First off, I’d like to apologize to those who regularly visit my website. I haven’t been posting a lot lately, and for that I’m sorry. It’s not as if I’m not writing. On the contrary, I am writing far more than ever in my life. I literally dream I’m writing. One morning I remembered a dream and what I wrote in it and used it that very day.
I haven’t spoken publicly about this, but I am working on a book of movie reviews based on all the ones I watched last year. I averaged one a day, but I missed a few days. Other times I watched more than one.
I decided to tackle this project sometime in November, so I had, and have, a lot of back work to catch up on. I watch so many that I have to go back and rewatch a lot of them. It’s a lot of work. This will be another five hundred plus page monstrosity.
Will the book see publication? Of that I am not sure. I might see if Cemetery Dance wants to put it out. Or I may try to do it myself. Since my office software skills are negligible at best, I’d have to enlist help.
Which brings me to other matters.
I’ve been down in the dumps lately. Various things have gotten me down and I am trying to lift my spirits back up. Allow me to elaborate.
Book hunting has always been my very favorite activity. I can do it every day. Every single day, and never get tired of it. That is, of course, if it is worthwhile.
I talked about this before, but bargain hunting is a dead enterprise. In the past two days I went to nine thrift stores and one library sale. My total haul? Zilch. Zero. Skunked again.
There are too many resellers and way, way too many with scanners to determine value in books and movies.
Just yesterday I was in a Goodwill. This big asshole was scanning books and when they proved to have no value, he literally threw them out of his way. Seeing it made me physically sick. This throwback to the Devonian Age has no brains or experience. He’s only a cretin with an app. No love for books, no respect for the printed word. The workers saw but didn’t do anything. Why would they confront some big asshole when they are working for starvation wages?
It’s a bitter pill. Not only has book hunting, something I’ve cherished my entire life, gone to crap, but this was also my retirement plan. Selling books is the only thing I’ve done in all this business that ever showed even a small profit.
Yes, I’ve been doing this stuff in one form or another for almost thirty years. I’m tired and almost ready to admit defeat. My books don’t sell, and that’s partly my own fault. I don’t push them hard enough. But then I’ve been suckered into buying God knows how many books at shows over the years. I disliked the vast majority of them. I’ve always been a picky reader. I choose to spend my reading time with the best of the best. What worries me is, I know my books are for a very limited audience. I don’t want to talk anyone into spending money and then hear they hated the book. I know most indie authors have no compunctions about that, but I do.
Money. It’s a big issue for a lot of people. I retired early due to intense pain in my leg. That’s the reward I get for decades of slaving away in a machine shop. I thought, hoped, resting more would make things better, and it did for a while. The paIn came back a few months later, but even worse. People at Authorcon saw it. I was in a tremendous amount of pain and hobbling around like an invalid.
I’m trying to get help, but dealing with the Sentara conglomerate is an exercise in frustration. They definitely prescribe to the practice of treating the symptom, not the patient. I’ve gone for various tests and I know not one bit more than I did at the beginning. The last one was nine hundred dollars out of my pocket. A specialist saw me and it was like ordering at Taco Bell. After a few minutes she disappeared so quickly I didn’t have a chance to even ask questions. Oh, don’t worry. The billing process is efficient. No delays there.
We are worried about our financial future. We’re fine for the moment, but these tests are wringing me dry.
I was making money as a bookseller, but that is drying up.
I am having some other problems which prompted me to give up meat and dairy last summer. I started feeling better, so I began eating anything I wanted again. The problems came back. I’ve been about a month without meat or cheese and it’s hard. Pizza is my favorite food. I miss having a bratwurst at our backyard cookouts. Even though I eat more than enough and I’m getting plenty of protein, my body is craving meat.
I tell myself there are people with little or no food at all. That helps, but I still miss my favorite dishes.
Looking around me, I find everything from social media to the news depressing. The world is in a sorry state and America is breaking. From horrors in high offices to violence in the streets, this is a scary place. As far as social media goes, I see selfies and ego-stroking. Who needs it?
I could go on, but why? What good does it do?
I don’t know much, but I do know that self-pity and playing victim are bad for mental health. I also know that gratitude and appreciating the good things in my life lead to peace and contentment.
I need to focus on the many positive things I have going for me.
1: First and foremost, I am married to a wonderful woman. Clara takes care of me better than anyone ever has in my life, and I try to do the same for her. She shares my love of books and never, ever dissuades me from buying something I really want. Our evenings and weekends together are wonderful.
