Tina Howard, aka spaghettipie, interviewed me recently for her blog Stewardship Living, in which I hand out advice with shameless self-importance. Like this:
Follow your passions, but do so in a way that is honest and responsible. I love to write, but I wasn’t about to quit my job to start writing full time. I’m still not going to quit my job to write. But I spend a lot of time reading about writing, reading writing like the writing I want to do, talking to other writers, and honing my craft.
Whether you want to read more of this interview or not, do my friend Tina a favor and go visit Stewardship Living. She does really good work.
5 comments ↓
I loved your “recipe” poem that you linked to after the interview. Very creative! I might just look up that recipe…
Very wise. And I bet what you said was Amy-approved… such nice things you said about and feel for your family (okay, maybe with the exception of the nose discussion).
Thanks for a great interview!
Good advice…I like the “follow your passion but do it responsibly” theme. It’s true, faithful and pragmatic
Robert, thanks. Donauwellen is a fantastic treat, but I have never been able to make it very well. If you can pull it off, let me know the secret.
L.L., wise? What are you talking about?
spaghettipie, thanks for asking me!
ESI, thanks for pointing that out. I think our capitalist society encourages us to gauge success in terms of dollars. If I can earn a living at my passion, then I have achieved success. The better living I can earn, the more success I’ve achieved.
But really, that kind of thinking doesn’t acknowledge the realities of a free market system. No matter how good I am as a poet, I’m never going to make much money by publishing books of poetry. Nobody wants poets. Everybody wants good copy. Does that mean all poets should go to work for advertising agencies? Heavens no! I still follow my passion for poetry, but I’m not stupid about it. I rely on other talents to bring home the bacon. Otherwise we’d have nothing to eat. (Not the least because I’m not really that good at poetry!)