Monday 7 July 2008

A day in the life of a writer... according to Don Miller

I have just finished reading Don Miller's heart warming "Blue like Jazz". His description of a writer's life made me laugh:

“Writers don’t make any money at all. We make about a dollar. It is terrible. But then again we don’t work either. We sit around in our underwear until noon then go downstairs and make coffee, fry some eggs, read the paper, read part of a book, smell the book, wonder if perhaps we ourselves should work on our book, smell the book again, throw the book across the room because we are quite jealous that any other person wrote a book, feel terribly guilty about throwing the schmuck’s book across the room because we secretly wonder if God in heaven noticed our evil jealousy, or worse, our laziness. We then lie across the couch facedown and mumble to God to forgive us because we are secretly afraid He is going to dry up all our words because we envied another man’s stupid words. And for this, as I said before, we are paid a dollar. We are worth so much more.”
(Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller, p. 187)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Rob (Ive emailed you this too).

I enjoyed your website. You are the only person I can Google up who has taken a bike through PNG.

The challenge and adventure really appeal to me. Ive spent some time pushing my bike along the beach too, on a cycle tour of Cape York (Northern Oz)!

Im a science teacher, in Nelson, New Zealand. I am planning a big bike ride from here to Europe. I would love to bike through PNG along a route similar to yours but in reverse.

I would be flying from Australia (after having ridden around/across) to Port Moresby.

How do I get from Port Moresby/Buna to Lae? Google maps shows no road. Boat or beach?
Did you have maps etc before arriving?
Can I get by on English or do I ned pidgin?
Of your 7 weeks, how much was pushing the bike in sand/mud?
Do you have any idea if I can carry on through Irian Jaya from the border?

This kind of mission is something Ill just have to do, and then find out about, which I dont mind! But if you have any advice or info Id greatly appreciate it.

Thanks very much, Tristan Riley

Check out my website at www.tristanriley.co.nz

Alastair said...

ha ha! Brilliant!