The Summer of Schmooze

Wednesday was the first day of Summer and I kicked it off by attending a networking. It was very fulfilling because I met people from all over NJ. Sadly, I received an invite to a networking in NY that very evening and I really wanted to attend that one as well but I had a prior engagement.
I am starting to get the hang of all this 'shmoozing' and unlike other artist I am not feeling any conflict of interests. It seems to come with the territory... how are people going to find out about you or your product if you don't get out there and advertise what ya' got? I think that the businessman in me is the real person who regrets missing the NY function. It would have been great to meet the theatre crowd that were slated to be there that night and give them my business card.
At the event that I did attend there was a representative from Warmspirit.com (GREAT smelling skin care products), a beautiful singer, and also a Public Relations/Mass Media Writer by the name of LeGina Adams. These three women were fun and interesting contacts to make because they reminded me of the people that you usually meet in the arts. They had strong personalities and were very creative.
I guess in the end, the networking that I was suppose to attend was the one that I went to anyway. In life it seems that when you force an issue that is when you meet the most resistance but when you go with the flow that is where you gain the most ground. I am pretty sure that there are going to be a lot more of these events this Summer and for some reason the businessman in me is ecstatic!

Father's Day

Just a brief note on this special day to every man and woman who has filled the role as father/guardian/provider of their family. Your efforts are not done in vain. Coming from a single family household I truly appreciate the aspect of having a strong father figure. My physical dad was never there for me and in the later days of his life he disowned me but spiritually I never gave up on the idea of a strong Fatherly presence within me. I know this maybe a difficult concept for some of you to understand but I do believe that within all of us is both is a Mother and Father presence that transcends our physical understanding. All we have to do is acknowledge this presence and it is already there. So I never feel lost or alone during these holidays and neither should you.
May you have a peaceful and joyous holiday!

N8

Tara, Family Misunderstandings, And An Equery

I saw a cool statue on eBay of the goddess Tara. As usual, I did some investigating to find out who Tara was/is and what she means to the people that follow her. Personally, I believe that there is only one God and we insignificant minded specks of star dust are not capable of comprehending the totality of God's being. That aside I was intrigued to find out that there are 21 variations of this deity. I automatically thought of Baskin Robbins 21 flavors and giggled because I do believe that are many aspects of the human personality that are reflected in the things that we worship or admire. I do not want to offend the followers of Tara so I apologize if I am being culturally ignorant. I still believe as an artist that the statue that I saw on eBay was beautiful.

So my very religious mother walks pass me looking at the statue on the family computer and the sparks flew. I spent the next two days defending my artistic interest in the images of which she thought was idolatry. This incident spun into another incident when I told my sister what a therapist friend of mine said was the real cause of my family's over observant behavior of me. Needless-to-say for the pass few days the old cycle of male bashing behavior that my almost all female family kicked in and now I have become a verbal pincushion at home. I HATE OLD CYCLES OF DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR! So to do something new I racked my brain to find a positive means of contradicting this behavior and I remembered the success I had doing Equeries for my scripts. Whenever I solicit new buyers for my scripts my family's attitude changes for the better. I guess it is difficult to smash a man's will when you think that he may make enough money to buy you a new house.

So far I have received several positive responses but nothing really beats having a little peace of mind when you are over your relative's house

Mathematics and Simple Communication

So I contacted my publisher about the problems I had noticed and they responded rather quickly admitting that the deletion of part of the webpage was their fault.
As for the money issue this is what they said:

You are earning a 24% royalty on a $17.95 retail price. Due to
mathematics, remainders, and rounding, that is the closest to $5 the
royalty can be without going over. 24% of $17.95 is $4.31. Had you set
your retail price at $18.95, you would be earning a 27% royalty for
$5.12.

Sincerely,
The Guy Who Has Way Too Much Power Over Your Career

This was cold comfort to me seeing that my naturally greedy instincts would have charged more for the book had I known this earlier. Just kidding... no I'm not. ;)

N8

BE CAUTIOUS

To everyone keeping tabs on this blog you may have seen some changes to my blog. My publisher without my consent lowered my profit margin and edited my web page nearly removing more than half the script presented on that page. So I would advise you to be cautious when dealing with self-publishers. My publisher will remain nameless in this post so that it won't seem like I am slandering them but all that glitters isn't gold and some of their big talk is starting to lose its luster. So BE CAUTIOUS and always use reliable sources. However, I still have hope that my publisher will redeem themselves.