The chores of an independent author/artist

1. Write your story, your music, make your art. Do so without going to classes or schools or listen to schools of thought telling you how you should proceed. Find your inner voice (corny but true) and take it from there. Learn to write, to make art by doing, not crossing off on a shopping list of what others tell you should be or not be included.

2. Congratulations. Years later you’ve done it. You’ve completed a book, a collection of music, of poems, made a film, lots of different art. You’re ready to go public. It’s the same here. You don’t join the club and let established professionals telling you what’s right and wrong about your work, but proceed to do the publishing as independent as you have done the art itself. You don’t let others ruin your work by changing it to the point that you no longer recognize it.

3. Today you can easily do everything yourself. If you decide to partly publish your work the old-fashioned way you need a printer, but that’s all. You can do everything else yourself: the words, the music, the packaging and the distribution. Don’t bother too much about «the market» either, but get your work out there, for interesting and interested people to enjoy.

a. I’ve written quite a few books and scripts and composed music and done a lot of other stuff, and also published a bit of it. The rest is long overdue for publication, though. The main reason I initially started using the Internet was to meet interesting people, but it’s also very useful for communicating your art, in a very non-expensive way. I joined Twitter for the same reasons. – Check!

b. I’ve contacted quite a few Print on Demand (POD) printers. After some (lots of) deliberation I decided to use Lightning Source. They print real books and stuff and have that crucial world-wide distribution network. – Check!

c. What’s been missing earlier, I guess, is that I’ve virtually ignored «marketing». That’s what has been missing in my strategy (in the sense that I’ve had one at all). At least it has been half-hearted. And it will still be, probably, but a little less so, compared to during previous occasions. LSI takes care of quite a bit of it, with the packages included in their offer. – Check!

d. I’ve made my very first presentation video. A little adversity did that, making me branch out in new and fresh and unforeseen directions. With my own text and photos, and some great music I’ve put together a two-minute long still-movie without moving from the chair. – Check!

e. My webpages and blogs and general presence are well established on the Internet. I’ve also made and am making a special website for each of my upcoming novels, like The Defenseless. – Check!

f. I’m talking to people, like always, taking advantage of my extended network, gaining input, aid, ideas and inspiration. – Check!

A lot of work is ahead of me. – Check!

Firewind - my stories, art and poems on the Web

My writer «CV»

The Janus Clan

ShadowWalk

Read also these articles:

My fifty cents

True artistic freedom

Labeling and genre writing

Alarums of reality

The difficulties in describing a complex storyline

Earth Day - a fairly good thing

Earth Day is a good thing. It did, after all give birth to the modern environmental movement, or at least to what was one, briefly, before it turned mainstream, turned commercial, which is never a good thing. So, it’s fair to say that Earth Day was a good thing, its beginning a great event, actually.

But that is mostly of the past. Today it’s mostly more of the initial embarrassing ideas like plant a tree and stuff. It has little or no bearing on today’s reality, like it should.

For the record: it isn’t that much wrong with planting a tree, not in itself, but such naive shit is a dangerous diverting of attention away from true issues. And the logging companies plant lots of trees, and they present the new emerging forest as just as worthy as the old forest they ruined, and many people believe that, because of the logging propaganda, of course, but also because some «environmentalists» support the idea.

There are tons of days and hours for virtually anything, for countless «good causes» these days, all basically totally worthless or even counterproductive, because they hardly go to the root of the issue or even scratch the surface. That’s the current «environmental movement» in a nutshell.

I’m calling for a far more radical environmental policy, not this lukewarm shit. The entire modern society needs to be turned on its heels, inside out, and that’s just for starters.

So, until we get the Earth Millennium or rather Eternity, good day to you all.

The vast and obvious dangers of modern existence

Plumbers, hairdressers, electricians, mechanics, construction workers and painters to name a few among countless other occupations have a far higher chance of contracting various forms of cancer than a given selection of the general population, according to a survey (needs to be translated) by the Norwegian workers environment institute (STAMI), a survey easily valid in all industrialized countries and societies.

They are calling it a landmark survey (drawing on info gathered from 1961 to 2005), but in truth it isn’t. This is merely yet another survey telling it like it is, to a point, but not going far enough when it comes to describing how all the lethal chemicals and compounds we’re surrounding ourselves with are threatening our life and health.

The cumulative dangers of growing up and living within a given modern society are far higher than this limited survey is showing.

Nothing has been done with it, and nothing will ever be done with it, as long as money talks and power and injustice and inequality are allowed to prevail. People’s health and lives are quite simply unimportant as long as the current society exists. All other priorities, except greed and power and «progress» are rescinded. A massive poisoning and destruction of all life on Earth is an inevitable result of civilization.

