The *OTHER* S. Claus

I've been told it's a pisces thing, we "fish" usually operate in artistic hyperdrive.  Whatever it is, I can't NOT create things.  It drives me insane most of the time, and takes precedence over EVERYTHING in my life. Ask the people I've dated!

I've never needed permission to create things or even validation (though it certainly helps!), I've only ever needed the tools (and if I didn't have them...I MADE them!).  Finding forums on-line to share my creations has been like a gift from the gods (well, heck, they probably got us artists into this in the first place, the least they could do is guide us to places to share our work, right?)

Being a "hack of all trades" and master of none has been a long-standing fear of mine--I've done many things but never truly focused on ONE thing to become an expert at it.  However, I'm finding as I get older I'm actually getting BETTER at all those various things (what's that quote about the monkeys and Shakespeare?  Well, never mind).  Somewhere between being a novice and incapacitated by age I hope to find a balance.   

I'm not sure it's ethical to share all my links and websites and nonsense so I've included a link to my personal website below and that's where all that stuff lives if you'd like to check it out.  But just to summarize...

• I have worked in hand-drawn and computer animation for over 20 years at Disney, DreamWorks and other studios, most recently on the Oscar winning "Life Of Pi." 

• I wrote, recorded and eventually produced two rock musicals that played in Hollywood rather successfully.  OK, they didn't make any money but they were SUCCESSFUL, dangit!  I had the good fortune to work with Broadway legend Kay Cole as my director and she has become one of my dearest friends.

• I've been drawing forever, probably was scribbling on the inside walls of my mom before I came out (hmm...remind me to cut that rather tasteless line out before I publish this) and have recently begun self-publishing some of the reams and reams of drawings I've kept over the years, compiling the drawings and making them into books.

• I was listening to music before I was even CONCEIVED and have been recording and distributing (ie, giving to my friends!) CDs of my music for over 20 years.  It's an addiction.  There are no 12-step groups for this. 

• I used to make short films.  I made dozens and dozens of them.  I showed them at film festivals, one even got as far as Naples, Italy!  I stopped after that one--making movies is an exhausting process I recommend only to the young, strong and idealistic (hint, hint).

• Oh yes, and I WRITE, ha ha.  I was lucky, I had a high school teacher (thank you, Mrs. Burkes!) who encouraged me with unprecedented zeal. She said if I came into her class and wrote every day, no matter what I scribed, I had an A+.  She also read every word I ever scratched. 

  True story! 

  Of course that didn't prepare me for the real world; in the 90s I finally decided to give it my all and set forth to get *published,* *officially*.  For three years I plunked down the cash for the Writer's Guide and threw every short story, article and novel I had off the bridge...doh!  I mean, out into the ether! 

  Well...oops--I started on my journey to get published just as traditional publishing was really beginning to take a nose dive! 

  I had more success than I thought I'd get--more than I probably deserved--I got a couple articles into local publications and a story on-line (and got paid for it!  The fools!  Ha!).  I got direct contact with an Actual New York Publisher...who promptly left her agency and my project died ('s'OK, it wasn’t very good).  After a few years I gave up and focused on other things (cough, earning money, cough). 

  With technology the way it is lately, there appear to be scads of wonderful ways of getting one's work out there into the universe in ways that are immediate and satisfying-- "Createspace" is one, just fyi...so far I've found it to be a wonderful self-publishing tool, I'm  particularly proud of a novel I was working on for years (plug, plug) and I have two books of cartoons I'm...NOT that proud of (they're like my wayward children, I suppose). 

I'm excited to have found Wizzley, a forum to write, read and share information with others!

Remember the published author with the quote I cited above in the intro?  Another great thing she said to all of us in her speech was, "You WILL get published."  OK, so maybe a lot of us are doing it ourselves these days...but she was right, wasn't she?   

http://www.ecstasylegalandfree.com/