Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Posting my rap

 I rap Carter's Little Liver Pills

My sound gon cure all a your ills
Don't drop yo pants down your knees
Cause you trips eva time you flees
Gonna recall what this here rhyme is for
Five minutes before you wise up to the score
I gum the old ladies behind they necks
Cause I can't remember how to gain they sex
I got the courage and strength of my moves
Long as my walker ain't caught in no grooves
Stand back and admire my stuff
Don't get in the way you ain't tough
Slap you upside your lame understanding
That's all folks cause now I'm landing

Saturday, February 3, 2024

Dark Tales From the Dystopia of Now

 It is my conviction that the Earth is spiraling to destruction, that it is a human-made catastrophe, and that it may be irreversible, even if we take drastic action now. That I could be wrong is barely given credence in my latest stories. EndEarthers will be my so-called masterwork. A few of my scenarios hold out a slight bit of hope. Not comfortable ones. We shall see.   

Friday, January 26, 2024

And so my book

 My new book is still taking shape. I write dark stories about the human condition. 

Title: ENDEARTHERS

Stories: 

Quiet Beneath the Moon - a love story set in the dystopian time of NOW

Henry's War - war breaches the shores of America

Teapot's Roaches - a unique scenario that could revive the dying Earth


Thursday, January 11, 2024

William S Burroughs

 “All of my work is directed against those who are bent on blowing up the planet.” —William S. Burroughs

Sunday, October 22, 2023

My current novella is complete

 I believe I am finished writing Quiet Beneath the Moon. I plan to push it as a love story set in the final stage of our devolution where life or extinction hangs in the balance. I don't expect any publishers to want it but I intend to ask anyway.

Thursday, October 12, 2023

Major changes to my current story

 Major structural changes. I made the chapters longer, cutting the count from twenty plus to twelve. Moved the prologue into one of the chapters so that a reader will not feel slapped in the face with it before they get any story.

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

About Clones in Fiction

 Many people use "clone" when they actually mean something else. A cloned human would have to grow from infancy same as any child, yet in many stories they appear as duplicates of someone.

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Latest project.

 Doing a total makeover of a short story from a few years ago. It was titled A GLEAM OF METAL, I think. I have several that I believe I can do better now.

The EndEarthers is about 45,000 words. I am thinking about going full book length by adding this and a few other stories.

Sunday, April 16, 2023

Quoting Toni Morrison

 “Characters are like ghosts. They have nothing on their minds but themselves and aren’t interested in anything but themselves. You can’t let them write your book for you.” —Toni Morrison

Monday, March 28, 2022

Elmore Leonard on Writing

 1. Never open a book with weather:

If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people.



2. Avoid prologues:
They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword.



3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue:
The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied.



4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”:
… he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange.



5. Keep your exclamation points under control:
You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.



6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose”:
This rule doesn’t require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use “suddenly” tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.




7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly:
Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won’t be able to stop.



8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters:
In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” what do the “American and the girl with him” look like? “She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” That’s the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.



9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things:
You don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.



10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Thursday, March 10, 2022

Query

 I've seen lots of query letters and what helps is to have word count, title, genre and comparable titles at the very beginning of the letter.

Saturday, January 8, 2022

Story Lengths

 The publishing industry has a loose set of guidelines that define writing based on length:

- Micro-Fiction: <100 words - Flash Fiction: 100-1K words - Short Story: 1K-7,500 words - Novelette: 7,500 - 20K words - Novella: 20K - 50K words - Novel: 50K-100K words - Epic: 110K+ words

Sunday, September 5, 2021

He said/she said

 https://thewritepractice.com/a-critical-dont-for-writing-dialogue/

Elmore Leonard said, Never use any word other than “said” as dialogue tags. Why? Try reading the above out loud. The “he exclaimed” and “he admonished” and “she cried” become like a child saying your name over and over. Distracting.

The word “said,” though, is easily ignored. You want the attention focused on the dialogue, not your clever use of verbs. In many cases, it’s good to change up word choice. You don’t want to use “quintessential” or “luminescence” too many times. “Said” is a major exception. Let us tune it out. Please.

