Brant Rant Time.

This picture has nothing to do with the topic at hand - I just wanted a jheri curl at the top of the post.  You're welcome.  Also, I'm stealing the term "Brant Rant" from author Jack Sheppard, who coined the phrase a month or so ago.  Go buy his book.

If you've talked to me on facebook, through this blog, twitter, whathaveyou, then you'll know that I find most authors, like other artists, to be annoying turds.  Pretension, status, and unfounded arrogance really drive me nuts.  That kind of attitude runs rampant throughout the "arts" and I guess my lowly working class upbringing hasn't allowed me to acclimate to it yet.  Now, I know that there are several other authors who follow this blog, and they don't apply to this post, obviously.  If you read this blog then you are awesome.  Or crazy.  Either way works in my book.

There are a few things that have been irking me that I've seen some fellow authors posting lately, with the first being some of their reluctance to sell off film rights to their work.  The reasoning I've seen is that Hollywood often shits the bed with book adaptations and the authors don't want their work diminished because of it.  The problem with this kind of thinking is that no one is touching the book.  It will still stand on its own merits, and I've never actually known anyone that judged a book by the movie.  Selling the rights is easy money for something that you will put almost zero work into.  The sales of your book will explode if a deal is announced as well.  Now, some authors have said they would only do it if they had creative control over the movie, which is asinine.  You're an author, not a filmmaker, and you know jack shit about the process, audience, and money involved.  You can write a book by yourself and do what you want with it, but making movies requires thousands of people.  Don't delude yourself.

I've seen a couple of authors state that they don't want their books in paperback because used book sellers will harm the perception of their work.  That is beyond moronic.  Seriously, youz a dumb ass.  These same people have probably rented a movie from Netflix, borrowed a book from a library, or purchased something from Craigslist.  That's the same principal and no one thinks less about the book they borrowed because the pages were wrinkled.  This literally makes no sense to me.

You've probably also noticed that I use the word awesome a ridiculous amount around here.  I do that because I've seen several authors spewing venom at people saying it.  Granted, I say awesome in person all of the time, but I've taken its use on the blog to a new level.  I've already gone on record many times about the use of language in the arts, so I won't repeat myself here.

I've actually had the chance to interact with several other authors over the past few months and like quite a few of them very much.  People like Elle Casey (shh, don't tell her), Jack Sheppard, and Amber Sweetapple all write great stuff and don't look down their noses at readers and fans.

That was a pretty meandering post.  In summation, I generally don't like "artists", status is bullshit, and authors need to RELAX.  I wonder if this is why Hemingway stayed drunk 24/7.

In the words of Bill & Ted - be excellent to each other.