The Adventures of LitBoy: Bill Brent's Blog

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So at last I have joined the ranks of the untold thousands of writers with an unpublished novel manuscript lurking in a drawer somewhere (hard drive, in my case).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.

WIN-WIN: Thinking My Way Outside the Economic Box of the American Artist / Entrepreneur

Want to make an easy $25 and help support my work?

Through October 30, Capital One, my savings bank, is offering $25 to anyone I refer using the following code:

AM3Y4KYDF

You can open a High Yield Money Market Account:

- online HERE,
- or by calling 1-800-555-4904

Simply provide the code AM3Y4KYDF when you open an account online or over the phone. I get $15 per referral, so actually, you get the better part of the deal! And CapitalOne pays a great rate on savings accounts regardless of balance, currently 5.00%. More details at: CAPITAL ONE .

Normally I would not make a commercial announcement like this via my blog or email newsletter list, but I have been extremely satisfied with my CapitalOne savings plan. Plus, at this point I am doing my darndest to think creatively about how to stay afloat in the current economy. So I don't mind trading a tiny bit of pride and running the risk of offending someone here in order to help make ends meet. We all know friends, family, and colleagues who've taken a hit. I have, too. So this is one small way I'm fighting back. I don't intend to do this kind of thing very often, but I've decided that Fall, starting this year, is going to be my annual fundraising drive.

Not to worry — I'm not in dire straits at the moment, but you know what they say about an ounce of prevention. And, as a disenfranchised artist in this culture (please note the clever double redundancy in that phrase), I am choosing to be proactive rather than reactive with regard to my financial situation.

Typically, the last year of a President's term is bad for the stock market. I have managed to save a couple hundred dollars each month over the past several years by starting a ShareBuilder plan. Right now, I'm looking at cashing out a couple of very small but somewhat volatile investments while the market is still strong, and placing the proceeds in my savings plan.

Meanwhile, I'm doing my best to paddle against the stream in other ways:

- I'm clearing space by donating items to my local thrift stores and selling the more valuable stuff on eBay starting next week, HERE.

- I have been keeping a tiny little online bookstore at Amazon.com for five years now.

- I'm rewriting MAKE A ZINE!, my very first book (1997), for a second edition release next year from Microcosm Publishing.

- Royalties from my how-to book on sex are lagging a bit, and I'm taking up the slack by helping to produce a second volume of stories from the Literotica.com website.

- Paddle faster. I'm getting older, so I'm trying to work smarter, not harder. However, I just took on a small gardening job, just to make sure I can cover a bill or two.

And I'm still finding time to write:

- I'm a featured contributor to the seven-author anthology, ENTANGLED LIVES, just out on Alyson Publications. Details are HERE.

- I've just completed the first draft of a novel of modest length (about 50,000 words);

- and I'm about seventy percent into a second, longer novel.

- I've just signed a contract for a new short story to appear in a big-time erotic anthology. Due to the publishing industry's volatility nowadays, I don't pre-announce things anymore, so details on that to come, once it goes to press.

Here are some other ways to lend support:

- by donating via the Tip Jar to MY BLOG, RIGHT HERE. The Tip Jar is in the upper left hand corner.

- or by purchasing a gift from me for yourself or someone else via Amazon, HERE.

- or from me via eBay, HERE (opening by Sept. 20).

- And, of course, you can buy a copy of ENTANGLED LIVES, if that's something you would enjoy. You can send me a ten percent commission via Amazon by using THIS LINK.

Finally, any other Amazon.com purchases you make (aside from links via this blog) can also help me out. You can file the following code for future reference and paste it in at the end of whatever Amazon URL you are using:

/tag=billbrentauth-20

...and then reload the page, so that Amazon knows to send me a commission. (Now how's that for trickle-down economics?)

Thanks so much for reading this, and I truly appreciate your support of my work, whether or not you can help with the financial thing at this time.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2007.09.13, 8:25 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!

53.06 / $199.90 (26.5%)

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.

ENTANGLED LIVES reviewed at erotica-readers.com

Click the link below to read a glowing review of my new book, Entangled Lives: Memoirs of 7 Top Erotica Writers.

erotica-readers.com review of Entangled Lives

Here on the Big Island the weather is lovely and we just came back from a big outdoor party. I hope you are enjoying a wonderful holiday filled with whatever you've been missing out on the rest of this summer.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2007.09.02, 7:55 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!

53.06 / $199.90 (26.5%)

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.

Memoirville.com features an excerpt from my ENTANGLED LIVES memoir

Smithmag's memoirville.com is running a feature on my new anthology, ENTANGLED LIVES, beginning today. You can read the interview with me and the other contributors HERE.

