Time to Get Back to Writing

April 8, 2013 at 8:35 pm (Writing)
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For months, I’ve done little in terms of writing. You know, actually sitting down at a keyboard and constructing sentences out of words and paragraphs out of sentences and…Well, you get the point.

I’ve been a leader, an advocate, an administrator, a chair, a madman lunatic doing everything possible to put something together for others. Right or wrong, plus or minus, for better or for worse, this is what I’ve done. But I’m a writer and it is necessary to get back to the good old ritual of making stories and drawing characters and inventing places.

I’m currently re-working my procedural “The .9 mm Solution”, inspired by the ideas expounded by my brother-in-law with regard to the judicial and penal systems. (He would refer to them as ramblings but I’m able to find inspiration in anything.) It’s a perfect time to be finalizing this piece because there is another writer’s conference, OWFI, coming up in early May. Instead of being the guy running the show, I’ll get to be the guy running around in the show.

It is always special to be in the vast company of writers, regardless of genre or experience or level of competency. After all, the nature of what we do is similar. I didn’t get to do too much of that at the KWA Scene Conference because I had to be there for everyone. Except me, of course. Now I get a chance to take in the view, listen to something interesting, meet new writers.

But first, it’s time to get back to writing.

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I Write Transgressive Fiction; Does That Make Me a Bad Guy?

August 14, 2012 at 9:48 pm (Personal, transgressive fiction, Writing)
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I got a Tweet from David Henry Sterry, one half of The Book Doctors. I had met him and his wife, Arielle Eckstut, at the KWA Scene Conference in March of this year while competing in Pitchapalooza. I pitched my dark comic Transgressive novel Weekend Getaways, or Adventures in Contract Killing and was well received.

The Tweet from David was “what exactly is transgressive fiction?” I responded “Main characters who feel confined by the norms of society. Think Fight Club & American Psycho. (was this a test?)” He came back with “not a test. just curious. is curious george transgressive character? cat in the hat? certainly max from wild things, right? ” Interesting. I hadn’t thought about it from that perspective. I clarified: “Got to add drugs, sex, violence and other taboo subjects into the mix. For the characters, THAT’S normal.” Sometimes the Socratic method does work best.

For my own interests, I looked researched on Wikipedia and found this definition by LA Times literary critic, Michael Silverblatt:

“A literary genre that graphically explores such topics as incest and other aberrant sexual practices, mutilation, the sprouting of sexual organs in various places on the human body, urban violence and violence against women, drug use, and highly dysfunctional family relationships, and that is based on the premise that knowledge is to be found at the edge of experience and that the body is the site for gaining knowledge.”

I looked back at my novel and the other collection I put together, Unemployed and Dangerous: A Trilogy of Transgressive Novellas. Was my work really like this? It was true that I explored very dark themes. The approach was offbeat, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, somewhat lyrical. There was an off-handedness to the extreme behavior, as though it were all just normal.

I have worked in customer service or retail for the better part of thirty years. I am certain that my life experience has informed my writing. I have always enjoyed film noir from the 40′s and 50′s, especially with the deep and dark psychological undertones. There is more than just crime in good crime fiction.

I had to go very deep within myself for that collection of novellas, scaring me at times and my wife just enough, before we both realized that I was lowering myself into a well but also pulling myself back up. And yet I know it’s there.

So, I conclude that I am NOT a bad guy but one who recognizes the possibility of badness, madness, degradation, and despair. Just as it is within all of us. And it is daring and scary to dive into those waters for the sake of a piece of writing and it is a dangerous journey to come back to stable ground. It creates an understanding of duality. It forces self-examination, which is necessary on both a personal and artistic level. It broadens the scope of character and literary skill.

I choose to go there knowing that I have the strength of will and the love of my wife to get back. I would not be satisfied any other way.

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They don’t tell you about dinner.

March 14, 2012 at 7:43 pm (Blogging, Personal, Writing)
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It is only two days away from the Kansas Writer’s Association’s Scene Conference. It’s time to think about what it means to be a writer.

