No, that's not sarcastic. I get so much satisfaction from self-publishing. I've done a lot of it, giving chapbooks away to friends and family, but this summer marks the first time someone's paid me for my poetry. I have sold two, count 'em, TWO chapbooks at the local crafts & farmers market this summer! I'm over the moon. For some reason, getting payment for a chapbook makes me feel "published" more affirmatively than when I hand them out for free.
It also makes me want to take another stab at sending my work out for publication. Here are the problems with trying to get published in the commercial world: 1) there are a million other people trying to do exactly the same thing, and a limited market; 2) it's incredibly labor- and time-intensive to prepare the submittal; and 3) you end up having to spend a fair amount on postage, supplies, and readers' fees or samples of the magazine in question.
Really, what you're seeing here is one end of a perennial debate with myself. It takes a massive investment of resources to try to get published. But it's worth investing the resources. However, being a notorious procrastinator, plus busy with work and other activities, I rarely get past square 2 or 3. I've submitted a few things in my life, and besides the time I spent as a journalist, I'm getting published currently as a columnist in a regional pet magazine - but it's scarcely enough to call a resume. I crave national publication! :) The worst of it is that I know exactly what I need to do, I just haven't made the time to do it... yet.
29 July 2007
27 July 2007
Still here!
It feels like it's been forever since I blogged... Largely because I've been spending all my computer free time over at www.icanhascheezburger.com. Man, oh man - wayyyy too much fun.
Of course, the big topic for my first post since reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" has got to be the fact that I loved this book. It wowed me even more than I was expecting. I read it twice, that first weekend that I got it, and have since started on the happy ritual of reading the entire series sequentially.
It's kind of bizarre to think that I can finally do that. I so clearly remember finishing the first book, seven years ago when I first started reading the series, and thinking of when the day would come that I'd have read the entire plotline.
And what a plotline... I'm not going to spoil anything, but I will say that I admire Rowling so much. She told the story incredibly well, and it was such a daring story. Well done!!! So much of what happened was unexpected. Almost all of it felt very real. There was one small part, in the first chapter, that I questioned, but it's insignificant in the face of Rowling's achievement with this series. *raises glass*
And may I say, I am so glad that pretty much none of my predictions came true! :)
Of course, the big topic for my first post since reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" has got to be the fact that I loved this book. It wowed me even more than I was expecting. I read it twice, that first weekend that I got it, and have since started on the happy ritual of reading the entire series sequentially.
It's kind of bizarre to think that I can finally do that. I so clearly remember finishing the first book, seven years ago when I first started reading the series, and thinking of when the day would come that I'd have read the entire plotline.
And what a plotline... I'm not going to spoil anything, but I will say that I admire Rowling so much. She told the story incredibly well, and it was such a daring story. Well done!!! So much of what happened was unexpected. Almost all of it felt very real. There was one small part, in the first chapter, that I questioned, but it's insignificant in the face of Rowling's achievement with this series. *raises glass*
And may I say, I am so glad that pretty much none of my predictions came true! :)
19 July 2007
I Can Has Langwij Evalooshun?
One of my favorite classes in college was an amazing seminar on linguistic anthropology that I took my senior year. If you've never heard of it before (I hadn't, until I read the class description), it's basically the study of how culture and language co-create each other. Really interesting stuff. And once you start looking for it, you can see examples all over the place.
One example that's really intriguing can be seen on one of the world's funniest websites, www.icanhascheezburger.com. The photos themselves are funny, and the captions are generally hilarious, but the key to the humor is the use of a written dialect that's evolved rapidly. I've heard it called "Ingrish" but it's generally known as "lolspeak" or "kittehspeak". One of the major components of lolspeak is that it misspells or shortens words frequently. Other facets like distinctive syntax and verb tense are characteristic as well.
But thanks to a group of regular participants, the dialect's gone way beyond the nuts & bolts of language, developing referential slang, sayings/proverbs, and both spoken and unspoken rules. The website even offers different resources like a dictionary and usage guidelines.
