Been at work for about an hour, using the entire morning for rest and recovery. This so-called work was email, mostly to T/Ed, to sort out what will be victorenns.ca, and whether reviving envoi is even possible for print publishing. I’ve enjoyed opening not-for-profit enterprises like Words on Wheels for mobile book distribution and sales (which never went anywhere). With Greyhound giving up on western Canada, new “business opportunities” arise according to conservatives in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The new business would need a good-sized, safety compliant, well-insured van, a driver and a business license of $4,000 to operate in Manitoba. Yes, I checked it out but can’t imagine connecting book distribution and sales to a parcels and people enterprise.
Martini Free
There is also a used bookstore for sale in Gimli, but I try to remember what Philip Roth supposedly had on a sticky note on his computer, “no optional striving,” meaning no boards, no prize juries, no bookstores, no enterprises other than his best, writing. I could argue even running an active blog and website will ultimately destroy my ambitions to write three novels and 26 short stories, just for starters. With the advent of GoFundMe and now Patreon an opportunity to write for money becomes enticing. I was at a Writers’ Union Annual General Meeting where Pierre Berton thundered “No-one but a blockhead, ever wrote for anything but money,” quoting Johnson but omitting the notion it was captured by Boswell as an irony, for Johnson spent 15 years writing his dictionary without earning. I did enjoy swimming in Berton’s outdoor pool, martini’s on offer, and Bix Beiderbecke on the sound system the next afternoon as the social event of the weekend meeting.
So here goes, soon you will be able to Patreon me, though current plans are for My Daily Fog, and My Left Foot to be free, with my website archives available to subscribers. The other streams listed in the categories on the right, partly truth and partly fiction. This is very much a work in progress, and only you can make it “earn while I learn.”