I’ve been on WordPress.com for 11 years and WordPress.org for many more.

This blog is more than 10 years old and has gotten a little long in the tooth.

So I’ve decided that it’s time for a change.

It’s time for the last dance.

This blog is dead!

This blog is no more!

It has ceased to be!

It has expired and gone to meet its maker!

It’s a stiff!

Bereft of life, it rests in peace!

Not quite though — as it’s now a publication on Medium.

Please follow me there for the latest and greatest posts from Graffiti Living.

There will be new content, remixed content, and it will even be open to contributions from other writers.

Please let me know in the comments here if you’d like to see Graffiti Living remain on WordPress in any way.

Do you want to see cross posts? Links to the Medium posts? Something else?

Now is the time to let me know!

Thank you for reading and quietly ignoring me for the last 10 years.

Graffiti Living is dead. Long live Graffiti Living.

I’ve launched a Patreon campaign to support my writing. April Fools Day marks the official start.

They say that you should start as you mean to go on so I decided to start a new phase of life on April Fool’s Day.

This is not an April Fools — I just have a warped sense of humour and April is the start of the new financial year.

People have been asking me for something like this for a while. It’s for people who like my work and want to stay in the loop about it. It gives you the inside track on what I’m doing and where I am in the world.

You’ll get regular updates from me and can also expect benefits like discounts, free stuff, and early access to my writing, photos, and creative projects.

I’ll see you there: www.patreon.com/jamesgarside

Would you sell your soul to the Devil? At what price? How about if you knew you were dying and didn’t have long to live? It’s not like the dead have anything left to lose. But if the Devil’s so interested in your immortal soul that he’s willing to offer you anything in return then maybe, just maybe, someone’s getting fucked on the deal.

Hobo John is a terminally-ill English guy, with a troubled past, whose bucket list is all about the blues. He’s a blues aficionado on a journey across Mississippi to see what is considered by many to be the birth place of the blues. Delta Blues came from the Mississippi Delta and is one of the earliest styles of blues music.

On a drunken night in Clarksdale Hobo John enters into a Faustian pact with a devilish character, called Fat Man, who makes him an offer that he can’t refuse. In exchange for his life, which is at its end anyway, he must cross over to the afterlife of the Mississippi Delta to record blues artists both famous and unknown from the 1930s.

It’s a real ‘devil at the crossroads’ moment but, unlike Vegas, what happens at the crossroads doesn’t stay there. To begin with Hobo John has a blast hanging out with the souls of dead musicians but working for Fat Man is dirty business, with untold consequences, and there’s always a price to be paid.

There’s much more to the story, including twists and turns that I don’t want to spoil here, but the plot isn’t really the point. It’s all about the music. You don’t have to be a blues fan to enjoy the story but you’ll sure as hell learn a lot about the blues along the way.

Robert Johnson fans will especially get a kick out of it as they catch references to songs like “Crossroad Blues,” “Me and the Devil Blues,” and “Hellhound on My Trail.” Legend has it that in the Deep South in the 1930s Robert Johnson met the Devil at the crossroads and sold his soul to become the greatest Delta Blues artist that ever lived.

The author may spit at me for saying this but, at least structurally, the book has much in common with Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. In that book the story is used as a way to give you a history of philosophy whereas here a similar conceit is used to give you a taste of the blues. Just enough to wet your whistle — like drinking whisky straight from the bottle.

Richard Wall writes like a motherfucker. I mean that in a good way. He’s clearly passionate about the blues and has a deep knowledge of music history and blues lore. I’d love for the novel to be released as a dramatised audiobook with an accompanying soundtrack featuring Delta Blues songs hand-picked by the author.

Fat Man Blues is a wild ride. It’s violent and bloody in parts but the writing is tight and visceral and remains faithful to, and worthy of, the music that inspired it.

You can buy the book here and check out his other work at richardwall.org

About James Garside:
James Garside is an independent journalist and writer. You can find him at his website jamesgarside.net and chat with him on Twitter

Originally published at themagicalbuffet.com

Fat Man Blues by Richard Wall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This book really got on my tits.

