Warren Bluhm's Blog, page 22

shout joy

Great poets write of wastelands and despair, of the constant-dwelling angst that haunts their souls, say the scholars. Not I.

I say joy — I say passion — I say love — The bursting boasting glee that dares to run where artists may plod — that cries fire and foul to the dark lords of the ego —

when I see a white-tailed deer step into the evening spotlight and catch my breath — the faltering fawn steps into the softening sunset — I laugh, and delight is the only word that springs to mind ...

Almost Fully Launched

“I made this!”

OK, so this is the day the “pre-order” phase ends and people can launch the print-on-demand process immediately when you order my new book, Full, from your favorite book store. Someday, no doubt, books will be printed on the same day they’re demanded, but I think the existing tech is pretty awesome in itself.

Since I posted this photo on Facebook with the tagline “I made this!” the interest in Full has been greater than my usual book launch, which is gratifying. I’ve always ...

What darkness?

Look, you can find darkness wherever you go. There has always been the dark, people doing unspeakable things to each other for their own selfish reasons, or for someone else’s selfish reasons. The challenge some days seems to be to find the light, the redeeming acts that show the best in people, the beauty, the evidence that something good and valued can still be found on this wretched planet.

But the plain truth is we overlook the bright and golden parts of life because they’re so common...

The life that you want

The reality is this: the life you’re currently living is the accumulation of your choices and commitments to date. If you want a different life, an uncommon life, you’ll need to change things up to make way for it.
— Bob Goff, Dream Big

The cardinal in the Willow tree

It was at a funeral that I first heard the legend of the cardinals, how when you see a cardinal it’s the spirit of a loved one who has passed, come to remind us they haven’t forgotten us, as we haven’t forgotten them.

I have been prone to bouts of melancholy since we lost Willow The Best Dog There Is just shy of her 12th birthday in March — not crippling sadness like the first few days, just moments when I remember something sweet about her or a fond memory, and I miss her all over again....

Family album

Full is my tenth book. I don’t know why, but somehow, now that I’m in double digits, I feel like I can really call myself an author now.

It’s silly, really. I was always writing. I have always been authoring. And it’s not like I’m selling books like Steven King or even name-your-obscure-author-who-died-a-pauper.

But if you search my name at your online book shop, you’ll get 10 answers. You might get more than that, because I’ve published a half-dozen editions of great works in the publ...

With great power comes great responsibility

No, fellow fans, I’m not going to write about Spider-Man today, but I am going to come to the same conclusion that Uncle Ben did.

Wednesday I banged out a blog post, as I often do, by copying from my journal and rearranging what I had penned onto the pages to form (hopefully) something more coherent. Among my points was this:

“I’m still a little amazed at the book publishing revolution, how an independent author can bypass an army of gatekeepers to march onto the virtual shelves.”

I...

Little messages in little bottles

UPS tracking says my proof of Full will arrive before 7 p.m. today, and unless I find some deal-breaking flaw inside, the book will be in print-on-demand next Tuesday, June 15. (Available for pre-order or as an ebook now! Buy! Buy! Buy!)

I’m still a little amazed at the book publishing revolution, how an independent author can bypass an army of gatekeepers to march onto the virtual shelves.

This is my third little book of its type in a little over 14 months, enough material that someon...

About saying certain things

Ladies and gentlemen, honored dignitaries, and especially you graduates, I come to you as an emissary from another time, when men and women were free to come and go as they pleased.

“You’re free to go” — I remember those halcyon days when this was so. If someone were to say, “How can you let someone say such things?” the most likely response would be a shrug and “It’s a free country.”

Voltaire was once quoted as saying — although the evidence is scant that he said this exactly — “I disappr...

The 21st century reaches drinking age

from Forbidden Planet (1956)

Here we are, in the 21st year of the 21st century. We have been in old-science-fiction-numbered years for as long as newly-minted adults have lived.

The 21st century! when all is either bright and shiny miraculous tech or long-feared dystopia and post-civilization. Can it be both? Surely. Much of what readers are reading these days is post-apocalyptic, stories of life after some manmade or natural-but-caused-by-man disaster that Earth is trying to heal from.

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