Last week I signed a contract for the next book. I emailed the publisher’s director of sales and marketing to let her know that the signed documents were in the post and added jokingly, “Now my life will have meaning.”<\/p>\n
To which she responded, “Surely you have thought deeply enough about the human condition to know there is no meaning. Contractual obligations, sadly, do not distract us from ‘ the sure extinction we travel to.'”<\/p>\n
Note to self: Do not open her emails before the first cup of coffee.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last week I signed a contract for the next book. I emailed the publisher’s director of sales and marketing to let her know that the signed documents were in the post and added jokingly, “Now my life will have meaning.” To which she responded, “Surely you have thought deeply enough about the human condition to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-2114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-y6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7906,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7906","url_meta":{"origin":2114,"position":0},"title":"Well, This Is Puzzling","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Earth Day is upon us, and various people have been promoting the Pagan Community Statement on the Environment. As John Halstead, one of its strongest advocates, wrote on his blog, The Statement represents the largest collective expression of Pagan voices ever and the most successful attempt to date to harmonize\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"environmentalism\"","block_context":{"text":"environmentalism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=environmentalism"},"img":{"alt_text":"who signed?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/who-signed-1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1158,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1158","url_meta":{"origin":2114,"position":1},"title":"Pagan Travel Blogger","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Examiner blog network, which signed Murph Pizza to cover Paganistan, now has a Pagan travel writer, Paula Jean West.Are we a niche market, or what?","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":324,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=324","url_meta":{"origin":2114,"position":2},"title":"La Virgen as a Goddess\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"La Virgen as a Goddess Today's Denver Post dips a toe into the water with this story suggesting the the Virgin of Guadalupe might be a goddess--or at least a pop icon. \"Many of us are working to claim her larger cosmological meaning as earth mother,\" says scholar China Galland,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6261,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6261","url_meta":{"origin":2114,"position":3},"title":"More Reflections on Doninger’s Hinduism Book","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Like a lot of people, I was dismayed (to put it mildy) that Penguin India has pulled Wendy Doniger's book The Hindus: An Alternative History from sale in that country. Indologist Koenraad Elst, no stranger to such controversies, explains some of the background on Indian law about religions here. Art.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Hinduism\"","block_context":{"text":"Hinduism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=hinduism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51sBGrYcIEL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2%2CTopRight%2C1%2C0_SH20_BO1%2C204%2C203%2C200_.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":457,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=457","url_meta":{"origin":2114,"position":4},"title":"She Went among the Witches","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Waterbrook, Random House's evangelical-publishing operation, has announced Wicca's Charm: Understanding the Spiritual Hunger Behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality, a new journalistic survey of Wicca in America.From the Web site:Hundreds of thousands of people practice Wicca and other forms of modern Pagan spirituality in America today, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Wicca\"","block_context":{"text":"Wicca","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=wicca"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0877881987","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":847,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=847","url_meta":{"origin":2114,"position":5},"title":"See, this is fame","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In the postal mail and email:1. Two fat envelopes bearing mss. of how-to Witchcraft books from publishers who want my name on a cover blurb. Neither came from Woodbury, Minnesota, however. How quickly they forget, eager to move on to the hot new titles in astral sex.2. An email from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2114"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2144,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114\/revisions\/2144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}