Spring is here. It was a long, long winter and I'm happy that warmer days are on the way. I love winter, but the past few months has been rough for my family and I. Sickness, after sickness and more sickness on top of that. Whatever went through daycare I think I thought I'd try it on.
But today, I'm thinking of days to come and not the days gone by. I've been working around the house as well as working on all my blog, podcast sites (www.TheMagicSock.com [Magic: The Gathering weekly podcast], www.TheJovianGate.com [The Jovian Gate Chronicles is my science fiction short story collection available for free) and my Twitter profile page. After all the work was done, today my family and I went to Longwood Gardens and it was nice to smell spring in the air and see all the wonderful flowers on display.
My favorite moment was of my wife, kids and I sitting down on some chairs near the water. The sun shone in on us and I took a few minutes to rest in my chair, close my eyes and allow the sun's warmth to wash over me, to cleanse me and strengthen me. To rest, relax and just be is a great way of healing oneself. And both my wife and I have needed that. Some time to rest and to enjoy the moment. In cleaning my office yesterday, I came across a post-it note that I had written several years ago. The message: "Remember, to walk to help inspire creativity (no iPod, cell phone, etc.)." The message behind my note reminded me that it's important to take time to rest. To rest, be and heal. Remember that. Enjoy your day.
Dorothea's Song Listener Feedback
When I was younger and I thought about what I wanted to do with my life, I used to wax poetic and tell my closest friends that I wanted to much to be able to reach out to people and to share my life experiences with others from the world. I dreamed of becoming a writer when I was a young boy. I also dreamed of becoming an Astronomer but feared that I wouldn't be very good at it as math is not a strong skillset of mine. Now I look back and I wonder if I would have tried--how would I have been? But that's a story for another day.
Yesterday I received an e-mail from a listener of my fantasy novel "Dorothea's Song." He wrote to tell me how much he enjoyed my book and, although it was a bit frustrating to wait until all 15 episodes were out, he stuck with it and really liked the book. What I really liked about his e-mail is that he commended me on my French in the book and, here's the kicker, my book had turned him on to wanting to listen to other audio books. He had really enjoyed it.
Many, many years ago, before there was an internet, I used to think of how I could reach out and share my work with others. I never dreamed that there would be tools to allow me to release my book to the world. But the world has changed and so have I. What I've realized is that there is a power in community and in building your listener base one person at a time. Let me say that again: One PERSON at a time. To reach out to a listener (who lives in France) and to thank him for trying my work out is one thing, but my first thought was to go back to the Podiobooks Yahoo Group and to ask fellow authors if their works might be fantasy based--that I was looking to give recommendations on to the listener of my book. I received a good many links and summaries to fellow authors' books and I sent them along to the listener. Community. Follow through. Sharing.
Is this an amazing world we live in? We have the means to make our childhood dreams come true, but we also have the responsibility of taking that extra step to help someone as we hope that we will one day be helped. There's the long tail, there's building our brand and there's the individual. The one upon one upon another.
I've said for the last few years now that we are at a crossroads. We, as in our entire world, are transitioning from the models of the old (how music, movies, books and other media are sold and distributed) to the new. There are great differences between the old and new ways. I wonder if there will be a meeting of the minds between the two worlds. Will there be a mingling of how old media adapts and can be flexible to reach out to the individual or will that not be the case? I already see some artists allowing their entire albums to be listened to online. I see what Tori Amos is doing (sell high quality bootlegs of her concerts in FLAC and mp3 so that her fans can hear all of her shows on her tour) as well as Trent Reznor and Raidohead and I think that there is hope to the future.
To think that you can give your work away for free and have a modest amount of success is rewarding as some readers/listeners will make a donation to you is promising. I admit that we have a long, long way to go, but we're still in the wild, wild west phase of media changing and growing to what distribution will become. I cannot see how we will all end up, but I see the writing on the wall. Change is coming. Some won't like it. But in the end, it's only within our power to bend like a tree in the wind.
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