Maybe it’s just that the title doesn’t match the book. It isn’t just that but let’s pretend for a minute that it is.

You pick up a book called: “The Tough LOVE Book About MONEY: (You lack money because you Don’t Know Sh*t About Money)”

What would you expect?

I’d expect a no-bullshit book about money. One that explains what money is, and how to get more of it, in a no nonsense way.

Instead this is a rambling new age self-help book about the law of attraction as it pertains to money.

If that’s your usual bag then have at it.

But here’s my two pennies’ worth — for whatever they’re worth:

Several paragraphs of dogshit does not a chapter make.

You’re not allowed to say your book is tough love or no-bullshit if you’re a proponent of the law of attraction — the law of attraction is total bullshit.

Don’t say that people don’t know shit about money if you know shit all about money.

He keeps saying money is just PAPER. I tried pretending that he was just being metaphorical but my brain kept blurting out: “He isn’t being metaphorical! He just knows shit all about money!”

I like the general idea that you shouldn’t give your power away to money. But this is by no means a ‘tough love book about money.’ It’s just a bunch of repetitive statements about the law of attraction.

At best you could try to take it as an attitude adjustment about money. But there are better books out there about money and better books about changing your attitude towards it.

Near the end of the book he even gets bored and starts to apply the self-same generic statements about changing your attitude towards money to changing your attitude towards god instead.

Cheque please!

To quote The Princess Bride: “Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

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“Nassim Taleb is an insufferable egomaniac but at least his ideas are noteworthy and interesting.”

Please remind me that I said that in about six years when I’ve finished reading Antifragile as that’s probably going to be the first line of my review.

about six years later

Okay, I’ve listened to the unabridged audiobook and all I can say is nothing has disavowed me of the above notion.

I’ve never met the man but, judging by this book, Nassim Taleb is a complete asshole. But he’s my kind of asshole. Pretentious, egotistical, and probably right.

The book is worth reading for concept of ‘Antifragile’ alone. Taleb invented the term to describe something for which he believes there wasn’t a word:

Things that break easily under stress are Fragile. Things that withstand a great deal of stress, but eventually break, are Robust. But things that actually get stronger under stress are Antifragile.

He bemoans the fact that this word, which he invented, isn’t in the dictionary; as though that somehow proves the need for it.

I told you that he was an asshole.

He then proceeds, at great length, to talk around the subject. Much of the book is taken up by digressions, delusions of grandeur, professions of his own genius, and decrying any naysayers or detractors.

He criticises journalists, academics, economists, doctors, politicians, and just about everyone else for their pomposity, pseudo-intellectualism, insincerity, dishonesty and bullshit.

This is fair comment but it’s hard to take him seriously when his book is deliberately written in a style that is, by his own admission, difficult for us lesser mortals to understand.

A philosophy teacher once told me that ideas don’t have to be true so long as they are interesting, elegant or useful.

Nassim Taleb is no doubt antifragile to my opinions — and the concept of antifragility is genuinely interesting, elegant, and useful — but he can still go fuck himself.

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My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is part of my “Operation buy nothing but by all means whore yourself as a writer in exchange for goods and or services.” Admittedly, the title needs work.

Anita was kind enough to gift me a copy of her book after I pestered her life out about it. I’d love to think that it was out of recognition of my awesomeness as a writer but it had more to do with Anita’s awesomeness as a human and the fact that in the UK most of us have to pay for Interlibrary Loans. She put me under no obligation to write anything of course but when I want to read a book, blag a copy, and genuinely LOVE it, then by golly it’s getting a review.
Anita Dhake was a lawyer but retired at 33 after saving like a motherf*****r until she achieved financial independence. She wrote about it as Thriftygal on her blog ‘The Power of Thrift’, along with other witty and entertaining ramblings, and eventually this culminated in the book.

