Sunflower Blog

Oprah called

I really want to be a published writer. I love writing, but I need to be making money from my efforts. I'm trying to nudge my way into the field, and I'm continuously making valient efforts. You never can tell when the long shot will pay off. I'm not marketing aggressively, and it seems you HAVE to.

Three days ago I was estatic because my phone rang, the machine took the message, and one of Oprah's 38 producers wanted to talk to me.

On the negative side, this was some sort of telemarketing ploy. The call came from a way-down-the-food-chain source, but on the positive side--her office got my number somehow.

"Yes, I have a novel, short story, or book of poetry I'd like to promote on her show." It's not finished yet, but I was so excited.

Three days later, the excitement of the balloon has burst. I had an idea that sparked and flared out. It had to do with a Poetry.com expose. I could have gone to the convention and acted like an investigative journalist. Just to get all those people's stories--what they think they're getting for exhorbitant fees is a story. It's such a scam, and they own all the expected web address. They have monopolized the .coms and .nets. Poetry.com is becoming wealthy through misrepresentation, but I'm not an attorney. I have documentation on two dozen broken-hearted stories.

I got called to jury duty, so the fact that I didn't have all the funds to go to Orlando is a secondary aspect. I have a pattern of exhilleration and insight, but I can't get disciplined. This is a problem I hope to work on as well as other aspects of getting published in 2005.

Another day is just a blown opportunity--not a blown dream.

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