The challenge of reviving a novel drafted years ago

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The idea of writing a novel has been part of my life since I was a teenager, influenced by an excellent library - and two librarians - at my high school in Jamestown, NY.

But it wasn't until the 1990s that I actually pounded out a rough first draft of a novel about young woman in search of her father, a father who had been abusive and spent years in jail before disappearing from her life almost completely.

Almost.

Jack London at the wheel

But that book, Jack's Boat had been on my mind as I penned both The Fracking War and Fracking Justice in the past three years. The draft of it is novella-length, but I have always known it certainly had sufficient bones to make a full-length book. And today it's on my computer desktop, being edited (and rewritten), with the intention that about 25,000 more words will join what's been written to fill it out to full novel length.

The challenges of resurrecting a novel draft written nearly two decades ago are manifold. Technology changes. Places change. Social and culture mores change.

And then, there is simply the changes in the author.

Jack's Boat as drafted is, stylistically, substantially different than my recent novels. But what I learned in drafting those books - and with the help of good editors - is forcing some serious alterations in sentence length, use of dialog and even how to craft interior monologues of characters. And the story! Rereading this tale is like listening to someone tell a story you have heard before, but that you were hazy on many of the details.

All in all though, finishing Jack's Boat is already proving to be a fun ride. But I have an awful feeling there's tragedy ahead somewhere in the balance of book.

And the title? Jack's Boat refers to one of the vessels owned by late American author Jack London, whose works (and life) have had a huge influence on me since I was a teenager. Huge.

That's enough chatter. It's back to revising Chapter 6 of 19.

Walking along the river - a story idea strikes

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - A walk out the back door (ok, the only door) of my house into the neighborhood to take a stretch, reminded me that stories don't have to be dug up, sometimes they are right in front of your face.

I walked a half-mile to the Sacramento River, which looks ever-so placid these days (at least until the rain arrives this weekend), and while watching a ski boat glide across the water, spotted a river dweller, neatly hidden right at the water's edge.


A blue tarp to keep out the weather, a bicycle for transportation

Whoever is living underneath the tarp is also living below the radar of most of Sacramento. From time to time, the police raid along the river, chasing out people they call 'transients.' I say call transients, because there are some folks among these river dwellers who are there by choice, living as free as is possible in the USSA, way beyond credit checks, snooping landlords, police and the ever-present TSA.

This person - or persons - chose their spot well, as it's necessary to stand up on top of a concrete abutment to even see that there is a tarp and bicycle below.

My writer-hero, American author Jack London, rode the rails of freight trains once, doing a chronicle of the lives of the men - and a handful of women - who took to the road at the turn of the 20th century. They did so mostly because of tough economic times, but some just to escape from, well, whatever haunted them.

The River People.

Hmmm.... now there's an idea for a literary journalism piece.