Michael LaRocca's Blog

The tendency to avoid challenge is so omnipresent in human beings that it can properly be considered a characteristic of human nature. But calling it natural does not mean it is essential or beneficial or unchangeable behavior. It is also natural to defecate in our pants and never brush our teeth. Yet we teach ourselves to do the unnatural until the unnatural becomes itself second nature. Indeed, all self-discipline might be defined as teaching ourselves to do the unnatural. Another characteristic of human nature – perhaps the one that makes us most human – is our capacity to do the unnatural, to transcend and hence transform our own nature.

From The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck. M.D., which I am (obviously) recommending.

If I tell you that I can throw an apple into orbit around the earth, you’ll laugh. Why? Because you know it’s absurd. But if I tell you that there is or is not a God, you won’t laugh. You’ll argue rather adamantly. Is that because you aren’t as sure of your footing?

We were more gentle and rational with our family pets. No one would ever use dehydration as a means to put down the family dog. No one would ever use starvation as a way to end the life of the family cat. It would be considered barbaric. Yet this is what we were doing to my father. He, who wanted hemlock. It was his body, his life – shouldn’t it be his death?

This is an excerpt from Do Go Gentle: Bringing My Father Home to Die with Dignity After a Devastating Stroke, by Christopher Stookey. In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m recommending the book. It’s here. It’s only 99 cents.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

Excuses such as religion, race, heredity and upbringing are exactly that–excuses. What we are comes from what we think. So we should learn how to think. The wise man will neither swallow everything blindly nor rebel for the mere sake of rebellion. He will strive to discriminate, to separate the wheat from the chaff, to decide for himself.

Obviously, there is a shortage of wise men.

The post All That We Are appeared first on The Last Titan.

Q: Why did you start writing?

A: Why not?

Q: How many years do you have to write before you can quit your day job?

A: 42.

Q: Who’s your agent?

A: Huh?

Q: Who’s your publicist?

A: Huh?

Q: Who’s your editor?

A: Huh?

Q: How long does it take to write a book?

A: That depends on how good you make it.

Q: What’s the hardest thing about catching an editor’s eye?

A: Getting someone to throw it to you.

Q: How can I stop people from stealing my ideas?

A: Don’t worry, nobody wants them. Ideas are the easy part. You can do that in a day. Writing takes months. Maybe years. There are no new ideas.

Q: What do you call an author without a girlfriend?

A: Homeless.

Q: Where do you get your ideas from?

A: I steal them. Got a book for me to edit?

Q: What’s the difference between a PhD in English and a large pizza?

A: The pizza can feed a family of four.

Q: How much do you have to pay to get published?

A: Please, please, please don’t pay to get published. Readers pay publishers and publishers pay authors. Don’t believe anyone who tells you different.

Q: What’s the difference between an editor and God?

A: God doesn’t think he’s an editor.

The post An Honest Q and A Session About Writing and Editing appeared first on The Last Titan.