A couple of interesting updates is all you get today. One is the lady from Jacksonville. She is already referring to the room as “hers”, a definite good sign. I think what sold her was that we offered to pick her up from the airport/terminal/station of her choice.
Update 2014-05-27: In the end, I could not rent the room to this lady as due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to give her a date when she could move in.
Next is Degbert. I think that is his last name. This is the photographer that wanted the rodeo girl article. I’ve still not met the guy except over the Internet but he is excited about something. If you are not familiar with the story, he advertised last week for an author to write about some photos he’d taken. He has read only the sample few words I emailed him. Yet he keeps saying he can “hardly wait”. He wants to market the story (the inclusive term I use for his pictures and my words) in Europe.
Update 2014-05-27: Degbert was advertising on the Internet for a writer to accompany the picture documentaries he was taking around Florida. I sent him a sample of my writing, shown below. You may notice it is a completely different style from this blog, since when there is money involved, I will write to spec.
I gather there may be some serious money involved and my cut is 50%. I have not yet informed him I will insist on a copy of the payment document and a notorized statement that it is completely revealing. That’s all routine, what I can’t follow is his hysteria. He has mentioned “$10,000” before. That is only five large each and nothing to get his panties in such a knot over. Should I ask him how old he is?
Wallace was caught in the rainstorm, describing the entire street as a flood. No problem, we are a foot and a half off the terrain on a concrete foundation. I usually keep on riding home if it rains while I’m on the bicycle, since I can duck inside wet and change. I often go past the “Blarney Stone”, a pub on Dixie. I never went in there except to look for work, but I recall how they had a rule against allowing bicycles inside when it rained. I’m glad they quit enforcing that unfriendly policy, at least ever since they went bankrupt.
You get a sneak preview. I mentioned the sample above. If I get the Pulitzer, you saw it here first. This is a representative passage, in my characteristic commercial format (where I present information so the reader doesn’t necessarily know he is bombarded with information).
“Meet J. on a typical day at the job. There are no cubicles or water coolers in this occupation. Thoroughbred horses and purebred cattle demand attention and a firm grip on the reins. Stockgrowing is big business in Florida, after all, it has been established here for five hundred years. The first cattle arrived with Ponce de Leon in 1521, beating Texas by a few centuries. Only the best ranches have survived but the pressures of change are facing the land and the cowboy lifestyle.
“Few people know that as well as J., who has been a cowgirl, rodeo rider and wrangler for most of her 21 years. Florida is as flat as the open prairie and for horses it doesn’t get much better. J. may be the last generation of her family to keep the horse and cattle tradition alive. The future looms uncertain due to competition, conservation and a faltering economy that does not play favorites.
These words don’t really set the woods ablaze, so at this point I don’t really know much more than you do. Check back regularly. That’s what I’ll be doing. Update 2014-05-27: What I mean here is that these words were written before I had any facts from Degbert. He had not yet told me what the focus of the article was, so this is essentially a sample of how I would write fiction. I do not know whatever became of Degbert, but when I insisted on a written payment schedule in writing, he disappears.
We pause our regular programming for a moment of silence. I have officially played a steady house gig for two years by calendar date (this upcoming Friday weekday). That’s mainly as a soloist. I have a ways to go to make the better joints, but that is already in the works. This paid me, shall we say, at least as much as any coffee house, plus tips. My own entertainment budget has been miniscule during the same period. What can I say except “Neener, neener” to a few so-called better musicians than I. House gigs or the lack of them is the sign of your worth in this business. Even touring rock stars dream of a house gig.
Update 2014-05-27: I still, in a very evolved sense, play that same house gig to this day. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Glen. Glen, Glen, stop! That is just figure of speech!!!
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