Veneer

I certainly join with others today, as we rejoice over the fact that nature has yet again showed its supremacy over humanity and its machinations, its advanced technology and civilization.

The volcanic ash spreading from Iceland has halted air traffic all over North-Western Europe, a massive disruption of modern human activity. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Russia, France Belgium and the Netherlands have so far been affected, such a fairly small, common event, really, more than sufficient to put a major dent in people’s belief in civilization’s invulnerability.

This is how it should always be. There should be no metal deathbirds flying the airwaves, no poison-spitting engines, either in the air or on the ground or at sea ruining the air and soil and all life on Earth.


Addition midnight: It's with great pleasure i can report that the ash has now also spread to the United States' East Coast.

Hopefully the worst case scenario will come true: that the volcano will spit even bigger amounts of ash for years.


Update Friday, airports closed in Poland, Austria, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

Other articles about this subject at Midnight Fire:

What's wrong with civilization?

Tumor

Tailspin suicide run

Chemical cocktail

The World Grinder

Living in the wild

Primitivism

Tribe

The technological glorification of technology

Destroyers

My author/novelist/poet/writer «CV»

Completed novels:

The Defenseless 1973 – 1982, 2002 - 2004, 2010
The Slaves 1977, 1982 – 1984, 2004 - 2005, 2010
Birds Flying the Dark 1984 – 1986, 2004 - 2006
From the Ashes 1986 – 1987
There was no summer 1987 – 1989
Dreams Belong to the Night 1989 – 1991, 1997 – 1999, 2002 - 2003 (Published 2002)
ShadowWalk 1989 – 1993, 1998 – 2001, 2004 (Published 2003)
Night on Earth 1991 – 2004, 2010
Thunder Road: Ice and Fire 1994 – 2002
Your Own Fate 1997 – 2000, 2003 - 2004, 2010
Alarums of Reality 2001, 2004 – 2010

From the Ashes and There was no summer aren’t yet ready for publication. The rest, with a little bit of final polishing, are.

Some novels well under way, the start year(s):

At the End of the Rainbow 1995, 2005
The Hitchhiker in the Woods 1999
Season of the Witch 2001
Fangs and Claws of the Earth 2001, 2010
Footprints on the Water 2001
Phoenix Green Earth 2002
Afterglow Dust 2004
Red Shadow 2006
Falling 2006
Black Dragon 2008

I used to do all of those, and also other projects simultaneously, but I finally overextended myself, and something had to give. Now, as a general rule I focus on a few of them, those closest to completion.

Short stories:

Fire Burning in the Wind 1999
Death and the Maiden 1999
Tall and big blonde girl 2010

Movie scripts:

Exodus (short) 1997
One day in the life of John Smith (short) 1997
Hidden World 1997 – 2006
Earth and Sky, Day and Night episode one: Resurrection Dreams 2001 - 2007
Confessions of a Midnight Cannibal (short) 2007 – 2009

Working on:

Travels and Revels, Life and Magick, Tales from Hell and Beyond - Aleister Crowley
A Meaningless Story

Theater script (never written down anywhere except excerpts in the novels Dreams Belong to the Night and Thunder Road):

The Gray Fog – A Shakespeare-inspired collage 1988 – 1993, performance street theater, played in the streets of London and throughout Europe.

Collections of poems:

The Green Rose 1990 – 1993, 1995
Cry of the Jester 1993
Poems of the Hot Wind 1994 – 1996
Travels and Revels, Life and Magick, Tales from Hell and Beyond - Aleister Crowley 1995
The Infinity Cycle 1995 – 1998
CHRONICLES OF OUR DREAMS - Dreamed 1998 – 2001
Diary of a Traveling Man 2002
The Beautiful, Exciting World in Pieces 2003

Work in progress:

Secrets: Descriptions of what cannot be described 2003. Completion planned 2015.


While writing this I went through all my old archives, those still in existence, the final gasps of broken hard-drives and stuff, very interesting.

I did an insane amount of work from November 2003 to August 2005, about a million words.

My first computer, purchased 1995 revolutionized my work. It meant I was able to do more, easily work on several projects simultaneously. The delete and cut, copy and paste functions meant no more crumbled paper in the waste basket or badly working correction ink. I’ve done far more during these 15 years, compared to the 20 before.

And even more important: The non-expensive computer led to the Internet and non-expensive independent publication and eventually world-wide distribution.

I’m now more than ready to get all my work out there, to anybody interested.

I, being idle and also circumstances beyond my control have postponed this for at least four years, but no longer.

Firewind - my stories, art and poems on the Web

The Janus Clan

ShadowWalk

Read also these articles:

My fifty cents

True artistic freedom

Labeling and genre writing

Alarums of reality

The difficulties in describing a complex storyline