Random pieces from day 4:

--Rita Mae Brown says you can have a job that pays the rent, you can write, or you can have a life--pick two.

--We had the inclusive language discussion yesterday after reading a submission from a man who used a *lot* of Father language for God. While I don't want to lose completely the language from the tradition, male language doesn't really speak to me, so I'm *very* sympathetic to those who are bothered by it. But I am so, so, so, so tired of that discussion.

--So the first few days have been all about the writing, with both affirmation and concrete things to improve upon, so everyone's feeling nice and positive. Last night was the discussion on publishing, so all the lovin' feelings came to a screeching halt. Interestingly, this shift in energy at the workshop was mirrored in my own life--after several days of effortless commutes (and those of you familiar with Our Nation's Capital know how rare that is), it took me an hour to get home last night. And this morning while we were scrambling to get little she-who-is off to preschool, the divine miss m threw up all over me. Yes. This is real life.

Anyway, the publishing discussion. People reiterated a lot of what I already knew--there's little money to be made, it helps to know someone, and related to that, writers are expected to spend time marketing their book, and book proposals want to know what your connections are--who are your media contacts that you can draw on for promoting the book?

I don't know. I've seen my name in print and it's a proud feeling, And it's cool to think about creating something lasting that other people will care about. But there are so. many. books out there that even the seeming permanence of a book is an illusion too. I've been thinking so much this week about my dad, what a good and prolific writer he was, and he didn't publish very much at all. So I could count his as a failure at writing, or I could be grateful that those of us who knew him have this wonderful treasure of his words.

At one point I passed PPB the note, "This just makes me want to stick with the blog." My goal is to write and be read, and that already happens here. I will admit to still having a bias for words on paper as opposed to the screen. There are a lot of crappy blogs out there. R responded that there are also a lot of crappy books out there, which is true, but there is at least some minimal filter to cut down on the *number* of crappy books. He said that's true, but there's a filter online as well--the cream rises to the top. Maybe, I don't know. I think for someone like R, who has been very steeped in the Internet his entire adult life, the whole publishing industry seems very byzantine to him, and the Internet can be this great populist thing. Well, to me too.

--That said, my conference with Young Episcopal Memoirist was good. I presented her with a few ways I think this project (book?) could go and she basically said to write what I'm passionate about. Yeah. She also had a few practical suggestions, and asked me to complete the sentence "The thing that would need to change in my life for me to write this is..." and I said, "the full-time nature of my job." The discernment about 3/4 time, or even 2/3 time (?), continues.