Fear is Fun! or Hanging Out with the Right People – K. L. Neidecker: The Blaagh

Noth­ing makes you real­ize just how nor­mal it is to hem and haw, pro­cras­ti­nate and worry, more than know­ing a few folks who — even as the same crap nib­bles at their heels — still write book after book, story after story.

Couldn’t agree more. Funny thing is, I counted Kris in that crowd. Why? If you haven’t read his short, Gormek of the Thousand Tongues, you really should. It reminded me a lot of “thick” fantasy – a short story, sure, but with the same kind of depth and atmosphere as an Enge book.

If you feel this progression-stopping lizard fear tick­ling the back of your brain, do your­self a favor and min­gle a lit­tle with the right crowd. Get­ting stuck in your head is a bad thing at those times. Def­i­nitely avoid the down­ers — the artsy writ­ers who moan about how hard their nov­els were, how much time they put into every sen­tence, how tough it is to be a writer — but rub elbows via Face­book, email, stalk­ing via binoc­u­lars and record­ing devices planted in that person’s bath­room, with a few writ­ers. Those odd­balls who flip their lizard-brain the bird and write three nov­els in half a year. Those cham­pi­ons of what­ever pub­lish­ing style they love, be it tra­di­tional or indie, who spend more time writ­ing than they do mea­sur­ing and argu­ing the mer­its of this path or that, this online store or that, agents being won­der­ful things or vile grem­lins who steal your money.

Like I said, I was surprised to see Kris write this because all of this is what he, Fletcher, and a few others have been to me. Anyway, you should go read the whole thing, because it’s more meaningful than my trite little commentary..

Fear is Fun! or Hanging Out with the Right People – K. L. Neidecker: The Blaagh