Ronnie Blackwell

So far, I have a novel up, a novel in the can which we’re madly editing, two books of poetry completed, and a novel underway but which I have trouble working on because of all the other projects. I’m exactly where I’ve always said I wanted to be: a full-time writer. Except…

There are distractions, many of which are unwelcome (like trying to track down our electrician, get him to return calls, and getting him to show up to see about the blown circuit we have in the house) and some of which are wonderfully welcome. For instance, this weekend our friends Barry and Georgia (Godwin, of the famous artwork for Serve It Cold) came to visit, and we had a great time! It was great to catch up with them, to hear their travel tales, and to have them meet our new baby, Duncan. And, of course, Georgia and I talked work — new work. And we have agreed to collaborate on an illustrated book based on my newspaper column about the Crow and my daddy.

Now, this was a project on the PLAN, so I’m not too concerned with that, but because Georgia is anxious to get started while on her summer hiatus, it means I have to drop what I have been working on (novel, columns) and quickly ramp up to get this project underway. What a wonderful choice to have! To work on my novel or to work on a newspaper column (which I know will get published and for which I’ll get paid!) or to work on this project that I know will please and delight my entire family and many of my column readers.

I chose the illustrated book. I have an artist whose work I love and who is my friend who wants to do this project, and I have a deep desire to honor my father (who passed away on May 1) with my version of this, his and Crow-Baby’s story. The PLAN, so new and shiny, has already changed. And that’s the way plans go.

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Somewhere during the time I was being frustrated with the yard nazi and lamenting the time I was spending on things other than writing, my wife Lin and I asked what my project list looked like. Project list?

“Well, that’s in my head,” I responded.

She: “Don’t you think it might help you to see what you’re accomplishing if you’re checking things off the list?” And that, folks, is Lin in a nutshell. She’s a do-er, a check-er-offer (although, interestingly enough, she never had any interest in keeping a life-list of birds). She sets goals and works toward them. She makes a plan and works it. She’s a Franklin Planner girl, a “here’s the shortest way from point A to point B on the map” person.

I — well, I’m not that person. I believe that plans are only slightly more concrete than ideas. I think that manifesting what you want in life is more about noticing what you have and being happy about it. I’m more about the side-roads than the destination. I’m more of a thinker than a do-er, more of a do-er than a planner, and definitely more a stop-and-smell-the-roses person. Yes, it appears much of the time we are polar opposites in the way we approach life.

But, I also understand that the creative life takes preparation, patience, and discipline, so maybe it takes planning, too. Taking a cue from my wife, I made a list, really more to get her off my case than to help myself. She glanced over my 1-page “hot list” over lunch one day, casually numbered things off, added a few notes, and passed it back to me: “Great plan, hon.” PLAN? Oh, no! Now, my writing is PLANNED?! What was I thinking!? What have I done?!

But, surprisingly, getting my “plan” down on paper does help. It helps to see where I want to go with my writing, what I need to work on first, second, third, etc. It did help when I actually sat down with my [newspaper] editor to run through some ideas and try out some new story lines. And, (thanks, honey!) it does help to see that I am accomplishing writing work every day, even though there are no piles of checks or big contracts laying around. And, I don’t feel as hampered by THE PLAN as I thought I might. I still feel like I can change directions, take a different tact on an idea, edit the list (OMG! Really? I can change the plan???), and even check some things off. Quite a turnabout for me.

Now, here’s the “rest of the story” when Lin was prodding me to make a plan:

Me: “Here’s my project list, you know, the things I need to work on right away.”

She (reading, editing, making notes): “Great plan, hon! Looks like you could be finished with that in a month. What’s next?”