‘Operation Enough!’ covers how to achieve financial independence but it’s mostly about the why to, Anita’s personal story, and what constitutes ‘enough’ for you.

Now, taking the financial advice of someone who was only able to retire early because they earnt enough to be filthy rich is a bit like asking the underpant gnomes about what to do with your sock drawer.

But she’s SO FUNNY!

She also has a thing about Judge Judy.

And explains finance using comical avatars.

So what’s not to love?

I’ve done a lot of reading about financial independence. If you want the philosophy try Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker. If you just want to know where to invest your money check out The Simple Path To Wealth by JL Collins. Or read Your Money Or Your Life if you want to kick it old school. Or any number of FIRE bloggers. But none of them are particularly fun or entertaining.

‘Operation Enough!’ is hands down the most fun I’ve had reading about financial independence. If you’re a reader of her blog, you’ll love it. And if you read the book first, you’ll fast become a convert and promptly start reading her blog.

Sure, the advice is pretty straightforward:

“Spend money on what you repeatedly do. After you buy the necessities, you can buy control over your life. Control your time. Do you have autonomy? Are you doing what you want to do?”
But sometimes you just need to be yelled at. The key takeaway bit of wisdom for me was: “The most valuable thing money can buy is freedom from worrying about money.” I agree so much with this! Whenever someone says to me ‘money is just for spending’ I want to punch them repeatedly in the head. The best thing money can buy is freedom and peace of mind.

Operation Enough is an entertaining read. It’s also proof positive that anything is more inspiring if you give it a silly name. I’d love to see more Operations books to come on other subjects. My own operations include Operation Leave The House and Operation Take The Stairs.

Above all else I hope that Anita keeps writing because she clearly has a gift for it. The whole point of financial independence isn’t that you do nothing for the rest of your life — it’s that you discover your passions and live your dreams once you’ve got all that money nonsense out of the way.

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My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to love this book.

I want James Altucher to be my friend.

James Altucher is a chess-playing, marketing genius and idiot savant with silly hair. The type of person you’d want to have a drink with. His story is fascinating. He made and lost millions in business and investing several times over before making it as a writer.

I am of course none of these things. But both of us are called James so clearly we’d have a lot in common.

The message of the book is simple: The world has gone to hell. If you want to succeed then you have to choose yourself. That means taking care of your physical, mental and spiritual health. It also means putting yourself first in business and having the courage to pursue your dreams.

Basically all the usual self-help crap that you saw on Oprah or read in a Tony Robbins book but were too lazy to put into action.

He summarises the daily practice as follows:

“For now, the Simple Daily Practice means doing ONE thing every day. Try any one of these things each day: A) Sleep eight hours. B) Eat two meals instead of three. C) No TV. D) No junk food. E) No complaining for one whole day. F) No gossip. G) Return an e-mail from five years ago. H) Express thanks to a friend. I) Watch a funny movie or a stand-up comic. J) Write down a list of ideas. The ideas can be about anything. K) Read a spiritual text. Any one that is inspirational to you. The Bible, The Tao te Ching, anything you want. L) Say to yourself when you wake up, “I’m going to save a life today.” Keep an eye out for that life you can save. M) Take up a hobby. Don’t say you don’t have time. Learn the piano. Take chess lessons. Do stand-up comedy. Write a novel. Do something that takes you out of your current rhythm. N) Write down your entire schedule. The schedule you do every day. Cross out one item and don’t do that anymore. O) Surprise someone. P) Think of ten people you are grateful for. Q) Forgive someone. You don’t have to tell them. Just write it down on a piece of paper and burn the paper. It turns out this has the same effect in terms of releasing oxytocin in the brain as actually forgiving them in person. R) Take the stairs instead of the elevator. S) I’m going to steal this next one from the 1970s pop psychology book Don’t Say Yes When You Want to Say No: when you find yourself thinking of that special someone who is causing you grief, think very quietly, “No.” If you think of him and (or?) her again, think loudly, “No!” Again? Whisper, “No!” Again, say it. Louder. Yell it. Louder. And so on. T) Tell someone every day that you love them. U) Don’t have sex with someone you don’t love. V) Shower. Scrub. Clean the toxins off your body. W) Read a chapter in a biography about someone who is an inspiration to you. X) Make plans to spend time with a friend. Y) If you think, “Everything would be better off if I were dead,” then think, “That’s really cool. Now I can do anything I want and I can postpone this thought for a while, maybe even a few months.” Because what does it matter now? The planet might not even be around in a few months. Who knows what could happen with all these solar flares. You know the ones I’m talking about. Z) Deep breathing. When the vagus nerve is inflamed, your breathing becomes shallower. Your breath becomes quick. It’s fight-or-flight time! You are panicking. Stop it! Breathe deep. Let me tell you something: most people think “yoga” is all those exercises where people are standing upside down and doing weird things. In the Yoga Sutras, written in 300 B.C., there are 196 lines divided into four chapters. In all those lines, ONLY THREE OF THEM refer to physical exercise. It basically reads, “Be able to sit up straight.” That’s it. That’s the only reference in the Yoga Sutras to physical exercise. Claudia always tells me that yogis measure their lives in breaths, not years. Deep breathing is what keeps those breaths going.”