I’ve known, ever since first grade when the teacher had us put those ten vocabulary words into ten sentences, that words were a source of fascination. This notwithstanding the extensive library my parents maintained. And, in grade school, high school, college (where my second major behind film-making was creative writing). Training to be a writer.

Going from a “portable” Smith Corona typewriter to a Brother Word Processor. Identifying the hardware and being able to use it. Falling behind the computer generation and then feverishly catching up. Reading and expanding my reading list. Immersion in the Boston Poetry Scene in the early 90′s. Classic Greek and Roman poets and a few Dadaists and Surrealists thrown in for good measure.

Trying to get back to screenwriting while making a home in Kansas. Turning my attention back to the start, back to fiction. Crime fiction. And then discovering Transgressive fiction. Allowing myself to dare to experiment and be different. Or be myself, as the case may be.

Membership in the KWA. Subscription to Writer’s Digest. Teaching myself all the computer skills necessary, still being behind the curve, but catching up slowly. Learning about blogging and websites and creating a platform. My wife got me Ariel Gore’s book “How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead” and other such books. They’re great. Great insight, fantastic suggestions, good feedback into becoming a better writer and getting published.

And then there is that shake of the head. I’m spitting distance from turning fifty, a married homeowner with a full-time job, and just as many personal responsibilities as artistic desires. I’m not young enough to drop everything and go on an extended book signing/reading tour of colleges in a five state area. I’m not old enough and retired to attend writing conferences on either coast and expand my social and professional networking circle.

I’ve got to go grocery shopping and make dinner and take out the trash and pay bills and show up to work often enough where they do not doubt my sincerity of working there and allow me to keep making a living so I can pay my bills.

The bottom line is that I take everything I read and hear and discuss about writing and becoming a published writer and having a career as a writer with a grain of salt. I’ve got to fit everything that is MY life into an intricate jigsaw puzzle, sometimes daily or weekly or monthly or yearly. Whatever happens to be the priority of the moment.

I squeeze in some reading during two fifteen minute breaks and a half hour lunch. I post a blog when the urge strikes. I check up on the social networking as much as my limited resources allow. And I write when there is some new story to tell or some old story to revise.

And my wife, who is also my editor and biggest supporter, knows that the door open is an invitation and the door closed is a sign of immersion. I try to remind myself of the definition of ‘discipline’ every time I am at my desk in my office and when the laptop is turned on.

I keep reading the sage wisdom of published writers and what worked for them, hoping to come across someone EXACTLY like me. Because anyone else is either older or younger or a different gender or in a different profession or a different state. I haven’t found that person, as you may have guessed. Thankfully, at least for my wife’s sake, there is no one exactly like me. Therefore I am charting my own path.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go clean up the dishes from tonight’s dinner.

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The Lemons-and-Lemonade Analogy

August 4, 2011 at 8:09 pm (Personal, Writing)
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I was recently seeking a freelance gig to do the memoirs of a retired highly decorated Wichita police office. I did my research, put together a proposal, and met with the gentleman in his home for nearly two hours.

He was very hesitant, having never actually sought out the limelight before. This despite the fact that there were numerous newspaper clippings of his exploits meaning that the media sought HIM, certainly indicating that his story is worthwhile. On top of which, true crime stories usually focus on reprehensible criminals and less on heroic members of law enforcement. It would have had a built in hook. But you have to respect a man’s privacy. And I did and graciously thanked him for his time.

This is not to say that I was not disappointed. To think of being able to score a major writing coup AND present the story of this utterly fascinating man — well, it didn’t happen. The fantasy sequence ended right there.

However, many of the stories he told were fascinating, worthy perhaps of a fictional dramatization. I brought that idea to his attention; he was amenable to the idea. On the drive home that night, I began formulating ideas for a novel that could somehow incorporate this man’s life.

I am still working out the concept. I know I have SOMETHING. And even though my primary goals for this year were editing and revision and no new projects, what ARE you supposed to do when something this wonderful jumps in your lap?

Time for some lemonade.

