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Okay Mr. Nickels. You may think that I’

Okay Mr. Nickels. You may think that I’m not going to get you finished today but you’re wrong. I’m coming back after lunch to kick your clown shoed butt. #iwillgetthisshortorydonetoday.

Okay Mr. Nickels. You may think that I’

Okay Mr. Nickels. You may think that I’m not going to get you finished today but you’re wrong. I’m coming back after lunch to kick your clown shoed butt. #iwillgetthisshortorydonetoday.

#FollowEveryDay ~~► @ZoeyMarcelBooks @sa

#FollowEveryDay ~~► @ZoeyMarcelBooks @saradtrimble @Stacey_Kennedy @marifreeman @WOVERFM @RachelCray1 @MaliaMallory (via @ffhelper)

Here’s my mini blog post on propagating

Here’s my mini blog post on propagating roses from cuttings. Enjoy

How to Propagate Roses

My mom taught me how to propagate roses some years ago and I am always surprised as how easy it is to get new rose canes started. However, there are a few rules you must follow in order to get your cuttings to grow.

Cut the rose canes about 12 inches in length. Make certain that there is growth on the cane. You will want several leaf clusters. More is better.

Plant your canes in a sunny place (although I have grown them in semi shade) about four inches deep or so. You can get fancy and put in all sorts of soils from the local nursery if your soil is poor. I haven’t found it necessary.

Give your rose cuttings one gallon of water twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Do this for about a week or so. By ten days you should start seeing new growth. If so, cut back on the water.

It takes about a month for cuttings to get a good root base. The most important things to keep in mind are to keep the soil moist, and make sure your roses are in a sunny place with plenty of air and room to grow.

Writing is a REAL Job

A few years back I was at the doctor’s office getting my asthma prescription refilled. The doc told me that he always wanted to be a writer but he just never could find the time.  “What a coincidence,” I quipped, “I always wanted to be a brain surgeon, but the thought of raising someone’s hood makes me faint.”

 

There is an ugly myth that’s as dense and ugly as the stench of a sour gas well. It’s propagated by people who are neither readers nor writers, and yet have ordained themselves as such, who think that just because they took a class in creative writing in the eighth grade, they are all Pulitzer Prize winning authors, if, bless them, they only they had time.

 

Here’s the truth about writing. It’s a dirty truth, an ugly truth, but it is real. It’s as real as a ghetto embedded inside of a gleaming beautiful city.  And to those who don’t write but wish they could, here’s something to think about before pidgin holing the local author at your next cocktail party.

1. Writing is hard work. It’s just as difficult to craft a story or write an essay or a poem (or even this fucking blog post) as it is to get down on your hands and knees and plant tomatoes in the early summer sun. This, of course, is why you are doing something else instead of writing. Perhaps on a visceral level you know your favorite writer has sat on her ass for five or–God help her– eight hours worked. And after hours of grueling toil she looks at her work and decides its shit and feels like the loneliest person in the world.  Yet, she goes back the next day and the next, working and crafting and praying that when it publishes she’ll make a buck or two.  And you know in your heart that It’s degrading go up to said writer tell her to that you can do the same thing if oh, if only you had the time. Yet, you do it anyway. Yes, I know, there is something glamorous about the life of a solitary writer that people tend to gravitate to. Blame Hemingway for that. I do.
2. Writing isn’t a hobby.  I, like most of my writing associates, went to college and earned a degree. We put in time, energy and effort to hone our craft and create a product that we can sell and earn money from it. Minimizing our abilities because you know how to scrawl out a few paragraphs is demeaning to those of us who earn our bread as wordsmiths.
3. Just because you can write doesn’t mean you can write.  True, writing is a skill that every literate person has. However, being able to write at a middle school or high school level doesn’t make you an author any more than my ability to change a car tire will get me a job as a mechanic on a NASCAR pit crew.  If you don’t know the difference between ‘their’ and ‘there’ or if you can’t tell the difference between “let’s eat Bobby and let’s eat, Bobby” or ‘hukt on fonix werkt fer u,” or—God help you—you write in textspeak you’re not going to get anywhere as a writer. What you will get is lots and lots of rejection slips from angry editors.  Want to move from wanna be to pro? Go to school, earn your degree, acquire some skills, then we’ll talk.
4. Writing is a fucking job.  A REAL JOB. I go to work at 8 am and leave at 4 pm, which means I put in a full eight hour work day just like you do. Telling a writer to go out and get a real job is insulting and if you say it to the right person you’ll get your beak busted for it. If you’re confused by that, see #1. Or better yet, present your case to Stephen King.
5. Writing is a business. At some point in time a writer is going to have to talk to an editor, and agent, a publisher, or the local tax monster.   We have to market our own work. We have contracts and forms to fill out and keep up with. And if we are moderately successful there’ll be the odd accountant to keep your eye on. Yes, it’s a business with all the fun and foibles that goes with it. And it too, is hard work. Or at least as fun as running an unlicensed daycare center.

Respect the author. Respect the craft. And by all means buy a book and appreciate the amount of time and love that was put into it. Writers don’t live on just air and daydreams. We like to eat.

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