Here are some more "not long enough to qualify for a blog post" facebook posts.

April 26:

I need those "Clockwork Orange" thingies to clamp my eyes open this morning.

April 28:

I won't blame Obama for everything Bush did. I'll just blame him for letting so much of it continue.

April 29:

Some signs I've created to spice up my office decor.

April 30:

Sieze the day, hold it hostage, and demand chocolate.

April 30:

Your job as a parent is not only to help your child learn to fly, but to terminate with extreme prejudice any motherfucker who would try to shoot that child down.

May 3:

One time, after my oldest son had chattered nonstop from the backseat for a while, I told him I "ran out of hearing." He'd talked so much, he used it all up. And if he wanted me to be able to hear him again, he was going to have to be quiet so I could build up a new reserve.

I just read a Seth Godin blog post, What's It Like (the sad story of the hot pepper), in which he summed up one of my greatest conflicts/challenges in talking about Hell on $5 a Day.

The point that Seth makes is that for most projects, you have to be able to be able to categorize it. People don't want to know what it is, but what it's like. That gives them a quick, experiential point of reference they can build on. "It's like King Kong, but with a giant bunny" lets the audience's memory/perception quickly fill in a whole bunch of blanks so you don't have to.

On a rare occasion, though, your project is so unique, it defies a simple categorization. You can't get that quick hit of familiarity. You either have to describe it in full, without the aid of familiar references, or you have to say "it's like nothing you've ever had. Just trust me and try it."

People would ask me to describe my novel in just a few words, and I couldn't. It wasn't a "vampire novel" per se. It just happened to have a vampire in it. Some of the story was driven by Alain's vampirism, but a lot of it wasn't. There was a lot of borrowing from Dante, some from Milton... Categorizing it was very difficult for me. I was too close to it to be able to boil it down to a few catchphrases and keywords.

I didn't know if it was that unique, or if I just didn't want to categorize it. To categorize it feels like you've not only limited it, but you've taken away a degree of its uniqueness. So, as the creator of an "artistic" work, it's quite possible I was merely resisting categorizing my story rather than the story itself resisting categorization. Every child is unique, right? Even if they aren't.

But when you're trying to sell a work, saying "just trust me and try it" is not a great approach if you haven't built trust with the person. Furthermore, when you say "this is unlike anything else," you have to be 100% sure it is unlike anything else. If someone gives you the benefit of the doubt, reads it, and says "this is just like...", you're screwed. You asked them to trust you about it's uniqueness and lost.

I'm still on the fence over whether my novel is resisting categorization or I'm resisting categorizing it, but Godin has given me some insight that is helping me look at it more honestly. If I want to sell it, I need the best answer for "what's it like" that I can find.

A friend of mine recently posted a Facebook status suggesting that people send Christmas cards to "A Recovering American Soldier" in care of the Walter Reed military hospital. Unfortunately, the hospital will not accept such cards. Here is a link to Walter Reed's official statement on the matter.

http://www.wramc.amedd.army.mil/WRResource/SupportRecoveringAmericanSoldier.pdf (requires a PDF reader)

For ideas on how to support our troops at Christmas, they recommend...

www.americasupportsyou.mil
http://www.usocares.org/
http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/tooursoldiers/

Additionally, the Red Cross is offering a program to deliver holiday cards to our troops and their families, but cards have to be received (not postmarked, but actually in their hands) by Monday, December 7th.

Red Cross Holiday Mail For Heroes

Please feel free to share this info.

So, the traditional Yom Kippur fast is coming up (sundown Sunday through sundown Monday). I'm not the most observant person, but I figured I need all the help I can get. But I'm a diabetic and managing your blood sugar and medications during a fast is a complicated task. Most rabbis agree that diabetics should not fast, because of the health risks, but find another method of spiritual denial to demonstrate their contrition and perform an act of atonement.

So I tried to think what I could give up for 25 hours that would make me feel denied... Computers. No internet, no e-mail, no digital cable, no cribbage or solitaire on my phone, no CDs, no DVDs, no MP3s, and since all my radios have digital tuners, no radio. So, basically, I get to read real paper books and go for walks. Although all my phones have chips in them, I'm making an exception for phone calls because a potential employer may try to contact me or my kids' day care may try to contact me, and I need to take those.

Computers and TV are such a part of my daily routine, it's going to actually be hard. It's not even a matter of addiction so much as force of habit. You have to be on your guard against ingrained behaviors. You want to do these things because they're your ritual, and by not doing them, you have to leave your comfort zone.

Hopefully God will appreciate the sacrifice.