BrainDrain

Buh. Mental collapse. I didn't post yesterday because I didn't have anything to say. I'm thinking a lot, about a lot of different things, but none of it is organized enough to post here (and given how scattered some of my posts have been, that's saying a lot!) and lots of it is interlinked with other thoughts.

For example -- publication and e-books and piracy. I've read some articles and essays on rising self-publishing models, now that e-books are becoming more and more popular and print-on-demand is becoming more and more affordable. I don't think there's any question that traditional publishing houses still add value -- but it's a different set of values, or at least a different distribution of those values, than it used to be.

This is substantially linked to the issue of computer piracy -- if an e-book is pirated, does it actually hurt or help sales? Neil Gaiman posted a link on Twitter last night touching on this, but the answer is... "sometimes" and I like that the article calls for some serious study to determine the other factors.

Which ties into my thoughts about what I want to do with this writing sideline I've got going, and what I want to do with my short story when its rights are returned to me in September (the charity story contract is only for one year, as opposed to most of the rest of the publisher's contracts, which are for two). Do I want to try to spruce it up and reprint it? Self-publish it on Amazon for 99 cents? Offer it up as a free read?

Thinking about that particular sideline has me also thinking about sex, and sexual psychology -- I bought a book on Kindle last week on the topic that completely fascinated me, and I'm trying to figure out how to fit what I learned into what I'm writing -- and whether I even should. (For example: Despite the subject matter, about 80% of my audience is female. Does it make sense, then, to try to make my male characters act and think more like "real" men, when it's those unrealistic qualities that appeal to the majority of my readers?)

And the psychology aspect of that ties into a book I'm reading now, for book club, which is about a man trying to follow the rules set down in the Bible as literally as possible for one year. (He started out as an agnostic with the understanding that he's practicing a psychology experiment on himself.) Up to this point, I hadn't much been using the Kindle app's ability to highlight or make notes in texts, but in this one, I've got dozens of highlights and at least ten or so notes with my own thoughts on various points. It's fascinating stuff.

See? I'm kind of all over the map. And this isn't even touching on my thoughts about Penny's growing independence as a diabetic, or Alex's intellectual development and his new gibberish speech, or my sex life, or the assorted games I'm playing on my iPad/iPhone, or the family's social plans for the next few weeks, or my plans for assorted summer activities (my summer is already just about slam full, and it's not even here yet).

My brain, it is full. Does anyone know how to turn it off?