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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Balance of Running a Press VS Being Prolific

I enjoy making books, chapbooks, anthologies, fourplays.
I enjoy putting together events.
I enjoy seeing the faces of people as they perform.
I enjoy their faces as they see their books.
Or when I tell them they are nominated for PushCart.

But I also enjoy working on my own projects.

You might think that these two things are not mutually exclusive. And you're right. If you keep a balance of your time and lifely duties.

What I'm getting to is, I have to wrangle my Writing Knights commitments a bit. There are certain projects I have to finish and get a hold of and slate out.

For instance, the WKTV project. I totally want to keep doing that. It's fun to put together the videos from the best of the performances we do, but I can't let myself get too wrapped up in it. I have some chapbooks and full lengths on the horizon I'm really excited about.

I also have the third novel "The Black God" in the Dragon's Bane series to finish writing. I have to get with my editor about the story line of "Rust & Blood" and get R&B out by August.

I'd like to start sending some of my stuff out to different presses around the country, just to see what I can get published.

Subs for the Grand Tournament open in March.  Stark Knights happens in April.

I've been having less enthusiasm about Stark Knights lately.  My original goal was to try to get a show in each of the municipalities in Stark County, but I was exploring a couple of the boroughs and there is literally fuck all in terms of places we could even do poetry in some places.  I'm thinking this year we will get what we can get and make it work.  Next year we might pare it down a bit.

I'd like to start a regular monthly feature in Alliance.  I found an awesome place in Canal Fulton that would be great for a monthly reading.  I would like to do a monthly reading at the Little Art Gallery. I want to slap the WK: Stark banner on them and train a new person(s) to host them to put some depth in the WK: Stark team. Like Poetry Superheroes! ;)

But I'm making plans for now.  I have a list of authors waiting in the wings to produce some books, chapbooks and fourplays.  I've got a couple anthologies waiting.  I've got a shitton of 2nd Editions waiting to see new life.

I'm thinking starting in March, I'll have one new release, be it chapbook, book, anthology or a group of fourplays and one 2nd edition.  I don't know who is coming out when, I'll need to figure that out. After the 2nd editions run out, I'll probably just pare down to one release per month.

I've already cut down the WK events to the Monday Open Mic and one of those Mondays being a feature (I'm making an exception for February since the 29th is on a Monday).

There is so much going on... I need to know the limits of my sanity and go just beyond them.


*Note* Originally published in "Staving Away the Sadness" (PublishAmerica, 2004) Originally posted on the now defunct AzrielJohnsonAuthor.blogspot.com 04/12/06

Azriel Johnson is an inkspatter analyst and a serial writer by night. He runs a small, not money losing publishing press and a weekly open mic with monthly features called Writing Knights Press and Writing Knights: Stark.