I have a belief that we all have a theme song rhythm running subconciously under the surface of our psyche...
This is mine...World Ender
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Monday, January 18, 2016
Writing Like Rafting
I'm working on my second Mac Crow novel now, tentatively titled Death In The High Lonesome.
Sometimes, it feels like rafting a long and wild river. I'm good at writing exciting actions sequences, but you can't have a book that's nothing but actions sequences. That's only for Michael Bay movies.
In writing this book, one of the more difficult things to write about is that my main character is a tracker. Trying to make looking for sign and footprints both easy to understand for laypersons, and also make the subject interesting proves more challenging than I ever thought it would be.
The action and drama sequences are like being in a white water chute. You're being sucked in, pulled through and everything flows fast. I can write a thousand words in one of these sections before I even look up to realize how much I've done. It always amazes me. Half the time I go back, re-read and say to myself "Wow! Did I write that? That's cool!"
The in-between scenes are quite different. Imagine you're out of the white water, and have been pulled into a big open eddy that keep swirling you away from the main current. It requires a ton of paddling to get back in the main flow again. I'll sit, write a paragraph, then have to get up and pace, often having character exchanges going on in my head (with actual hand gesturing, of course). Then back to the keyboard for another paragraph.
This goes on until I hit the main current again. Then, it's off for another exciting run down the action chute. Eventually, I go back and re-read it all, and of course it's the quiet scenes that need the most work and re-writing.
But, if I may confess something, there's still a little kid part of me that reads the whole thing and still says; "Wow! Did I write that? That's cool!"
Sometimes, it feels like rafting a long and wild river. I'm good at writing exciting actions sequences, but you can't have a book that's nothing but actions sequences. That's only for Michael Bay movies.
In writing this book, one of the more difficult things to write about is that my main character is a tracker. Trying to make looking for sign and footprints both easy to understand for laypersons, and also make the subject interesting proves more challenging than I ever thought it would be.
The action and drama sequences are like being in a white water chute. You're being sucked in, pulled through and everything flows fast. I can write a thousand words in one of these sections before I even look up to realize how much I've done. It always amazes me. Half the time I go back, re-read and say to myself "Wow! Did I write that? That's cool!"
The in-between scenes are quite different. Imagine you're out of the white water, and have been pulled into a big open eddy that keep swirling you away from the main current. It requires a ton of paddling to get back in the main flow again. I'll sit, write a paragraph, then have to get up and pace, often having character exchanges going on in my head (with actual hand gesturing, of course). Then back to the keyboard for another paragraph.
This goes on until I hit the main current again. Then, it's off for another exciting run down the action chute. Eventually, I go back and re-read it all, and of course it's the quiet scenes that need the most work and re-writing.
But, if I may confess something, there's still a little kid part of me that reads the whole thing and still says; "Wow! Did I write that? That's cool!"
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Let me be blunt. I LOVE IT!
My life long goal has been to work from home,
and make some sort of living with the creative works that I've been
producing most of my life. It's starting to happen now. Aside from doing
ad work for the Good Life Magazine, I've put out two novels this year and one Wandering Ones compilation. (Wandering Ones: The Road Home).
Three books is not a bad output for a year, and the novels, while not
selling like hotcakes, ARE selling. Mac Crow 2 is in the works, and I
hope to have it ready by mid-February 2016. Both of my novels at this
point have mostly 5-star reviews. Pretty dang awesome!
There are other wonderful things though. One is
that my health has improved. I still have to watch my blood sugar
carefully, but I've been able to get out and exercise more and I don't
spend my entire day sitting at a desk. I've started meditating
regularly, (OK, semi-regularly) and I feel I'm starting to see some of
the mental benefits. Last year I bought David Michie's Why Mindfulness
Is Better Than Chocolate as a CD and I just leave it in my elderly Honda
running on loop. It calms me and it keeps me going to the cushion (or
in my case, often to the bed of pine needles). I also get to spend time
with Suzie, though we are often at our various creative ventures at
opposite ends of the house.
I suppose I shouldn't brag about talking to her on the cell phone when she's fifty feet away... :o
2016 is right around the corner, and I hope to
get at least two novels out. Keenspot has also given me the okay to
reprint the two Wandering Ones compilations that they published in the
early years of the comic. I also have a non-fiction book on survival
knives I hope to publish this year. I'm stoked!
Thursday, April 24, 2014
How to link 'em...?
OK, Let's try out blogger. Since I wasn't able to figure out how to get my Amazon page to link with my Tumblr page, we'll see if I can figure out how to do so here...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)