2: Our yard is our sanctuary. It’s beautiful, with flowers and lots of breathing room. Our gardening is doing well so far this year. We have apples, peaches, lemons, strawberries, blackberries, kiwis, pomegranates, and various greens and herbs. I never in my life dreamed I’d have so much.
3: Our cats. We have four indoor rescues and we care for nine ferals. I love them so much it sometimes hurts. I wish we could bring them all inside.
4: I’ve made some great friends over the past few years. People who love imaginative fiction and know about weird movies. Cool, smart, fun individuals I am incredibly fortunate to know.
5: We joined a horror book club a year or so ago. It’s at the library. I almost didn’t go, because I was worried it would suck. Seeing all the influencers can give you a bad impression of the genre. These people are readers. Smart, cool, and a lot of fun to be with. I never dreamed I’d meet such great people right here near our house. The random fandom is out there. You just have to look outside social media.
6: Plentiful media. I have more than enough books and movies to get me through my life. I can’t really buy many anymore, and that’s another hard part about social media. I see all these insanely cool Blu-ray announcements. Lividian just announced a historic line of all Robert McCammon books in hardcover. I sure wish I could get them. Still, how can I complain? I’ll never run out of new reading and watching material.
I mostly have my health, even if I’ve had to take control over it myself. Be your own advocate, they say. It’s true, because the health care machine doesn’t care one bit about you. The gym is helping my leg, but it’s a long, slow, painful process.
I’m not sure what will be in my future, but I feel like I need a new direction in my life. I’ll finish writing the movie book and see where that goes. I hate to pay for cover art, formatting, editing, and then lose money.
If you want to help you can buy or review my books. They are available at Satan’s Apothecary aka: Amazon. Or you can become a paid subscriber at Substack. The Substack and my website will always have a free option. I know I am far from the only one with money struggles.
Or you can let me know if you are interested in buying a long book with my movie reviews. Due to the length it will probably be twenty or twenty-five dollars.
That’s about it. I promise to try to update the website more often. As I said before, I’ve been putting so much effort into (working title) Horror Drive-In Presents a Three-Hundred-and-Sixty-Five Day Marathon that I go around with my head spinning.
Thanks for reading.
Written by Mark Sieber
I haven’t spoken publicly about this, but I am working on a book of movie reviews based on all the ones I watched last year. I averaged one a day, but I missed a few days. Other times I watched more than one.
I decided to tackle this project sometime in November, so I had, and have, a lot of back work to catch up on. I watch so many that I have to go back and rewatch a lot of them. It’s a lot of work. This will be another five hundred plus page monstrosity.
Will the book see publication? Of that I am not sure. I might see if Cemetery Dance wants to put it out. Or I may try to do it myself. Since my office software skills are negligible at best, I’d have to enlist help.
Which brings me to other matters.
I’ve been down in the dumps lately. Various things have gotten me down and I am trying to lift my spirits back up. Allow me to elaborate.
Book hunting has always been my very favorite activity. I can do it every day. Every single day, and never get tired of it. That is, of course, if it is worthwhile.
I talked about this before, but bargain hunting is a dead enterprise. In the past two days I went to nine thrift stores and one library sale. My total haul? Zilch. Zero. Skunked again.
There are too many resellers and way, way too many with scanners to determine value in books and movies.
Just yesterday I was in a Goodwill. This big asshole was scanning books and when they proved to have no value, he literally threw them out of his way. Seeing it made me physically sick. This throwback to the Devonian Age has no brains or experience. He’s only a cretin with an app. No love for books, no respect for the printed word. The workers saw but didn’t do anything. Why would they confront some big asshole when they are working for starvation wages?
It’s a bitter pill. Not only has book hunting, something I’ve cherished my entire life, gone to crap, but this was also my retirement plan. Selling books is the only thing I’ve done in all this business that ever showed even a small profit.
Yes, I’ve been doing this stuff in one form or another for almost thirty years. I’m tired and almost ready to admit defeat. My books don’t sell, and that’s partly my own fault. I don’t push them hard enough. But then I’ve been suckered into buying God knows how many books at shows over the years. I disliked the vast majority of them. I’ve always been a picky reader. I choose to spend my reading time with the best of the best. What worries me is, I know my books are for a very limited audience. I don’t want to talk anyone into spending money and then hear they hated the book. I know most indie authors have no compunctions about that, but I do.
Money. It’s a big issue for a lot of people. I retired early due to intense pain in my leg. That’s the reward I get for decades of slaving away in a machine shop. I thought, hoped, resting more would make things better, and it did for a while. The paIn came back a few months later, but even worse. People at Authorcon saw it. I was in a tremendous amount of pain and hobbling around like an invalid.
I’m trying to get help, but dealing with the Sentara conglomerate is an exercise in frustration. They definitely prescribe to the practice of treating the symptom, not the patient. I’ve gone for various tests and I know not one bit more than I did at the beginning. The last one was nine hundred dollars out of my pocket. A specialist saw me and it was like ordering at Taco Bell. After a few minutes she disappeared so quickly I didn’t have a chance to even ask questions. Oh, don’t worry. The billing process is efficient. No delays there.
We are worried about our financial future. We’re fine for the moment, but these tests are wringing me dry.
I was making money as a bookseller, but that is drying up.
I am having some other problems which prompted me to give up meat and dairy last summer. I started feeling better, so I began eating anything I wanted again. The problems came back. I’ve been about a month without meat or cheese and it’s hard. Pizza is my favorite food. I miss having a bratwurst at our backyard cookouts. Even though I eat more than enough and I’m getting plenty of protein, my body is craving meat.
I tell myself there are people with little or no food at all. That helps, but I still miss my favorite dishes.
Looking around me, I find everything from social media to the news depressing. The world is in a sorry state and America is breaking. From horrors in high offices to violence in the streets, this is a scary place. As far as social media goes, I see selfies and ego-stroking. Who needs it?
I could go on, but why? What good does it do?
I don’t know much, but I do know that self-pity and playing victim are bad for mental health. I also know that gratitude and appreciating the good things in my life lead to peace and contentment.
I need to focus on the many positive things I have going for me.
1: First and foremost, I am married to a wonderful woman. Clara takes care of me better than anyone ever has in my life, and I try to do the same for her. She shares my love of books and never, ever dissuades me from buying something I really want. Our evenings and weekends together are wonderful.
2: Our yard is our sanctuary. It’s beautiful, with flowers and lots of breathing room. Our gardening is doing well so far this year. We have apples, peaches, lemons, strawberries, blackberries, kiwis, pomegranates, and various greens and herbs. I never in my life dreamed I’d have so much.
3: Our cats. We have four indoor rescues and we care for nine ferals. I love them so much it sometimes hurts. I wish we could bring them all inside.
4: I’ve made some great friends over the past few years. People who love imaginative fiction and know about weird movies. Cool, smart, fun individuals I am incredibly fortunate to know.
5: We joined a horror book club a year or so ago. It’s at the library. I almost didn’t go, because I was worried it would suck. Seeing all the influencers can give you a bad impression of the genre. These people are readers. Smart, cool, and a lot of fun to be with. I never dreamed I’d meet such great people right here near our house. The random fandom is out there. You just have to look outside social media.
6: Plentiful media. I have more than enough books and movies to get me through my life. I can’t really buy many anymore, and that’s another hard part about social media. I see all these insanely cool Blu-ray announcements. Lividian just announced a historic line of all Robert McCammon books in hardcover. I sure wish I could get them. Still, how can I complain? I’ll never run out of new reading and watching material.
I mostly have my health, even if I’ve had to take control over it myself. Be your own advocate, they say. It’s true, because the health care machine doesn’t care one bit about you. The gym is helping my leg, but it’s a long, slow, painful process.
I’m not sure what will be in my future, but I feel like I need a new direction in my life. I’ll finish writing the movie book and see where that goes. I hate to pay for cover art, formatting, editing, and then lose money.
If you want to help you can buy or review my books. They are available at Satan’s Apothecary aka: Amazon. Or you can become a paid subscriber at Substack. The Substack and my website will always have a free option. I know I am far from the only one with money struggles.
Or you can let me know if you are interested in buying a long book with my movie reviews. Due to the length it will probably be twenty or twenty-five dollars.
That’s about it. I promise to try to update the website more often. As I said before, I’ve been putting so much effort into (working title) Horror Drive-In Presents a Three-Hundred-and-Sixty-Five Day Marathon that I go around with my head spinning.
Thanks for reading.
Written by Mark Sieber
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