The Writing Life, 18 November 2023
And the slightly retooled newsletter continues.
As I am once again on the road this weekend, this time for some family travel, I decided to put this together ahead of time. I mentioned recently I’ll be doing the official newsletters on the first and third Wednesdays of the month and have “alternative” programming on at least the second and fourth (and occasionally the fifth) weekends of the month. Here’s the full update on it if you want to see the full explanation.
An Announcement Rather Than a Newsletter This Week
Hello, and happy Veterans Day AKA Remembrance Day AKA Armistice Day. Normally, this is the part where I say “Let’s talk about writing.” Today, I want to talk about… blogging, newsletters, whatever you want to call it. This place. It’s been a little over a year
Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk writing.
What I’ve Been Writing
I got back to work on The Yank Striker 2, and work is slow but steady on this. I’m getting close to finishing up a good scene in the book (one I mentioned during my last newsletter), and I’ll be scouting out my notebooks and virtual storyboards for what other scenes I absolutely need to have in the story and leave the rest out unless I’m really desperate to include them.
Right now I would be happy with just 60,000 words. Since this is going to be a series, I have the advantage of not having to worry about having to tell the entire story I want to get out in a single book1.
Also, next week I committed to doing another Poetry Night entry for the blog. I feel like I could really put together some interesting poetry, but one of my longstanding fears is I’m going to have to do a lot of thinking to produce not that many words. Well, I need to get over my prose mindset and see I can be just as productive, but in a different way2.
What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing
Foremost in my mind at the moment are the artwork and proofreading work for The Yank Striker 2. I have no idea at the moment how long those processes might take from first contact with a contractor, etc., to the final product3. I do know that we are creeping up onto the holiday season starting next week.
If I know anything for sure, trying to get anything done during said season is an iffy thing. For example, if I contact someone next week, I am all but expecting there to be no serious movement on it until the beginning of the new year.
However, I get the feeling this will be something I will need to get started as early as next week, even if all it involves is doing some initial inquiries. I can’t assume anything on time tables.
Writing Advice for the Week
Again, rather than try and come up with cool pithy advice every time I do this, I’ll often comment on other writer’s advice. This week I learned of a British writer named Hilary Mantel, who won the Booker Prize twice and whom I never heard of beforehand. However, I was overjoyed to hear this bit of advice credited to her in The Guardian:
Write a book you'd like to read. If you wouldn't read it, why would anybody else? Don't write for a perceived audience or market. It may well have vanished by the time your book's ready.
My goodness, it seemed like this advice was aimed right between my eyes. I’ve gone on more than a few times about how it’s hard to classify me as an author because I haven’t gone on and made myself into a historical romance author or a dark fantasy author (and I’m interested in writing fantasy at some point. “It’s hard to define who I am as an author,” I mutter and fret.
But why waste my time over weeks and months writing something for the sake of putting out “product?” I wanted to write The Holy Fool because I wanted a story about a journalist who finally fought back for his profession, to make it better. I wanted to write The Yank Striker because I wanted a story about a great, larger than life American soccer star, and how he rose to become a star. I wanted to read those stories, so I wrote them. The more I think about it, the more I realize I want to write stories that matter to me. It’s all the motivation I need to keep going.
Writing Quote of the Week
And for this week, a quote making me hope for more words becoming visible on my pages.
The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.
Vladimir Nabokov
Where You Can Find my Books
I’ve got links to my books in paperback and ebook format in the sidebar here, but you can get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella. Pella Books is celebrating its 24th anniversary this month, and they’ve got more than a few events to celebrate. Go ahead and check them out.
The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.
All three are great independent bookstores who deserve your support.
Final Thoughts
That’s it for right now. We’ll have some poetry for sure next weekend, and maybe one or two other surprises as well, likely not in the same post. Anyway, take care, everyone.
– 30 –
I have the feeling this section of the newsletter will usually be bigger on the first weekend of the month rather than the third just because it will cover a longer period of time. Well, we’ll just have to see.
Man, I get the feeling this is going to be really short. Well, the next one will be longer next month, I promise.
If anyone has a good idea of those timelines, feel free to leave a comment or email me about it. And if you happen to do cover art for books or proofreading, definitely hit me up in the comments or by email.