Others will advise as "noobies" begin to join the culture. A great example is a response from regular poster "Turkeyburger", to a criticism of this photo caption from a new fan. The noobie suggested that the top line was redundant given the look on the cat's face.
Turkeyburger replied, "Redundancy is a fairly large part of teh lolspeak funneh. A fairly regular style of capping a pic like this one would be simply to state
“Serious Cat…is serious.”
It is just that intentional stating of the obvious, and for that matter, repeating it that makes up a large percentage of the humor.
After all, frequently the point is to write what we feel a cat would be saying in a given pic, and let’s be blunt here–I think most of us would agree that cats generally don’t have brains (or at least common sense) in bukkitfulls. I’m not trying to put them down, but we are talking about a creature that finds the inside of shoes obsessively fascinating, will run back into a dangerous situation that it just had to be rescued from, and willfully eats moths and spiders. There are many people who would not consider those to be redeeming qualities in a pet. Then there are the rest of us."*
Even during instruction, humor is the focus of the culture, which makes it both a remarkable stress relief for its addicts (and I am among them), and a generally friendly and welcoming community to all who want in on teh funneh and love animals.
It's not often you get to see language evolve right before your eyes. At first, I just found it all quite funny, but then I started noticing how complex and surprisingly formalized the language was. Some deplore lolspeak as a degradation of language, but hearken back to Shakespearean dramas or Elizabethan novels, and the lengthy paragraphs in which people spoke using rather more words than was really necessary and constructing grammatically elaborate sentences. Ahem. See? That barely approached the standards of formal language of a few hundred years ago, but in today's world, it's a run-on sentence.
Language is always going to evolve. As long as culture keeps evolving (which it will, as long as there are people alive on the earth), its Siamese twin, language, will continue to change as well. The two are inextricably intertwined, reflecting each other in interesting ways, revealing nuances about the subculture that a dialect serves.
If they'd read closely, the naysayers would realize they need not fear the world going to hell in a handbasket - at least, not because of ICHC... The regular posters are all highly literate and include a massive variety of music, movie and literary references in their comments. Many will step out of kittehspeak to share a serious thought or one that's complex enough to be difficult to boil down into lingo. Like the several thousand other dialects in English, lolspeak can exist side by side with it; in fact, understanding the formalities of English is essential to getting much of the humor, with lolspeak playing off the formal rules to maximize its humor.
Not to suck all the fun out of it, of course. In lolspeak, "Im on ur intrnet, analyzn ur dyalekt. Iz sillee but kewl. Kthxbai."
* Source: http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/07/19/i-are-serious-cat/#comments
One example that's really intriguing can be seen on one of the world's funniest websites, www.icanhascheezburger.com. The photos themselves are funny, and the captions are generally hilarious, but the key to the humor is the use of a written dialect that's evolved rapidly. I've heard it called "Ingrish" but it's generally known as "lolspeak" or "kittehspeak". One of the major components of lolspeak is that it misspells or shortens words frequently. Other facets like distinctive syntax and verb tense are characteristic as well.
But thanks to a group of regular participants, the dialect's gone way beyond the nuts & bolts of language, developing referential slang, sayings/proverbs, and both spoken and unspoken rules. The website even offers different resources like a dictionary and usage guidelines.
Others will advise as "noobies" begin to join the culture. A great example is a response from regular poster "Turkeyburger", to a criticism of this photo caption from a new fan. The noobie suggested that the top line was redundant given the look on the cat's face.Turkeyburger replied, "Redundancy is a fairly large part of teh lolspeak funneh. A fairly regular style of capping a pic like this one would be simply to state
“Serious Cat…is serious.”
It is just that intentional stating of the obvious, and for that matter, repeating it that makes up a large percentage of the humor.
After all, frequently the point is to write what we feel a cat would be saying in a given pic, and let’s be blunt here–I think most of us would agree that cats generally don’t have brains (or at least common sense) in bukkitfulls. I’m not trying to put them down, but we are talking about a creature that finds the inside of shoes obsessively fascinating, will run back into a dangerous situation that it just had to be rescued from, and willfully eats moths and spiders. There are many people who would not consider those to be redeeming qualities in a pet. Then there are the rest of us."*
Even during instruction, humor is the focus of the culture, which makes it both a remarkable stress relief for its addicts (and I am among them), and a generally friendly and welcoming community to all who want in on teh funneh and love animals.
