I have been subjected to a nasty hangover of holiday spirit and a more malicious malady; a not so infectious disease, known to afflict part time writers in particular; lack of commitment. I prefer to think of it as other responsibilities, but the truth is that it is a failure on the sufferer’s part to make time to write – anything – blogs, journal entries, notes, letters, e-mails; the affliction isn’t very discriminatory and exercises a scorched earth policy when it is allowed to fester, as mine has.
The afflicted is naturally more critical of the lack of performance – writers tend to be more introspective than others, and therefore hypercritical, especially when applying criticism reflexively. It doesn’t help to go on a voyeuristic literary binge, that is, a reading jag, like I have. I’ve been motivated by others, by vocation, and by a selfish desire precipitated by excessive idle time, also known as the devil’s tools.
With all of the aforementioned conspiring to create the perfect storm, I took a break and read. What did I read? Well, I’ll tell you. It started with Almost Moon by Alice Sebold, then it was Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard, Atonement by Ian McEwan, a rare foray into nonfiction with The School of Great Expectations by Dan Brown, no, not that Dan Brown, and culminating with my current crutch, Julius Winsome by Gerard Donovan, given to me by a friend who might become a former friend based on the path of the novel – I like it, but it is twisted. So, that is how I spent the last two weeks.
The result is a conflicted writer not willing to call himself a writer based on the overwhelming talent he has recently exposed himself to. I live to write about myself in the third person, I sound so...stoopid.
“Pickup Lines From a Pickup Truck” is doing well, it was on the Bestseller list for RedRosePublishing.com in November and is still available. “A Slice of Life” is coming soon, but no firm release date yet – there may be some issues with cover art, but the editing is done. And I continue on my merry way, reading and not writing. I think I may need to change that.
Do you agree?
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Monday, December 17, 2007
Dilettante or Thug?
Webster defines the first as a “dabbler in the arts,” the second as “a gangster or tough.” Is it possible for both to describe the same person? Am I or am I? I have always struggled with the contradictions in my nature, the seeming walking contradiction of my personality, partly truth and partly fiction.
As previously written, I relish physical contact, in many ways, and do not shy away from physical confrontation. I also love musical theater, my favorite being “Les Miserables,” mainly because I saw it from a seat in “the stalls” in the West End of London with my brother. I wore cleats to play baseball and football in high school, but I also wore loafers to see “The King and I” at the Memorial Auditorium. Why is there this dichotomy in my personality and where did it come from?
Conflict is a key ingredient in any narrative; it makes the story interesting, contributing to tension that ultimately results in climax. Internal conflict is something we live with everyday. As a writer, my inner conflict is whether to write what I want or what sells. Lately I have been writing romance; because it is fun, because I am able to get published and because I learn from it. Anyone who has read my dreck knows it is tame, but, I am tempted to write more graphically.
I guess, while sitting here pondering my writer’s navel, my concern is whether I should be more graphic in my efforts at romance. Should I maintain my dilettante’s detachment or embrace my inner thug and write graphically? Hmmm, what do you think? Either of you, feel free to answer.
Spike
As previously written, I relish physical contact, in many ways, and do not shy away from physical confrontation. I also love musical theater, my favorite being “Les Miserables,” mainly because I saw it from a seat in “the stalls” in the West End of London with my brother. I wore cleats to play baseball and football in high school, but I also wore loafers to see “The King and I” at the Memorial Auditorium. Why is there this dichotomy in my personality and where did it come from?
Conflict is a key ingredient in any narrative; it makes the story interesting, contributing to tension that ultimately results in climax. Internal conflict is something we live with everyday. As a writer, my inner conflict is whether to write what I want or what sells. Lately I have been writing romance; because it is fun, because I am able to get published and because I learn from it. Anyone who has read my dreck knows it is tame, but, I am tempted to write more graphically.
I guess, while sitting here pondering my writer’s navel, my concern is whether I should be more graphic in my efforts at romance. Should I maintain my dilettante’s detachment or embrace my inner thug and write graphically? Hmmm, what do you think? Either of you, feel free to answer.
Spike
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Conflict and Conflagration
Have you ever had the urge to blow shit up? To exercise a scorched earth policy? To bring to bear upon others the types of hardship that have been brought to bear on you? I know I have felt that way, and I have acted on it. My actions have been detrimental to my well being.
There was this punk giving my best friend a hard time, so I confronted him. Things got nasty, so I popped him. He and three hundred of his closest friends visited my friend’s house. We called the cops. I got expelled. That was in seventh grade.
This is not an isolated incident in my life. I am the baby of three boys. My older brother was 18 months older and my oldest is 39 months older. I got beat almost everyday of my pre-adolescent existence. I learned to hit first, explain later. This became a problem.
In high school, this behavior was unwelcome, mainly because I went to a Christian school with sons and daughters of pastors who had never gone to a public school. I was a wolf among sheep, and we all know what happens when a wolf gets together with sheep. Bad things!
So now, how do I explain to my daughter that it is unacceptable to hit, to choke, to spit in someone’s face? If I do condemn this behavior in my daughter, does that make me a hypocrite?
Why is it when my daughter’s teacher tells me about my daughter’s transgressions, I laugh? Why do I find it endearing that my daughter is a thug? Why do my colleagues find this entertaining?
