Labor of Love

Slightly longer than four years to the day, I published my second short story collection, Secrets of the Foothills. This book is the second of three books in the Foothills series, the first of which was entitled In The Foothills. [Ed. the capital “T” in “the” was completely intentional. Don’t ask.]. If everything goes according to plan, the final collection will be published in less than two years from now.
What keeps authors driving toward completion, especially when faced with the daunting task of creating from scratch a plausible narrative, rewriting, editing and polishing the draft so that it sparkles, handing it off to beta readers and editors who red-line the hell out of it, rewrite, re-edit and re-polish and so on, only to send it timidly into bookshelves (virtual and real) throughout the world?

Simply put, insanity.

Sure, you were expecting something more poetic with the title “Labor of Love,” but in truth, we authors have to be a little bit out there to do what we do. The same goes for artists in any medium, I guess. Voluntarily baring one’s soul for a public flogging certainly isn’t a sign of someone playing with a full deck, right? And yet we do it, willingly, gladly, even joyfully if we’re doing it right.
What does it take to be a writer? Talent, sure. Guts, absolutely. But if you’re not a little bit eccentric, you may just be like Sisyphus pushing that big ol’ rock up that hill, year after year, typed line after typed line. It’s not going to work for you no matter what you do. If you’re not non compos mantis, you need not apply. Really.

We writers are the odd ones, always looking off in the distance, trying to resolve some conflict our main characters have found themselves in, because God knows we didn’t put them there, right? Or when we finally show a little mercy to our protagonists, we’re busy dreaming of new ways to torture them. We’re sadists AND we’re masochists, it seems. Yeah, we’re normal alright, aren’t we?

Of course, I’m just kidding. Who among us who take the craft of writing seriously could ever see ourselves doing anything else? We’re not crazy -- we just have something to say and want to do it in the only way we know how and damned the consequences. We want to create people or worlds or whole universes simply because we feel this is the best way our message can go out to get through to the right people, if only they would listen.

Writing is truly a labor of love. It’s the best way I’ve found to say something profound and in an entertaining way. There’s power in knowing you can do that. You know what I mean, those of you who love to create.

So, keep your pen sharp and your quill well-inked … and remember, publishing a book isn’t an end, it’s only permission to start a new one.

~ Michael ~

Playing Catch-Up (Ever So Briefly)

I'm not sure if I should be shocked or amused that the last post I made to this blog was back in early June.  To say the year's flown by is not only a cliché, but a regular comment I keep hearing from both my off-line and online friends.  What the hell is going on?  Did someone speed up the timeline?  I feel like it was just last week we were celebrating Christmas and here we are again, with only thirteen shopping days left.

New Book

What have I been doing, writing-wise, since June?  To begin with, I decided to publish another collection of short stories again, this time without poetry.  The working title is Secrets of the Foothills, which is a spin-off from the first book, In the Foothills (and yes, I have the title for the next one to follow this one).  I have several stories completed, but unedited, for the new book, plus I have several stories plotted, but in various stages of completion.  Needless to say, this has kept me very busy the second half of 2011.  The book should be released by August 31st, 2012.

Screenplays & Television

At the same time, I've also been busy working on my screenplays (I have several in various phases of development).  Writing those takes a totally different mental state and is a welcome respite from the short story writing.  I've been getting a lot of interest in my scripts lately, too, so perhaps the industry is opening up a bit.  Can I get a witness?  No?  

One of the most promising new projects I have in the entertainment genre is a TV series (a sitcom) that I think would be a hit, but as always, only with the right producer, director, cast and crew.  I've already outlined a treatment with an entire season of plot lines written up.  "All" I need to do is write up a synopsis for each episode and package the whole thing as a single treatment.  Perhaps more to come on that later.

The Idea Jar

Finally, I made the "mistake" of opening up the idea jar.  I do this sometimes and just collect random titles or phrases I read everywhere (including from Twitter), then writing them down to noodle on.  From there, I just free-write a plot line based on the title alone.  Amazing out of all of those, how many are viable future projects.  To say I have more to write than I will have years to live is no exaggeration!  Believe me, it takes a lot of discipline not to get sidetracked on any of these new ideas.

