Out of a cannon will go Hunter S. Thompson

WOODY CREEK, Colo. - I'm still more than a little angry at Hunter S. Thompson for his suicide. The man was so talented and his voice still so clear - maybe more clear than in the 60s & 70s & 80s when it was supposed to have been fogged by his legendary bouts with alcohol and drugs.

Those legends were largely self-created, part of the myth that made the guy so attractive to other writers. How much of it was ever really true, few people know - except maybe people like author & artist Ralph Steadman who will be in attendance Saturday when, as he wished, Hunter's ashes will be blown out of a 150-foot tall cannon/scuplture at Owl Creek Farm where he lived since the late 1960s.

What HST did for young writers is the stuff of legend, if only to goad them to push outward from whatever strictures their particular school system strangled them with when learning to write. I'm not complaining about students being dragooned into learning to spell or punctuate properly. Hell, it's a gripe of mine that will surface like the Loch Ness Monster in a couple of weeks when I'm back in the classroom. Misspelled words drive me bonkers.

No, the strangling I'm talking about is the kind that stifles ideas in favor of form, cuts out strong language and puts in euphemisms, and substitutes mechanics for originality.

That paragraph sounds just like the kind of mouthful of academic crap, by the way, that would probably make HST throwup, though he was a meticulous writer and very careful in what he put down on paper. He hid that side of himself pretty well, preferring the public to think of him as a maniac. It sold more books, though selling books wasn't his goal. He wanted to be heard.

And that's why I'm still pissed off. (There, Hunter, that more the language you would prefer.) I'm totally pissed off because your voice is silent, but still had a lot to say.

And I'm totally pissed off at myself, that in the last few years of your life, I ignored what you were writing because I listened to the critics who said you were washed up and irrelevant and I didn't read what you were publishing.

They were wrong. I was wrong. You were doing some of your best work.

We'll have our own little salute to HST at Seneca Lake Saturday - I'm not exactly sure what just yet - though it probably won't involve any cannons.

Can't guarantee it though. There's more than a few cannons lying about and more than enough madmen & lunatics running about this place with gunpowder and the know-how to touch a cannon off. If a cannon can't be found, maybe a 21-shotgun salute. Every pickup truck seems to have at least one weapon handy for discharging.

Vaya con dios, HST.

Kaboom!

Writing for Money has been, well, you guessed it: writing for money

VALOIS, New York - My promise to renew Writing for Money in June was subverted by my writing for money in June. And July. And now August.

But as the school semester starts in a few weeks (GAWD!), I will be renewing it and using it as a teaching tool for my magazine writing class.

There has been plenty to write about this summer for anyone looking to freelance. It's been hotter than hell in most of the U.S., soldiers are dying in Iraq and people are barely noticing, and most recently Bob Novak walked off the set of CNN in a snit and got fired (ok, they call it suspended). All things to write about.

Since I last posted, I have noticed that Craig's List is becoming a good place to look for freelance writing jobs. (I applied for two just yesterday.) These are not high-paying, blockbuster novel type jobs, but steady stuff and best of all, stuff that can be done from a distance.

So there you have it. Writing for Money is back, sort of, but will be back at the end of August as part of Journalism 132 - Magazine Writing.

OP-ED IDEA - Going back to school means different things to different folks and already the Wal-Mart ads are overflowing the mailbox with all the crap that kids must have to be well-equipped for school. Lots of possibilities for op-ed articles, but they need to be timed to the first day of school, or else they lose their timeliness. Move quickly, too, because August is when editorial page editors try to take that last gasp of summer vacation and their vacation replacements are frequently a softer touch to accept freelance work.

Writing for Money temporarily out of order

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Keeping this particular blog going has proven to be more of a chore than I anticipated and I apologize to my small band of loyal readers who are using me as a resource. My two other blogs, plus a consulting job writing for money, are keeping me from developing this as it deserves.

For the next few weeks, this site will remain unchanged, but will return with a series of new features (and hopefully new links) around mid-June.

At least that's the plan right now, and I'm stickin' to it.

Writers! Start your computers.

And like the guvenator of California says in his bad movies, I'll be back.

Scan those newspapers for writing ideas

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Just as I was donning my IPod, running shoes and ball cap for my three-mile, sweat-inducing, heart-pounding run along the river, I saw this story in today's San Francisco Chronicle.

Yoga story

Lift and stretch. Lift and stretch.

If you read my other blog, From Where I Sit, these first few graphs sound familiar. They should.

From Where I sit

But what struck me about the story, besides the photo that caught my eye, (you have to go to From Where I Sit to see it, or click on Yoga Story above) was the possibility for an Op-Ed or column about yoga, prudishness in people, or the simple fact that naked yoga classes are popular, but perhaps not in the Iowa.

Every day I scan the newspapers, newswires, and yes, even blogs for ideas for stories for one of my paying jobs, and also for possible Op-Ed pieces.

And even if you don't have a market for a good 500-650 word piece about, say, Naked Yoga, write it anyway. It's good mental exercise, limbers your fingers and creates writing samples. And if you don't have a market, create an email list of friends who are kind enough to read your work and kind enough to not tell you if they don't.

More on self-syndication in another blog.

Writing the travel piece, just for the writing

MICHOACAN, Mexico - Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle (and its online version) had a wonderful piece about a stretch of Mexican coastline between Manzanillo on the north and Zihuatenejo on the south.

A Mexican paradise

I know the stretch, having sailed along the 200 or so miles in my 48-foot boat. The coastline isn't good for boating, not much in the way of anchorages. But if the travel piece is any indication, I need to go back, by car or bus, and check it out. It sounds like paradise.

Travel writing is a tough thing to break into - at least to get paid for. But if you want to get any kind of shot at it, start writing short pieces about places you travel to, even if you just post them blog-style. It will get you where you need to be to take on a travel assignment. And you will have clips, maybe lots of clips, by the time you get started. And it will teach you that every place is interesting enough to write about - even those towns in Iowa I make fun of all the time.

OP-ED IDEA FOR TODAY - This past weekend there were lots of graduation speeches at colleges and in a few weeks, there will be tons more at every high school in America. Check your local high school and find out if anyone famous is going to speak. And if not, consider a funny column about if, say, Warren Beatty spoke at your local high school's graduation. Or Ward Churchill. Or Snoop Dogg? Or anybody your can image. (Reese Witherspoon would be my choice.) What would they tell the graduates? What would you want them to tell the graduates?