NEXT? NEXT! Oh, no…………

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Well, last Friday I got a pink slip on the front door. No, not an eviction notice — at least not yet! This came from a yard nazi, someone who apparently roams the streets of our fair town and decides whose yard (s)he likes and which (s)he doesn’t. So, our back yard is “overgrown” which means someone doesn’t like the bushes we’ve planted and nursed around the fences to hide the kids, the drunks, the beer-drinking, bottle-throwing apartment-dwellers, and the guy who likes to shoot squirrels out of our pecan trees. Now, to be fair, I’ve abandoned the two corners of the yard furtherest from our back door for the last year, so things were pretty overgrown, but they were also doing exactly their jobs for us: screening us from the neighbors and them from us. AND, they’re doing extra-duty as living “brush piles” for the multiple bird families who are trying to get fledglings out of the nests and into the air! (See my latest article in the Hattiesburg American about “fledglings.”)

So I’m wondering what the real message here is for me. Don’t worry, Lin is delighted about the yard clean-up — I wouldn’t be surprised if she called the city inspector herself! Anyway, I guess the message for me is about paying attention, about tending what is mine to tend, about not hiding out behind various kinds of “screens,” and about — always about — trying to reconcile my love and respect for nature with the realities of urban life. The yard right now is like my writing…I have to tend it regularly, maybe a little at a time, but a little every day, to keep it in good enough shape that I’m not hiding behind the excess, not ignoring the obvious.

Or maybe it’s just a bunch of overgrown bushes and we have a yard nazi here in town. I’m still thinking about it….but so far, no more pink slips.

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While at Balticon for the Serve It Cold podcast launch, I was interviewed by Jason Adams for Lulu Radio. While the entire interview is great, my piece of it is only a few minutes about 1/3 of the way through. You can link to the interview here to hear Jason and I discuss self-publishing through LULU, the role of podcasts in generating interest and sales, and more. Thanks for listening and please leave feedback.

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I just finished two articles for the Hattiesburg American — look online today for one! (and I’ll also post a link on the site.), Paul wants me to write a 60-second promo for Serve It Cold (the novel/podcast), Martha emailed Lin new stats on the podcast subscriptions (we’re up to about 250 now! Keep up the good work!), Lin wants me to find a job, my friend Bill is in hospital having had surgery yesterday, and, of course, I need to blog. All of that before I start writing! AAAarrrgggggg!

Well, I said I wanted to be a “writer” many years ago, I trained to be a writer, and I have practiced writing for too many years; in the meantime, things changed. Today, being a writer no longer means sitting around just writing. Today it means writing + marketing + promotion + who knows what else? So not only am I doing what I know how to do (write) but I am also having a pretty steep learning curve about the business of writing and what it means to be a working writer.

That said, I am also a classic adult learner, a person who learns what (s)he needs to know when it best serves them to learn it. Not generally a manual-reader, even if there was one, I have researched what other independent writers are doing out there to promote their work, and it seems that the burdens are great: travel, learning new skills (podcasting & others), doing speaking engagements, scheduling “tours,” attending conventions and conferences, and, of course, writing, editing, etc. It’s a BIG job, this writing gig.

So I’m learning as I go with the help of friends (like Martha & Paul at Dancing Cat Studios, Bill & Ruth in Miami, and tons of other friends who have subscribed) and friends of friends (the folks we met at Balticon, fellow pod-casters), and supporters (my family, my wife, even my pets — okay, maybe NOT the pets!), including all those folks out there that I don’t yet know but who have bought the book or subscribed to the podcast.

Wow…all of a sudden, I’m feeling very lucky. I get to write and meet new people and learn new things and be in touch with people who like what I’m doing and support my work….now what’s not to like about that?

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I have been struggling with this 500 word article for the Hattiesburg American since Friday, the idea for it even before that. Sometimes the words seem to flow — I’m in the “groove” and the characters speak loudly and clearly to me. Sometimes not. Now is a “not” time for me obviously, but now is also the time that persistence and discipline are the things that keep a writer going, or so I’m told. My daddy used to call that “gutting it out;” Lin calls it “courage” to be afraid (to fear you can’t write, that you’re not a good [enough] writer, that the words have quit you completely and you’ll never be able to compose a sentence again!) but to act despite the fear or worry.

