So I will write. I’ll publish what I can here, but obviously, I will respect the publisher’s desires. However, I care nothing for traditional publishing. I’ll self-publish and to hell with print. Sure, I’ll take print where I can get it, but digital is the future and that’s where I’m focused.

I’ll look for an agent, but no longer will I fret over rejections.

For I am a writer. I am an author. I am, independent of faceless rejections and judgments. I exist regardless.

I exist.

And I write.

Always.

The citation notes Williams’ “craftsmanship as a songwriter” and his “pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life.” He joins other recent special citation recipients Bob Dylan, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane on a short list of American masters.

I can remember many nights when my dad would come home, put Hank’s great hits LP on the turntable, sit in chair, drink beer and … listen.

I grew up on this stuff.

And it’s awesome. Immediately and historically. This stuff transcends.

Yeah, I can purchase the paperback for $9.89 and have it shipped to my house for free, second day. Think about what that entails. It involves a person retrieving the book from Amazon’s warehouse, boxing it, sending an order to UPS, a UPS driver picking it up, driving it to the airport, flying the book across several states (possibly involving more than one flight, which involves many other people moving the book from place to place), someone putting the package on a truck, and someone to drive that truck to my house. The sheer effort involved is staggering.

Or, for $10.99 — $1.10 more, I can purchase it for my Kindle, which involves me downloading the book to my Kindle. Much less human effort, gasoline, pollution, etc.

And yet it costs me more in order to accomplish less.

I’m still trying to wrap my brain around it. Somewhere, someone is getting screwed. And it feels like that someone is me.

(Also: No, I won’t edit your resume.)

1. Read, read, read. Always be reading something, even when you’re just killing time watching TV. It’s the #1 reason I bought a Kindle — so I would read more. And I have. I’d estimate that I read probably 50% more than I did pre-Kindle.
2. Read quality shit. Give Me Something To Read is a good place to start. Buy and use Instapaper on your iPhone and use the bookmarklets in your browser. Always be looking for something to read. It’s why I’m going to spend $40 per year subscribing to The Objective Standard and probably another $40 for The New Yorker on my Kindle. The quality of writing is superb, regardless of whether I agree with what’s written. The way it’s written is high quality. Always choose quality over quantity.
3. Buy Skrunk and White, The Elements of Style ($9.95). Read it once a week for a month, then commit to skimming it once a month indefinitely. You’ll be surprised at how stuff starts jumping out at you from the screen/page once you’re familiar with the basics.
4. Buy a style guide. The Chicago Manual of Style is the generally accepted standard for “standard” publishing, which should cover most business cases. There’s also the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, but it’s in contention with the The Associated Press Stylebook and both are generally for journalism. I prefer the NYT, but I’m a fucking loon so take it for what it’s worth.
5. Read, read, read. Read your ass off. At any given time, you should be reading a book that makes you *think* and makes you *stretch* your mental comfort zone. You should also, at the same time, be reading an easy book, something that you can relax and zone out with.
6. Profit.

“I told you to stop slammin’ that door,” she said. She dropped a peeled potato into a pan of water at her feet, pulled another out of her lap and started peeling it.

“Joe Culver called today. He wrecked that tractor of his,” he said. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and tapped it against his hand, dislodging one from the pack. “He’s gonna have trouble harvesting his crop without it.”

“Joe Culver.” She shook her head and sighed. “It’s hard to feel bad for a guy who takes as much liquor as him. He’s lucky he didn’t kill that couple last year. Drinkin’ and drivin’ and runnin’ stop signs. Whoever heard of such.”

“Maybe. I guess it could be karma.” He struck a match against his boot heel. The flame jumped to life as he moved it toward his mouth.

“Karma? That’s a bunch’a New Age crystal rubber stuff,” she replied. “You reap what you sow. That’s how life works.”

He smiled and gazed at the horizon as he inhaled deeply, pulling the refreshing vapors into his body, his mind, his soul.

Yep, this was his favorite time of the day.

Yes. Rocks.

I’m not happy with these because I was in a big hurry and neglected to set the ISO down to 400. These were shot at ISO 800, so the shutter speed was crazy high to compensate. Still, they don’t suck. From the book:

This exercise involves searching for rocks and photographing their relationships with other visual elements.

So, I cheated on the first one. This is just a shot of a rock, but by God it had too much character to pass up. The rest all fall within the exercise’s parameters.

I modified the exposure and blacks in Lightroom. I may have modified another parameter or two on a couple, but mainly stuck with exposure and black.