Starving Artists

Just before hitting the blogspot this morning, I took a look at the statistics connected with my book - The Legacy of Miss Annie Darden Coggins to discover that as of the moment, I have nearly 200 'copies' out in general circulation... only 10 of them from paying customers.  For what I intended, it's not a bad showing, really.  I'm writing primarily as a hobby (for now) and haven't been too worried about how much money I will be making on this venture.  Amazon won't release the money I've made until after I've sold roughly 50 books... and even then I'll have to wait 60 days before any money appears in my bank account.

That's a long time to wait before being able to eat real food.

The image of those television commercials about 'Starving Artists' shows comes to mind.  Most people I know who are artists are doing so out of the love of being artists first.  If they happen to make a dollar or two on the way, that much the better.  In the meantime, they work at their day jobs to support themselves or their families.  I work with several musicians... one who has recently released an album... who happily tolerate having to do what they do in order to support their artistic activities.  Numerous friends and relatives (to one degree or another) do the same.  There's no shame in it.  All any of us do is to adapt to the reality of our situation and keep on plugging.

I certainly am.  Aside from blogging and keeping up with Facebook and my e-mail (brc_harrell@yahoo.com), I am busily building my sequel to The Legacy...

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Speaking of "Starving Artists", I encountered mention of an artist on the internet named Anne Darden.  I gather that she is a singer and/or songwriter.  I am going to make a point of sending her a message of some sort at some point in time, introducing myself and my book.

Part of my reasoning of using Annie Darden Coggins in the book is that the name was one of a woman I once knew who has long since passed to be a part of the Choir Invisible.  The Annie mentioned here was one of my grandmother's siblings; she was a fine woman who lived to be a ripe old age and never left her husband, despite what I've made the character do.  The Dardens were children of a Confederate soldier and with one exception, stayed rooted in the traditions of Tidewater Virginia.  That one exception has a street named after him up in South Bend, Indiana.  Go figure.

I've rambled along quite enough this morning... spending twenty minutes writing here instead of working on The Magnolia Chronicles.  Besides, I have to get to work at some point today.  Gotta keep from starving, you see.

Be Seeing You!

bdharrell