Carole and I were discussing what we're going to do on our vacations next year. We'd seriously been considering going to Glacier National Park or Yosemite National Park or maybe Crater Lake National Park or maybe the Adirondacks.However...
We also know that I am going to have to stop avoiding the literary and media shows I once attended when I was younger. Back in the day, when I was a retailer of collectibles and, later, a budding wanna-be author, I went to lots of such shows. Major comic book conventions, big science-fiction conventions, and media shows. But I got sick of those and pretty much stopped attending them, going cold turkey. I didn't miss them, at all.
In the intervening years I got even more serious about my writing, stopped
creating comic book scripts and short stories and concentrated on novels and novel pitches. I found some success and I did it without attending science-fiction or media conventions.Now, however, I have a book appearing in 2010 from a major publisher, to be followed in 2011 by the book's sequel. And of course my agent is trying to sell other novels that I've written and which are under his wing. The bottom line is that I need to get out into the old convention scene to push my work. I'm going to have to start going to the shows again.
This means that I'll have to cut back on my trips into the parks and wilderness areas. I don't like that, but I feel that it's a decision that has to be made. It's part of the writer's game, and that's where I need to live, at least for the time being.
And maybe I'll be able to divide my time and still get in some trips to some of those parks and wild lands.
We'll see.
Oy. 
3 comments:
So we need to hold a convention in a major national park?
--Bob-Your-Agent™
Take a tip from Andy and always try to plan your "business" trips near hiking destinations!
My hiking pal Andy Kunkle plans hiking trips near places where his employer regularly sends him on accounting jobs. That's great advice, of course.
I'm thinking seriously of attending some west coast conventions next year, so some extra days for hiking would be in order. My only problem would be in gathering up the vacation time I'd need for that.
One show that I might attend is relatively near several National Parks, including Crater Lake which is very high on my list of places to see before I croak.
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