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The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

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50 Shades of Grey With Better Writing & More Sex

February 19, 2015 by Jack Steiner 6 Comments

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Chagall ceiling, Opera Garnier, Paris 2014Been a while since I whipped out a headline like Cheaper Than A $5 Whore With Less Risk of Infection or the one that lies on top of this page like a bad wedding cake topper.

Some people might ask if that is how I want to introduce myself to potential new readers and blog friends.

They might suggest I point people to She Saved My Heart or An Uncertain Certainty.

Or maybe they’ll recommend Do You Miss Old Fashioned Blogging?

They are all good suggestions and reasonable. I’ll nod my head, smile and say it makes sense to try to pull people in with a headline that is more inviting and a post that tells a story that pulls a tear from your eyes or warms your heart.

I have no argument with any of that but it is not how I like to operate.  I don’t wear a sweater because you are cold or follow the standard blog advice about niches, blog length and where else to promote my posts.

Except when I do.

evolution
When people ask me to point them towards my best posts I never know how to answer because it is like asking me to pick a favorite child.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t posts I am proud of or ones that I look at as being examples of my finest writing because they exist but I don’t know what you prefer and since I write for me first I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it.

I can show you posts in which I tell you stories about being a father. You can read tales about what happened when my son asked me not to die and how I dealt with some of the tough questions my daughter asked.

There are posts about writing and stories about defenestrating people, fighting Santa Claus and tales of burying a dear friend.

Flip through the pages and you can read my goodbye to The Big Lug, the finest canine companion a man could have and there are tales about fighting clowns, how road rage led to the biggest traffic jam in history and a nugget about using processed meat as a sword in a supermarket battle royale.

And let’s not forget the occasional foray into blog envy in which I express my displeasure with the state of blogging and blog envy.

Typically it is a complaint about semi literate hacks who manage to gain book deals, television shows or anything cool that I think should have been offered to me.

50 Shades of Grey With Better Writing & More Sex

That Chagall painting at the top of the page makes me smile. It reminds me of walking through Jerusalem under moonlit skies and or tooling around the Judean desert under starry nights.

It reminds me of being in the mystic city of Tzfat and it reminds me of swimming in the Mediterranean and snorkeling in the Red Sea.

I look at at it and I am 16, 25 and 29.

And then I look again and I am my current age of 45 and 9/10th.

I see it differently and learn something new at every age.

When you ask my why I love LA, Texas and Israel I’ll tell you they all remind me of each other and yet they are nothing alike but all the same.

I think I enjoy writing more when I unleash the Kraken and write with reckless abandon. When the words just flow from my fingertips and I spend but an ounce of energy wondering if anyone will read these words, let alone comment.

*****

I have read a few pages of 50 Shades and was bored so I dropped it and moved on to other things.  But part of me wondered what I need to do to try and move one of my pieces of fiction into the public arena and how I could turn it into something…special.

Better writing and more sex…maybe.

What Story Does Your Blog Tell About You?

Sometimes I think about whether it would help me to pay more attention to what my pages and posts tell. Sometimes I think it would be smarter to try and piece together a more coherent tale and then the fever breaks.

My favorite characters in books, movies and television are complex creatures. Sometimes the heroes fail and sometimes they succeed in spite of acting illogically and irrationally.

Maybe that says more about how I view myself. Maybe I should add I always believe I’ll figure out the answers or at least and answer to any problem I face.

The point is this blog won’t tell you everything about me but it won’t portray me as being a one dimensional person either.

Is that meaningful and or important?

It is to me and I suppose to those who like me and or my writing.

If you are among the crowd that describes me as being neither witty nor intelligent this won’t matter to you either.

I am ok with that.

My children learned a long time ago that dear old dad says you don’t have to like everyone or be their friend. You need to figure out how to go along to get along, but not by being a victim or pushover either.

Be yourself and people will like you or they won’t but those that do won’t be surprised by what you do or who you are either and there is merit in that.

What about you? What do you think?

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Comments

  1. Janine Huldie says

    February 19, 2015 at 11:13 am

    I truly try my best to just be me (blog or not) and as my dear old mom always said, “If they don’t like you for you, then they aren’t worth it!”

    Reply
    • The JackB says

      February 20, 2015 at 12:21 am

      @JanineHuldie:disqus Your mom is a smart woman.

      Reply
  2. Imp says

    February 19, 2015 at 6:25 am

    I think that my blog is like me in many ways…evolving, fumbling about, trying to find the voice, the place to belong.

    And I’m ok with that.

    Reply
    • The JackB says

      February 19, 2015 at 12:27 pm

      @disqus_8a1fVw9rep:disqus I like that, evolving and ok. It is real and it is part of what makes blogging interesting.

      Reply
  3. Chloe says

    February 19, 2015 at 1:12 am

    I find you both witty and intelligent and very sneaky.

    Reply
    • The JackB says

      February 19, 2015 at 12:27 pm

      @ChloeJeffreys:disqus Sneaky? How so?

      Reply

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