I apologize for not posting on Monday (again). I’ve been concentrating on writing and keeping to an absolute minimum such things as researching, fact checking and verifying. Researching, fact checking and verifying are all excuses to avoid writing, and I don’t want to do that. I am a professional liar, a storyteller, not a fact checker or an editor. Everything that is not writing is a distraction. Necessary perhaps, but a distraction nonetheless. Since I have made a point of ignoring those things as best I can instead of indulging in them these last few weeks, I have managed to add well over a hundred pages to the manuscript. I have now 230 good pages, out of a novel that should run to 320 pages.
I really enjoy the writing process, and rewriting can be fun as well, since it clears up the story so others can enjoy it along with me. I’ve got one reader in California who is now sharing his new copy of “The Big Bend” with his wife. Every few hours I get another email from him, and the excitement and pleasure he and his wife are getting from the story shines through his short notes.
That, above anything else, makes all of the hours I spend at this keyboard worth the effort. Well, that and money. Let’s be honest, here. But hearing from readers really does cheer me up no end.
My web site, www.garyshowalter.com, has gone through some changes recently. I’ve added a Photo Gallery and an Events Calendar. The gallery holds photos and descriptions of some of the furniture I’ve built and restored over the years when I actually worked for a living, the ornamental pieces I’ve built using gold, silver, ivory, mother-of-pearl, abalone and exotic hardwoods and photos of the Holtzappfell ornamental lathe I restored and worked on for several years.
The Events Calendar is a listing of events here in Florida where I will be signing and selling my books. My next event is in The Villages, between Leesburg and Ocala, at the “All Booked Up” bookstore on Bichara Blvd, on Monday 17 January, between eleven and one in the afternoon. If you’re in the area, please stop by and say hello.
Have a good and safe weekend.
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