I've been struggling with hatred recently.

I feel extremely wronged by a person. The details are unimportant, but I think it's fair to say that whether they wronged me is not really in question here. We're talking truly poor behavior.

I've been angry. I mean, really angry. Like angrier than maybe I've ever been.

A wise friend of mine, someone whose counsel I value immensely, told me what I needed to do.

"You need to pray for that person."

"Oh, I've been praying for them, all right," I replied.

They said, "Praying for them to die in a fiery car wreck doesn't count."

"Ah."

"You just need to change the prayer. Pray all good things for them. Every night, for 30 nights. At the end of that time, you'll be amazed that your anger will be gone."

Whatever this person tells me to do, I do. That's how much I trust them. Now, mind you, this prayer needn't be a "religious" type of prayer. Just a prayer to whatever higher power (outside of myself) that I believe in. It could be a tree, or a rock, or nature, or God, or whatever.

The first night, it was like walking on nails. I wanted to pray for this person about as much as I wanted to chew on a chain saw. The thoughts came out like acid upchuck: hard, painful. It was not fun.

The second night, much the same.

Last night, it went a little bit better. I was able to get the thought out without wincing for the first time.

So I invite you to join me. If you have hate, if you feel terribly wronged, if you are holding a strong resentment toward a person or people, I invite you to join me, for 30 days, in praying for that person. It needn't be a long, drawn out prayer. A simple "Please look after so and so," or "I wish happiness and health for so and so," will do.

I'll be three days ahead, yes. But we'll do it together. And in 30 days, let's see how we feel about the object of our hatred.
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...Wadorf to Your Astoria is done. Through. Finished.

This will be the final post here.

But fear not! If you go over to my brand-spankin' new website, billkonigsberg.com, you will see that I am still blogging over there.

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Just four more days in 2012... Hard to believe how quickly --

Who the hell am I kidding?

This was the slowest year in the history of man. I don't mean that in a bad way. It just went slowly. To me, last December seems like years ago.

It was a great, slow year:

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People often ask me: Bill, how did you find the perfect man?

Okay, no one outside of my head has ever asked me that.

About four months ago, I took a home test and found that my blood sugar was in the "pre-diabetes" range.

I can't say I was shocked, because it wasn't the first time I'd had that result. But I was horrified, because it was rising from the last time I'd had it checked.

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Tomorrow is the first day of NaNoWriMo, also known as National Novel Writing Month. Every November, all sorts of writers take on the challenge of trying to write a draft of a novel in a month.

I'll tell you what, people who plan to vote for Mitt Romney:

I disagree with you, and not just a little. Your support of the Romney/Ryan ticket feels like a kick to the stomach, because as a gay man, this stuff is personal to me.

But you know what? Don't de-friend me.

1

What would happen at an all-boys boarding school in Massachusetts if an athlete came out as gay?

This is NOT the subject of my upcoming novel, Openly Straight. In fact, it is the setting for that novel, but it is the plot of my first novel, Out of the Pocket.

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Here it is, boys and girls! The cover of my forthcoming novel "Openly Straight."

Like it? I love it!

I love that it is a visual representation of the story. Given a choice of all the labels my main character, Seamus Rafael Goldberg, can choose, he chooses the most innocuous one.

Today I've decided to be one of those helpful authors and let you know what happens when you attempt to use copywritten song lyrics in your novel.

1

We are back from our first full-fledged vacation in about three years!

Chuck, Mabel and I went to Northern California for two weeks, and what can I say? Paradise!

We had such an amazing time doing nothing and loving it.

We took Mabel to get groomed last week. We take her about once every other month, because the shaggy look really suits her personality.

This time, we didn't really specify that much about what to do, besides saying she needed a trim.

So yesterday, I received the "First Pass" of Openly Straight in the mail!

While it is still in "manuscript form" rather than "book form," it appears as it will in the book in terms of font, pages, etc. That was exciting to see. It's always different when you see your words in this form.

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I have been a highly effective person at times in my life. You don't become successful in a creative field without working diligently. It simply doesn't happen. Likewise, it's about impossible to succeed in any endeavor without concerted effort. I don't mean to brag, but when I'm on, I'm really on.

I woke up this morning thinking about the novel I am working on, BEST OF BIPOLAR DISORDER. There is a fantasy element in the novel. It's the first time I am working with an element of the fantastic in a novel.

This makes me nervous.

So I had a HUGE treat yesterday... I got to have lunch with the former student who served as the inspiration for the character "Carrie" in OUT OF THE POCKET!

I hadn't seen her in nine years.

So I'm writing a lot about God these days. Stuff like, what do I really think God is? Do I believe in God? If I do, what do I believe God to be?

You see, I have such a wide range of friends.

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I've been thinking about this whole "Chick-fil-A" debacle a lot recently. As a lot of you know, I like to be thoughtful in my reactions to things.

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I have a new book deal!

I've wanted to scream it from the top of a mountain for the entire world to hear for the past couple months, but I couldn't -- not until the deal was signed and official. Well, it is now signed and official.

Chuck said something yesterday that really struck me. It was a comment about how things have changed in his lifetime, especially for gay people.

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The novel I am currently working on involves a journey taken by two best friends: Duffy and Aisha.

Duffy is 17, straight-but-different, and bipolar. He has lived his entire life in Billings, Montana.

Aisha is 19, a lesbian, and black.

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I admit it: I've been Halien-ized. Not since my utter obsession with the new wave group Missing Persons and perhaps my fascination with Aimee Mann in the late 90s/early 00s have I been quite like this about a singer/group.

Contrary to the title, this posting is not about how I used to trudge four miles to school through the snow, and how "The Kids These Days" don't know how good they have it.

Instead, I want to focus on something that I feel "The Kids These Days" don't have.

I saw a show last night where a guy named "Dr. Mort" hypnotized people. 

I've always wanted to see a show like that. I find the idea of hypnotism intriguing. 

I have to say, the show was an odd experience for me. Like most of the audience, I found it entertaining. But I also left feeling a bit ...

I love to let songs not just inspire me to write, but inspire the direction in which I take characters.

I've done this on three novels thus far. In Out of the Pocket, I used the Mika song "Any Other World" to define for me some of the pain that my protagonist, Bobby Framingham, was going through.

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I can't wait to see the movie Bully when it is released nationwide on April 13th. I think it's beautiful that as a society we are talking about bullying in ways we didn't 20 or 30 years ago.

Waldorf to Your Astoria
Waldorf to Your Astoria
Waldorf to Your Astoria
The blog of author Bill Konigsberg
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Tempe, AZ, United States
Author of Lambda Literary Award-winning novel OUT OF THE POCKET (Dutton). For more information, go to www.billkonigsberg.com
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