I like it, Victor--your imagery paints a vivid picture. I did get a bit lost in this sentence:
At the newspaper I work for, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the old-timers get a wistful, sad look in their eyes when they talk about the old-style, hot metal method of printing the paper, as if all this cutting-and-pasting and computer pagination was an unseemly shortcut, like not doing it the hard way, the irrevocable way, were somehow less honest.
Maybe chop it up a bit? Something like: "At the newspaper I work for, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the old-timers get a wistful, sad look in their eyes when they talk about the old-style, hot metal method of printing the paper. It's as if all this cutting-and-pasting and computer pagination was an unseemly shortcut, and not doing it the hard, irrevocable way was somehow less honest."
That's a good idea. I think I'll do that. Thanks!
wow, Victor. You rock. Go team Description!
I don't suppose you can somehow work the very odd clothes-drying contraptions in your neighborhood into that. :-) Actually, they deserve their own damn column.
I honestly can't think of anyway to improve on what you've written so far. I come away feeling that it hasn't gotten to the end, FWIW.
don't suppose you can somehow work the very odd clothes-drying contraptions in your neighborhood into that. :-) Actually, they deserve their own damn column.
I have no idea yet how to describe that contraption. Think I must meditate on the subject.
I honestly can't think of anyway to improve on what you've written so far. I come away feeling that it hasn't gotten to the end, FWIW.
It hasn't. I hit a natural breaking point, and I wasn't sure how I felt about it, so I shared. I imagine the full product will be 2,000 to 4,000 words, which I'll probably shop as an essay. I then think it might be the introduction to a larger work. We'll see.
I was looking through some old poetry the other night, back from the early 80s. It's all still true, but I know so much more about writing now than I did then. I can't think of any way to polish it without losing the feel. And putting that much post-adolescent, possibly-pretentious writerly stuff out in public makes me more anxious than posting my first smut.
And putting that much post-adolescent, possibly-pretentious writerly stuff out in public makes me more anxious than posting my first smut.
If it's any consolation, I get that feeling when I see a copy of my first book, or even the "Selected Early Poems" that came out a couple years ago. Just can't even read it, and it horrifies me that it's still in print.
Still in print means there's still interest, right? That's not enough to overwhelm the cringing "what was I thinking?" feeling? Damn. Or is it "I could do that so much better now, really!"
Still in print means there's still interest, right? That's not enough to overwhelm the cringing "what was I thinking?" feeling? Damn. Or is it "I could do that so much better now, really!"
"Still in Print" in this case means the publisher hasn't run out of the third edition yet. I know it sells once in awhile, and I think I only have a couple copies of it left myself. I have no idea if the publisher would even consider printing more in the future, without some weird upswell of demand. Like if I were on Oprah or something.
I self-published my last chapbook, "Invisible Ghetto," and I think it's ten times better than anything I did previously. I'm also still fond of the book "Inevitable Press" published for me a few years back, but it is long gone.
Third edition. Did you get shivers up your spine when they went to a third edition? I got some vicarious thrills in your honor.
