Straightening a record or writing a rant...I can't tell.

An opinion expressed can often be mistaken for news in today's internet savvy world.  If a publicist wants a rising pop star to rise, they get an entertainment site to write the words "sensation" or "phenom" and then post, re-post, like...until the world agrees.  It isn't much different from the marketing of old, but back then you had to rely on cereal boxes, billboards...catalogs.  Now the message is everywhere all at once and unavoidable to boot.

I don't necessarily have a problem with it.  I'm an intelligent person who can navigate the messages and agree when I feel like agreeing.  I am able to avoid over saturation by not watching the news, reality shows or reading entertainment magazines (masquerading as news).

But sometimes the message finds me in the form of a trusted blogger, a famous person who enjoys talking about themselves (and gets paid to do it).  I admire them (follow that person on twitter), but this time what they say affects me in a personal way.  Their blurb asks me to validate their message/opinion by agreeing with it and if I don't, then I'm an ignorant person who just doesn't know better.

Side note - whenever someone starts an opinionated statement with a list of their successes, I'm immediately on edge.  Success only gives your opinion a historical perspective, not weight.  Fact and interpretation are intermingled as frequently as popcorn and salt and the more powerful someone's ego the more confused they get about how much they really know versus the human nature driven desire to share their belief.

So here it is, my retaliation, my rebellion (may the force be with me)...

I am a writer and I write because I love it.  I don't profess to be better than anyone else and I honestly am trying to enter the professional world of writing.  I hope to someday make a living at it.  That is a personal statement and a fair one.  I've worked hard.  I'm improving.  I published my books on-line, myself, for reasons that are entirely my own.  Maybe someday I'll have an agent.  And when that day happens and I'm asked about why an author might choose to self-publish instead of going the traditional route of finding an agent, I will remind them of independent artists in other mediums and how sometimes we have to do things that feel a little uncomfortable in order to find our personal success.  I wish there was a Sundance for writers.  A way to celebrate when someone puts themselves out there and tries.  Because that is all it is, an attempt.  Sadly, this is viewed as a threat by some and they find the need to label self-published authors as a group trying to enter an elite club populated entirely by royalty.

Even if the traditionally viewed success never comes, I will always be grateful that I put myself out there and tried.  And I'm going to keep on trying, just because.  If there was only ever one way to do things, most of what we listen to, the technology we operate, just wouldn't exist.  So rebellion - even in the form of us self-published authors - is the way of the world.  It's a good thing, really.