Living the Dream

Ever had a lucid dream? That's the dream where you mid-dream realize that you're asleep. You start messing with your mind by taking charge. I've had them. Usually, those dreams are job dreams. I'm doing something retail-like in nature in my Superman Underoos: giving a guy a Walkman, selling an elephant squirrels for peanuts, extending a twelve-year old's warranty on grandparents.
"You know, he's gonna give out some time. When he does, you bring him back, we'll replace him. Free of charge..."

In a dream, it's a living.

But it's not my living. I think that's why I usually wake up to the fact that I'm asleep.  I look down at my Big Boy undies and think "Weren't these Superman before..." They were, but Bob and his burger logo boxers are hardly my beef.  What translates my panties to a bunch is that I'm back in retail.

That's where I make my subconscious conscious effort. "STOP THIS!"

The dream freezes. 

That's better. "Bring me my laptop!" I yell. After all, if this is a dream job, I want my work tools. Out comes my manager: suit, tie, laptop in one hand,  strangled squirrel in the other, looking at me like I'm nuts.

"Stop that, squirrel!" The squirrel disappears and manager Shakira powers up my laptop. This is where I'm sure my dream is lucid: everything now makes sense.

That's how my SDSU experience felt. No, Shakira wasn't there, and six figures of amaze-balls contract bliss did not drop down my boxers. In fact, if there were a SDSU show and tell I wouldn't have much more to show than one  bright orange book bag.

But I do have a lot to tell.

Before this weekend, my life was a chaos clutter of writer adages.
"I write cuz I have to."
"Doubt kills more dreams than failure."
"To err is human, to blog about it is brilliant! Nobody's ever done that before."

It's so hard to form a clear thought from all my jumble word cliches. I know more than I understand   I might as well sell squirrels for nuts.

This year at SDSU, I saw people using the same nuts of knowledge I'd squirreled away. I can't explain it all. You had to be there, but you can't. This is my dream. Your dreams are your reality. If they're not, they should be.

That's one of the most important lessons I took from San Diego. Another is that a dream is just a dream until I wake up and take action. There's no such thing as sleeping in wait for the perfect dream. The only perfect dream is the one I shape. For that, I need to make a conscious effort in my dream now.

I'm taking my SDSU experience and I'm putting it into writing. That's my dream.

Day 3

It was a short but sweet day. 

Great wrapup keynote by Jonathan Maberry, who's written a lot more than I realized...

Spent my airport time following some great advice by Karen Karbo

And back to Detroit, to my love, my Queen. 

Tomorrow I'll give the short story of my long weekend.

SDSU Day 2

Texted the Pirate Queen. Time to face the day. 

I've got two advance readings and a consultation. Time to kick butt!

SDSU Day 1.

WTFam:

Nothing like an empty airport. Too bad I gotta get up so early to see it. 

Denver:

Just here to see the airport, then onto San Diego. 

So far, a beautiful flight.

Plane shadow rainbow:

Avoid the wet spot:

At last:  

I have pants! No, that's not always a gaurantee. 

Getting the PirateQueen's dress code approval. 

This must be the place. 

Let the games begin!

Mixer session:

And now, as the long day punches me in the face, it's time to crash...see you tomorrow. 

The Time Had Come. The Time is Now.

Tomorrow we see if all my prep work has paid off. It's SDSU time. Hopefully I can make some quality contacts. 

I'll keep you posted!

For now, it's early to bed, early to rise, cuz I got a plane to catch before the sunrise. 

Yah, now you see why I'm a novelist, not a poet. 

See you on the SoCal side!

Gambol of Words

I hate the salesmanship of writing. I mean, I get the necessity, I just wish somebody else did the work. You know, a designated pitcher.

"Step right up! Come, marvel at Rob and his magical Morlocks!"

I left sales to create worlds—not create sales. Selling a TV to Ray Parker Jr., that's just a bit-o-stress in a day's work; selling two-years of my soul to an agent? That's an emotional twerk in a rejection minefield. I'm begging experts to love Steamtopia based on thirty seconds of verbal illusion.

It's more than Steamtopia Rising, I'm risking that they'll love me! I'm one junior high dance floor away from getting published.

"Here dear agent, would you care to twirl an ungainly tangle-tango with 125,000 of my favorite words? No? That's okay, it didn't work with a seventh-grade Gina Robbins either. sigh..."

Obviously, like junior high, I need to start with confidence. Time for big boy panties. I wore them to my first dance, I can wear them now. This time,  I'll put them on, one leg-hole at a time, and  inside my pants.


The other thing that makes this tough is translating the pitch from written to verbal. It's common practice to open a letter with, "Steamtopia Rising is a 125,000 word YA alternate history, fantasy novel. As Harry Potter introduced the wizarding world to muggles, Steamtopia Rising introduces steampunk Morlocks to ELOI." Try leading a conversation with those words. They'll only confuse, and Gina Robbins still won't want to dance.

So that's where I am this week: perfecting the conversational query. Working words of character and charm, so that next Saturday I'm my Friday-night best.

"Would you like to dance?"

It's Official!

I'm registered for the 2015 SDSU Writers' Conference. 

This year I'm offering up the first pages of "Steamtopia Rising" for advanced reading. Two agents will read, then talk about what works and what doesn't. I've also signed up for a "consultation" appointment. What's a consultation? Think speed dating for manuscripts, only there's one person, one chance, no pre-read--just ten minutes of stress to impress.

 Hopefully "Steamtopia Rising" can gain the same interest that DTTR did. I mean Steamtopia did place at Detroit Working Writers, but writers are one thing; agents and publishers are a different monster all-together.

I'm so excited! This January 23-25, look out San Diego: Robby's back in town!

Wish me luck!