Hugh Hollowell

For Christmas, some friends gave me a gift card to Borders Books. Me being me, I wasted no time in running up there and buying a book I had had my eye on, but was reluctant to shell out my hard earned (and largly absent) cash for. Now I wish I had bought this book back when I first saw it back in the fall.

The book is the modestly titled How To Be A Famous Writer Before You Are Dead, written by fellow Gen-X’er Ariel Gore (apparently no relation to the Almeister), and it delivers. The premise of the book is basically a call to ownership of your writing career and the need to take responsibility for your own success. No Ivory Tower musings here; Ariel Gore delivers the goods, with advice on promotion, creating a market via a zine or a blog or self publishing and so much more.

For me the largest thing I got from the book was the permission for my career to not be pretty. When I decided to be a writer, I pictured my career going something like this (in my head, I call this The Path):

• Write articles for magazines
• Submit a proposal to a mega-publishing house and get my non-fiction work published to critical acclaim.
• With the cushion from that success I would write my novel, which would be to my generation what The Great Gatsby was to my Grandparent’s generation.

Needless to say, that is not how it happened. Instead, I often write for other people, uncredited. And while that does produce what could charitably be called a living, it made me sad and uncomfortable with myself that I was not following The Path.

Ariel showed me that it is OK for my writing to be a eclectic collection of blogs, zines, articles and more. Thanks to this book, I have permission for my career to move in weird ways, as long as it is moving. Yes, I know I could have decided this on my own. No, I probably would not have gotten there any time soon. I would still be working up the nerve to start on The Path instead of blazing my own trail.

Ariel: Thank you for showing me how to blaze my own path, but thank you more for giving me the permission to do so.

Check the book out on Amazon!

Lots of you know I work with the homeless.

Here is a great example of what I do, day to day. Not all days are this emotional; some are much worse.

Get the story here.

I have a small confession: I am a bit depressed right now.

Not serious, lay on the couch and cry all day depression (although that is always a fear: Been there, done that) but a more overall malaise.

Part of it is the holidays and knowing I will not be at my parent’s for Christmas (I think this is the first time since I was in the service). Part of it is my work with the homeless and their depression with the holidays. Part of it is uncertainty over the future. Part of it is just the funk.

If I owe you emails or phone calls, bear with me. Concentrating is tough right now.

Just a quick post to let everyone know I am OK. I have been way behind with work and have just now managed to surface.

By the way, many of you know this, but I do blog other places around the internet, so if I do not post something here, it does not mean I am not blogging.

For example, I am trying to post a lot more over at Needing Agape, a site I created to discuss issues of Social Justice and Christian Activism. It is a work in progress, so be gentle.

I like Seth Godin. A Lot. So I was excited when I found an interview with him that I was unaware of, and even more excited when I saw it was not a rehash of his standard fare. There is solid gold here, with him broaching subjects I have never heard him talk about before… his childhood, his passion as a child for Radio, his college career and much more.

I may not always agree with Seth, but he always makes me think; I like thinking.

Go read the interview.

You may also be interested in his free eBook on bootstrapping.

Bill the other night mentioned that he did not know much about St. Nicholas and said, jokingly, that if anyone did, it was Hugh…

I don’t know much, but I do know he has more in common with Ghandi and Martin Luther King and Jesus than he does the Comercial Santa we see every year. You see, Nicholas was a fighter for justice.

You can read about it on my blog about justice.

What a gang, huh?

As someone who makes all (or virtually all) of his income online, I am dependent upon PayPal. It is the online currency of the internet, for better or worse.

The frustrating thing is that there is NO alternative to PayPal. Not a real alternative, anyway. Why? Market share.

According to eBay (who owns PayPal), over 90% of eBay sellers accept PayPal. If you try to sell on eBay and do not take PayPal, you are virtually dead in the water. Because it seems the entire world is a registered eBay user, almost everyone (in the US and Europe, anyway) has a PayPal account.

Why is this a problem?

Because PayPal sucks.

It is simple and if affords a great deal of buyer protection. But, if you have ever had the experience of having PayPal seize every dollar in your account because it just thinks you may have committed a transgression, you know that PayPal is just broken. Last summer, my account was down for almost 6 weeks (with about $7,000 in it) while they “protected me” from suspected fraud.

Superblogger Seth Godin recently had a wonderful (not) experience with PayPal customer service. I feel his pain and recognize every step of resolution he talked about. I do wonder if he got it resolved faster than I did.

Christmas is my favorite holiday. (However, this does NOT mean I like Christmas music. I think there are only about 10 Christmas songs, and every radio station plays them over and over and over…)

As a kid, I am ashamed to say, more often then not it was all about the gifts. Even then, however, I felt especially happy in a candlelight service, the bells, the darkly lit church with the candle flames flickering, the story of the angels appearing to the shepherds, bringing them “…good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all people…”.

Even now, much more conscious of issues of scholarship and source material, I prefer to hear the Christmas story in the archaic, yet strongly poetic language of the King James Version.

Two different friends of mine are committing to blog daily throughout the advent season, with their thoughts and reflections on what they read that day. You may enjoy following along with them.

Bill (Merge Fearless Leader)

Chad (Fellow Mergian)

I was talking to a friend while in Memphis and I would mention this person or that person and, ineveitably, it would be in context of some cool thing they do. Finally she gave a sound of frustration and demanded to know how I know so many cool people.

Like, for example, my friend Pete who is going to the Sudan over Christmas to work with kids, and has every Christmas for the last five years. Or my new friend Becky, who will be in Darfur about the same time. I have a friend named William who is going to be in Kenya for about 2 weeks in December and my friend Kristen will be in South Africa for 2 years, doing photojournalism!

Now, I know all those people through one group, so it makes sense that they are all concerned about Africa. But then, here in Raleigh I know Leah, who is down in Guatemala working in a school there (on her own dime, by the way) for three months (I miss her already and she has not been gone a week). Then there is Jacquelin who is going to South America for a whole year.

All of these people are just ordinary folks who happen to think globally. None of them are saints or super folks; in fact, some of them you have to drag out the details.

Overseas work is always cool-sounding, but America is where I feel called to give back. I know folks who have gone to jail for protesting the death penalty, folks who have slept on the streets with the homeless to show empathy, folks who run a fair trade only coffee shop and a lady that has been feeding the homeless on the same street corner for free for 14 years (!). Every week I help feed the homeless with about 20 very cool people who would rather be there than anywhere else.

My friend Ashlyn went to New Orleans last summer to help with the rebuild efforts; she is 15 and decided that would be a good thing to do over summer break (when I was 15, I spent most of summer break swimming at the lake…).

I am lucky to have a great faith community to keep me grounded and centered. When I see the example of Bill who gave up a cushy, respected job as a suburban pastor in Pennsylvania to come here and set up a church that would make a difference, I stand in awe of what it has cost him. When I look at his wife Cherie who has stayed along for the ride (and sometimes leads the way), I see what a blessing a devoted wife can be.  We have attracted folks who want to change the world (Don’t bother telling us we cannot do it; we won’t listen anyway).

There are so many more folks who inspire me, who drive me forward, who make me want to be more, to do more, to love more…

I know the coolest people.