The Adventures of LitBoy: Bill Brent's Blog

Bye for Now

Hey there, readers --

Just a quick note to let you know that the Typepad version of this blog is probably going away soon, since my annual re-up is this week.

Now, while I have certainly enjoyed posting to this blog at times, assembling most of my posts here takes a great deal of work -- probably more formatting, uploading, and so forth than they appear to. Let's just say that Typepad out-of-the-box is not nearly as great in the design department as Bill Brent on-the-stick.

Plus, to be blunt, I'm not getting enough love or money to keep up this project, AND to pay Typepad for the privilege. (Although honestly, I do believe that they provide good value for the money.)

Furthermore, life has gotten busier for me lately with paying work. So now I need to stop being such a generous poor person, in order to focus more steadfastly on achieving my goals.

BOTTOM LINE, thirty months of paying Typepad is enough, already. I have written Typepad to ask what becomes of financially delinquent blogs, as mine is about to be, and I am sure I will get some kind of polite party-line response shortly. In any case, if you want to stay in touch, or know what I'm up to next, here are a couple of options for you:

Email Me Here

Otherwise, I'm on Facebook and Twitter nowadays -- to find me, just put my first name and my last name together into a single word, and there you go.

So thanks for reading, and if there is something you really enjoy about this blog, then by all means drop me a line and let me know what it is! Maybe we can put the best stuff together someplace else for free.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2009.05.05, 10:30 a.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is the brainchild of writer Bill Brent. If you enjoy this blog, please consider a donation in support of my work. You can either (1) send money via PayPal to info [!at] litboy [!dot] com, or better still, (2) use Revolution Money Exchange. Unlike PayPal, RME pays 100% of your donation. It's quick and easy!


Here's the button for that:

NOVEL-WRITING LOG: It was 40 weeks ago today....

Well, not really, but "somewhere around 300 days ago" wouldn't sound nearly as catchy. In any case, February 24 is exactly ten months after starting the right-brain novel last April 24, and I emailed the last draft to my writing coach for a final read-through on February 18. I may re-purpose it a bit to make it more genre-friendly, but basically it's done. I am quite pleased with it; I just haven't felt like blogging about it. I still don't, actually, but I have felt totally uninspired today, so I figured at least I could get the three-week-old weather report off the front page of this blog.

So at last I have joined the ranks of the untold thousands of writers with an unpublished novel manuscript lurking in a drawer somewhere (hard drive, in my case). So no longer am I merely and proverbially "working on a novel" -- I've actually GOT one! I still haven't decided whether this is a milestone or a millstone (ha). Both, I guess. Now to decide where and how to publish it.

I will probably go back to work on the LEFT-brain novel later this week. Oh, and I have had two short stories accepted into anthologies since the new year began. One is a rewrite of a story that originated in 1995; the other is an excerpt from novel #3 -- so maybe we'll call that the "middle-brain novel" (double-ha).

Go me.

Bill's Right-Brain Novel,
as of February 18, 2008:

50,422 / 50,000 (100.8%)

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2008.03.22, 10:30 a.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is a professional blog. Keeping it online costs me $200 per year. That's before paying me for my writing, photography, or anything else I do here. If you enjoy this blog, please use the Tip Jar at the top of this page. Your two-dollar minimum donation helps keep this banner-free site alive. It's quick and easy!

20.00 / $199.90 (10.0%)

This meter displays this year's contributions to date in U.S. dollars (after the funds processor takes its cut). Make a donation, watch the meter rise! Usually I post your contribution on my next blog post.

All original materials here on LitBoy.com (writing, photos, drawings, graphics, etc.) belong to Bill Brent. If you want to re-use something here, please ask. Higher resolution images are available.

A Memoir of Sexual Self-Discovery, and a History of Religious Bowling

Probably I should break this entry into two or three separate posts, but lately it's tough enough for me to prod myself into doing even a monthly post to this blog. So today you get three for the price of one.

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FIRST, I want to pass along a link to an online excerpt from ENTANGLED LIVES, the erotic memoir anthology that features my true story along with six other erotic memoirs, including MARILYN JAYE LEWIS, IAN PHILIPS / GREG WHARTON, and "Adam Greenaway" (the pseudonym for a well-known gay author who chose anonymity for his self-disclosure), BILL BRENT (moi -- just including the name for the search engines), AMIE M. EVANS, ROB STEPHENSON, and RACHEL KRAMER BUSSEL.

This piece, excerpted from Rob Stephenson's "Exuvia (1977-1980), is featured on the VELVET MAFIA website:

CLICK FOR "EXUVIA" (NOTE: for mature readers only.)

This excerpt contains depictions of gay male S/M sexual activity. What I love about it is how Rob describes the rush of discovery and sexual power from an activity that is not genitally focused.

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SECOND, here is a plug for a new book from editor Russ Kick and the great folks at THE DISINFORMATION COMPANY, who publish a series of encyclopedic books that challenge our cultural assumptions. This one is provocatively titled EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT GOD IS WRONG, and it contains my article, "Martin Luther Goes Bowling," all about the little-known connection between bowling and religion. For instance, there is substantial evidence that bowling, as we know it today, originated in part as a ritual in German churches several centuries after the death of Christ. The original bowling pins may have been some combination of walking stick and club that the parishioners used to defend themselves against "heathens" (robbers) enroute to Church.