Don’t worry if you didn’t get all that the first time. He repeats it repeatedly throughout the book.
Repeated repetitive repetition? Sorry, my head hurts.

Anyway, you get the idea.

James Altucher’s honesty is compelling and that’s what kept me reading. It’s why I signed up to his mailing list, listened to his podcast, and downloaded as many of his books as I could get my grubby little hands on.

Like I said, I wanted to love this book. But I came away disappointed. The basic idea of a daily practice, taking better care of yourself and the people around you, and pursuing your creative dreams is perfectly sound. But you could write it on a postage stamp. That’s a stupid analogy. Who would do that? Ok, you could write it on a post-it note. Let’s go with that.

This is the worst kind of ‘effortless prose.’ Lazy, repetitive and sloppily written. Riddled with grammar, spelling and punctuation errors that make it look like you’re reading an unedited first draft.

At one point he even gets bored and announces his word count.

In case you haven’t guessed yet I’m trying to put as little effort into this review as James Altucher put into this book.

I guess it’s harder than it looks.

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I’ve had this review to write for about a year. That says more about me than it does about the book. But I’ve genuinely wanted to review it all that time and now at last have done so. That says more about the book than it does about me.

Rayne Hall is a professional working writer, mostly of fantasy, horror, historical fiction and non-fiction, with a loyal fan base and an awesome cat called Sulu. I’m not a big reader of the genres that she writes in so her guidebooks on writing, and Twitter in particular, were of more interest to me than her fiction.

Rayne kindly sent me a review copy of Twitter for Writers after I engaged with her on Twitter. Ok, after I pestered her on Twitter. Just kidding. I like Rayne’s writing style and approach to social media, we follow each other on Twitter, and this was the book of hers that I most wanted to read. So I just asked nicely.

Let me say right out the gate that Twitter for Writers is a great primer on how to use Twitter if: 1) you’re an author, 2) self-published or indie and / or 3) you want to use Twitter to sell your books. No more, no less. It’s especially useful to writers who work in similar genres to the author.

The book gives you an overview of Twitter for the uninitiated writer, how to do stuff like build an audience and drive traffic to your website, and is perfect if you write SF, YA, Fantasy, Horror etc and want to use Twitter to pimp your wares without annoying your followers.

As it was a review copy I was asked to give my honest, unguarded opinion, including on which chapters I found most useful or entertaining, but also to speak a little about my background and how I use Twitter.

I’m an NCTJ-qualified journalist, currently working in the third-sector, who blogs and writes fiction on the side. I’ve used Twitter both personally, as an independent writer, and professionally, managing accounts for charities, creative industries and human rights organisations.

