Advice worth taking.

When I wrote Jimmy Mack it wasn't with any idea of hitting the best seller charts. Crossing genre boundaries I suspected that the reception I might get from literary agents and publishers would be negative. I wasn't proved wrong. My only regret was wasting my time. I should have shown better judgement. After all, published fiction now can only conform to a tight fit genre' for premium £s and pence or $s and cents returns. That's the sad bottom line. Either that or it must qualify for the sweepstakes of the next major literary award.

Sadly, i won't allow myself to be proverbial pigeon holed. I have zip interest in winning awards. May the gods of literature spare me for not wanting to leave some apparent deep meaningful insight into life. My preference is not to leave dark stains on hearts and minds with a nasty mental after taste of whatever the plot spins. Those seeking eternal fame, literary immortality, guess what? You can keep it. When the sun eventually dies and this planet is extinguished in a supernova what will it all have mattered? Ultimately pointless. Even if humanity ventures out to the stars will anyone even bother to read it thousands of years from now? Arrogant of you to think so. Sorry. Literary S&M or even literary BDSM is not my bag to use Sixties slang. Keep the pain to yourself and your high lit aspirations. I don't want any of it. And I'm not even interested in the shekels and the glory winning brings. As for fame? Be careful what you wish for.

So has this been a grouse? You may choose to see it that way. Or you may think what is he really saying? How about where all this began.

I don't expect to make the best seller lists. All I hope for is that I can tell a story that someone out there will enjoy. And maybe, let me stress this, maybe there's a reader who might say something positive as simple and as encouraging as, "I enjoyed that." Then it will have been worth the time and the effort.