Want to know more? HERE'S A LINK TO THE BOOK.

The book contains a plethora of articles by well-known authors, most if not all of which explore little-known facts concerning religion, religious fallacies, or other meditations on the topic, including one of my favorites, "Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do With God," by my blogging pal GRETA CHRISTINA. That one's a freebie, in fact, because you can read it on her blog, RIGHT HERE.

A few other articles of the dozens in this anthology: Richard Dawkins shows us the strange, scary properties of religion; Neil Gaiman turns a biblical atrocity story into a comic (that almost sent a publisher to prison); Erik Davis looks at what happens when religion and California collide; Mike Dash eyes stigmatics; Douglas Rushkoff exposes the trouble with Judaism; Paul Krassner reveals his "Confessions of an Atheist"; and best-selling lexicographer Jonathon Green interprets the language of religious prejudice.

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LAST BUT NOT LEAST, I've been putting up new items for sale in my online bookstore, BooksFromHawaii. Browse, if you wish, and see if there's something you like!

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Thanks for tuning in, and in case I don't post again before the Solstice, Christmas, or whatever your celebration of choice may be, have a wonderful and life-enriching holiday.

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2007.12.08, 11:05 a.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is a professional blog. Keeping it online costs me $200 per year. That's before paying me for my writing, photography, or anything else I do here. If you enjoy this blog, please use the Tip Jar at the top of this page. Your two-dollar minimum donation helps keep this banner-free site alive. It's quick and easy!

80.99 / $199.90 (40.5%)

This meter displays this year's contributions to date in U.S. dollars (after the funds processor takes its cut). Make a donation, watch the meter rise! Usually I post your contribution on my next blog post.

All original materials here on LitBoy.com (writing, photos, drawings, graphics, etc.) belong to Bill Brent. If you want to re-use something here, please ask. Higher resolution images are available.

Cooking on All Burners

My partner forwards me articles and such all the time. This is one of the most inspiring links he's sent me in months:

Barbara Cook:
Heartbreak and Healing, Sometimes Both at Once

The New York Times

ARTS / MUSIC   | November 21, 2007

Music Review

by STEPHEN HOLDEN

The concert found this Broadway lyric soprano not only alive and kicking but in great voice.

If you can, watch the video. (Click on the "multimedia" link within the article.)

While we can't really know what is going on beneath the surface, I will keep looking for examples of folks like Cook who seem to be cooking on all burners (pardon the pun). Role models, perhaps. Sources of optimism. I think this is especially important in times of stress, such as we are living through now. If we cannot look to our national leaders for this strength, we can always find it elsewhere.

Transcendence, energy, humility. Enduring qualities, all. And she's 80.

Here is a related article

that includes audio clips of Cook singing.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2007.11.22, 10:45 a.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is a professional blog. Keeping it online costs me $200 per year. That's before paying me for my writing, photography, or anything else I do here. If you enjoy this blog, please use the Tip Jar at the top of this page. Your two-dollar minimum donation helps keep this banner-free site alive. It's quick and easy!

80.99 / $199.90 (40.5%)

This meter displays this year's contributions to date in U.S. dollars (after the funds processor takes its cut). Make a donation, watch the meter rise! Usually I post your contribution on my next blog post.

All original materials here on LitBoy.com (writing, photos, drawings, graphics, etc.) belong to Bill Brent. If you want to re-use something here, please ask. Higher resolution images are available.

Thoughts on Creative Process

I just realized something about the creative process. Mine, at least.

I tend to get inspired from experiencing the art or vision of other creative types. It doesn't have to be in the same field of discipline as mine. And it truly doesn't have to be art per se. Sometimes it can be as simple as my own analysis of what I like or dislike about their particular vision, or my observation of how that vision plays out in the larger world.

Let me see if I can explain this.

It's as if the other creative type and I are sheets of paper or cloth, and if the other is "on fire," and brushes up against me, that tends to set me on fire as well. Then we've got two creative types on fire, each with his own "print" or tapestry to expose to the world. My tapestry is not a copy of theirs, but I need to catch a glimpse of theirs in order to set mine free — to unravel it, if you will. Or to "see" my own design and make a print of the image that is forming in my brain.

Hunh.

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Thanks to M.P., M.M., and D.S. for their recent contributions
in support of this blog.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2007.09.24, 12:12 p.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is a professional blog. Keeping it online costs me $200 per year. That's before paying me for my writing, photography, or anything else I do here. If you enjoy this blog, please use the Tip Jar at the top of this page. Your two-dollar minimum donation helps keep this banner-free site alive. It's quick and easy!

80.99 / $199.90 (40.5%)

This meter displays this year's contributions to date in U.S. dollars (after the funds processor takes its cut). Make a donation, watch the meter rise! Usually I post your contribution on my next blog post.

All original materials here on LitBoy.com (writing, photos, drawings, graphics, etc.) belong to Bill Brent. If you want to re-use something here, please ask. Higher resolution images are available.