Comments on: The Successful Writer

By: Steven Augustine

Steven Augustine — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:27:51 +0000

“I suggest you guys turn to the millions of comely young businesswomen with the soul and depth to appreciate any guy bold enough to attempt literary endeavors.”

I’m married to a *very* comely young classical musician (and I pay for my fiction by working as a professional composer), thanks, but yours is good advice. My experience was always that the more beautiful a woman is (all things being equal), the more likely it is that she’s fairly sick of suits who assume she’s a venal, shallow succubus conditioned to see the flat spot on the top of a man’s head as but one step on the staircase to serious real estate… erm, except in Southern California, of course.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:20:38 +0000

As a lifelong woman fiction writer, who’s abysmally unsuccessful and unpopular fame- and fortune-wise, I suggest you guys turn to the millions of comely young businesswomen with the soul and depth to appreciate any guy bold enough to attempt literary endeavors.
Think that’s a dream? Try yoga. The gorgeous yoginis are all seeking enlightenment; they’re aching for holy guidance. (And, in case you need further persuasion, they’re fabulously flexible.)
Not by any means a pat solution, of course, but since when is anything easy?

By: Bill Ectric

Bill Ectric — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:15:50 +0000

All things in moderation, my friends. It’s all relative.

By: Steven Augustine

Steven Augustine — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:53:18 +0000

Nonsense, Peter. Things aren’t quite so amenable to your wounded irony. For one thing, the aviary boasts more than two species of bird (it’s not all eagles and titmice); for another, the day that “success” in Art becomes definable *exclusively* in terms of money earned or fame borrowed, The Fatfingered Vulgarians will have won the Kultcha War, and Ed’s post will become not a jealous rant, but a bittersweet little ode to another Era. I’m sure you’re not eager to see that happen.

By: Peter Winkler

Peter Winkler — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:50:16 +0000

And then there’s the unsuccessful writer, i.e. most of us. Poor. Spends more time agonizing over frustrated ambition than writing. No nice house. No wife, since no decent woman will be attracted to an impoverished loser. No blandishments from publishers, media, or anyone else. No offers for plush speaking gigs or celebrity teaching sinecures.

Oh, but we can console ourselves that our integrity hasn’t been compromised by the requirements of success. Terrific!