new structures

I went to look over literary agencies last night thinking that an agent would get my book to a better place than I could, and get it there quicker. I come away a little sickened at the world of lit agencies. Failed creative writing majors who have lost the skill of writing and gone into editing only to read manuscripts with the question: will it sell. Hackneed writers with dollar signs in their eyes, the same publishing companies trying to crank out the same thing. The same readers looking at glossy books either meant to entertain for a day, or pasted with portraits of pretentious authors with many titles behind their names. Their work will be forgotten tomorrow too even though today they will have respect.

I come away from the whole experience sick remembering why I apprenticed myself to bard craft and chose to be a bard instead of a writer, why I chose the ancient healing craft of a shaman. If the stories I have are meant to get out they will get out, and they will be full of soul and touch souls. They will not be forgotten in a day.

Those who don't know better say that we have to "play the game:, that one must work from "within the system". I am young, but I'm old enough to know this is a lie. Nothing lasting ever came from working within the existing structure.


So how do I build a new one.
S