'The Last Supper potluck' ready for publication

WATKINS GLEN, New York - My second short story in a month was finished two days ago, a sci-fi piece called The Last Supper potluck.

Battlestar Gallactica, Last Supper

Yup, there's a little Christian tie-in, coupled with some time travel, techno-madness and corporate politics.

All the usual crap, you know.

But it felt soooo good to finish it, it was incredible. It took several rewrites to get the characters to do what I wanted them to do. Christ, you would think they were stage actors they were so hard to move around.

Still, in the end, I won the argument as the author. Can't wait to run into the same characters in another piece of fiction. I'll be ready for them.

And my projects on deck?

Well, there is the book I want to complete before leaving for Mexico in October (still in the planning stages, going out to sit in the sun and outline in a moment).  And a third short story is already filling my iPad, with about a fourth of it written.

That tale is tentatively titled The New Textament.

Someone has to go after the youth market, after all.

Book review offers a reminder about access to authors

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - I make it a practice to write a short book review at least once every few weeks, depending, of course, on the books being read.

Susan Orlean

I rarely write a review of any stinkers. I prefer to write reviews of books that I think people will like, (or should like anyway), and most important, should read.

This week I finished a book called 'Wild Coast' that fit all three categories.

Also in keeping with routine, after I posted the review (in my blog From Where I Sit: LINK: From Where I Sit) I sent a brief email to the author letting him know I posted something.

Today I received an email back from author John Gimlette within an hour. I have never communicated with Mr. Gimlette before, but received a very warm note in return... He said he will post my review on his Facebook page for people to check out.

In past, I have had similar experiences with other authors. Not too long ago I engaged in an email dialogue with Jodi Picoult.

That was fun.

And now onto my next bit of reading, a book about the pooch Rin Tin Tin, written by Susan Orlean, one of my favorite Literary Journalists.

I have her email address marked already.

The discipline of fiction writing, or, fiction writer needing discipline

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - With my second short story almost done (a piece of science fiction called "The Last Supper Potluck"), it's time to think about the book I have been spinning in my mind since last spring and summer.

You know, The Book.

Note that I said the second short story is almost done. That's very different from saying something is done, except for. If the story isn't ready to be read and reviewed, it is not done. Except for doesn't count.

All of this is relatively important because the weather changed in the last few days, making writing a little easier. There are fewer distractions to worry about. But the colder weather also induces a kind of lethargy that cuts into productivity, too.

So it goes. (Borrowed that from Vonnegut's classic book, Slaughterhouse Five.)

What is The Book about? At first blush, it is about the tension between the people who want to hydrofrack for natural gas and those who are fighting against it. How hard will each side fight to make their point?

Good question. That's what the spinning in my mind has been all about.

So as the next weeks and months move ahead, so will The Book. I hope.

The deadline (mine) for my draft is Oct. 15, right about the time I expect to climb on a plane and head to California, then wing on to Mexico. In Mexico, a very different book will take shape I hope. One likely to be filled with angels.

Yup, angels. All types, sizes and shapes.

The fiction-writing ouija board strikes again

NUEVO VALLARTA, Nayarit, Mexico - I am just 1,000 words or so into my next short story - titled 'The Last Supper Potluck' - and I am having a helluva time getting my characters to do what I want them to do.

I have had this problem before, in drafting my yet-to-be unpublished novels, but these people in this story really have an attitude.

Writing fiction has some similarities to columns and writing news, but really, in these stories I simply describe what I see going on. It's kind of like a movie in my head, I just write about the images.

I would like to say I am controlling this movie, but I don't think so.

I was headed in a nice orderly direction, about to introduce some scientific explanations when suddenly a huge earthquake wiped out half of Japan's nuclear power plants and volcanoes all over the world started erupting.

I did not order that up, thank you very much. But there it is on the page.

Then I realized, fiction writing - at least for me - is less structure and more ouija board. I'll try to remember that tomorrow when I start typing to find out what happened with the volcanoes.


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To find an agent, publish a novel first - What?

NUEVO VALLARTA, Nayarit, Mexico - Here in deep coastal Mexico, I have been itching to get my unpublished novels off my computer and out to an agent who can market them for me.

Or tell me to get back to non-fiction writing and forget the whole fiction thing.

So I set about trying to find someone to represent my work this week.

I found several promising leads, then discovered that the agents only wanted to work with people who had, in fact, already published novels.

If that were true, why would I need an agent?

This will all get sorted out when I am back on the ground in U.S. and have access to the books, I suspect. Then I can send out sample chapters, plot summaries, book proposals.

All the things that keep a writer from actually writing, and turns writers into marketers.

Gawd.

And if I can't find an agent, well, there is always the self-publishing route and/or simply publishing on the Internet.

Patience, in this case, is hard to come by.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad