Happy, Lively, Vivacious

I've been in a buffalo wallow lately up to my knees in mud and grumbling about it. Nobody likes to read that shit.

I apologize.

Maybe it is the season. Maybe it is the apprehension which results when one becomes quite serious about their writing. Nevertheless, nobody likes the dial setting "curmudgeon."  Art Buckwald could pull it off with humor and grace. The mere grumbling I've managed is horrendous.

This is Douglas Adams week and at left is the cover of my DoDo case which protects my iPad from extinction. If you don't use a DoDo case, start. It turns the thing into a large moleskin which is about the most rewarding tactile iPad experience available.

I'm thinking of putting together a small group of writers for the purpose of edit review, critique, and the stress of putting your best foot forward before putting your best foot forward.

I know the pitfalls of critique groups. I've some experience avoiding the evils of "the nastiest thing to say" game. Nevertheless, it is time to do a better job at the finish. Polishing is a habit and a skill. If the stuff is just going into the "for later" file then half the work is not being done.

So, I am going to share my introductory proposal with you before sending it to my associates. There is no need to include for you the particulars of the group so perhaps just the introduction of the topic.

Feel free to offer advice. Many of you have participated in various working groups.

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Penguins. I consider myself and my ilk penguins.

Instead of standing on ice in the dark we sit in hovels and laundry rooms but it is much the same. We squawk indistinguishably from our like voiced compatriots. We wear the uniform of the flightless, the unpublished in ignominy at the bottom of the world unnoticed and unread. If we are studied it is for the masochism of it all.

“Why do they do it?,” the scientist asks. “You’d think they’d go someplace else. Take up something less frustrating. Golf, maybe?”

Well, comrades. I've eaten about all the raw herring I can stand and could use a little more warmth. A nice tropical bestseller list would make a fine escape but even a vacation to an anthology or two would seem blissful. Oh, for the beach chair in the Sunday Review of Books.

It is a long winter in Anonymity. Perhaps it is time we pooled our efforts for escape.