My personal account is supposed to be funny but I probably come across as a sarcastic git, part-time pedant and full-time grumpy arse. I even invented the hashtag #unfollowsunday — but the less said about that the better.

I spend an unhealthy amount of time on Twitter. At the time of writing this I’ve over 11,500 followers, mostly fellow writers, but I’ve yet to try my hand at selling books there. So my perspective on the application of this book is skewed in favour of people who promote themselves without shouting BUY MY BOOK with every single tweet.

Rayne offers some solid advice about starting a conversation, rather than a sales pitch, and how to tweet stuff that is relevant to your audience. For example, if you write vampire novels then talk about vampires — not about your novel.

She also gives practical advice on marketing and how to write engaging content, including models of successful marketing tweets, how to strike a good balance between marketing and conversation, and advises you to avoid automated Direct Messages like the plague.

Any fiction writer would do well to take this advice to heart. Far too often writers market at people rather than talk to them. To readers of your timeline all the typical author tweet says is: “Buy my book. Buy my book. BUY. MY. BOOK.”

There was, at least from my perspective, also some advice that was a little questionable. Namely that it’s ok to use non-photo pictures for your profile picture such as a painting or cartoon. There are of course plenty of examples of people that do this, for any number of reasons, but in my not-so-humble opinion it’s dead wrong. This is a just personal bugbear of mine rather than a damning indictment of the book.

People prefer to connect with people. Because psychology. So use a photo of your face. And not just of your ear, eye or forehead. You’ll get much better results with a real photo of yourself — it’s fine if you disagree but I refuse to justify myself to a cartoon squirrel.

And don’t get me started on cat pictures. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean your pictures of your cats. I love cats. Cats are awesome. And Rayne, for example, uses lovely pictures of her cat to promote her books to good effect. Every writer should have a cat — we all need our familiars. It’s just internet memes like lolcats that I can’t stand. No, you can’t ‘has cheezburger.’ Go back to Facebook. At least writers’ cats are good at spelling.

It just goes to show you that there’s no one true way to ‘do Twitter.’ Everyone thinks that they do it better than anyone else. And everyone annoys someone else at some point because they’re ‘doing it wrong.’ And they’re all wrong, of course, because I do it better. Just kidding.

I liked the sections where Rayne candidly confesses mistakes she made, lessons learnt, and strategies she tried that didn’t work. And I loved (laughed out loud at) the hilarious aside on weird reasons she gets unfollowed. I’ve been unfollowed for some weird-ass reasons over the years. My favourites to date include because I use British spelling (I’m English), because I like the music of Nick Cave, and the venomous death threats I received because I’ve never read Harry Potter.

To be honest I didn’t learn anything new but no doubt a Twitter newbie would find the book much more helpful. Most of the so-called advanced strategies, such as scheduling tweets, I already do. If I died today you’d still get daily tweets from me until the end of the year. But it was still a worthy read, for me, and validating / reassuring to see the process of another writer and realise that my own process isn’t far off the mark.

The most practical advice I picked up from the book was that if you want a tweet to go viral it should be visual, funny and relevant — and the best size for an image on such a tweet is 512 by 1024 pixels. I think of these as ‘hero tweets’ because the hero image makes it perfect fodder for pinning to the top of your profile. Tweet something visual, funny and relevant — preferably with a call to action such as a link to your website — and people will most likely share it. Pin it to the top of your profile and even casual visitors to your profile will see it and respond.

I came away from reading Twitter for Writers feeling like the sort of person who could write his own how-to book on Twitter but is too lazy to do so. I really should get out more or get off my arse and write something — even if it is just a grumpy guide to Twitter. I could call it ‘Antisocial Media.’ Or, you know, I could just stop drinking whiskey, put on pants and leave the house.

I’m @jamesgarside_ on Twitter if you want to say hi.

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‘Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and with (Almost) No Money’ could just as easily be called ‘How to Kill Stuff and Eat it’ as that’s what the lion’s share of this survivalism classic is about.