It's not often you get to see language evolve right before your eyes. At first, I just found it all quite funny, but then I started noticing how complex and surprisingly formalized the language was. Some deplore lolspeak as a degradation of language, but hearken back to Shakespearean dramas or Elizabethan novels, and the lengthy paragraphs in which people spoke using rather more words than was really necessary and constructing grammatically elaborate sentences. Ahem. See? That barely approached the standards of formal language of a few hundred years ago, but in today's world, it's a run-on sentence.
Language is always going to evolve. As long as culture keeps evolving (which it will, as long as there are people alive on the earth), its Siamese twin, language, will continue to change as well. The two are inextricably intertwined, reflecting each other in interesting ways, revealing nuances about the subculture that a dialect serves.
If they'd read closely, the naysayers would realize they need not fear the world going to hell in a handbasket - at least, not because of ICHC... The regular posters are all highly literate and include a massive variety of music, movie and literary references in their comments. Many will step out of kittehspeak to share a serious thought or one that's complex enough to be difficult to boil down into lingo. Like the several thousand other dialects in English, lolspeak can exist side by side with it; in fact, understanding the formalities of English is essential to getting much of the humor, with lolspeak playing off the formal rules to maximize its humor.
Not to suck all the fun out of it, of course. In lolspeak, "Im on ur intrnet, analyzn ur dyalekt. Iz sillee but kewl. Kthxbai."
* Source: http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/07/19/i-are-serious-cat/#comments
17 July 2007
For the Record: My Harry Potter Predictions
I want to get this out there before the much-anticipated seventh book comes out (anybody else feel like Christmas is coming this Saturday?). Having reread the series many times, and again recently, I have a couple of ideas about what Rowling might do.
I think Harry and Voldemort will probably kill each other; if Harry survives, he'll be deeply maimed somehow and his survival will probably be thanks to Ginny, Ron and/or Hermione. I also think Hagrid and Neville Longbottom are the most likely candidates for the two people close to Harry who die.
I think there's a small possibility that Snape will somehow be responsible for Voldemort's death, with ambition to become the head Dark wizard in his place. I'm also betting that Voldemort's death involves fire. I have to admit, I just can't see Harry using the Avada Kedavra curse.
I think Harry and Voldemort will probably kill each other; if Harry survives, he'll be deeply maimed somehow and his survival will probably be thanks to Ginny, Ron and/or Hermione. I also think Hagrid and Neville Longbottom are the most likely candidates for the two people close to Harry who die.
I think there's a small possibility that Snape will somehow be responsible for Voldemort's death, with ambition to become the head Dark wizard in his place. I'm also betting that Voldemort's death involves fire. I have to admit, I just can't see Harry using the Avada Kedavra curse.
06 July 2007
Driven but unfocused
Indeed. I want to write, but I can't focus my attention on any of my current works-in-progress. Nor does the thought of starting something new appeal to me; I'm more in the mood to finish something, made rather more difficult by the lack of focus. Literary malaise is such a bitch. I should follow my own advice and use some of the writing exercises below (I should, but I probably won't).
Speaking of writers - which we were, right, ultimately - last night I finally watched the new Beatrix Potter movie, "Miss Potter". I thought it wonderful, myself. Renee Zellweger did a great job portraying Beatrix; the other actors were good too, but obviously a lot depended on her role and she really carried the movie. It was lovely.
I also think it could be partially responsible for my current malaise. I long for Beatrix's innate productivity. Living in England in the Lake Country would be nice, too. :)
Speaking of writers - which we were, right, ultimately - last night I finally watched the new Beatrix Potter movie, "Miss Potter". I thought it wonderful, myself. Renee Zellweger did a great job portraying Beatrix; the other actors were good too, but obviously a lot depended on her role and she really carried the movie. It was lovely.
I also think it could be partially responsible for my current malaise. I long for Beatrix's innate productivity. Living in England in the Lake Country would be nice, too. :)
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