Me, Version 3.0
When I started writing in 1994 fear was still a very large part of the publishing industry. If a writer wanted to be a true success they were told to keep their ideas guarded. Every writer had their, “secret sauce” that they felt would make them a household name. Schools stressed the importance of copyrighting so no one claimed your ideas as their own. If you were poor, like I was, and hadn’t secured a publisher you were taught to mail your manuscript to yourself and leave the envelope unopened. This was referred to as a, “poor man’s copyright” because the postmark would prove when the work as written. The world has changed so much the fact that I even remember this makes me feel ancient.
As a result of this nonsense, paranoia wormed its way into my young and impressionable brain. It didn’t make me safer, in fact it did nothing but stifle the rate of my development. As my career slowly progressed, I learned the value of collaboration. I joined writers groups and began using beta readers to refine my drafts after they were written. I learned among writers there was a common decency and respect for another author’s work. Even among the few who were unscrupulous enough to stoop to the level of plagiarism theft was a rarity. Why? Most of this unscrupulous people liked to play the role of a writer for the attention but weren’t interested in doing anything that resembled work.
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” - Thomas A. Edison
This world is changing more quickly than our brains can process. Our entire society is becoming open source. Humanity will become much better and smarter because of it. Now, over two decades into my career, the creation aspect of a book and the sharing/refining of ideas is my favorite part of the job. The creation process helps to generate such a feeling of camaraderie. As I'm putting the finishing touches on my meditation book, The Perfect Pause, I’m reflecting about how much this community has helped with the process.
“One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But...I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.” - Thomas A. Edison
Many of you volunteered to be beta readers and helped to catch all of my typos, missed commas, and nonsensical blathering. You also helped me narrow down the book’s cover design from many to one absolutely striking final cover (which is pictured below.) Leon Logothetis (of The Kindness Diaries on Netflix) has officially endorsed the book with a cover blurb. Holy sh!t! This valuable endorsement probably would’ve never come about if I hadn’t interviewed him for a Steemit post. In fact, the epicenter of this book’s entire marketing campaign will ripple out to the world from right here on Steemit later this spring.
Later this summer, I’ll be wrapping up the sequel to my first novel, Alarm Clock Dawn entitled Truth Is Stranger. This novel will have cryptocurrency and blockchain technology as a central component to its plot. Truth Is Stranger simply could not have been possible without the ideas I’ve been exposed to here on this platform. As I’m working on this second book I’m in awe of the synchronicity of it all. I’m amazed at how beautifully (and unexpectedly) the plot of this sequel meshes with Alarm Clock Dawn. I hope to introduce the concepts of blockchain and cryptocurrency to a larger audience with this second book and I’ll be reaching out in a few months to ask your opinions on certain aspects of the plot.
The best way to learn is by doing, so I recently started trading cryptocurrency. The more I learn about crypto and blockchain, the more I realize their potential to transform this world of ours into a much more fair and equitable place. Each of us are pioneers in this crypto/blockchain space and we’re writing the future one post, one trade, and one idea at a time.
Content creators on Steemit, both young and old, continually get me to see things from a new perspective. You light up this soon-to-be forty six year old brain in wonderful ways. In my life I can identify three distinct transformations. The first is when I ventured out of my inner-city neighborhood and went to college, the second was when I began my meditation practice, and the third transformation was when I began writing on this platform and learning from you.
My advice to all of you is take full advantage of this moment in time, before we become blobs with VR headsets strapped to our faces (just kidding-I really don’t think this will happen.) This is OUR moment and it's a pivot point for humanity. Let’s utilize the immense concentration of IQ and ambition here on Steemit. Collaborate with one another, dream your dreams, and let’s all build a better world together. Steem on!
P.S. For the record, I'm not a huge fan of Edison, I'm more of a Tesla fan myself but I have to admit the man could write a killer quote (but, ironically, he probably stole them.)
*I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and crypto-enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work please sign up for my author newsletter at my website. Newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive updates and special offers and your information will never be sold or shared.
Eric Vance Walton - Media
Thank you for post. My favorite line is: "My advice to all of you is take full advantage of this moment in time". Great advice.
I just started trading cryptocurrency after following the development for years. Exciting and unnerving with great potential.
@fyrstikken has done some very instructional videos. I remember one from years ago where he points out that even with small trades, if you double you money, you have doubled you money :)
You're welcome! Thank you for reading, @lakshmi! This is a great time to be trading, these next couple of years will hold lots of opportunity as cryptocurrency becomes more mainstream.
