If you want to read an excellent take on writing and rejection, check out Barbara Ross's part two post at http://mainecrimewriters.com/ today. It reminds me of Shakti Gawain's tenet about plenty being a pipeline and those who hoard anything, be it money, talent, love, whatever, have things backwards because the act of hoarding simply kinks the pipe. I'm in the "If you want to keep it, you have to give it away camp." It works for sobriety, it works for technical skills, it works for good reads, heck, it works for surplus veggies in summer.
Today is the annual Hartland Town Meeting. I'm facing a 10% cut in the library budget at a time when we really need an increase to help with maintenance. The roof is beginning to curl, the brickwork has cracked on both sides of the steps and we have at least one crack in the foundation that results in flooding whenever we get prolonged heavy rain. It is my understanding from a friend who has a degree in political science that a line item cannot be increased by an amendment, only decreased. If that's true, then any hope of getting adequate funding is dead for 2012.
Last night, I obsessed about it for at least an hour, to no good result of course. The process, did, however, give me the opportunity to seriously examine my future commitment to the library and discover it has significantly decreased. I know patrons are wonderful, appreciative and supportive, but none of that pays bills and I don't want the stress of having to worry about having sufficient revenue to cover expenses. I, the board and our capable volunteers, have worked darn hard to give the Tri-Town area the best possible library. To put it bluntly, I'd much rather go work in relative obscurity in another library job at this point in my life and let someone else worry about finances. Stay tuned for further details.
One of the plot elements in "Last of the Mango Firecats" revolves around the protagonist having to leave Ballicore and come to Earth because of his addiction. Magic works on Ballicore, but there is no magic treatment for substance abuse, hence his flight/exile to earth. In the course of re-editing what I had written back in 2005 so I could go forward with the story, I realized I had the germ of a sequel. What would happen if my hero and his main squeeze took recover off world and started the movement on a world halfway across the universe? Would it work and if so, how? Universal sobriety; what a concept. Stay tuned for further details.
Today is the annual Hartland Town Meeting. I'm facing a 10% cut in the library budget at a time when we really need an increase to help with maintenance. The roof is beginning to curl, the brickwork has cracked on both sides of the steps and we have at least one crack in the foundation that results in flooding whenever we get prolonged heavy rain. It is my understanding from a friend who has a degree in political science that a line item cannot be increased by an amendment, only decreased. If that's true, then any hope of getting adequate funding is dead for 2012.
Last night, I obsessed about it for at least an hour, to no good result of course. The process, did, however, give me the opportunity to seriously examine my future commitment to the library and discover it has significantly decreased. I know patrons are wonderful, appreciative and supportive, but none of that pays bills and I don't want the stress of having to worry about having sufficient revenue to cover expenses. I, the board and our capable volunteers, have worked darn hard to give the Tri-Town area the best possible library. To put it bluntly, I'd much rather go work in relative obscurity in another library job at this point in my life and let someone else worry about finances. Stay tuned for further details.
One of the plot elements in "Last of the Mango Firecats" revolves around the protagonist having to leave Ballicore and come to Earth because of his addiction. Magic works on Ballicore, but there is no magic treatment for substance abuse, hence his flight/exile to earth. In the course of re-editing what I had written back in 2005 so I could go forward with the story, I realized I had the germ of a sequel. What would happen if my hero and his main squeeze took recover off world and started the movement on a world halfway across the universe? Would it work and if so, how? Universal sobriety; what a concept. Stay tuned for further details.
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