Comments on: Francis Ellen : The Samplist http://www.spikemagazine.com/0107-the-samplist-francis-ellen.php Books, Music, Art, Ideas Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:12:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Henry Pelifian http://www.spikemagazine.com/0107-the-samplist-francis-ellen.php#comment-37791 Henry Pelifian Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:54:20 +0000 http://spikemagazine.com/wordpress/?p=525#comment-37791 Sending manuscripts to agents and publishers is generally a gamble as Mr. Ellen states. I have received so many reject slips on small pieces of paper that are often pre-printed with a very terse statement of rejection often in one sentence with mild sympathy (very rarely a real letter) that I could easily cover one or more 10' x 10' walls. I used to keep them but they took up so much space that they had to be discarded. I read a fair amount of literature, have an undergraduate degree in literature and lived abroad (primarily in Thailand), been in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War because I got a draft notice that had printed on it from the President of the United States and earned another degree in international management and have apparently deluded myself that I can write well enough for people to want to read my works. How delusion can overtake reality when those who represent publishing so earnestly often promote fantasy and unreality. My fiction tries to strike at reality, the home of the earth, the mud, the stars and man's frequent missteps in war and peace. Self-publishing is like an orphan trying to find a home now. Self-publishing can be an adventure in the marketplace of ideas and literature that may over time move from orphan to accepted family member. Sending manuscripts to agents and publishers is generally a gamble as Mr. Ellen states. I have received so many reject slips on small pieces of paper that are often pre-printed with a very terse statement of rejection often in one sentence with mild sympathy (very rarely a real letter) that I could easily cover one or more 10′ x 10′ walls. I used to keep them but they took up so much space that they had to be discarded.

I read a fair amount of literature, have an undergraduate degree in literature and lived abroad (primarily in Thailand), been in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War because I got a draft notice that had printed on it from the President of the United States and earned another degree in international management and have apparently deluded myself that I can write well enough for people to want to read my works. How delusion can overtake reality when those who represent publishing so earnestly often promote fantasy and unreality. My fiction tries to strike at reality, the home of the earth, the mud, the stars and man’s frequent missteps in war and peace.

Self-publishing is like an orphan trying to find a home now. Self-publishing can be an adventure in the marketplace of ideas and literature that may over time move from orphan to accepted family member.

]]>