Getting the blog back together or, The Writing Process tour

I was flattered when my friend and colleague, Lisa Peers, invited me to join this blog hop on the writing process. I gave her debut novel, 'Love and Other B-Sides' a four-star review primarily because I thought a four-star review would be more trusted than a five-star one. That, and I am sort of a prickly pain in the ass.

Whenever I sit down to write I feel like I know more about how not to do it than how to approach it, but perhaps you can learn something from my mistakes.

What am I working on?
Too much, which may be part of my problem. First of all, I have three stories posted on Amazon, published through Kindle Direct Publishing. They are, in no particular order: Unclaimed, a fantasy/sci-fi short story featuring an eventual series character, Keegan; Keeper of the Dead, a fantasy/horror story about an aging warrior battling his own (and someone else's) demons; and A Better Way, a modern satirical thriller about a regular guy named Darryl Johnson whose life goes horribly awry. Unclaimed is the only one that has sold so far. It has only a few reviews, but they are five-stars and it is, in my humble opinion, the weakest of the three. Sorry, Keegan. Maybe next time.

Next up, I have another fantasy short story, Two Cows Too Many, to hit the cyber stores soon. After that, Lady of the Lake, featuring another series character, a modern mystery based in part on my past as an editor and reporter of a major weekly newspaper chain here in Metro Detroit. Charlie Morton, the POV character, is like I used to be, only smarter and funnier.

I am slogging my way through another fantasy short story, The Sigilist, and only last night discovered one major problem and how to fix it. Then I have another Keegan story, Three Sacrifices, that will need to be rewritten. Also, I have at least one novel I'd like to finish and post before the end of the year, either a Charlie Morton story (probably) or one of the three first draft fantasy novels I have tucked away on my flash drive.

I write on this blog sporadically as well as on two practice fiction blogs, one a fantasy series, the other strictly sci-fi, based on the space adventures of my bored cat. Feel free to check them out, but I warn you they are just first drafts, proofed only for spelling.

How does my writing differ from others in its genre?
The quick answer to this (I hope) is humor. I think spending more than a dozen years in the news field has given me a good ear for dialogue, too. There are other former newspaper writers who have turned to fiction, of course, but I deliberately didn't go the way they did, with novels or stories set in major cities. My protagonists are not very heroic; they often don't know what they're doing, or why. They are small-timers living in a small time world tackling problems that most of us face.

Why do I write what I do?
Entertainment, mostly. The stories come to me and I feel obligated to get them down. I am, however, taking a more serious look at what I do and why I am doing it (or why I want to, at any rate), because I feel it's important to have some kind of message hidden among the one-liners and snappy comebacks. A Better Way in particular has a few thought-provoking lines tucked away in Darryl's non-linear ramblings. He's like a Billy Joel song that way.

How does my writing process work?
I alluded to this in the beginning. The short answer is, I'm still working on that part.

I had a dream, once, a silly little dream, that I could write a short story a week and get them published. This was based on my optimum writing speed of about 1,700 words an hour for two hours every day. I've backed off from that because of age, infirmary and common sense. Writing is hard work; good writing, even more so.  I still think it is important to write every day and I am using this blog post to jump start my efforts again.

My concept is simple: spend the first hour editing one work, the second hour writing a different one. The idea is to gradually get into the creative mind set while you're fixing your mistakes during your first hour. I've tried two different versions of this: The Rooster Plan (from 5-7 a.m.) and the Owl Plan (from 10 to midnight). Both have their challenges, lack of sleep chief among them, and neither have exactly taken flight. Not that a rooster can fly, but you get the idea.

Who's next?
I have never met @NatRusso, but I liked him enough to ask if I could include him at the end of this and he graciously agreed. You can find all sorts of information about him and his work here. (As you can see, his Writing Process blog was actually posted before mine. His book, Necromancer Awakening, is among the current top-sellers on Amazon. I've started it and have been impressed so far (I sense another four-star review coming). Also, he is a good writer to follow on twitter because he finds a good mixture of advice, marketing and general conversation.