Seasons Greetings

That's all from our hill, where the wind doth blow and Christmas is nigh.  Wishing you and yours all the best this holiday season (especially you Druids, from whom we get the quaint custom of dragging dead pine trees into our homes).

Peace,

Michael

Adventures in Writing-Land

It’s been quite a while since I updated this blog with what’s been going on vis-a-vis writing, so this is as much for readers as it is myself to put everything in perspective since January 1st.

I completed the first draft of a 14,000 word “longish” short called “Breathe,” a retrospective of a man in late middle age. Some life experiences never fade with age and the protagonist, Jon, shares the story of his early life as a champion swimmer and what event changed him forever. I expect to have this piece edited by March 31st and posted in this blog or on my website by mid-April.

I just finished an even longer “short” story that is tentatively entitled “A Grand Delusion” (originally a much shorter work called “An Interesting Exchange”). I wrote this story in response to a competition to have a piece featured in Sevastian Winters’ anthology called Bonfire Stories, which is scheduled to be released in e-book format on March 17th. The challenge: write a story with the following introductory sentence: “Jake Everson woke up one day in St. Bart's and picked up the newspaper to discover he'd died that morning in Spain.” As it turns out, he liked my entry along with two others, so we three finalists are waiting to find out which of our stories will be selected. While it would be nice to have a piece published in another anthology, I really just entered for the challenge - though, of course, I’m not going to decline should I win. More on this soon . . .

Another piece I just wrote and published to my website is called “The Packet,” a bit of historical fiction mixed in with a touch of conspiracy theory. I admit, the rumor that inspired the story is difficult for me to believe, but I put that aside to write this story, a tale set during the early 1900’s about man struggling to excise the sins of the past.

Besides these short stories, there are many other works-in progress, including several more short stories, my fourth spec feature-length screenplay and a novel. Thankfully, I’ve been on a creative juggernaut as of late; the down side of that, of course, is there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to do it all. However, I’m not complaining!

May your Muse be kind,

Michael

NaNoWriMo Winds Down

I won’t be “winning” NaNoWriMo this year, but this was a great exercise in getting one’s word count advancing. Currently at near 26, 000 words, I’ll be pleased to hit 27,000 words by tomorrow night’s deadline and with any luck, at the same rate, I’ll have the first draft finished by the end of the year.

That brings me to ScriptFrenzy, the other writing month sponsored by the same group of folks who do NaNo. I already have several screenplay ideas, so all I need to do is pick one, plot it out and get ready for that extravaganza.

To all the competitors this year, especially to those who made the 50,000 word minimum, I say congratulations. If any of those instant novels become bestsellers, I think the whole NaNo community will be pleased.

Best,

Michael

A Year Later

Greetings, friends ...

I'm glad to be able to return to this blog after over a year of inactivity. In case you weren't aware, I had gone a couple of rounds with a disease called dermatomyositis, an autoimmune disease in which the white blood cells attack the muscle cells as though they are foreign invaders. It's similar to many AI diseases ... for example, MS is an AI disease where the immune system attacks the central nervous system.

The upshot of the story is I ended up in the hospital for all of November and the early part of December in 2007. I was better by early January 2008, then ended up relapsing in February and didn't recover 100% until early June. Thanks to good medication, a great rheumatologist and the world's greatest wife, I am here and writing again. All of this is chronicled in a book I'll be publishing in early 2009 called The Year I Lost November. Profits from that book will be donated to The Myositis Association.

Because of my disease, I couldn't publish my first anthology of short stories and poetry until July 2008, called In The Foothills. The collection covers material I've written between 2005 and 2007. If you like short stories, I invite you to take a test run.

Besides editing the new book, I've been particular busy with NaNoWriMo this year. Unfortunately, because of my illness in 2007, I couldn't participate in the novel-writing fall classic. This year, I'm definitely in the hunt. As of this post, I have over 12,000 words written in my own someday bestseller (entitled Lens Flare), an action-packed thriller of arson and political intrigue.

That's all for now, folks. I hope your respective Muses are kind to you this week.

Best,
Michael