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!