Besides, does “exclaimed” or even “whispered” really change how you read the dialogue? Instead, show the emotion with an action. Like this:

“I hate you,” she exclaimed she said, hurling her French book at him. The corner struck him just under the eye. A bright red mark began to rise on his skin.

Books like Twilight can misuse dialogue tags like this because the plot will suck a reader in deep enough they will ignore the distraction.

But just because Stephanie Meyer can do it, doesn’t mean you can.

Saturday, September 4, 2021

The Great Gatsby

 After posting A POSSE FOR TEXAS RED yesterday, I began a story about a poor man, inspired by but in no way reflective of THE GREAT GATSBY.

Sunday, August 15, 2021

The latest projects

 involve a portrait of my mother and a third Mexican Red story.


As a young man I had my western heroes, mostly in the movies. But my favorite one of all never made it to film that I am aware of. It's Max Brand's Silvertip. I think I read the whole series but it's also possible I missed a few. In my own way, Mexican Red is a tribute to Max Brand and Silvertip. Not a copy by any means. Silvertip was straight-arrow all the way. Red is an outlaw who often does good things. Silvertip may be an inch or two higher than Red, but physically Red is his match. All fun writing. 

Friday, July 30, 2021

I had been letting this blog languish

 Feeding my other three blogs sort of left this, the original one, in the lurch. I will try to do better by it in the future.

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

WWIII

 WWIII is the backdrop for a new tale. Henry's family is all gone, taken by successive pandemics. He lives in an American city victimized by repeated missile and drone strikes. Some of the great cities are no more. Nuked. Everywhere there are any military installations around the globe and beyond is war. The story begins with Henry sifting through the rubble of a supermarket and finding an unlabeled can, overlooked by preceding scavengers. He finds himself in a struggle with a boy, who wants that even more than Henry needs it.

There is no schedule for when it may appear in my blog of free stories. 

Thursday, July 8, 2021

Invaders from Twarr

The version of Invaders From the Shadow Planets of Twarr that I posted on my free blog is not just hard to read; it is in need of some fresh editing. That I have undertaken. When it gets done I will simply switch the new post for the older one. 

Monday, March 8, 2021

Quiet Desperation

 The mass of men lead it. I suppose Thoreau meant that quote for women also. Quiet Desperation is the title of the latest tale I am unfolding. It may take a week or two to post it.

Saturday, February 6, 2021

HUNTING WASSELNORF

 That's the new shortie. Perhaps half done. About an expedition to get a specimen for a museum on a foreign planet gone wrong.

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Latest

 Working on Larry Donovan's Tongue. A fun read. The title derives from Donovan's Brain, a story by Kurt Siodmak. The tale itself is something else. 

Saturday, January 2, 2021

Newest short story

 My newest story has no title as yet. It tells us what happens after death, in case anybody has been wondering.

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Going through old files

 found The Wooden Angels. It wandered through concepts as I put it down, ending with a confused piece. I still like the concept, so am rewriting it.

Monday, November 23, 2020

Took time away

 I had a short story to capture before it could escape, so left off  Moloch Eaters for now. This one ought to be finished by week end. It's a touching story about marital indifference and bouts of resentment.  

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Despair & Bananas

 Putting together a collection for Amazon publication. DESPAIR AND BANANAS. The human condition, a touch of the fantastic - What could go wrong?

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Not much to report.

 The Moloch Eaters has been monopolizing my time these days. Here's hoping it will materialize in full in a matter of months, not years.

Sunday, September 20, 2020

About The Moloch Eaters

 On my Free Stories blog there is a short story titled The Moloch Eaters. It is actually an outtake of a longer story I am currently at work on. This will take a while to get finished. Not that many read my work and no one awards words of encouragement, but I do what I do. As the Zen master once taught his Zen to the stones since nobody listened to him, I bestow my words on the internet. 

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Today I should finish re-editing Beyond the Dark Water.

 I've streamlined the narrative somewhat, plus added new points to bolster the reader's understanding of situations. It should be available on my Free Stories blog this evening or tomorrow.

The Black Rose Writing edition went out of print and the rights have reverted to me.

Saturday, September 5, 2020

Thursday, August 27, 2020

New Access to Old CD Files

My last desktop couldn't access CDs I made of certain files. Instead it treated them as new discs to be formatted for receiving files. So they languished in a box, thought to be useless. Yesterday my wife wanted to get the box they were in out of the way. Just out of curiosity I put one in and opened it. There was Ebeneezer's Ghost and some I had forgotten altogether. To me, priceless. 

