TO THE KILL

Gah.

This Murder Ballads article got all dramatic today.

I turned the piece in two days ago. I was pretty happy with it. It’s chatty, funny—basically, everything that all the articles in the other papers will not be. Which was exactly my goal. I didn’t want a list of people playing and a ridiculously dull explanation of the night’s concept.

My editor e-mails today and says, “Gee, instead of this, can you do a list of people playing and a ridiculously dull explanation of the night’s concept?”

Once the steam coming from my ears stops coming, I write back and remind her that I’ve given her exactly what I pitched, and that I had decided to do it this way for a reason.

She replies and says I am right, and that she maybe should have thought about it more. But, it’s all moot, as they no longer have room for it. I’ll get a kill fee (yippee, usually less than half the rate) and maybe I could write up a blurb for the listings page.

Now, part of me wonders if maybe she thought I was being uncooperative and is deciding to send me on my way. Which is fine, since I tell J-Lu to kick me in the nuts if I write for The Mercury ever again. At that moment, the feeling would be mutual. But at the same time, I have had this happen before, and changes can flow swiftly and without warning. The Low piece I linked to a few posts below was cancelled at least twice, and still saw publication. It usually has to do with advertising, with space disappearing if ads aren’t sold.

Nah, the only thing possibly underhanded here is that I was being asked to rewrite the piece while it was being cancelled. Why would you ask me to do more work if you think it's going away?

I agree to do the listing, and even suggest that I write an explanatory intro to the original q&a that can double as the listing. If the article doesn’t run, we have our blurb; if things change, it’s fixed to meet her needs.

The next e-mail informs me that everything is back on, the article is in, and yes, do the intro thing. She even goes so far as to tell me to cut a particular question to make room--though, of course, a question that is one of my favorite bits. So, bittersweet.

All this for, basically, after taxes, a DVD. (Okay, I do really like DVDs, so it's worth it.)

I was hoping to start Wish vol. 4 tonight, but I’ve still got to write that intro, and I just spent all this time bitching here.

Gah.

If it actually does see print, I'll post a link here. If not, I'll post the whole article. I hope it does, though. I hate when you do an article on a nice person and you make them think you are going to help them promote their event, only to have it not materialize. That's poopy.

[SIDENOTE: I have added links to a review I did for artbomb.net as well as an interview Warren Ellis did with me there to the "other writing" section on the site.]

Current soundtrack: Spoon, Girls Can Tell (not a recommendation, so no link – I am listening to it because they are playing here Friday and someone gave it to me; I don’t like it); Pet Shop Boys, Release