That’s what yesterday was like. Today, who knows? I know I’ll keep writing, editing, rewriting, editing… After all, my deadline is today and that’s my job.

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Ruth and the kids have been in and out all week, between us and Ruth’s Mississippi family, and they are now on their way to Texas for a short visit; my mama’s got three 2-week old Rottie puppies that she’s hand-feeding, so Lin has had to go out there to “check on them” almost every day (and, of course, I have to ride along! It is my mother!); I’ve been going to work every day to babysit the trailor and Alexandria, who is the real worker of us two; and I have been writing.

I’m trying to get some “extras” ready for the new editions of the books that we are putting up on LULU for those who might want to collect the trio of editions, all with original artwork and “extras.” So with two short stories down for those, today I’m trying to get an article written for the Hattiesburg American for next Thursday. If I get it in to my editor there by Monday afternoon, she can usually work it into Thursday’s edition. We will post a link when the article is printed. I think it going to end up being about our parrotlet.

Speaking of the newspaper columns, Lin has gone through Audubon National to get a list of all Southeastern chapters of Audubon, and she is now (between full-time work, teaching 2 graduate classes at the university this summer, and her several community boards and projects) locating papers in each community to which I can market my “bird-watching” columns. It’s one of several strategies I’m cooking to see if I can really make a go of writing for a living.

And, speaking of living (yes, this is pretty free-form for me today), we ate at one of my all-time favorite restaurants in the world last night: Leatha’s Bar-B-Que. I’ve been eating with Miss Leatha for many years, first in her country kitchen in the back of her house across the Pearl River in Foxworth (about 45 minutes drive from Hattiesburg) and now in the “new” place here in Hattiesburg that a lawyer opened up for her and her kids about 5 years back. If you ever come for a visit, this is pig heaven! Well, human pigs who love barbecue….the real pigs get cooked! I had a steak, cooked over an open wood fire with a side of beef ribs (off the bone), cole slaw (made with honey-mustard dressing), baked beans and real steak fries, thick slabs of potato deep fried in lard. No fru-fru, low-fat, no-sugar cooking here, guys….this is the REAL THING! Your arteries will not thank you for it, but your taste buds will! Now, there is lots of good barbecue out there, and Lin & I know that from experience. If you’re traveling and want some recommendations, just leave us a message here and we can point you to someplace in the vicinity of where you’re traveling that will dish you up some saucy-pig (or cow) to calm that urge.

Okay, I’m hearing Mur’s voice again….”I should be writing…I should be writing…” Dang! It’s not in my head at all! It’s her podcast!

Have a great weekend, guys. Download more chapters of Serve It Cold! Leave feedback! Send me an email or leave a message here!

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Well, not much writing work got done this weekend, although I did get the promos for Serve It Cold finished and sent off to Martha & Paul at Dancing Cat Studios. Our long-time friend Ruth was up from Miami this weekend with our two god-children, John (14) and Marion (12-1/2), so….not much writing, but we had a lot of fun with our extended family. We sure miss Bill and wish he’d join us here in Mississippi!

Martha sent new stats from the podcast and Serve It Cold is now up to 144 subscribers! Keep up the great work, everyone! Tell all the folks you know and have them subscribe. I am looking forward to your feedback on the book, the characters, the plot, everything!

I am winding down at my day-job this month and will be finished come June 30. Not sure what my plan is after that for a job that will support my real work, but I believe something will come. Lin is anxious for resolution….

Ok, I should be writing…..stay tuned….more to come.

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Martha informed Lin last night that the pod-cast of Serve It Cold is up to 110 subscribers so far…and we just released it Sunday night about 10 EDT! Wow! What incredible support from the pod-cast listeners world! Just keep it up, everyone, and keep telling people about it so they will download and listen, too!

We’ll keep you informed of future progress but it’s really all up to y’all! The more people you tell, the more who will subscribe. The more subscriptions, the better!

While you’re out here on the site, be sure to browse other pages and leave comments. I really do want to hear from you and to get your feedback!

Thanks, Ron

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