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“Chasing the Devil’s Tail” – David Fulmer

July 6, 2011 at 9:16 pm (Books, Writing)
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This intriguing book is the first for the author. It is a murder mystery set in New Orleans in 1907 with a Creole detective investigating the brutal murders of several prostitutes in the Storyville section of the city. The novel integrates real life characters (musicians Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton, photographer E.J. Bellocq) with colorful denizens who could just as well have been real.

The novel is infused with language of the time and expressions that are unique to the period. I did not stop to look up any of the words or phrases that were not “modern” so as not to interrupt the flow of the narrative. The descriptions of New Orleans of the period give a sense of feeling, the sensory images conveying a mood and a feeling of the climate.

In contemporary crime fiction and television and movies, we have become used to scientific applications, forensic testing, and computer analysis. This is all absent from this novel due to the time period. That being the case, the investigatory thread of the narrative relies on perception, intuition, and intellectual analysis. Therefore there are some sections that drag and the evocative description can not completely make up for it.

That being said it is still a remarkably entertaining piece with all the required elements necessary to become a series (which it has). I was fascinated with the historical nature of it. {I also enjoyed “The Alienist” by Caleb Carr and “Nevermore” by William Hjortsberg.) At the end of the book, Fulmer dedicates barely a page to the research he had done on the piece. By contrast, I had written a blog entry on another and far more famous novelist who dazzles us with his research acumen over eight pages. {Apparently this more famous novelist must use Google alerts because he found the entry and responded with scathing criticism of my blog entry. After I responded with courtesy, he turned around and thanked ME for MY civility. It was a completely ironic turn of events.}

I have another book by Fulmer, Jass, also in his series. I will interested in seeing if the crime investigation portion goes deeper than this first offering.

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“Swann’s Last Song” – Charles Salzberg

May 1, 2011 at 9:45 pm (Books, Writing)
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This novel was nominated for a 2009 Shamus Award by the Private Eye Writers of America and it is easy to see why. Salzberg takes the traditional private eye noirish novel and flips it around so that your expectations are skewed.

First, the main character, Henry Swann, is NOT a private eye but rather a muddled and troubled skip tracer living and working in a rundown section of New York City. Therefore it sidesteps all the usual clichés of the detective novel. Swann is certainly NOT Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade. Not even close. The novel makes what appears to be a traditional segue to California where the culture clash scenes are prevalent. However, Swann makes a trip to a hacienda in Mexico followed by a dangerous trek into the mountains. This appears to be more of something from “Romancing the Stone” or an Indiana Jones movie.

If this locale is not jarring enough, Swann then flies to Berlin where there is all the rainy and dark cloudiness of a Robert Ludlum spy thriller. And yet, throughout all these romps across the globe, it never falls back into a travelogue with droll descriptions of scenes and places. It is mood that Salzberg is creating.

The story is rather muddled but in that regard it is no different than the classic “The Big Sleep” (which Chandler readily admitted that he was uncertain as to who committed one particular killing.) Stories of this type are about character and mood and Salzberg creates a new and fresh version of the genre.

——–

I had the opportunity to meet Charles Salzberg at the KWA Scene Conference in Wichita in 2010. He was a speaker as well as a consultant who I had the opportunity to visit with on a ten-minute consult. We discussed (briefly) my transgressive work, “Weekend Getaways, or Adventures in Contract Killing” and I was encouraged by his comments and grateful for his feedback.
He is one the founders of the New York Writers Workshop (www.newyorkwritersworkshop.com) and heavily involved with Greenpoint Press (www.greenpointpress.org). He is gracious to a fault and a pleasant conversationalist (as I experienced at lunch).
I was absolutely delighted to have made his acquaintance and honored to have an inscribed copy of his novel.

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Feline Inspiration for Hard-Boiled Fiction

February 7, 2011 at 8:36 pm (Personal, Writing)
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I recall seeing a photo of Raymond Chandler with his black cat and was fully convinced that any mystery, crime, or hard-boiled writer needed a black cat.

