Writing from the Porch - becoming a daily writer
I've got some random prose to post, things I did to start getting a feel for this new novel. Maybe because these didn't matter, or maybe because I wasn't trying so hard, these stray scenes have a fluid, casual tone to them that I'm not sure I've retained in the rest of the book. Crown Center Winter was a delight. Water froze solid. It was still tricky—hiding in black like night spread over the dark asphalt. Your bike would slide out on it. You could break a bone (and that might be death in itself) but...
The first time I came across China Miéville, my wife brought home an ARC of Iron Council. It was a fascinating read for me, both eye-opening and frustrating. His writing style was so singular, some of his concepts (time golems, secrets gained for knowledge lost, speedy paths) are as vivid for me now as when I first read them, but the ending was grinding halt rather than active conclusion. Granted that is his prerogative, and in retrospect I do admire him for it, but I didn’t pick up another of his books for 7 years...
I started this blog and joined all the proper social networks because that’s a necessary step to building readers right? I’ve been reading more blogs and meeting more people (as much as you can with the brush-past hello that is much of tweeting and liking and becoming friends). I’m reading about trends and new developments, passing them on to my nearly non-existent followers. I’m building a platform, right? Now much of this time, my mind has been screaming from deep down, “you barely find time to write fiction...
I clean a small stone chapel in my neighborhood a couple times a week. The simple pace of sweeping and dusting is ridiculously peaceful after a day of juggling children, laundry, dinner and writing. For about a year now, while my hands are working, my ears are sucking in the narration of about any book that catches my eye. I listen to a lot of stuff—anything from Something Wicked This Way Comes, to AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War, to the Master and Commander series, to The Golden Compass, to Isaac...
I’ve been listening to World Without End by Ken Follett the last week or so. (I’m a big audio book listener, as you’ll soon understand. It’s the only reading time I get, generally.) WWE is the sequel to Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, and a pretty decent follow up. Both books are multi-generational and I admire the plotting over such a length time and how he ties things together. I read a Writer’s Digest interview with Follett and David Morrell back in October where Follett explained that he works six months to a...
I’m getting involved in a publishing group this month. I’ll introduce the others writers there in another post or two, but for now I’ll say they’re all authors who are self-publishing or working toward publishing. The focus of the group then is to help each other through the mess of hurdles one has to leap to finally land flat-footed with a book in hand (or in hand in your Kindle.) As part of figuring out this self-publishing business, I’ve been reading a lot of JA Konrath’s blog. He recently had Mark Coker, owner...
Haven't been feeling it with my novel for a while now. I've been plotting a lot, writing tons of notes, which is unusual for me. Historically, most my writing is done off the cuff, a broad outline but finding the AHA! moments as they come out on the page. That is exhilarating. Almost all my AHA moments, lately, have been on a note page. I'm seeing a distant scene and it looks all shiny and perfectly fitted to the story. Jot it down and write toward it, right? A couple weeks later, I'm writing out those...
Sucker Punch – Cute, but not a knock out. I’ve been looking forward to this movie for two reasons. First, I like to write this kind of fantasy—that strange mix of reality and imagination...
I’ll tell you upfront, most of what I’ll say in the first few weeks of this blog will be, “Guess what JA Konrath said about e-books!” So, you have my permission to go straight to Konrath’s blog. In fact, you should go there now and check out his conversation with Barry Eisler. Mr. Eisler just turned down a $500,000 advance from St. Martin’s Press to publish his own books. That sounds crazy—it is crazy if you’re a traditionalist or haven’t been paying attention ebooks for the last two years. Self-published authors...
I'm a Kansas City writer eager to wedge myself into the massive space between the e-publishing market and the traditional houses
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