This might be a surprise to some people who have read my writing, but bodybuilding is an enormous part of my life.  I’ve been meaning to do a write-up on weight lifting and bodybuilding at some point, and this probably won’t be the last time that I do so.  I apologize if this post is a bit scattered, but there’s a lot that I want to say on the subject so it’s tough to get it all down, coherently, in one post (which I won’t).  Now, most people don’t associate bodybuilding with writing, but I believe that cultivating not only the mind, but the body as well, are two crucial aspects involved in realizing one’s true potential as a human being.

In my case, it all started one day in high school when I realized that simplicity was crucial to happiness. I don’t quite remember when or how this happened, but my father often tells the story of how one day he came home from work and my previously-messy room was immaculate, with a huge trash bag of my things put out on the street curb.  I had stripped my room down to the bare essentials: school-related things, my books, and some decorations around the room.  And I remember that, after several months of continuing to cultivate this minimalism, I realized that removing excess doesn’t only apply to the material world, but to one’s emotional and physical self as well.

In the spirit of that, I’ve kept up (not too consistently) a meditation routine and (very consistently) a weight-lifting routine for the past five years or so.  How does this relate to writing?  Bodybuilding has taught me more about life, including the writing process, than anything else I have ever experienced.  I would have never written or published a book had I not stepped into my high school’s weight room all those years ago.  There’s no guesswork involved in that statement; it’s a fact.

Bodybuilding requires personal sacrifice.  Today, it was raining out. I was tired and had a lot of regular work to get to.  I got home and wanted to relax for a couple of hours before starting in on this work.  But instead of watching TV or relaxing, I had to get myself together and go to the gym.  I got back, and started to think ‘eh, I’ve already worked out, I can have a bag of chips or something’.  But I checked myself, and ate a carton of yogurt and two pieces of chicken breast instead.

Repeat this process daily, and you have a significant amount of insight into my life.  Why would anyone subject themselves to this?

The answer is that, because of the daily sacrifices one must make in pursuit of something like this (not necessarily bodybuilding), success is entirely dependent on how much one is willing to give up.  No excuses.  Your success rides completely on you.  No one else can dictate whether or not you achieve these goals.

It’s the same with writing.  Cultivating one’s mind requires immense personal sacrifice as well.  The only time when I’m able to write is during my ‘leisure time’, usually at night.  There’s plenty of other work-related or fun-related things that I’d rather be doing.  But whenever I get the urge to just put off writing ‘until tomorrow’, I remember what bodybuilding has taught me about consistency and hard work, and proceed to have a short (grumbling) internal monologue with myself and open up my notebook.

This principle doesn’t only apply to something like writing.  Anything in life worth achieving is difficult, because if it didn’t take hard work, then it wouldn’t be impressive.  While this idea doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone, I think people tend to understand one’s inner self a lot better by subjecting themselves to extreme physical and mental duress.  I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, and someone who bodybuilds is neither better nor worse than anyone else.  However, it’s a huge part of my life and I think that people will be able to get a lot more out of my writing when keeping the concept of mind/body/soul minimalism in mind.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I’ve got some plans for the future that potential readers would probably be interested in hearing.

So I’ve really liked putting out Drift.  The fact that it’s free is really cool, it makes the book much more approachable for people and I’ve gotten some really good feedback on it lately, both in person and through the internet.  I think I’m definitely going to stick with the plan of putting out a bunch of shorter, free pieces of writing interspersed with longer, paid things.  In that vein, I’m in the process of getting two more shorter works together.

The first I don’t have a title for yet, but it’s a series of really cool, grammar-free, stream-of-consciousness things that I wrote a few years ago (before I started seriously writing).  That should be out sometime this summer.

The second one is called Hydra, and it’s a philosophical analysis/stream-of-consciousness-esque piece of writing about a threesome.  So yes, it will have a lot of adult language and themes, and I’m not looking forward to my parents/relatives/girlfriend reading this one, but it will be really beautiful and surreal and will hopefully give people a lot of things to think about.  This may or may not come to fruition, we’ll see.

One of my best friends is an amazing painter, so him and I are currently brainstorming some kind of artistic collaboration that we could do together.  I’ll post updates on here, but we haven’t decided on anything concrete.  If anyone has ideas, we’d love to hear them in the ‘comments’ section!

I’m also thinking of having a separate part of this website dedicated to my dream journal.  I used to keep a blog of that and some of the more interesting ones were really fun to read once the original entries were edited a bit.

Anyway that’s what’s on the list for me in the near future.  In terms of the far (far) future, I’m getting ideas for my next larger piece together.  It will be called Solar Bare.  It’s about the world ending.  And two really cute main characters.  It’s going to be great.

Questions/comments/hate mail?  Leave them in the comments sections!

Take a look around wherever you are.  Maybe you’re in your house, maybe you’re reading this on your phone on the way to work, maybe you’re at a library.  Look at all the various objects around you, and notice how all of them are branded in some way.  There’s the name of the manufacturer, the name of a product, the name of a promotional campaign.  I’d be willing to wager that no matter where you are, more than 50% of the things around you- the computer you’re using, your phone, your clothes- have some kind of logo or brand permanently etched on them.  And once you really look for this, it’s everywhere.  Almost everything in the modern world is branded in some way.  Now think about how everything around you would look without these brands.  Strange, isn’t it?  Or is it more strange that the lack of branding would feel weirder to us than our current status quo of everything being some kind of advertising message?

Comments/thoughts/ideas are encouraged!

I watched a great video yesterday on TED, and it really got me thinking about not only the changing nature of politics, but also the way in which intellectual property (books, movies, music, and so on) are distributed.

Here’s the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/rick_falkvinge_i_am_a_pirate.html

While I can’t summarize the talk in as eloquent a manner as Rick Falkvinge, the basic gist of one of his arguments is as follows: thirty years ago, the federal government couldn’t go through your mail unless there was justifiable cause.  However, waves of new legislation, such as SOPA and ACTA, are trying to promote the idea that the government has a right to know all of your internet browsing habits.  And in the case of America (as is the case with many other democratic nations), this is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures (http://tinyurl.com/9snlb).  And, the argument goes, one of the main reasons why these bills are being introduced is to protect intellectual property from ‘piracy’.  So, essentially, we are having our civil liberties taken away so that media corporations and artists can protect their profits.

This is un-America, unconstitutional, and unjust.  I suspect you will find that most people agree with me on that.

However, at the same time, this highlights the importance of adapting to a changing market.  In this post, I am of course referring to intellectual property, such as (in my case) books, movies, music, and so on.  As an artist, the changing nature of the internet and the way in which intellectual media is obtained and consumed is very important to me.  Since I am trying to make a living from writing, how will I, and how will other artists, adapt to this new market?  How will we adapt to a market in which most intellectual property can be obtained for free online?

There is no easy answer to this question.  While I believe that all art (including my own) should be free for all to consume, the fact remains that some people rely on art to make a living.  So us artists must come up with a way to ‘meet halfway’; that is, to figure out how to make the creation of art into a viable career while at the same time recognizing that the standard models of creating, distributing, and generating profits from art are constantly changing.  There are a number of ways in which this can be done.  First, one can allow the consumer to set his or her own price.  I think this is a great way to develop trust with readers, and will allow readers to judge the value of art on their own terms.  Second, one can make some works available for free, while charging money for others.  This is the method that I use (or will use once I’ve published more books), and I think it is a very good compromise.  The third method is charging set prices for all works of art, which, as we have seen, is outdated and easily-circumventable.

If someone wants to get some type of media without paying for it, they will.  Anyone reading this could probably obtain Summer for free if they put in five minutes of searching online (hell, I’ve even given away several hundred copies).  So the fact is that we, as artists, must concede power to the consumer and let the free market decide.  If a work of art is worth something, then that will show in the way the consumer decides to reimburse the artist.

It’s some food for thought. 

Also, Drift will be coming out in the next week,for real this time!  I just need my consultants (read: family and friends) to get back to me on the final edits and it will be ready to go.  It will also be free!  Drift will be available on Smashwords and Amazon, and I’ll put up some copies on MediaFire and other file-sharing websites so that you can send it to others easily.  

Questions?  Comments?  Hate mail?  Send it to summerauthor@gmail.com