It’s all about me, me, me (and the Watcher’s Council)

I’m sorry for the blog silence.  Not only am I finding headlines uninspiring (not uninteresting, just uninspiring), I really am having a fine time going through my old posts with the hope that I can assemble the best of them into an ebook.

When it comes to my writing, I’m happy with a lot of the old posts, so I know my ego is intact.  Nevertheless, honesty compels me to admit that the old posts (some going back as far as 2006) need a fair amount of editing.  Many are inappropriate for a book (too diffuse, too old, too filled with quotations from others), while others need to be tweaked to be tighter, more current, and more meaningful.

I also need to cut radically.  Even after culling my almost 7,000 posts (yes, you read that correctly) to find “possibles” for a book, I was left staring at a 300,000 word document.  Because the average book runs about 50,000 to 60,000 words, I’m trimming like mad.

I’m on the first pass now, getting rid of the obvious unpublishables, and seeing what I can do to tighten the possible publishables.  It’s time consuming but, for the first time in years, I’m engaged in work that I enjoy.  As I said, when it comes to my writing, there’s nothing wrong with my ego.

I do want to assure you, though, that I will continue to blog here.  The slight slackening off over the last couple of days really is tied to news specific ennui, and not to the fact that I’m spending my time on other things.  When the ennui passes, undoubtedly in a day or two, I will resume blogging with my usual pathological furor.

Meanwhile, if you’re lusting for things to read, let me recommend the Watcher’s Council submissions this week:

Council Submissions

• Rhymes With Right – About That Cohen Speech
• Snapped Shot – Fireworks
• Joshuapundit –Handling the Dragon Better – A Few Words On The China Visit
• Simply Jews – Hamlet – a Lebanese version
• The Noisy Room – Just Seein’, Just Sayin’
• The Razor – Japan Will Not Be Saved Through Immigration
• Bookworm Room – Comparing apples and oranges — federal projects old and new
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Boring!
• Right Truth – If you don’t want your daughters Westernized…
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Vision of the Anointed in action
• VA Right – America: A Nation of Losers, but We All Get a Trophy
• The Glittering Eye –Theodore Vail’s America

Honorable Mentions

• Liberty’s Spirit–Obama, Islamists and a New Middle East
• The Political Commentator – State of the Union address: Send in the clowns

Non-Council Submissions

• Muth’s Truths – CPAC Committing Hari Kari by Allowing Conservative Menace In?submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Pirate’s Cove – Snap! Obama Plans To Reboot On Economic Advice submitted by Snapped Shot
• Mark Steyn – Dependence Day submitted by Joshuapundit
• Rubin Reports – SCOOP: Explaining How The “Palestine Papers” Story Is A Fabrication That Teaches Us The Truthsubmitted by Simply Jews
• New Zeal – Obama’s Radical ‘Go To’ Man Moves To The DNC submitted by The Noisy Room
• Michelle Malkin – The Philadelphia Horror: How Mass Murder Gets A Pass submitted by The Razor
• Zombie/Pajamas Media – Human Rights Imperialism: Leftist Satire or Moral Collapse? submitted by Bookworm Room
• Danger Room – U.S. Navy Chief Isn’t Sweating China’s Sea Power submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Sultan Knish –Anglophobia or Islamophobia – What’s the Real Problem? submitted by Right Truth
• Discriminations – Obama And The Left’s Single-Issue Libertarianism submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• American Thinker – Mark Fitzgibbons – How To Make Liberal Democrats Vote for Smaller Government submitted by VA Right
• Iowahawk – CSI: Tucson submitted by The Glittering Eye
• James Taranto–Palinoia, The Destroyer submitted by The Watcher