I also thought you needed to wear glasses and smoke a pipe. Be that as it may, Mongo came into our lives six years ago. He’s a tough guy, more like Robert Mitchum than Humphrey Bogart but he makes an excellent sidekick.

I’d like to say he is a constant source of inspiration but nine times out of ten he’s on the desk, grabbing my hand with his paw to get me to rub his belly and pull my hand away from the keyboard.
Rupert reminds me at times of Peter Lorre from “The Maltese Falcon”.

A tuxedo cat, he exudes charm and class. But he can also be skittish, making me wonder exactly WHAT he has been up to.
Camille is my sweet little angel, daddy’s little girl. But don’t let her charm fool you:

If either of the two boys try to jack with her, she is more than their match.
I should be more cognizant of real human characters and their traits when I contemplate characters in stories and novels. I just happen to find the felines living under my roof to be a continuing source of inspiration.

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Reflections on Resolutions

December 28, 2010 at 12:42 pm (Personal, self-publishing, Writing)
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It was about a year ago that I composed a document: 2010 Writing Goals. I had never been much for New Year’s resolutions relating to diet or lifestyle or anything, really. But by the end of last year, I had started blogging and had published a book “Kansas Two-Step” on lulu.com, had gotten rather quaint business cards from VistaPrint, and felt that in some small way I was making progress and wanted to continue to encourage my own growth as a writer.
After printing up this document, I taped it to a shelf above my computer so that I could simply look up and refresh my waning memory. Well, it’s a year later and I am taking account of my efforts.
EDIT
I wanted to work on editing four novels. I did a fifth and sixth draft of “The .9 MM Solution” and a fourth and fifth draft of “Swansong”. Both were NaNoWriMo efforts. I did not get started on “Weekend Getaways, or Adventures in Contract Killing” (my transgressive novel) or “The Stooges” (another NaNoWriMo effort).
COMPLETE
I wanted to complete a first draft on two recent efforts: “The Last Road” (a literary piece about a widower’s cross-country adventure) and “All Day Long I Biddy Biddy Bum” (another even darker transgressive piece). The only NEW writing efforts were “Professor thug” (this year’s NaNoWriMo) and “Unemployed and Dangerous: A Trilogy of Transgressive Novellas”. After being terminated from my job of thirteen years, I had a lot of understandable anger which I filtered into these works. EXTREMELY dark in nature, they are not something I want to present to my 80+ year old parents as an example of my efforts. However, they do stand on their own as strong, well-defined pieces.
ACCOMPLISH
Multiple things on this section. No luck yet with finding an agent although I gave a four-week exclusive to Jessica Regel of the Jean V Naggar Literary Agency. Even though that did not turn out the way I wanted, it was a very good step.
As for networking efforts, I got onto Facebook and actively sought out people with the additional repercussion of contact relatives that I either hadn’t talked to in years or had allowed my efforts to lapse. Bonus points for that.
I did get two more books onto Lulu: “Quick” and the aforementioned “Unemployed and Dangerous”. In doing so I continued learning formatting and cover art (thanking my wife/my editor for the photo on “Quick”).
I started initial research on web sites and my brother-in-law (a talented software engineer who also happened to inspire “The .9 mm Solution”) offered his assistance.
Not on the original list was attending Writer’s conferences but I did go to the KWA Scene Conference here in Wichita as well as a seminar by Gordon Kessler earlier in the year. I also learned how to make small movies on Windows Movie Maker. I’m working on a book trailer, just to develop my skills. In the meantime, I did a project for the family for Christmas that was highly entertaining, especially if you know my family.
And finally, there was blogging. I may not have presented as many articles as I desired but I did what time would allow. And I also avidly followed other writers whose efforts seem somewhat similar to mine: refreshing commentary on their lives as writers.
Jennifer Neri (http://jenniferneri.wordpress.com/), a writer from Canada who shared her experiences with motherhood over the past year and still had time to pass on significant motivational comments.
Lawrence Estrey (http://lawrenceez.wordpress.com/), a writer and photographer and IT kind of guy from north of London who writes psychological thrillers, takes very moving photos, and has impressive feedback regarding storage systems and photo editing software.
Ryan David Jahn (http://gunsandverbs.wordpress.com/), a crime writer from Los Angeles, whose novel “Acts of Violence” won the Crime Writer’s Association Dagger award and yet talks about day-to-day life and his impressions of the minutiae as though they should be considered more strongly than the greater events.
Teresa Frohock (http://frohock.wordpress.com/), a dark fantasy and horror writer who gleefully advised her readers of her representation by Weronika Janczuk of D4EO and then of her sale of her book “Miserere: An Autumn Tale” while those of us who read her blog gleefully cheered alongside her.
I wish I could say that I follow more blogs regularly but Time is a beast with wings hovering over my life as a husband and homeowner and employee.
Overall, I would say that I got through nearly half of my goals, some to differing degrees than others. It is not measured as SUCCESS/FAILURE or PASS/FAIL but rather as another chapter on a long road. At some point within the next couple of days I will create a new document and tape it to the shelf above me. And I will proceed and continue and persevere and think and create.
And write.

