Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 123

"That's What I Want to Do"

One of the great joys of being a writer is that, through your books, you get to meet some pretty amazing people. One of those in my world is Hermes (Ioannis) Melissanidis from Greece.
Hermes won a gold medal in gymnastics at the Atlanta Olympics. Here's the video if you've never seen it. I met Hermes
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"Words, too, had to change their meanings … "

["War Stories" is taking a break this week. Here to hold down the fort till next Monday is my own favorite from a few months ago:]
The Peloponnesian War was the clash between Athens and Sparta that lasted, as the oracle had foretold, "thrice nine years," and ended in the defeat of Athens and the destruction
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A Matter of Infinite Hope

There are four words that book agents long to hear. An editor can wax on and on about how much she adores the novel or proposal you've sent her and about how well she would publish the book, but until an agent hears "We're running our numbers," he doesn't dare tell his client that the
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Shadow Novels

Some of the most popular posts in this space have been those in the "Artist and Addict" series. One point those posts made was that there's not that big a difference between an artist and an addict. Many artists are addicts, and vice versa. Many are artists in one breath and addicts in another. They're
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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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