Subscriber glitch, and time-bending
Due to some bizarre glitch of - I guess Feedburner! - some people who are subscribed to my Screenwriting Tricks site are getting sent a post that I made back in April, saying that The Price and The Space Between are free today. They're not!
I have no idea why this his happening and am on my way to Australia so I can't look into it. It doesn't seem to have affected that many people, but I don't know for sure. So sorry for any inconvenience!
It was a day of time weirdness - some major time misreadings on the travel front. I guess that means while I'm traveling, I'm supposed to live in kairos rather than chronos. As we all do on the road, really.
So as I hit the road... um, air... for Diamonds are Forever, the RWAustralia National Conference, I'm leaving you with a post on this fascinating concept. Have a great week!
- Alex
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, convention season has kicked into high gear. If one were
looking to avoid writing, just for example, one could jet off to –
Romantic Times, Book Expo America, Mayhem in the Midlands, American
Library Association, Thrillerfest, RWA National… to mingle, network,
party with hundreds of favorite and soon-to be-favorite authors,
librarians, booksellers, DLers, 4MAers, MWAers, ITWers, Sisters, and most importantly,
readers.
Authors are strongly advised to go to conventions and festivals to
build their careers. There is no question that the networking is gold.
And except for having to continuously “sparkle”, as Margaret Maron
puts it, it’s so easy
to network at these things. All you have to do is relax and walk around
and just run into the people you need to run into. Really, it works.
Reviewers, booksellers, your publicist, the author whose incredible book
you were reading just the night before, extraordinary friends you
haven't seen in ten years - they're all there in a very contained space
and you will drift into them if you just go with the flow.
Some people call that work. But what it really is, is magic. What it is – is Faire Time.
I learned the concept of Faire Time, or Festival Time, over the years
of my interestingly misspent youth, hanging out at the Southern
California Renaissance Pleasure Faire
–a month-long semi-historical recreation of life in an Elizabethan
village, except with sex and drugs and overpriced irresistible craftish -
stuff.
(Wait, what am I saying? Of course they had all of that going on in those real Elizabethan villages, too...)
I’ll be lazy. Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about festivals:
Among many religions, a feast or festival is a set of celebrations in honour of God or gods.
Hmm, sounds familiar, doesn’t it? A set of celebrations in honor of
gods – and goddesses. Take a look at the guest of honor lists for any
of the above- mentioned conventions. Gods and goddesses of the
mystery/literary world? You betcha.
What else?
Festivals,
of many types, serve to meet specific social needs and duties, as well
as to provide entertainment. These times of celebration offer a sense of
belonging for religious, social, or geographical groups. Modern
festivals that focus on cultural or ethnic topics seek to inform members
of their traditions. In past times, festivals were times when the
elderly shared stories and transferred certain knowledge to the next
generation. Historic feasts often provided a means for unity among
families and for people to find mates .
Now, does that sound like a convention or what?
Maybe it’s that first, religious purpose of festivals but I do notice
this unifying principle of “Faire Time” or “Festival Time" in full
force at conventions. There is an element of the sacred about a
festival – it is out of the ordinary, out of simple chronological time,
out of chronos - into kairos (again, from Wikipedia): "a time in between", a moment of undetermined period of time in which "something" special happens.
And here’s an interesting bit:
In rhetoric kairos is a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved.
Synchronicity and opportunity happen with such regularity at these
convention things that they’re really more the rule than the exception.
It is my absolute conviction that much more important career business
gets done at conventions and festivals than anywhere else because it is
being done in Faire Time – a suspended moment of opportunity.
And that is not even mentioning the creative and personal inspiration
of being in that state of suspended time with so many passionate
worshippers of the book. By the end of a convention I will always know
the next right step to take, professionally and creatively, just as
clearly as if it has been spoken to me. All it takes it to ask the
question.
And one of my favorite things about conventions these days is running
into aspiring authors who I met and connected with at previous
conventions – only to find that they’re now published or about to be.
It reaffirms my whole faith in the process.
As many of you have witnessed, I love the total debauchery of
these gatherings, but I’m never unaware of something also sacred under
all that revelry.