The true life story of the girl behind the pseudonym Dolly Freed is as fascinating as the book itself but you can google that.

I read it cold, knowing nothing much about it, and all I’m sharing here are a handful of my half-assed random impressions of the book.

What struck me like a blow to the head was how startling, forthright and downright funny it is.

The narrator extols the virtues of laziness, lying and tax evasion and makes no bones about killing animals — so long as you’re going to eat them.

She describes in graphic detail how to rear, kill and butcher animals for food. And more power to her for having the guts to do it herself.

There’s plenty of good, down to earth, common sense advice on homesteading, mixed in with homespun wisdom and the occasional bizarre contradiction.

She laughs at people who are squeamish about, for example, killing rabbits because they’re cute (also delicious) but doesn’t kill possums ‘for totemic reasons.’

In later sections there’s antiquated advice on how to buy a cheap property and do it up yourself. And although some of it creaks and groans like a screen door banging in the wind the underlying principles are sound.

Right near the end it gets really nutty and some of the things she says are outrageous. Gotten into a financial dispute with someone who is trying to rip you off? Don’t get a lawyer — just intimidate them. And if that doesn’t work, kill their dog.

So by all means take it with a giant pinch of salt.

But there’s an intelligent message here — an ecology even — that I’d take any day over any number of ‘white middle-class people throw out all their shit and feel better about themselves’ books that pass for advice on minimalist living.

Own your own property and land. Cut your expenses to the absolute minimum. Learn how to fend for yourself. Become self-sufficient rather than money dependent. And make sure that everything you do supports everything else.

Why throw rotten vegetables on a compost heap for months when you can feed them to rabbits, who shit it out the next day, and fertilise the garden with that instead? Then you raise, breed, kill and eat the rabbits (along with fresh vegetables).

I don’t doubt such advice is nothing new if you’re any type of survivalist, homesteader or sit on your porch with a shotgun. But it was interesting to read a dated self-help book that was still surprisingly funny and, dare I say it, helpful.

I’ll leave you with her closing thoughts:

“Now, then, don’t you have a hobby you just don’t have time to pursue? Golf? Tennis? Partying? Studying? Music? Painting? Pottery? Hang gliding? Whatever? Even fishing or gardening — wouldn’t you like to change these from merely recreation to partly occupation?
Yes? Then why don’t you simply do so?
It’s feasible. It’s easy. It can be done. It should be done.
Do it.”

Now get off of my lawn.

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Everyone argues over whether or not writer’s block is real, or an excuse to put off tough work. But we can all agree our state of mind heavily affects our writing. To create consistently requires maintaining a state of mind conducive to creativity.

When I set out to write full time, I learned this lesson the hard way. I could see the place I wanted to go, but I couldn’t find the path. That worried me. Convinced I needed a gatekeeper to approve of my work, I set the goal of selling at least one short story to a professionally paying magazine. Even though short stories are my least favorite form of the medium (both to read and write), and even though my ultimate goal was to publish novels.

Rejections poured in. I saw my chances of success evaporating. Publishing is a tough industry, and it’s important for every new writer to be aware of that. But I forgot the journey is at least as important as our ultimate destination. During my struggle against my greatest ‘block’ of all time, I learned many important lessons that have helped me keep the beast at bay for good.

You are in control
If you look at the way traditional publishing is structured, breaking in seems a daunting task. You need to get an agent in order to get the attention of an editor or publisher. And finding the right agent can be like finding a needle in a haystack. You cast your work onto the desks of strangers hoping one of them will see your potential. And as the rejections pile up you wonder how anyone ever succeeds beyond random chance. Success feels beyond your control.

But it isn’t. That’s the fabulous thing about the world we live in now. You can choose when and how your work reaches a wider audience. You can publish a book yourself. You can start a blog and post snippets until you find your audience. Or you can set your current project aside and start a new one that might just wow all those agents who rejected you.

The point is, you get to shape your journey, and maintaining that control empowers you to maintain a creative state of mind.

