And then the fun begins

Really enjoying the new coaching business. The idea is pretty simple: due to a perfect storm of economic and social issues affecting the writing and publishing industry, I've decided I'd be an idiot to trust my retirement (if I ever retire) to the science fiction field, where my roots are deepest. But the question was: what to do? The solution I came up with was to shift to being a "Gentleman Writer", an amateur writer, as I was when I was a kid. I think that under that circumstance, I will do my very best and most successful work--when I no longer give a damn about its financial success.

The question was: well, if I'm going to replace a good chunk of my income, what in the world do I do? I mean, I have fairly specialized skills: writing, being a daddy/husband, and kicking ass. What am I supposed to do with that? Well...I took another look. And realized that teaching, lecturing, and coaching have been a part of my life for decades. I have mailing lists with thousands of people on them, teaching writing and life balance.

But is it wrong to try to make money helping people in this way? To be honest, I had a voice in my head whispering weakness. But there was an answering voice, and it said, "you would gladly do this for free. In fact, you would PAY people to improve their own lives, if you could. It makes perfect sense for you to do this."

So I started. For the last years, I've been trying to figure out how to get back into teaching and doing seminars, but life has been INTENSE for the five years since we moved down to Southern California. I just couldn't get the leverage to find the resources and allies to do that. Researched for months and months. Then Victoria Whitlock mentioned something called "Coaching". Took me a while to follow up, but when I started researching it, it looked almost perfect for me. I actually already had the infrastructure in place to reach prospects, and the perfect way was to offer a totally free half-hour session. So far, it's been great. I need to get SKYPE so I can speak to people in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa--places I already have students. What an adventure. The trick is that I mustn't allow myself to be distracted. If Spielberg calls and wants to make LION'S BLOOD, I mustn't sacrifice the foundation I'm building to chase the dream. Because that would be chasing after Siddhis--distracting oneself from the life work in order to reap temporary benefits. No. If I do this right, it will absolutely increase the quality and success of my writing. But I have to be strong on this.

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http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=26575

There's a movie that isn't on your radar. A totally inappropriate, wildly notorious film called "Kick Ass", about vigilante superheroes. Above is the Red Band trailer. The set-up is that a geeky high school kid wonders why no one has ever actually tried being a superhero. He puts on a costume, goes out and immediately gets wiped out. But by the time he gets out of the hospital, the contagion has spread: others are also trying to be superheroes. Including a foul-mouthed eleven year old human ginzu named "Hit Girl." And then, as the saying goes, the fun begins.

Supposedly, this is the ultimate audience film--you gotta see it in a group. The poster shows a guy in a superhero suit, with twin Kali sticks. The caption: "I can't jump over buildings. But I can kick your ass." Can't wait.

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And no, I won't consider a career as a vigilante.

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Slowly getting into the Christmas spirit. It can be hard for me, but I always do it, and having a beautiful baby boy looking forward to Santa is quite a motivation. Jason is helping me scrape barnacles off my heart, I kid you not. Sigh. Life is good.