I recently joined the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group. I haven’t really met any other members yet, although I know one from another local community. By my reckoning, this is the fourth writers’ group I’ve joined and I do hope it leads to some friendships. I like talking about writing. I read Blurred Lines by Scott Christian because he’s a person I recently met and he kindly gave me a copy. A collection of poems and stories, it’s a small book but a deeply personal one. I guess that’s one reason that I like talking about writing with other people—it is deeply revealing. There are those who write as a job, and there are those who write because they must. This book falls into the latter category. Some of us are compelled to write down what we experience, whether it be in poetry, fiction, or fact.
Self-publishing can be a way of expressing what the publishing industry suppresses. I once told a group that it’s a little disturbing how much power publishers have in determining what people can read. I write “can” intentionally. Only the biggest in the industry have the financial wherewithal to get books into bookstores (where readers congregate like bees on a warm day in October) where they’ll be laid out on tables and priced to move. Like many others, I began my writing in academia. It took some time before I realized that academic prices are a deterrent to readers. Breaking out of that mold is also difficult. At the same time, publishers have resources to devote to marketing that an individual seldom has time for, or the reach to accomplish. So it goes.
Another review of Nightmares with the Bible has appeared (this one in Catholic Biblical Quarterly). While not glowing, it does recommend reading the book, despite the fact that the publisher has no interest in paperbacking the series and it takes a great deal of motivation for even me to spend that much for a book. Yes, I can understand self-publishing. It is a writer’s chance to get their voice heard. Even some famous authors—Mark Twain comes to mind—had to get their start by paying to have their books published. Some of us write because we can do no other. We have thoughts and feelings to share. And I keep joining local writers groups looking for the rare person who will talk to a stranger about that most intimate act we call writing. Reading such a book is a very personal thing to do.