I’m sure that all of us have stories of improbable connections and
synchronicities at festivals, and I’d love to hear them today!
I have no idea why this his happening and am on my way to Australia so I can't look into it. It doesn't seem to have affected that many people, but I don't know for sure. So sorry for any inconvenience!
It was a day of time weirdness - some major time misreadings on the travel front. I guess that means while I'm traveling, I'm supposed to live in kairos rather than chronos. As we all do on the road, really.
So as I hit the road... um, air... for Diamonds are Forever, the RWAustralia National Conference, I'm leaving you with a post on this fascinating concept. Have a great week!
- Alex
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, convention season has kicked into high gear. If one were
looking to avoid writing, just for example, one could jet off to –
Romantic Times, Book Expo America, Mayhem in the Midlands, American
Library Association, Thrillerfest, RWA National… to mingle, network,
party with hundreds of favorite and soon-to be-favorite authors,
librarians, booksellers, DLers, 4MAers, MWAers, ITWers, Sisters, and most importantly,
readers.
Authors are strongly advised to go to conventions and festivals to
build their careers. There is no question that the networking is gold.
And except for having to continuously “sparkle”, as Margaret Maron
puts it, it’s so easy
to network at these things. All you have to do is relax and walk around
and just run into the people you need to run into. Really, it works.
Reviewers, booksellers, your publicist, the author whose incredible book
you were reading just the night before, extraordinary friends you
haven't seen in ten years - they're all there in a very contained space
and you will drift into them if you just go with the flow.
Some people call that work. But what it really is, is magic. What it is – is Faire Time.
I learned the concept of Faire Time, or Festival Time, over the years
of my interestingly misspent youth, hanging out at the Southern
California Renaissance Pleasure Faire
–a month-long semi-historical recreation of life in an Elizabethan
village, except with sex and drugs and overpriced irresistible craftish -
stuff.
(Wait, what am I saying? Of course they had all of that going on in those real Elizabethan villages, too...)
I’ll be lazy. Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about festivals:
Among many religions, a feast or festival is a set of celebrations in honour of God or gods.
Hmm, sounds familiar, doesn’t it? A set of celebrations in honor of
gods – and goddesses. Take a look at the guest of honor lists for any
of the above- mentioned conventions. Gods and goddesses of the
mystery/literary world? You betcha.
What else?
Festivals,
of many types, serve to meet specific social needs and duties, as well
as to provide entertainment. These times of celebration offer a sense of
belonging for religious, social, or geographical groups. Modern
festivals that focus on cultural or ethnic topics seek to inform members
of their traditions. In past times, festivals were times when the
elderly shared stories and transferred certain knowledge to the next
generation. Historic feasts often provided a means for unity among
families and for people to find mates .
Now, does that sound like a convention or what?
Maybe it’s that first, religious purpose of festivals but I do notice
this unifying principle of “Faire Time” or “Festival Time" in full
force at conventions. There is an element of the sacred about a
festival – it is out of the ordinary, out of simple chronological time,
out of chronos - into kairos (again, from Wikipedia): "a time in between", a moment of undetermined period of time in which "something" special happens.
And here’s an interesting bit:
In rhetoric kairos is a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved.
Synchronicity and opportunity happen with such regularity at these
convention things that they’re really more the rule than the exception.
It is my absolute conviction that much more important career business
gets done at conventions and festivals than anywhere else because it is
being done in Faire Time – a suspended moment of opportunity.
And that is not even mentioning the creative and personal inspiration
of being in that state of suspended time with so many passionate
worshippers of the book. By the end of a convention I will always know
the next right step to take, professionally and creatively, just as
clearly as if it has been spoken to me. All it takes it to ask the
question.
And one of my favorite things about conventions these days is running
into aspiring authors who I met and connected with at previous
conventions – only to find that they’re now published or about to be.
It reaffirms my whole faith in the process.
As many of you have witnessed, I love the total debauchery of
these gatherings, but I’m never unaware of something also sacred under
all that revelry.
I’m sure that all of us have stories of improbable connections and
synchronicities at festivals, and I’d love to hear them today!
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