DIXIANA, otherwise known around these parts as Novel 2013, is still chugging along, and now stands at 166,000 words; hitting 170 today or tomorrow. What’s next? Three major ‘books’ within the overall structure of eight sub-books and an epilogue (already done and in place) remain to be written. What this means, I think, is that […]
When we left off with this autobiographical series of posts (three months ago—really?), I’d chronicled my various stages of influence and activity up to what we may consider the modern era of my creative efforts, that is, the period of the preceding twelve and a half years since I took the plunge and began treading […]
Novel #8, now underway for a month… and it’s exciting to report that June finds me sitting on a partial MS of just over 85,000 words, which is starting to feel somewhat like, well, halfway. Maybe.
Edgewater County, SC… where is it? Only in the mind. This post presents an overview of the mythological location of most of my fiction, a handy guide for those interested in my work, or who may simply be curious about the name of this blog.
UPDATE: I recently heard back from a beta-reader about this manuscript. When I asked if this piece resonated with him, here’s what he had to say: Your characters, as in your other works, portray varying experiences we all go through in the maturation process. Some pass the test. Others don’t. Thinking back on them, the characters continually […]
The clinical: after twelve and a half years of serious writing, a decent amount of artistic success, day-job burnout, the recent death of a close friend, and a raging desire to begin Novel 8 a/k/a Novel 2013 a/k/a DIXIANA, I needed a break from the grind and obligations of my daily life. I decided the […]
Sort of like a state of the state/union address? Not so much, this; nothing so dramatic. No, at the beginning of a new creative season this is merely an update regarding the core of my creative output: my various completed novel manuscripts. As I’ve been on a what’s become a two week break from working […]
I’m pleased to report that a couple of days shy of my spring deadline I’ve completed a fresh revision, the fourth full draft, of LET THE GLORY PASS AWAY, a new manuscript I wrote last summer. I come to the end of this particular cycle of the creative process feeling that, for the moment, at […]
Last night I attended the second meeting of a new writer’s support group here in Columbia, SC called ‘Write Club’—the first rule of Write Club is that there are no rules, and the second rule of Write Club is that there are some rules, if that’s at all edifying—and I came away from the experience […]
The Movies. So we know from prior installments of this series that movies and TV, in particular genre material like Star Trek, had a huge impact on me during my adolescence. Star Wars (that’s the title in this context—no episodes #s or subtitles yet), it must now be acknowledged, also put the storytelling zap on my […]
