News about the bliss and all that jazz

 

                    Sometimes you think you should mark the day. There were two interesting things concerning the meditations today.

                     The easiest thing to talk about is the bending forward and straightening up. I used to do this and was surprised at the amount of bliss that occurred when I did this. Just assume the position and after meditating for a bit, lean forward and straighten up. It's a matter of degrees. I was surprised when it first appeared in the long ago, and because it's not supposed to be about the bliss ... today I did a bit of leaning forward and straightening up, and was flooded, flooded with bliss. Just whackeroni.

                    Every now and again, the jump in the juju happens. For years and years I've been getting intimations about the heat. They come and go, and nothing is certain, nothing stable. But today for a few seconds I got the warmth you might expect when you can dry off wet sheets and all that. Well, I'm sure I got that today, but only three or four seconds of it. It's an inner heat, but it's an overall kind of heat, and not something going up your central channel. Tomorrow I don't suppose I'll get it again, but it's now on the menu.

                    Everything else is crap. You have to keep everything down to concentrate on this stuff. Your life should be a bit boring. That's why you should be on retreat. There are two things to take into consideration. The usual joe. The meditations don't like that stuff. The usual joe is out looking for sweeties. Or not, in my case, during the week. Right now, I'm a bit stir crazy. I'm dying to do something else. Tomorrow I get into weekend mode and I'm really looking forward to it. 

                    I'm not bothered about the books. The Dirty Old Man has been written. That's enough. I don't think anyone has read it except for my Polish friend. Another friend might have read it, but she said bugger all about it, so ... Getting books published doesn't make you happy. I'm just pleased to have written them.

                    The weird raspberries in the photie were eaten today. Whoever hits on this blog from Etten, hello.

Minor movements in hustling The Buddha, The Dakini, and The Dirty Old Man.

 

                        I got an email from LR Price Publications this morning. Last week I got one and before I opened it, felt disappointed. One assumes rejections. Anyway, I did not like my reaction. It's a hustle hustling books!! Why bother? Well, it's easier if you think the book might do some good and you might in a rather unlikely scenario be able to donate some dosh to someone who wouldn't spend it in the pub.

                        Anyway, it wasn't an outright rejection. They seem to have a hierarchical system where someone a bit more senior looks at it next, kind of thing. The book seems to have gotten through the first couple of filters and now they say they'd like to do the book, but want me to cough up some of the money. Vanity publishing? I wouldn't mind putting some money in if I could have a guarantee that the book would quickly make it back, but if that was the case, why would they talk about sharing costs?

                         And they made a mistake. Part of their calculation seems to have been that the book had been in the public domain (I assume someone had a look at my Kindle page), but it hasn't been. So I told them about this in my reply and maybe they'll get back to me. I don't expect them to change their offer.

                        So I looked up the list of Scottish publishers. The top of the list is Canongate, but I assume you can't approach them without having an agent. The next one down was Luath Press, so I decided to contact them. They have a preliminary submissions form. Having spent twenty minutes or so hustling, I reckon that's enough for a couple of says. I haven't heard anything from Stan yet about the thrillers.

                        I was looking down the fiction list for Luath and came across several books by Des Dillon. When I was a school librarian, I bought multiple copies of Me and My Gal, which is a brilliant book about kids in Coatbridge. You sometimes wonder what happened to people. Well, he's got several books published by Luath Press. 

                        I've decided to try reading  novels again and may well read something by Des Dillon. I finished A Farewell to Arms last week (took me weeks to read it!) and I don't think I'd read that before after all. Just reminded me of how good Ernest Hemingway is. I've just started The Plague by Albert Camus and bought The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell. First chapter is entitled Appearance and Reality. Right up my street.

                        I found the photie of the head stand in Central Park from eight years ago. FFS, I was at least a stone and a half lighter!!