What if I Find My Place in the World - And It's in a Corner Off the Beaten Track

Today is Other Works of Fanatasy Day. The idea being I am writing other things besides Swords of Fire. The truth is, the biggest fantasy I have is that I actually have a life worth living. I'm pretty useless, actually. What I contribute nobody seems to want. What people want are things I have no desire to contribute.

I should have been born when it didn't cost so much to do things. That way it wouldn't be so cost prohibitive for me to do the things I want to do. Our public television station often runs shows depicting people who have made big successes of their lives starting from "nothing". I guess "nothing" requires some kind of definition, because after watching a host of these programs my response is these people hardly had "nothing". They all had tens of thousands of dollars at their disposal, which led others with hundreds of thousands of dollars to loan them more in order for them to get going. I've got tens of dollars.

Now I grant you that $50,000 is not a lot of money when it comes to starting up a business. Just to open the little bookstore Spouse and I like to dream about would run about $150,000. That's what we're estimating anyway.

Starting a business is not easy. Or cheap. One must have property and/or cash to get going, and if the business fails, one loses said property and/or cash. And some businesses are subject to greater risks than others. Restaurants are notorious for not making it past the first year. The rule used to be that a restaurant had to last at least five years in order to truly establish itself.

Retail isn't much better. In this small town of less than 5,000 people we have seen dozens of businesses come and go in just a few short years. They're like bubbles in a pond. They pop up - and then they pop out.

Sometimes it's a question of location. Others it's just that there isn't enough of a market for the business. With forty-seven shoe stores in the mall, do we really need another? There's a McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Dairy Queen, and Culver's in town, and you want to open a burger palace?

It can be that way with writing, too. We who write with passion generally write good stories. But if there's nothing to distinguish our story from the host of others which beat us to market, why should anyone take it? But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. I lived in a town where an upstart burger place put McDonalds out of business. (Not across the nation. Just in that town.) Their burgers were better (not that hard to achieve), and they provided a service and atmosphere McDonalds couldn't/didn't. There were no cheap plastic toys for the kids, but everyone enjoyed being there.

There is great value in writing something to fit what's missing. You are filling an obvious need. Some writers (Authors) are very good at doing that. They examine what's available to read and recognize something is missing. So they write that. In a way I envy these Authors. Not just because they get published and I don't (although that certainly comes into play), but because they somehow seem to be able to control what they are interested in.

I'm interested in what I'm interested in, and although it changes from time to time, it doesn't change that drastically as a rule. I've always loved fantasy. And history. And nature.

I look at what's available to read and see lots of holes. But in my mind, that's good. The missing subjects are quite B-O-R-I-N-G. And even when someone else writes about it, and I sometimes endeavor to read what they have written, my opinion of the topic does not change. Of course, they just got paid for being dull. I do it for free.