Recently in On writing Category

For more than two years now I have been editing a frustrating diatribe destined to one day become a book (please do not ask why I agreed to do it because it is a long story) that is perhaps now at its most frustrating point as I work to confirm and then incorporate all of the missing sources referred to in the text.

It's not that I didn't tell the client two years ago when we started that he needed to cite his sources. I told him, but he said he had them, and we put it off. (As for me, somewhere in the back of my mind I never believed that the book project would come to fruition--so really, what did it matter? Well, it turns out I was wrong.) And, after my speech about "It's not a real book unless it has a bibliography," he enlisted me and a recent college graduate of his acquaintance to research all of his wild claims and attribute them to one source or another. Egad.

Have you ever visited a blog, thought up some quirky comment to post, only to be discouraged from doing so by the complex signing-in process required? Well, as of this morning, that shouldn't be a problem here at etmarciniec.com.

Mark and I had a brief conversation yesterday about the importance of protecting one's public identity, prompted when I asked him his opinion of that fact that I've started using my name for my blog URL, eHow, and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Mark is extremely cautious about protecting his public identity, particularly online. Images of the writer at Burningman, he argued, could affect her negatively should she seek future work promoting public education.

I had it in my head when I left the PR job that I wanted to become a "real" writer, not a writer bound by the perspectives of the organizations I represented.

A couple of things happened to me back in those PR days. For one, the line between truth and fiction became blurry for me. If a public leader needed a quote but didn't have time to come up with something, I wrote it and ran it by him or her for approval. If a story had to be developed but I hadn't yet talked to the parties involved, I wrote a draft purely on how I imagined it and then inserted the information I gleaned after the fact. 

The second thing that happened is that my own opinions took a back seat to my craft. I felt, to quote Pink Floyd, "comfortably numb" out of pure necessity. It's hard to acknowledge anything negative--I mean truly acknowlege--and then turn around and write only the positive side of the story. So I developed the habit of ignoring my own critique of the system in those instances when something fishy seemed afoot or even when I knew something was outright wrong. Instead I dived into my work to get it done, and then at the end of the day dived into other things--exercise, friends, hobbies, travel--by way of distraction.

I had a recurring idea that I didn't like the work I had dedicated myself to--and by extension the person I had become--but again, like my other misgivings, I went to lengths to ignore it.

Am I allowed to give a shout out to my own website from my own blog? Sure I am; it's my blog, right?

First of all, I can't take all the credit for extremesideslipping.com. This niche-snowboarding-humor website is in fact a collaborative effort between myself and Gregg Davis (greggdavis.com). It's a ridiculous site through-and-through, but (when I'm in the mood to write for it) I can't express enough how fun and satisfying it is after so many years of writing sappy PR gobble-de-gook from the perspective of what I though one organization's public wanted to hear. It is refreshingly amazing, now, to write irreverent, virtually nonsensical stuff. (Perhaps that is my calling after all, hah!)

Anyway, if the description--"irreverent virtually nonsensical stuff" is appealing to you, then check out extremesideslipping.com.

I am working on two books at present, and they are in various phases of finishing:

• Mama Lilia
• The Juana Chronicles

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Mama Lilia - The Mama Lilia book, which is as yet untitled but which I will refer to like so for lack of a name yet, is the fictional story of two college girls, one undocumented and one fully documented. These girls, named Amy & America, become fast friends as college mates often do. Throughout the course of their relationship, they hatch an unlikely plan--that Amy will try to sneak America's grandmother, who has been deported to Mexico, back into the United States. In the end, the fantastic plot becomes somewhat of a media debacle, with part of the story told through the often humorous accounts of the reporters covering it. Meanwhile the girls' lives become so intertwined that they end up embroiling their families and loved ones as well in a redeeming yet preachy tale that is sure to liven the reader's sympathy and  imagination. (This is my book that is most complete to date, thanks to Nanowrimo.org. I wrote it in November--50,000 words--and have been editing and making changes at a snail's pace since then.)

The Juana Chronicles- I started this story (which will be referred to as The Juana Chronicles until I think of a better name) 10 years ago. Originally the date of the so-called "apocalypse" was supposed to happen at the year 2000, the start of the new millennium. So much for deadlines, hah! To date I have 10,000 finely sculped and well imagined words, a number upon which I plan to improve by next November's Nanowrimo at the very latest. Anyway, the story takes place in a fictional immediate post-apocalyptic era--where the "apocalypse" is caused by the confluence of natural and human disasters, leaving a world suddenly devoid of the basic structure of society and survivors left to fend for themselves by adapting to their new world order. The story stars a female heroine who travels far and wide to conduct reconnaisance on family and friends in the aftermath, and who finds out a thing or two about her world and herself along the way.

It wouldn't be a new blog site without the obligatory "I have decided to start a blog," would it? So that's what this is.

My first thought in starting the project was to have a place to catalog the last 10 years of my writing, but since it seems such a Herculean task after all I am going to start with just the recent stuff and then venture boldly forth with actual blogging.

It's definitely a whole different beast than the other websites I've done with html editors. Almost makes me think I'm going to have to become a programmer so I can tailor it to do exactly what I want. In the meantime, a shout out to Gregg for helping me set this up.

We'll see what comes of it.

I have decided to compile my recent articles in this blog; they are accessible under the "articles" category. The majority are published works featured either in newspapers or magazines. I have included in each entry the publication outlet and date of publication, with tearsheets and links to the publishers wherever possible.