Testing the water

I've been absent from the blog because I have been working on a piece for a Baltimore 'zine published by Eight-Stone Press.  I have to say that I don't think ESP and I are a match made in heaven.  From what I can gather, it is a publication that is slightly "off the wall", as they saying goes.  According to a couple of quotes from their website, "the publication will appeal to anyone who is compelled by the darkly funny, serendipitous, sometimes undignified realities of urban existence" and "the whole mood and attitude is 'punk' in a non-mainstream sort of way".  I would imagine that anything I write would be far too straight laced for this kind of edgy work but I thought it would be a good exercise, so I decided to write a piece about some of the well-known people (ranging from Barry Levinson to Scott Fitzgerald) who have had ties to the city in one way or another.  And, if they don't choose to publish it, I can always publish it on my blog!But it does remind me why I didn't have the emotional stamina to pursue an acting career for longer than the six years I did.  Submitting a piece to a publisher (and in this case anticipating my first equivalent of a rejection slip) has parallels to going for auditions.  If I had the right brand of wicked humour or ironic style I'm sure I could write some very funny pieces about the indignities of auditions.  I never had it as bad as it's portrayed in the recent Andy Garcia movie, City Island, when the line of auditionees went round several blocks but it can certainly feel like a cattle call and, frankly, my skin was just too thin.  At least when you are submitting a piece of writing (even if it's just as mild a publishing a blog post) there's more of an anonymity about it.  You don't have show up, body and soul, and make yourself vulnerable to being picked over by a casting director.Anyway, we'll see.  It's been fun writing the article, and that is the main thing.