Also, check out the work of an old friend who writes as PJ Lincoln. Like me, he's another former newspaper guy who has a growing collection of fiction published through Amazon and elsewhere.

Thanks for stopping in. Feel free to share, leave a comment, download a story and post a review!

Stalking macaroni and cheese

"Nobody stalks macaroni and cheese," is one of my favorite lines from 'A Better Way,' a story I published recently on Amazon.com.




Subtle and silly in its own right, it sums up the bewilderment Darryl Johnson feels as he realizes the strange occurrence that keep happening around him are all related and that he has somehow offended some very powerful people.


I have a mild affinity for this story, which I started writing a few years ago. I took the name of the main character from my late cousin, but that's where the similarities between real Darryl and fictional Darryl end. Fictional Darryl is in a world of trouble and he doesn't realize it; he is a regular guy with a wandering thought process that was a challenge to write. Indeed, his thought process was so random and filled with a bizarre kind of stream-of-consciousness wool-gathering that the story was once three times as long as the final version (you're welcome for that, those who read it).


The story itself was based on three things: the title, which came from a Ben Harper song, an upside-down stamp and the disquieting feelings I had about the action of our government (and our willingness to accept those actions) in the wake of the 2011 terrorist attacks. Okay. I may as well admit it here, too. It was also partially based on a fart joke.


It was initially designed to be a pure satire, but it took on a darker tone in the week or so before I finally published it and I included some observations about the state of corporate America. I still think the comedic elements hold up, and I like the way little bits of universal truth peek through the seams when you are not expecting them. (Wait long enough, Darryl muses, and God will eventually turn you into everything you once mocked.)


Real Darryl's funeral, if you'll forgive my own wandering thoughts for a moment, was such an inspiring and unexpected affair that it will be recreated, in some fashion, in a forthcoming novel entitled The Other Side of Goodbye. Real Darryl was a regular guy like fictional Darryl: a mail carrier, volunteer firefighter and a pilot, but his funeral procession required the cooperative efforts of three different policing agencies to manage, it was so long and it reminded me that we all, each and every one of us, deserve to be celebrated.


Thanks for reading.

Home, home again....

"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish and strengthen you."
I Peter 5:10


That verse came up on my daily Bible app during the early part of Henry's Health Scare. I posted it then, shared it with him when Pastor Chris Thomas from First Presbyterian Church came by (Henry nodded and gave me the 'thumbs up' when he heard it) and I've reflected on it often in the past several weeks. I did not, at first, truly come to terms with it.


When you're looking down on your stricken child, 'a little while' is an eternity. I wasn't ready to think about restoration. I was too wrapped up in the suffering. There were plenty of moments during those early days of helpless fear and anger and worry when I gave the chapel at Mott Children's Hospital a wide berth--certain that if I had gone inside, I would have tried to pick a fight with God.


I put on a brave face. I stayed positive. I prayed. I reassured. I asked you all for help. Inside? I questioned. I wondered why it would happen, how it could happen to him--he is a good kid, blameless and strong, kind and goofy. I didn't feel strong, at all.


But the key to that verse is actually in the one ahead of it, which speaks to the fact that the experience of suffering is required of everyone throughout the world. Nobody can dodge that particular bullet forever.


So if suffering is universal so, then, is restoration and growth. We're not quite there yet. Tomorrow (almost today, as I write this) will mark our second week home after 34 days in the hospital. I wonder what we've learned, how we've grown.


His health has improved. The dressing changes are not a two-person job any more. We had a follow up visit today (yesterday) with the surgeons and learned that even those kinds of bandages aren't needed any more. He could be stitch-free in a two weeks. He's getting caught up on school work, too.


His spirits? Fortunately, they are more up than down, but there are times when I sit with him as he tries to drift off to sleep and he asks me some of those same questions I asked. What did I do to deserve this? Why did this happen? 'Nothing,' I answer to the first and 'I don't know.'  or 'We'll see one day' to the others.


That's where faith comes in. It's about being thankful for the restoration before it comes, or being grateful for the answers before you know what they are.