An author whose daily blogging streak is at least five times as long as mine (1,369 days and counting) spends many days hawking his books and other products, which I find somewhat distracting, but he sells quite a few more books than I, so maybe he’s onto something.
Four years ago this week, I looked over the draft of an eccentric little book I was writing and decided suddenly that it was finished. Using the magic of modern technology, I had the book on the market by nightfall.
The book was and is How to Play a Blue Guitar. It will teach you nothing about music beyond that contained in the short poem that serves as the title piece:
The way you play a blue guitar is the same as the way you play any guitar.
Essentially, one guitar plays the same as another: It’s built with the same workings, potential melodies and chords, hopes, and dreams as any other color guitar.
Kind of like people.
The book is comprised of 24 short pieces — essays, short stories, and poems for the most part. I’m quite proud of it. Published on impulse, it remains as representative a little book as anything I’ve ever assembled. It shouldn’t hang together but somehow it does, at least in my humble opinion.
The author I mentioned in the first paragraph seems to believe that if you can’t think of anything especially profound to write in your blog, then at least try to sell something. I enjoy his writing and find his advice helpful. That’s why today I’m inviting you to buy How to Play a Blue Guitar, the ebook, the paperback, or the hardcover.
Enjoy! Live! Love! Buy!
