Fictional Places, Real Environments

In seeing Penny's recent post on Nero Wolfe it made me recall a surprise I had a year or so ago.

I was walking back to my hotel from Javits Convention Center in NYC when I spied this plaque on an otherwise nondescript building.

Someday I'll have to make a trip to Florida to the Bahia Mar marina and look slip F-18.

It's Not What You Know

I had a strange experience the other day. It was really more of a
realization that has lead to a long chain of thoughts.

Last Saturday night, we invited one of Diane's coworkers, his girlfriend and her kids (I'm not sure the word "family" applies, but that's essentially what it is) over to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas.

We all enjoyed the movie and after he asked, "Do you know how Penny doing? I had read about her surgery on her blog and hadn't seen anything since."

I assured him she was doing fine (as you can see from recent updates), but in that moment an entire chain of thoughts erupted. I've only met Brian twice, but he knows LOTS of stuff about me. He works with Diane. They are good friends and talk daily. Brian met Penny some time back and they are friends. Penny and I are close friends and have been for years. Penny has a blog and in it links to this blog.

QED: Brian could potentially know more about me than virtually anyone
else. Not all, not by a long shot, but lots.

Weird.

Of course, I know some of the details of his life, the kind of things that you'd expect to learn about the friend of a spouse, but that's only one point of contact. Brian has three, which puts him far ahead of a general reader of this blog.

Frankly, it doesn't bother me. It is, essentially, the writer's burden. Do your work well and people you don't know will eventually learn a great deal about you and everything you know, everyone you know. I can't and don't worry about it.

The tough but essential part: one can't care what people think about you. You can't control it, so don't try.

Early on in my training as a playwright I learned, to my horror, that I couldn't control every part of production. Even worse, the playwright can't control ANY part of production. I had the good fortune of a main season production at a major university. It was thrilling, until it was time to go see it. It was a very good production, but I wasn't in control. It made me nuts for a while, but once I learned that I couldn't direct the play, act all the parts, sew the costumes, paint the scenery, run the lights, pop the popcorn and sell the tickets AND be the entire audience, I was fine.

Actually, it's quite freeing. I write this stuff. You read it. We never meet.

Enjoy.

How To Overload A Book Shelf

If you don't know Gene Wolfe, you're missing one of the truly great living writers. This man is a master, someone who can tell you a story and with each step, each chapter, make you reconsider what you thought the story was about. Once you learn to listen, you'll learn amazing things.

And I see he has something new coming:
The Knight : Book One of The Wizard Knight.

If you have not read Wolfe, start with The Shadow of the Torturer. Let Mr. Wolfe tell you the story, don't try to force it into what you already think you know.

I have an entire bookshelf in my home office devoted, as I am, to Wolfe.