The Multi-Faceted World of Today's Creative

This past week on The Creative's Cauldron, in our latest episode, Holly and I explored how today's independent creative is a "renaissance person", in terms of being active in different spheres of creativity. I relate to that dynamic myself in the areas of writing, filmmaking, music, martial arts, and broadcasting. I've found that engaging in multiple areas of creative activity, I bring myself lots of experiences and new perspectives that expand my horizons in each of the various spheres. My adventures in filmmaking, training in martial arts, exploring music, and broadcasting both in radio and visually have helped me grow further as a writer, for example. Every sphere of activity involves different experiences, disciplines, interactions, and so much more, which all lend to growing the pool of ideas, knowledge, and references that I draw from when engaging in a writing project. This results in more realism, better-developed characters, and many other things that help me develop my writing further. The different spheres also serve to inspire, in their own way. They involve different kinds of goals and milestones, the development of different skill sets, and each of these paths brings different kinds of inspiration. This is not a small area of contribution, as it is incredibly difficult to pursue the independent creative road and inspiration can make all the difference in the world when enduring some of the tougher stretches of the indie road. The multiple spheres of activity also introduce me to new audiences, who in turn discover the other things that I do. Reading audiences become aware of my independent film work, fans of independent film become aware of my novels, and all kinds of other examples of cross-pollination derive from my activity in several areas. It really is a good thing that today's climate for independent creatives fosters an openness to being active in different kinds of artistic expressions and pursuits. It has both practical and creative benefits, and I also think it helps contribute to attaining a more well-rounded approach to living life.

And so it begins....

2014 is underway, and I must say it has definitely not started slow. Tonight I just finished up another session of working on the broadcast team at Keeneland for the big thoroughbred auctions held there. As I've always said, it tends to be quite surreal being in the middle of the kind of money that goes flying about from all over the world at these auctions. This one isn't as big as the September/November auctions, which generate several hundred million dollars in sales each, but it still generated over $41 million in just 4 days.

In the midst of this, I still have a full workload on the press front, including the Star Chamber Show, Imaginarium business, book releases, planning for new blog tours, and that's not even getting to my own projects and writing. Needless to say, I'm usually pretty whomped by the ends of these kinds of runs, but it is made all the better by the great team that works there. (Keeneland has won the International Simulcast Award six times, and now three times in a row).

 The week started with zero degree weather, to the point that I had to hold my frozen car door shut on my drive into Keeneland, but ended with things moving above 30, which felt like summer in contrast.

 I plan on getting a little rest tonight, and am ready to have a very busy home office day for Friday. Going to be a lot happening in the course of the next few weeks!