Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 123

Tabbing, Slotting and Humping Your Bergen

In 1991 after Saddam Hussein had invaded and occupied Kuwait, he started raining Scud missiles on his enemies. This was serious business, as the Scuds were being fired from truck-borne launchers that could "shoot and scoot"—hard to find and even harder to knock out.
Saddam's most worrisome target was Israel. The Iraqi dictator was hoping to
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Sales Down, Profits Up

If you are a book publishing junkie, you probably already subscribe to Michael Cader's www.PublishersMarketplace.com. It's the equivalent of The Daily Racing Form for publishing.
As many in the business before and after him, Michael started his career as an editor and then left the corporate fold to branch out as a book packager. Packagers are
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Jonathan Fields on Uncertainty

If you're an artist or entrepreneur, you should know Jonathan Fields. Next to Seth Godin (sorry, Mr. F., nobody ranks with Seth), Jonathan's insights–creative and commercial—are in my opinion the most original and far-ranging. He has a new book called Uncertainty, which just came out a couple of days ago. Jonathan was kind enough to sit
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The Sillidar System

One of the nutty joys of research is that you get to read the most obscure, nerdy books in existence. I'm talking about tomes so arcane that not even the author's mother could get past Page Six.
I love these books. When I find one on alibris.com (or in the deep stacks of the research library),
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Glove Before Stick

Fifteen years ago, I worked at St. Martin's Press. It was (and still is) one of the big six publishing players. If ever there is a sitcom about book publishing, it should be set in the 1990s at St. Martin's Press. What a cast of characters…
Anyway, the head of the company was a man named
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Un-Screwing the Writer

Thanks to our dear friend Jeff Sexton, who sent in this clip of sci-fi superstar Harlan Ellison cutting loose with one of his tastiest rants.

If you haven't got three-and-a-half minutes, here are a few tidbits from Mr. E's sulfuric screed:
"I don't take a piss without getting paid for it."
"I'm supposed to give a freebie to
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Glaukos and Sarpedon

Was there a greater war story, ever, than Homer's Iliad? It's almost a crime to call the Iliad a war story, by so many magnitudes does it transcend that and every other genre. What works of literature stand beside it? The Bible. The Bhagavad-Gita. The collected works of Shakespeare. Not much else.
I took a full-semester
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Endless Possibilities

Whenever I tell someone about Bob Danzig, they're inspired to learn that someone who lived in five foster homes by the time he was eleven achieved so much—and then they're shocked to learn that he was with the same company for 40+ years.
I met Bob in 1997, just as he was heading into his 1998
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Screwing the Writer

I was at a Writers Guild meeting in Hollywood a few years ago; the members were debating whether or not to go out on strike. A microphone had been set up; one screenwriter after another stepped forward and spoke, pro or con. Each time the same Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation took place. The scribe started out low-key,
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Thoughts on 9/11 from Winston Churchill

When I was a kid, Winston Churchill was still very much alive. I remember the newspapers always noted his birthday, which seemed to come around with unnatural frequency. I used to ask my Dad, "What's the story with Winston Churchill? The guy has a birthday every three months!"
Churchill died in 1965. I was in boot
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