“Twisted Key”, “Lonesome Cove”, writing and what I’m reading

 

I’m getting this blog out early. I don’t recall ever doing this before, but then I’ve never been this busy before, either.

I sent out a notice to my readers last Saturday evening offering signed and numbered copies of “Twisted Key” in return for a contribution toward the publication of the novel. Health issues over the last few years have come close to wiping me out financially, so it just made sense to do this.

This offer is being run through Kickstarter, an on-line ‘Crowdfunding’ organization. You can click on the link below to read through the offer:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/344026567/publication-of-my-third-novel-twisted-key

The response has been very encouraging. I have received about a quarter of the necessary funds during the first week. The offer for advance copies of “Twisted Key” will run through 11 July. If you enjoy a good mystery novel, you can’t go wrong with “Twisted Key”. It is by far the best I’ve done to date.

Work on “Lonesome Cove” has been put on hold until “Twisted Key” goes off to the publisher. I can have the first draught complete with another month’s work, but that means I have to be able to concentrate on nothing but the writing, and I just can’t do that right now.

I suppose some writers could, but I rely on my characters and their read of the situation for guidance when I write. My characters drive my stories, and getting into that ‘zone’ means not having any distractions to deal with.

Outlines work really well for me when I work on a non-fiction project; but I just can’t write fiction that way.

I start with a snapshot of a scene – a brief moment in time – and ask myself three questions: what is going on in the scene, how did those people come to be there, and what happens next? Then I write the first draught. That’s all there is to the ‘creative’ aspect of writing. Everything else is rewriting. And editing. And marketing.

My bookshelf is growing. I recently acquired Winston Churchill’s 6-volume work on WW II, and am about a third of the way through the first volume. This mammoth work ahs been labeled as Churchill’s effort to make himself look good for posterity. Well, of course it is.

Why would anyone in his right mind spend so much effort to make himself look bad? Churchill wrote to get his point of view events across to historians, politicians and people in general, and I salute him for that. If Winston Churchill hadn’t stood up and done his job we’d be living in a much grimmer world right now.

I’m also working my way through Terry Pratchett’s “Unseen Academicals”. I’ve read just about everything he’s written over many years and enjoyed all of them. I’ve also got S.M. Sterling’s “High King of Montival” on my nightstand (okay, I don’t have a nightstand, but the book is close by, I promise), and I’ll get to it right after I finish Mr. Pratchett’s novel. One must stick to one’s priorities, or why have them at all?