Memoirville's editor selected an excerpt from my memoir to feature on the site, which you can read HERE. [Note to family and friends: this features sexually explicit content from my direct experience, so you are hereby advised to skip it if you don't want to view it.]

You can buy a copy of ENTANGLED LIVES via Amazon, HERE, and I get a 10% commission on the sale. If you do read the book and want to review it at Amazon.com, please do so. It would really help.

In related news, I have finished the first draft of my "right-brain novel" and am hard at work on revisions with my writing coach, TONI AMATO.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2007.08.28, 3:40 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!

53.06 / $199.90 (26.5%)

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.

NOVEL-WRITING LOG: It was 20 weeks ago today....

Well, actually, only seventeen-and-a-half weeks, but that wouldn't sound nearly as catchy. In any case, today is exactly four months after starting the right-brain novel on April 24, and I just emailed the completed first draft to my writing coach. The story will need plenty more effort, but at least now:

- the action is continuous;
- any superfluous characters have been cut;
- and any glaring redundancies or contradictions in plot or narrative seem to be gone.

I will probably start making some changes as soon as I come up for air, which could be tomorrow or sometime next week. In any case, I have a lot of other responsibilities over the next week, so I am going to focus on those for a bit.

Go me.

Bill's Right-Brain Novel,
as of August 24, 2007:

47,931 / 47,931 (100.0%)

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2007.08.24, 7:15 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!

53.06 / $199.90 (26.5%)

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.

Blah.

GROUNDED.

Have I told you about my dental infection? Oh, that's right, I did. So here's a pic from more carefree times.

Into day two of antibiotics. Slept well, but my energy is still zapped. Tanked up on coffee and made good headway today on the right-brain novel. Got useful feedback from my writing coach and added a fun and frisky character. It works.

Adding a bit of pressure to complete this draft so I can take care of other book projects. No luck finding my original files for MAKE A ZINE! so I will have to input from scratch for the second edition. Blah.

With these book projects, as with so many things, one can choose speed or depth.

Multiple factors seem to be converging to create a more extroverted and sensate phase ahead. Book projects are pending. Re-opening my online store to improve cash flow is likely. (In other words, several unexpected bills have landed in my inbox this month.) So I will push myself outside my comfort zone a bit in order to "break open some new energetics," as my friend Romy (see here) phrases it.

So ... Pose objects. Take pictures. Upload them. Write descriptions. Answer questions. Put things in boxes and ship them. Type lots. Deal with editors. Spend lots of time in email mode. If I don't do the work proactively, I will have it dumped upon my pointy little head. Deal with reality or reality will deal with you ... on its terms ... yes?

So September looks to be a bit more hectic. By then, the dentist will have yanked my dead tooth and I will be over this crud, so here's hoping I'll be up for it. It would be great to have some extra energy.

Not much to report otherwise. Snoopy the cat is much more interesting. Should have taken more kitty pix. Instead, you get me. Blah.

Bill's Right-Brain Novel,
as of August 10, 2007:

48,249 / 50,000 (96.5%) net gain: 1,834 words

 

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Wishing you a beautiful (and blah-free) day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2007.08.10, 5:12 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!

53.06 / $199.90 (26.5%)

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.

OK, not so nice.

THRASHED.

My desk looks nothing like this at the moment. Well, okay, the top is still flat. Somewhere beneath all this crap.

I am absolutely thrashed. Oh, I don't even want to talk about it. Way too much personal info for a public blog. Suffice to say that this poor artist thing sucks big hairy donkey balls today.

OK, I'll talk a little. At the moment, me and my dental infection are pissed at everyone and everything, ranging from the health care system, to the toll that the Hawaiian climate is taking on my belongings (yeah, I can feel your sympathy from here), to the Post Office's arbitrary regulations (I mean, not only is it backwards logic this time, it's baldly ANTI-SECURITY logic — IDIOTS!) that discriminate against the have-nots who have to hand-carry Media Mail parcels into the Post Office to ship via slow-boat to Mainland, instead of paying three times the price to ship via Priority Mail with nary a snag.

Really, I don't think I have felt this thrashed since the time I was stuck in coach class, spilling ginger ale on myself while crashing on crystal meth between Atlanta and DFW in 2003.

Oh, but I still wrote nearly 1K words on my novel today, many of them while waiting for the late dentist.

In other words, I REWL.

Fuck 'em all. I will have my day.

Bill's Right-Brain Novel,
as of August 7, 2007:

46,415 / 50,000 (92.8%) net gain: 931 words

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Wishing you a beautiful (and painless) day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2007.08.07, 10:55 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!

53.06 / $199.90 (26.5%)

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.