Awwww ....

This is from my new BFF Ralph Greco who I had a great time hanging out with at the Cybernet Expo. Thanks, Ralph!

As my newly-made-but-will-now-be-my-BFF M. Christian pointed out to me, this writer’s thang we writers do is quite a weird thang to do. We sit alone most of the time conjuring up our fantasizes or relating our experiences in the hope of releasing them onto an indifferent public at best, or a critical one at worst, aching for someone to be tickled enough to read us or, the-gods-be-praised, thrilled enough to recommend our ramblings.

Through it all we attempt to eek out a living doing what it is we love to do, but most of us sadly don’t, so we steal moments when were not trying to earn money to buy our daily bread, to do this writing thang as much as we can. Given the above, when two writers meet it is often an interesting scene to say the least. It’s a misery-loves-company situation at the best of times, a knock-out-drag-out competition at the worst. Since what we do we do in private we tend to protect that ‘thang’ we do often times to such a competitive edge that we act more like Mel G. in Thunderdome than we do like regular law abiding citizens. But, for me, at Cybernet this past weekend, and especially meeting the afore mention M. Christian, this wasn’t the case…in fact it was the complete opposite.

I have been to comic, horror, sci-fi cons galore. I actually attended the second- ever Star Trek convention in NYC, the infamous one where they oversold by thousands and there were near riots by Klingons, remember that one? I have been in the music ‘biz’ for as long as I have been writing prose and that is one cut-throat backstage shmooz-til-you-die scene, I tell ya! Cybernet couldn’t have been more different. I felt more a sense of blind acceptance for and from everyone who walked down those Holiday Inn steps than I ever did any kind of a “ok, so who are you, what do you do?” posing. In fact, I happened to speak to Jay and Connor’s female temp (yes, I’m drawn to pretty girls like the proverbial moth-to-flame…and usually end up getting my ego burned) a sweet-faced brunette standing at the bottom of the steps directing us to certain panels and she remarked how wonderful everyone was, how nice and open and smiley the faces around her were and how surprised she was given the nature of the convention. I couldn’t do much more then agree; this was a group of really nice people, made more so because we all shared the nefarious business of a business most people think is nefarious but is anything but. And for a writer at a convention like this, these Theremin®-backed good vibes went a very long way.

It’s not often I discuss what I do, I simply do it. I am not a braggart (or at least hope I’m not) and am usually too embroiled in getting my latest masturbatory fantasy to computer screen while I type with one hand that I don’t have the time to do much else then write. Like everybody else at Cybernet, I was just trying to learn a few things, meet some folk, try to make it through another day with the terrible jet-lag dragging my ass while I stored what little energy I had for the KINK debauchery. Really, my mind was on business for sure, as I know all of us had our mind on business, but it was so damn life-affirming to be with people who not only understood what I did (writers, webmasters, Internet radio programmers, etc.) but who really cared about what I did. I guess, and I hate to admit this cause I really do think of myself as a dour old fuck, but I really do like people.

Along with my partner in crime-and-cookies Lisa, we really were tickled pink to meet all these wonderful folks at Cybernet and feel part of the community. And that M. Christian guy (yeah, yeah, I’ll stop gushing) I couldn’t have met someone I have more in common with if I had written him myself! He was gracious, warm, exuberant, you name the positive attribute the man exhibits it, introducing me, chatting about films, laughing…he is the bomb man! See, the writer’s life doesn’t have to be that locked-away-in-a-garret-bemoaning-a-lost-love existence (but if you got her or him locked in that garret with you, alls the better). You can find these moments, like I did at Cybernet, where you feel the true value of what you do with people whom you come so quickly to value.