And you are so right, Vonda! Here I sit getting ready to go to work on a
new mss - knowing that my paycheck will greet me on Wednesday morning,
and that while I'll never get rich working at a government archives I
will certainly be able to make the bank happy when it's time to pay the
mortgage again. The downside of this, of course, is that no matter
where I am in the writing process I will have to get a decent sleep
tonight and be able to make sense to my staff tomorrow morning at 7:30.
Fortunately I like - no make that LOVE - my "pay-the-mortgage" job; but
then not every part-time writer has the privilege of working where I do.
Nina
Vonda N. McIntyre wrote:
> Hi Nina,
>
> I guess an eternal question of writing is the art
> v. business aspect.
>
> A benefit of success is that it allows you to
> continue doing what you like to do. Did Emily
> Dickinson ever have to worry where the next rent
> payment was coming from? (Or, if she did, did she
> have any reasonable hope of helping contribute to
> it, by publishing her poetry or in any other way?
> I don't know enough about her or the period she
> was living in to make even an educated guess.)
>
> Those of us who write tie-in novels have to put up
> with the occasional sneer down the nose from a
> certain small subset of our colleagues, who are of
> the opinion that we should go out and get honest
> jobs -- that the world in general and sf in
> particular would be better off, and that we
> ourselves would be behaving in a more honorable
> manner. Most of the sneerers, I note, are not
> among those who have to worry particularly about
> paying the rent.
>
> Vonda
>
> On Sat, 8 Nov 1997 09:30:12 -0500, "Nina M. Osier"
> <mbarron@MINT.NET> wrote:
>
> >Vonda, thank you for posting your "rant" after all! I do wish I had
> >some ideas on how to change the larger world's perception of SF. I
> >never cease to be amazed by the otherwise intelligent people who
> still
> >regard speculative fiction of any type as something for adolescent
> boys
> >only.
> >
> >Speaking as someone still in the process of breaking in, I am also
> >saddened that the measure of success in this as in every other field
> of
> >endeavor has to be "how much money have you made by doing it."
> That's
> >our society, I accept it as it is; but it's still pitiful. How much
>
> >money did Emily Dickinson make...?
> >
> >Nina
>
> http://www.sff.net/people/Vonda
> Some official good news at
> http://www.bookwire.com/pw/bestbooks97.article$3946
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:08 PDT