The Moonshine Mountain Manifesto


The first version of Moonshine Mountain went online in the summer of 2002, at about the time I was gearing up to start shopping my book proposal. There was an actual concept behind this first incarnation: it would be a record of my wacky misadventures as I tried to find an agent and then a publisher for my book. As I put it in my very first entry: “The idea here is for me to have a place to write in tortuous, navel-gazing detail about my adventures as I attempt to get my first book published. You know, kind of like a Spalding Gray lecture, but without all the spittle. In fact, the film rights to this blog are now available…I'm doing this because it seems like a good way of keeping myself motivated. I figure if I get in the habit of writing about what I'm doing here, then I'll actually have to do the things I'm supposed to be writing about. Otherwise this will turn into a blog about me sitting around the house drinking beer and watching fishing shows or Emeril. And who would want to read that? In fact, maybe no one will want to read this anyway, but at least if I have an imaginary audience I can guilt myself into getting things done.”

(Of course, these days Moonshine Mountain is more and more like a blog about me sitting around the house drinking beer and watching fishing shows or Emeril. But I’ll get to that later.)

Anyway, that was the original idea, but it turned out to be a pretty flimsy concept for a blog. Basically I queried a bunch of agents, some of them rejected me, a few read my work and then a couple offered to represent me. I picked one and he eventually found a publisher. Not the most compelling story ever told. So the blog gathered dust until I decided to revive it, really for no good reason except that it seemed like everyone else had one.

So now there is no concept. I post links. I write about things I’ve seen on TV or bands I’ve heard or poker games I’ve played. When I was going through emotional turmoil I wrote about that a lot, which was cathartic, I guess, but probably not much fun to read. I post cute pictures of my dog. If anything, this place has become a kind of online scrapbook, which was never really what I had in mind. More often than not these days, it feels like an obligation, hence most of my recent posts have been, well, obligatory.

The upshot of all this is that I’m trying to come up with a more coherent concept for this place in order to upgrade the Moonshine Mountain experience for you, my 11 faithful readers. But I haven’t done that yet, so instead, here’s another list of searches that have led folks here in recent days:

Who plays ryan chapelle on 24
storylines of miscommunication
"they might be giants" cocksucker
"cajun queen" actress
photos of Boston Rob, Survivor, shirtless
evel mardi gras
HILLBILLY MOONSHINE
difference dwarf midget