So Many Words Unblogged – You´ll Have to Read My Next Book
As any backpacking hosteler will tell you, there is simply no time to describe it all for our adoring public back home. No sooner do you get one great adventure detailed in writing…(whether scribbled in a dog-earred journal or typed and published electronically, or both), than many days´ worth of other stories generate themselves and sit there, looking at you beligerantly, awaiting their own personal time to become solidified into the record.
All the while, you are jumping out of bed at unbecoming hours to track down new adventures with new and interesting individuals and then returning so bushed that your body crawls between the inviting sheets and blankets without even asking your permission. So, when do you write? Often the lighting is poor and rooms are as cold as the shower water; or the dorm is full of chattering mates. I frequently write in restaurants – one great advantage of eating and traveling alone.
And then, there´s the ever-present…(but sometimes hard to find…or to concentrate within…or to suffer such well-worn keyboards and slow machines)…internets of the world. And yes, that word “Internet” is now a noun, meaning the businesses which hire out their machines, and not just that cyber connection which they allow us to enter. They are proliferating rapidly but become undependable at the most frustrating times. Maybe you can´t find one when you want to, or they are full, or closed, or too near choking traffic fumes, or practically non-existant, as in New Delhi, the capital ofIndia, of all things.
These are the realities which get in the way of a good writer´s sincere attempts to publish chapters on the road. I am actually satisfied with the speed and output of my journal recordings though most of them are scrawled on a moving bus or boat; or before, between, and after meal servings; or on park benches where there are no shoeshine boys. Somehow, I feel sure that I have captured the most interesting moments or scraps of philosophy which might reveal themselves.
But, blogging that material is another whole, imperfect story, as you now understand. I have my own beautiful personal blogsite, www.heyboomers.com, which carries duplicates of this site, or is it the other way around? Mysteriously, I have not been able to access my blogsite since I arrived in Puno, Peru, last Sunday. I thought my server was down, but I am assured that all is well and others, elsewhere, can find it easily. Certainly, I´m hoping that when I get to La Paz, Bolivia, I will be able to call up my site and add all missing, as well as future blogs, as I have always done during this trip. Meanwhile, friends and family who tune in there will either think I´m a lazy-writer-bum or fallen off some cliff somewhere.
So, not being able to access your own site when you want to adds to the list of a writer´s challenges while on the road. Stories stack up. Deeper insights on, say Machu Picchu´s inner qualities, get pushed aside because you have now found some on Lake Titicaca; and the Lake may get ignored altogether because La Paz proves to be so wonderful. See what I mean?
So, the solution is only to be found in publishing that second book which is already so much of a reality to me that I´m promoting it now as if it exists. First of all, it´s practically written. All I need to do is sweep together all these blogs and fill in the blanks from my journal, and then do what I did the last time with the previous manuscript…and, Voila! Send it to my publisher and then to you, my loyal fan base. Helloooooo! I hope you´re actually out there, as I imagine you to be.
So, stay posted for news of “Age Schmage/Money Schmoney” sometime during the latter half of 2009. It will be offered by Amazon.com, as “Hey Boomers, Dust Off Your Backpacks” now is. I´m road testing that new title and having great success with many snickers generated. Always a good sign of an attention-getter.
Plus, this blogsite will walk you through the frustrating publishing details and happy bits of news, just like last time. And at that time, Ill be working from my own home computer and can blog to my heart´s content. Oh, lucky you!
Tags: 1, Age Schmage/Money Schmoney, Puno Peru, writing on the road, Tag Index
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