@ericvancewalton The best thing I liked about your post was the idea, " the best way of learning something is by doing it".
There's nothing that beats direct experience!
Hello my friend
I really liked this subject
Thank you for this beautiful information
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
You're growing and covering a lot of ground, I can see by your posts and my chats with you - and then sowing that out into the world with your creations.
Sowing usually means there is a multiplication in effect.
Gains bro.
You're doing great!
Thanks, @barrydutton! I look back at the last year and sometimes even I can't believe it. I realize I have much more to learn but I enjoy it so much it doesn't even seem like work. I wish you great gains too! I appreciate your comment.
firstly, congratulations on the personal renaissance Steemit helped initiate for you, you are an inspiring model of how to use the platform well and with integrity.
Also, very cool that you have another book in the works soon to be complete, I know I speak for many in saying that I look forward to it!
Thank you, thank you my friend. It's in line with what we were discussing about shifting lives and priorities. It can be a roller coaster on here sometimes but in change there is always a little chaos. I can't wait to share the book, Lubosh and I finalized the front cover and he's working on the back cover and interior design now...it'll be ready very soon!
First, congratulations on finishing your book. As someone just starting to venture into meditation, I look forward to reading it and learning from it.
Second, thanks for this post. I've been a writer for several years and have experienced time and again how collaboration can make an ok project stellar. I'm glad to see the future is moving in that direction.
Thanks, @redhens! The book is going to be just a very simple beginner's guide to meditation practice and I can't wait to share it with all of you. I plan on doing a sequel in a year or two with more advanced techniques. I appreciate your kind words and best of luck with your writing!
Thanks for making that abundantly clear... Not that I was really worried. :D
(BIG Tesla fan myself...)
😄😇😄
Thank you, @creatr. Wouldn't you love to have a few days with Tesla's notebooks that disappeared after his death?! I can't even imagine the work he did that hasn't been made public. He was WAY ahead of his time.
That would be fantastic. Much of what was stolen by the FBI was supposedly released not too long ago, but how would we know what may have been withheld? :O
BTW, are you familiar with and following @mage00000 ?
He seems to have some rather unique insights into Tesla's work and thought, and appears to have done a significant amount of experimentation with Tesla's designs... :) :D
We'll never know if what was released is complete. I'm not familiar with @mage00000 but am following him now! We know of a man in Minneapolis who claims to have built a perpetual motion engine based on Tesla's notes. He's posted video of the engine in action on social media but I don't know enough about it to be able to determine if it's authentic or not.
I've been studying and tinkering with magnetic motors and alternative energy tech of various kinds for decades now... No great successes to speak of, but I've seen enough and learned enough to be convinced that there is far more to learn and that abundant energy is "out there," given the right ideas, approaches, and open-minded thinking.
For me, the "holy grail" in this realm would be a relatively simple set of open-source plans that could be built from off the shelf materials that would just keep running...
One other fellow that I believe has "the secret sauce" is Rick Friedrich and he has been very open lately in publishing what he knows. I would dearly love to experiment with his ideas, but I've been too busy trying to learn how to market my own invented product to be able to afford the time to do so. If I ever get sales moving on their own to the point of survivability, I hope to do more research and experimentation. ;) :D
I often think of how different this world would be if Tesla's ideas were more widely adopted instead of Edison's. So does you product create colloidal silver? I tried the Sovereign Silver brand a few months ago during a horrible bout of the flu. The infection in my sinsuses was so bad both of my eyes got infected. I had a HORRIBLE experience with taking an powerful antibiotic (Z-Pack) in 2011 so I searched for an alterative. The colloidal silver cleared up the eye infection in two days! I'm a believer after that.
Our machines produce a 10ppm solution of silver ions and nano-scale particles. You start with pure, distilled water, and after four hours, the output (16oz) is essentially identical to Sovereign Silver brand, which (last time I looked on Amazon) costs as much for a gallon as the "street price" of the SILVERengines proton...
So, after eight batches, the machine has essentially paid for itself, and the silver rods are still good for another 100 to 200 batches. The rods are replaceable.
If you checked the link in my last message, you may have seen that we're presently temporarily promoting the machines at an even better price. :D
All this is purely FYI, of course. While I would love to sell you (or any Steemian) one of my machines, I'm (generally speaking) a very "low pressure" salesman. ;) Always happy to answer questions, of course.
Thanks for sharing your story about silver and your sinuses and eyes! I first got into silver about 25 years ago because of chronic sinus infections! :)