Remember why you’re writing in the first place
If the answer is ‘to make money,’ you might be barking up the wrong tree. Of course every writer would like to pay the rent with their work, and it’s a worthwhile goal. But if the only reason you’re putting words on a page is to bring in the green stuff, you may have a problem. Readers like characters and stories to which they can form an emotional attachment. If you have no passion for your projects, it’s difficult to create and cultivate those intense bonds. If your words seem flat on the page to you, how can you expect a reader to invest in your story?

Writing is a lot of work, and sometimes you have to wade through the difficult scenes to get to the good stuff. But you should always be able to find joy at some point in the process. There’s no scene that can’t be salvaged, no passage that can’t be rewritten to breathe life into the prose, so long as you love what you’re doing.

Be Spontaneous
Writing every day takes discipline. If you want writing to be your job, you have to treat it like work. This can be particularly difficult if you work another job to pay the bills. The more something feels like work, the easier it becomes to generate excuses for putting it off. No matter how passionate you are about your projects, too much work can bog you down and burn you out. When writing feels too much like a chore, treat yourself to a reminder of why you love to write in the first place. Indulge in a recent plot bunny to get the fire burning again. Choose a writing prompt and write whatever comes to mind. Or let yourself flip ahead to a scene you’ve been anticipating for a long time to reignite your love of the project. Making writing fun again is a good way to shake off the funk.

Re-read your favorite pieces
If you need a break from writing (and we all do sometimes), try some reading instead. I like to re-read the books that inspired me to write in the first place. Another way to reconnect to your joy of writing is to dig out your favorite scenes and reread them. It doesn’t matter how old they are, or how bad they are, as long as you still enjoy them. I like to laugh about how bad some of my old favorites really are, though the events and characters still bring a smile to my face.

Talk to other writers
We don’t write in a vacuum. Or at least, we don’t need to. Every writer struggles, though not every writer talks about it. It can be easy to assume that we’re alone when we get lost. That we’ve done something wrong, something every other writer instinctively knew how to avoid. When we talk to each other, we realize that we all stumble. Best of all, talking to other writers allows us to support each other through the tough times. Let your writerly friends offer feedback for your work, act as a sounding board for ideas or even just help you write something fun and silly to get back in the mood.

The journey to the distant island of success is a long one, so don’t forget to enjoy it.

Megan Cutler is an avid writer of science fiction and fantasy in all its forms. Her characters keep her up late and wake her up early, but she loves them anyway. She published her first book, Island of Lost Forevers, in May of 2014 and is scheduled to release the final book in the trilogy in April this year. For more about her work, including free fiction every Friday, check out megancutler.net

“First Thought, Best Thought.” — Allen Ginsberg

“You are a genius all of the time.” — Jack Kerouac

“Language is a virus.” — William Burroughs

Jack Kerouac – Writing Lesson: https://youtu.be/J7IeCEvT_CM

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,000 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

I’ve loved this book for the last 15 years. First published in the 1930s — it’s so outdated that she talks about how you need a portable typewriter — this is hands-down the best book I’ve ever read on how to write and the only one you’ll ever need. Writers write, right?

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YES! YES! YES! Poetry is magick, not the other way round. Kathleen Raine’s wonderful overview of the occult influences of Yeats and his involvement with the Golden Dawn is easily the most obscure thing on my bucket list of things to read before I die and has sat on my reading list for many years. To my complete amazement, it’s now free to read online at JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27541704

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Mad as a box of hammers. And no it’s not about that kind of vibrator.

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I somehow love him less for having heard him read his work but the Voice of the Poet series is still great.

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“I want my rockstars dead.” — Bill Hicks

Unintentionally hilarious. Or maybe intentionally; I can’t be sure. Wait, that’s Camus. Never mind.

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The clue is in the title.

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So bad you can ignore it.

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Everything you wanted to know about Beckett but couldn’t be arsed to find out.

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Poetry good. Richard Burton good. Richard Burton reading poetry? Not so much.

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