The Desert Gypsy Creations - Let the Adventure Begin

 

I'm not particularly good at promoting myself.

There. I said it.

This is probably a little ridiculous, considering how much time I've spent over the years promoting other people's stuff.

I've built websites for people. I've managed Facebook pages. I've made artwork, graphics and videos. I've helped people figure out how to present what they're doing to the world. I've written things for them. I've helped them sell their stuff.

And I don't mind doing any of that.

In fact, I enjoy it. I hope to continue to do so!

Give me somebody else's project and I'm perfectly happy to stand behind it waving a flag and yelling, “Look at this! Isn't this cool?”

Give me something I created myself and suddenly I'm standing behind a curtain going, “Well...I mean...it's probably nothing.”

I don’t think that is an uncommon thing, either. Take my sister for example. She is an AMAZING artist. She creates works unlike anything you will see anywhere else. I’ve said to her: “Poopy Pants”  (yes, that’s what I called her when we were little and she might kill me if I use her real name) Anyway, I said “This stuff should be in a gallery or on-line where people can buy it!” Her replay was always: “I don’t like marketing my stuff. I just want to paint.” I get it.

 

There's something uncomfortable about saying, “Hey, I made this. I think it's pretty good. You should buy it.”

Somewhere in my head is a little band of Minions that immediately starts asking questions.

Who do you think you are?

What if nobody likes it?

What if people think you're full of yourself?

What if it's not actually good enough?

That last one is probably the real one.

I'm much more comfortable helping somebody else believe in what they've created than I am believing in something I've created myself.

Which brings me to my latest adventure.

Apparently, I've created a thing called The Desert Gypsy Creations.

I use the word adventure deliberately because calling it a business makes it sound much more organized than it actually feels. “Business” also sounds too…sterile? Boring? Rigid?

This wasn't some carefully constructed entrepreneurial plan.

There was no five-year business plan.

There wasn't even a particularly well-developed one-year plan.

It started because I wrote a book. Actually, this is my second book in print. The first was one I wrote over 17 years ago. I sold a few. Had a book signing. Discovered I was way too introverted for those and called it good.

I continued to write. Blogging suited me well. Then – one thing evolved into the next and I wrote a book that is more like a manual, really.

And then I had to figure out what the hell to do with this “manual/book.”

The book is called Introducing Cowboy Mounted Shooting: An Introductory Guide to the Sport of Cowboy Mounted Shooting.

I wrote it because I kept seeing new shooters trying to wrap their heads around a sport that has its own language, its own patterns, its own rules and its own peculiar little collection of things that make perfect sense once you understand them and absolutely no sense whatsoever when you're standing outside the arena watching somebody tear around on a horse shooting balloons.

So I wrote the book I wished somebody had handed me when I first got into mounted shooting.

And then, because apparently writing a book wasn't enough of an adventure, I decided I needed a way to actually sell the thing.

That's when The Desert Gypsy Creations started taking shape.

I didn’t have to think long on the name. I had already called my ranch here in Arizona “El Rancho Gitana del Desierto. (The Desert Gypsy Ranch)

It was simply a name that felt like me.

I've always made things.

Words. Pictures. Graphics. Videos. Projects. Ideas. Sometimes things that probably didn't need to be made at all but got made anyway because I wondered if I could do it.

So Creations seemed appropriate.

And Desert Gypsy?

Well...that's a longer story.

And apparently Facebook has opinions about it.

I originally tried to use The Desert Gypsy Creations on Facebook.

Facebook said no.

So I tried Desert Gypsy Creations.

Facebook said no again.

Eventually, through the highly scientific process of changing one word and seeing what happened, I discovered the hang up for FB was the word Gypsy.

Change it to Gitana and suddenly everything was fine.

So, according to Facebook, Desert Gitana Creations is perfectly acceptable while Desert Gypsy Creations apparently requires an intervention in diversity and inclusion.

I found this particularly entertaining because gitana is simply the Spanish word for gypsy.

Apparently the robots don’t speak Spanish.

I don't pretend to understand it.

So if you see Desert Gitana Creations on Facebook, that's why.

The actual name of the thing I've created is still The Desert Gypsy Creations.

And somewhere in all of this, I realized that this little collection of things I'm creating doesn't really need to fit into one neat category.

There will be the book.

There will probably be more books.

There is artwork.

There is music.

There are various other unrelated projects. I am currently restoring an old 1989 Jeep XJ I affectionately call Dino. I think that belongs in the creations category, don’t you?

There are probably going to be other things that I haven't thought of yet because I have a terrible habit of wandering down interesting roads just to see where they go.

And that's really what this is.

Another road.

Another adventure.

Another one of those “Well, I've never done that before, so let's see what happens” moments.

Which brings me back to the uncomfortable part.

Actually telling people about it.

I can promote somebody else's work all day long.

I can look at something they've created and immediately see what is interesting about it. I can figure out how to show it to people. I can make the graphics. I can build the page. I can write the words.

But when it's mine?

That's harder.

Maybe because when you're promoting somebody else's work, rejection isn't really about you.

When you're promoting your own work, it feels a whole lot more personal.

If somebody doesn't like something I made, well...they didn't just reject a product.

They rejected a little piece of myself that I dragged out into public and set on the table.

That's a different animal.

And I'm still learning how to do it.

So this post is me practicing.

Not standing on a virtual street corner yelling “BUY MY BOOK!”

Just saying:

I made something.

I put a lot of thought into it.

I think it might be useful to somebody.

And I'm going to give myself permission to let people know it exists.

So, about the book...

Introducing Cowboy Mounted Shooting: An Introductory Guide to the Sport of Cowboy Mounted Shooting is exactly what the title says.

It's an introduction to the sport, written primarily with the new shooter in mind.

It covers the language of the sport, how to get started, what gear is required and other vital resources you will need. It is intended to make your first trip to a mounted-shooting event look considerably less intimidating.

It's not intended to replace getting on a horse, finding a good instructor and learning how to safely shoot.

Nothing replaces that.

But there are a whole lot of things you can learn from a book before you ever point a horse toward a starting line.

And now there is an actual physical copy of that book sitting on my desk.

Which still feels a little strange.

This adventure has gotten real.

If you'd like to take a look, you can find the book through The Desert Gypsy Creations.

https://the-desert-gypsy-creations.square.site/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61595001210081

 

And there it is.

My latest adventure.

I have absolutely no idea where it's going.

But then again, I've never been particularly good at knowing where I'm going.

I've always been much better at wandering around until I find something interesting.

That's probably how I ended up here in the first place.