Bartholomew Cubbins

One of the most wonderful things about being a writer is that through my characters, I get to be all sorts of different people in all sorts of different places doing all sorts of different things. I get to wear 500 hats, each one more beautiful - or more exciting, or more thought-provoking - than the last. And even if, like Bartholomew Cubbins of the delightful old children's story, my characters are in danger of having their heads cut off by an outraged king, I get to experience all the excitement and none of the danger.

As an indie writer, I wear a lot of hats in another sense, too. I'm not only the writer, but the editor (which is impossible: you can't edit your own work), the designer, the marketing staff, the maid and so on. Even the act of writing these blog posts is a marketing task.

I like blogging, even if sometimes I resent it because it takes time away from the central task of my life: writing fiction. Some other jobs I wish I didn't have to do, and editing my own work is something that of course I can't do at all, to the necessary standards.

Fortunately, I don't have to wear all the hats myself. I can trade hats with other indie writers, making editing possible and some of the other jobs much less distasteful.

I know a lot of my readers are fellow indie writers, so how about it? Who wants to wash my dishes today?