Moving

Life does happen to writers, even and especially the unknown struggling ones.  I, for one, have spent the last two months or so preparing to move, and then moving.  I'm now living with my fiancee way up in northern Vermont and have written just about squat that entire time.

I tell you this because, first of all, many people think of writers and artists as these obscure people who do nothing but write or paint or whatever.  Man would I love it if that were true.  But, as you may or may not have gathered in some of my previous posts, most writers/artists are either spoiled brats (just a term, not true) and can live off inheritance money or they are working on the side.  Or they are working, and writing on the side.  The idea that writers sit around in a crappy apartment for years on end is rather romantic and sometimes true, but most of the time writers and artists have other things going on in their lives.  To expect a writer or artist to have nothing else going on in their lives is a little ridiculous and rather selfish.

Currently I have to remind myself of this in terms of George R.R. Martin, author of the famous Song of Ice and Fire series.  It takes a butt long time for him to publish each book and it's rather annoying.  But, then, who knows what he has going on?  No one should expect him to work at a god's pace.

The other reason I tell you about my move is that since I started planning to move my life has been hectic.  Before the packing I had been extremely productive.  Now, with no job but many dreams, it's unlikely that I will write much in the near future until I can rest assured that my life won't jump over the guardrails.  There are some projects, however, that have been grandfathered in from the "extremely productive" period right before the move.  Those projects I'll tell you about in the nearish future.

One of those projects is directly relevant to what I'm talking about here and the fact that writers have real lives.  I'm trying to build a dek hockey rink.  That's right, I am hopping into the world of entrepreneurship and community development.  If it happens, my life will be all set: I'd make lots of money, the community would love me, and I'd have plenty of time to write, all while I continue my slow advance toward one day being a pastor.  Quite frankly, the tangible lives of writers can be very time-consuming, so the fact that we spend any time writing for your benefit should reward us with high amounts of praise.  I'm ready to listen to your well-wishes of thanksgiving.