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A NaNoWriMo Follow-Up: The Story of the Novel

December 2, 2010 at 9:41 pm (self-publishing, Writing)
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A new job and a new schedule threw a curve ball into this year’s NaNoWriMo activity. But it was the same new job which actually inspired some of the characters in the story.
In my training class back in July/August, there was a unique man named Jeremi. He looked like a combination biker and/or gangster and yet spoke profoundly about a variety of subjects. He was also a writer, having done spoken word poetry in the past.
We had discussed general story lines, concepts mostly, and he presented the idea of a well grounded man who is inaccurately accused of a crime. Realizing he can’t escape the accusations, he becomes the subject of the accusation.
I turned the idea on its ear. I started with a gangster who works his way up and out and becomes a highly non-traditional, often confrontational college professor. And this is how “Professor Thug” was born.
The NaNoWriMo product was (as is typical for this event) of extremely poor quality. I knew this character could be a series character and yet I didn’t even have much of a plot in mind when I started on November 1. I muddled through and completed it. But I recognize that there is something there.
While writing it, I needed two other characters, the underlings, the young people to whom Professor Thug could pass on his own form of instruction. One character is his teaching assistant, a girl from New York City, tough as nails, but with issues. (I know; it all seems cliché now. But that IS what NaNoWriMo is about.) The character truly wanted to better herself on her own terms. Well, there was Christina, also from the training class. She was smart but had a lot of self-doubt about herself, not sure if she was going to get through training. She also admitted that she can party pretty well until she drinks whiskey. And then she’s a fighter.
The other character was a male, brought up in a well-to-do household but feeling as though he has missed something of life, actual real life, because he has not experienced the Mean Streets. He is well-versed at research and using his smart phone. Chris was a young man from training class who impressed me immediately. Self-effacing and yet able to project a great amount on intelligence though barely twenty years old.
I still work with these people. They are real and they live outside of the realm of any novel. But circumstances being what they were, they presented themselves at a time in my life when the freshness and newness of a situation yielded some very interesting creative opportunities.
As I have done prior, I plan on reworking this intently, perhaps self-publishing it on lulu.com, if only to present these individuals with a copy.
To that end, I am reminded of a t-shirt my wife got me for Christmas a couple of years ago. It read:
Careful or you’ll end up in my novel.

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Just an image, But Maybe Something More

November 16, 2010 at 4:36 pm (Writing)
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While grocery shopping today, I saw a small pile of broken glass in the parking space next to me. I took notice of it to make sure I wouldn’t go over it as I left.

Walking past it as I made my way toward the store, I saw a piece of paper in the pile. It was the label.

MD 20/20.

A million thoughts ran through my mind. When you primarily write crime fiction, a shattered bottle of MD 20/20 in a grocery store parking lot gives you ideas. I wouldn’t exactly call it inspiration but it was a visual clue, a detail, that small element that is necessary for good storytelling.

And, no, I do not have any ideas for a story at this time. I finished my shopping and got home and had lunch and thought a good long time about that broken bottle.

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