Friday, August 14, 2020

On "Beyond the Dark Water"

I originally set out to write my full life story when I began this piece. Then eventually edited it down to exclude mention of most of my brothers and sisters, who mostly are still alive and whom I did not wish to antagonize or argue with. Left with a much-shortened version, I grafted it onto a fictional tale of an adventure with my long-dead brother, who in it visits from the grave. The autobiographical material is all true. The ghost _? Well, I was asleep one night less than a year after his death and I was aware that he crawled into the bed to sleep alongside of me. I felt his warmth until shortly before awakening. I had to dismiss it as but a dream -

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

What is your favorite music

Beginning when I was a child and working to the present, my favorite artists have been

Hank Williams
Harry Belafonte
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard
Peggy Lee
Don Gibson
Buddy Holly
Bob Dylan
Donovan Leitch
The Beatles
Phil Ochs
Leonard Cohen
John Lennon (solo)
George Jones

Of course, that list is partial. It could expand a hundredfold. But Ave Maria is my favorite song of all time.




Sunday, July 12, 2020

Right now - - -

I discovered a ms. that I started about five years ago. Story concerning a man who runs a book store and plies customers with free goodies and coffee. So, I'm resurrecting that one, but already doing a new read-through of Mexican Red.

Friday, June 26, 2020

Reached the end

The final word was typed last night. Today the last two chapters will be gone over and then the manuscript will be given a cooling-off period before a hopefully final edit. I use Grammarly to help correct documents. This program has to be treated like spell check to be certain the suggestions it offers are in line with the actual intent of sentences. As mentioned earlier, future projects may be limited to short stories, except I reserve the right to complete a few long manuscripts already begun.  

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

About Mexican Red

It's my first effort in western novels. Begun at least two years ago. I generally know what I want to say, but it's a major operation to put all the elements together. Most of my first drafts are comparable to an artist who begins a canvas by drawing stick figures on it and then alters a line here and there until realistic portrayals of people emerge from those simple lines. It depends on the artist how well it turns out.

Years of writing verse almost exclusively has turned my prose into a bare bones operation, making the stories fill fewer pages while telling just as much story as works thousands of words longer. Some prefer long winded writing. It's okay to like whatever you want to like.

Many instances of my language can be nit-picked for not being authentic old west. It's the same with history. Not a history lesson. It's more Hopalong Cassidy than Parkman's The Oregon Trail.

Others may find discomfort in the fluidity of moving the narrative from character to character. I couldn't tell the same story if I did it another way.

So as I prepare to write the final several pages, it would seem it is almost ready to be read. But not so fast. Then it will sit unread by me for a time and then almost certainly undergo some revisions when I revisit a final time or three. Or four or five. And then most readers may hate it. By then I may hate it too. 

  

Friday, June 12, 2020

Because I write so slowly I am able to slip in the occasional short story.

So yesterday I began a short about a man not willing to be conscripted to fight in the Civil War, who heads out west.

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Getting Closer

I'm getting closer to the end of Mexican Red. There are a few issues to address before it can happen.

Thursday, May 7, 2020

no more longer works

Once I wash my hands of Mexican Red, I plan to turn out only the occasional short story. Nothing so ambitious even as a novelette. The amount of encouragement I get in return for any of my work does not merit the effort I put into it. I only intend to do the short ones due to an inability to ignore them, once they pop into my head. To the few who encourage me: Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  

Monday, April 27, 2020

Western Novel

I had gotten lost while trying to wind up Mexican Red and nothing helped. So I left alone. Now I am back reworking from page one and having a good time of it so far.

Friday, April 24, 2020

It's Posted

I've posted "A Woman Too Dark" on my free stories blog. Shrug. On to something else.

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Presumptuous

Not so much. I am attempting a short story concerning a black American woman. Trying essentially to be inside her head. Will it work? Not really. But it might make for a good story anyway.

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Still Working

It's tough to keep it together in placid times. The uncertainty right now makes my thoughts even more flighty than before. But I do make a little progress every day on different projects. I hope any who visit here are well and will continue to be so.