Yes, I am playing off of a title of a really bad movie. I think I was forced to watch bits and pieces of it, but its only redeeming quality is that I had a semi-celebrity crush on Sandra Bullock. Outside of that, wow, awful.
Two weeks. In two weeks Fragments of Humanity will be on the virtual shelves at Amazon.com. I should get my first ten copies of the print edition this week and I am more excited this time around. The first book was just one of those things; a rush. Many years and many incarnations of a story that finally came to fruition. But there was no planning around it and I had no clue what to expect.
Like many first time authors I just expected others to find it and want to read. The funny part is, maybe it's being the "first" or maybe it is the nature of the subject matter, which I felt was more profound, but regardless of its sales, I think I will always favor that book more than anything that will follow. Maybe I will prove myself wrong and write something that is even more profoundly meaningful to my own demented mind.
Fragments is different for me. It was somewhat experimental as I wrote about topics of which i was clueless and had to do research. I have never killed anyone; never used heroin; never attempted suicide and never been around sex traffickers. It was a stretch when the story went the direction it did, but I am glad. I stretched my boundaries a little bit and learned about myself in the process.
When Fragments comes out, I am hopeful, but not expectant. The thing about becoming an independent author, to make money, to sell beyond friends and family, you have to keep working. It's like a and, you can't play a single show at a little bar no one has ever heard of and expect that the record companies are suddenly going to be banging down your door. Sure, maybe it happened for Arctic Monkeys, but that is so rare that the expectation of such is foolishness.
You have to keep pounding away; chipping at it like Andy Dufresne. One small piece of the wall at a time. Eventually either you will be consumed within the walls, or you will break out. Either way, writing is an art that brings freedom. We must continue our struggles and grow from within those struggles.
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