With about thirty minutes to spare before the Tampa Bay-Boston baseball game commenced, and an hour ahead of my weekly radio appearance on South Carolina SportsTalk, I put a fourth novel to bed. It's an appropriate term: "to bed." It's not like I buried it, but it's a little like sending a kid off …
Tag: The Intangibles
Submitted Once More for Your Consideration
Ahhhh. Next week my third novel, Crazy of Natural Causes, is scheduled to go on sale for advance orders. It will be available, uh, "on demand," about two weeks later. The release of a book is exciting. It's the culmination of lots of work: drafts, outlines, rewriting, tinkering with the order, et al. Now I …
Why My Novel Is Running
One of the recurring signature events of any political campaign occurs when a candidate is asked why he's running and can't answer it. If a person can't say why he (or she) wants to occupy the office he seeks, invariably he will claim this fundamental question is of the "gotcha" variety. Then he tells his …
Horses in Disguise
I tried to think stimulating thoughts and come up with something profound, but, so far, all I’ve come up with is “you say potato, I say po-tah-to” and “what’s good for the Michigoose is good for the Michigander,” which probably has something to do with the NASCAR race being there. In other words, I got …
Ever More Distant From Me
Ah. Inhale. Exhale. Relax. Sigh. Control enthusiasm. Remain calm. All is well. Publication of my third novel, Crazy of Natural Causes, beckons. As part of a process that began with the nominations of “viewers like you,” (thanks, PBS) it will be published electronically through the KindleScout program of Amazon. I’m about to have my first …
You Just Can’t Beat Originality
I’m learning slowly in spite of myself. I made some mistakes and wasted some money while trying to sell my second novel, The Intangibles. I learned that book reviews you pay for don’t do much good because most of the people who write them don’t read the book and go through the motions. The reviews …
A Reluctant, Roundabout Request for Assistance
I have a few thoughts this morning on writing, publishing, etc. Perhaps I should just make them, huh? I wouldn’t need to announce I have some thoughts if I’d just write them. Oh, well. I’m not entering this blog in a contest. I do that with the short stories. Regarding short stories, yesterday was a …
Continue reading A Reluctant, Roundabout Request for Assistance
What I’ve Learned Lately
I just finished another once-over – a third-over, if such a word exists, or, perhaps more properly, a fourth draft – of my third novel, which is called Crazy of Natural Causes. I now consider it ready to be publication, though it is not impending. I considered it ready after the third-draft, too. After I …
Still Chipping Away
No, I’m still not through with the first draft of Forgive Us Our Trespasses. This morning I completed the forty-fourth chapter. It’s getting there. Two or three chapters more, and a postscript. I would write “you can’t force these things,” but maybe you can. I can’t. As I bring this crime story to a close, …
The Way I Do the Things I Do
How does one write? It’s sort of like asking a baseball fan, how does one keep score? Why, there’s only one way to keep score. The way it works for you. Or, uh, one. Awkward or not. It’s a matter of person. If one starts in third, one stays there. No gear shifting. It’s got …
Nightrider's Lament 