave guidance on every step of the process, from learning how to write to how to be a professional and a longdistance runner (literary visionaries) - i call myself chronicling the process and how i respond to the steps, both the victories and the defeats, in the eternal quest for literary achievement - its all process

 

TUESDAY

hello world, well, ive gotten 5 rejections now, 1 still out - agent will send me the responses tomorrow
all that huff and puff of the last post has leaked out of me, i been dosed w/literary kryptonite

but im okay, im not surprised big pub not totally comfy w/my text, im just satisfied ive finished it, the damned
thing exists, somebody will publish it eventually but its clear im not going to get a 6 digit check behind it

thats unfortunate - but we still got the backup squad, tinhouse, riverhead & the like, which is just as
cool with me, and if they dont go for it, i know of some alternative presses i will be cool with

still need to hit it one more time but i guess i will wait and see what the comments/responses say
not that im going to pay that much attention to them during the rewrite, surely not going to rewrite it

to appeal to big publishing (notice that ive taken to calling them 'big publishing' - be nice, rick)
no, if anything this just gives me more leeway to go for what i know - to write for the generations

one of the advantages of having a regular paycheck, im not desperate, and the kudos of my mfa students (notoriously
hard to impress) and colleagues reassure me ive written something of worth, no matter what the industry say

apparenty i been spoiled, my 1st two novels came out big publishing, in spite of me being
clueless & writing strictly from the heart, now that i know what im doing im getting dissed

(or is it that ive crossed over into literary decline, well if i have im just going to ignore it, i think i got about 10 more years of literary achievement in me - mind and craft still feel viable to me, and like thurgood marshall said in his later years - its bonnies job to tell me when ive lost it, when its time to hangup the keyboard and take off the robes

ima give it one more good rewrite, then ima put it down, work on something else, i got projects begging for
attention - im satisfied ive written a good and perhaps even great novel, one more rewrite and im done

it wont bother me if it dont get published till im dead and gone, my job was to write it, period.
i was thinking the other day how so much of my work sounds pretentious while im living

but it will read better after im gone

all my love - rdoc

 

 

if you cant beat them lead them

TUESDAY

okay, time to get back to work, havent touched novel, been a little discouraged about it, waiting for the call but its also
been nice not thinking about it (well thinking about it just a little), not worrying about it, having relatively free time

now i got about two weeks before school focus starts and woodshed is over, time to get that last summer rewrite done
i got a lot of ideas about what i need to do with it and more will come once i start working it, but i believe today is the day

once again big publishing dissing me, dissing my work, i dont accept dis, im taking this novel to another level, im making it stronger

dis this by god - game on

and before i get a lot of folk telling me arthur dont be obsessive, leave it alone, let me tell you up front - forget you -
i got about 3 weeks to take my novel to higherground and ima use them - a novel can always be better -

and i have always used the disdain of the literary world to drive me on - my work has always been strange
and different and having to prove itself - my position is ima make my work so strong it can not be ignored,

dont care how many years it take, dont care how many rewrites

i am rickydoc

 

 

 

MONDAY

so, the deal been struck, strictly on repub terms but not as bad as i feared, i feared obama would give away the store

he gave away the merchandise but he kept the store - what im hoping is that obama intends to let the bush tax cuts
expire, then i will call this a win, a questionable win perhaps but in politic 2011 you take what you can get

as for novel, getting the hang of this again, 1st couple of weeks i kept expecting to hear that the bidding had started,
then when i didnt hear i was like o god, disaster, my novel is a farce - but im chilling now, its kinda funny

because i tell my students this all the time - patience puppy, put it out your mind, work on another project
if i dont hear from agent in a month or so i will ask for an update, otherwise rdoc chilling

they asked me if i want to be kept up on developments i told them no, just tell me when we get good news
can you imagine every couple of days hearing that you been rejected once again, no, ima pass, thank you

i got this idea im hyped up, dear regulators, so, i tried hypertext for a moment back in 90s, didnt work for
me, variety of reasons, but now im thinking the time is right what with the ipads and all, for a digital novel

im not thinking nook digital, im thinking hypertext digital, im thinking a textbased hypertext novel, textbased
because it cant be a movie, im thinking you reading about a storm and the text starts raining letters

or rain if letters too corny, initial concern is that it delight & illuminate every reading and not be distractive or gimmicky

that it actually take the novel and the experience of reading it deeper - im so excited

im thinking reading about a holybook and mlks mountaintop speech comes out of it, w/images of struggle

im thinking app -  will have to collaborate on it with an app person, but ive already started reconcepting RFTW
for it, soon as im finished w/the print version ima do that (along w/holybook and book of shorts of course)

i want to get started right away but i got to restrain myself, got to wait till the print version is a done deal

done a lot of thinking on it, i cant tell you too much more about it because i dont want big publishing to run
away w/the idea, this between you and me dear regulators, i pull this off ima blow the literary worlds mind

a seminal/shaping moment in the evolution of lit, 21st century stylee - i think the digitization of lit is inevitable
im just trying to get ahead of the curve, rdoc thrive on the cutting edge, if you cant beat them lead them