How do I explain to a four year old that it isn’t cool to throw down with classmates when I did the same? “Do as I say, not as I did.” But really, I want her to stand up for herself, but not be a bully. How do I teach that?
“It’s okay to hit when a teacher doesn’t respond and the kid keeps pushing you.” Yeah, a four year old is going to understand that.
I wish my life was about snack time and nap time, about arts and crafts, about letters and numbers. It would be so much easier. Remind me to ask my daughter when she is my age if she feels the same way.
Meanwhile, I have to deal with the bullys and thugs of education. Those who want to bully me as a teacher, to force me to do things that I don’t want to do. Things I don’t want to do because I know they are detrimental to my students; they are just bad practice. But, I have to tell the teacher. I can’t spit in their face, I can’t choke them. My daughter can choke and spit on the bad guys, but I can’t. How can I teach her not to when I want to?
Spike
There was this punk giving my best friend a hard time, so I confronted him. Things got nasty, so I popped him. He and three hundred of his closest friends visited my friend’s house. We called the cops. I got expelled. That was in seventh grade.
This is not an isolated incident in my life. I am the baby of three boys. My older brother was 18 months older and my oldest is 39 months older. I got beat almost everyday of my pre-adolescent existence. I learned to hit first, explain later. This became a problem.
In high school, this behavior was unwelcome, mainly because I went to a Christian school with sons and daughters of pastors who had never gone to a public school. I was a wolf among sheep, and we all know what happens when a wolf gets together with sheep. Bad things!
So now, how do I explain to my daughter that it is unacceptable to hit, to choke, to spit in someone’s face? If I do condemn this behavior in my daughter, does that make me a hypocrite?
Why is it when my daughter’s teacher tells me about my daughter’s transgressions, I laugh? Why do I find it endearing that my daughter is a thug? Why do my colleagues find this entertaining?
How do I explain to a four year old that it isn’t cool to throw down with classmates when I did the same? “Do as I say, not as I did.” But really, I want her to stand up for herself, but not be a bully. How do I teach that?
“It’s okay to hit when a teacher doesn’t respond and the kid keeps pushing you.” Yeah, a four year old is going to understand that.
I wish my life was about snack time and nap time, about arts and crafts, about letters and numbers. It would be so much easier. Remind me to ask my daughter when she is my age if she feels the same way.
Meanwhile, I have to deal with the bullys and thugs of education. Those who want to bully me as a teacher, to force me to do things that I don’t want to do. Things I don’t want to do because I know they are detrimental to my students; they are just bad practice. But, I have to tell the teacher. I can’t spit in their face, I can’t choke them. My daughter can choke and spit on the bad guys, but I can’t. How can I teach her not to when I want to?
Spike
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Die Now
I have heard that the Greeks would yell “Die Now” to winners of races and events because the competitor had reached the apex of their life and everything following that victory would be shallow and meaningless. When I heard this, it reminded me of my friends that had peaked in grade school, middle school and high school. I always took this to be a cautionary lesson on success. I felt it was best not to peak until later in life. I seem to have mastered that, until today.
I logged on to RedRosePublishing.com and found the compendium of vignettes that I coauthored with Cara Preston, better known as “Pickup Lines From a Pickup Truck,” listed as the tenth best seller in the Mainstream category of my publisher.
Should I die now? Is this the acme of my career? Is the rest of my life to be spent in speakeasy’s and dives, me assuring an aged audience of a toothless entourage that in 2007 I was on the bestseller list of an internet publisher’s list of mainstream romances?
While I love my publisher and believe internet publishing and ebooks are the future of the industry, I refuse to believe that this is my “die now” moment. I just hope that I am still lucid enough to recognize whether it is or isn’t. It would be a tragedy for me to find out that as a seventy year old, after winning a volleyball tournament for diabetic amputees, that this was my moment, and I fucking missed it.
Let’s hope and pray that I haven’t peaked yet!
Spike
I logged on to RedRosePublishing.com and found the compendium of vignettes that I coauthored with Cara Preston, better known as “Pickup Lines From a Pickup Truck,” listed as the tenth best seller in the Mainstream category of my publisher.
Should I die now? Is this the acme of my career? Is the rest of my life to be spent in speakeasy’s and dives, me assuring an aged audience of a toothless entourage that in 2007 I was on the bestseller list of an internet publisher’s list of mainstream romances?
While I love my publisher and believe internet publishing and ebooks are the future of the industry, I refuse to believe that this is my “die now” moment. I just hope that I am still lucid enough to recognize whether it is or isn’t. It would be a tragedy for me to find out that as a seventy year old, after winning a volleyball tournament for diabetic amputees, that this was my moment, and I fucking missed it.
Let’s hope and pray that I haven’t peaked yet!
Spike
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
My Second Time
I am going through the final line edits for my second book to be published by RedRosePublishing.com and am finding it somewhat less exciting than the first time. That is, I surmise, to be expected. It may also be a function of my editor being different from my first story, and from the first round of edits on this book.
I think it is silly to be attached to an editor. I am attached to an editor. Therefore, I am silly. That is a syllogism.
Why is it important for me to know this stupid stuff? Mainly because I encounter smart kids everyday that want to know it too, that will need to know it at some point. So, what now? New editor, wants to make a few changes, whatever. Go with the flow. I think the new editor is probably good, probably different, probably smart. But, it mucks things up for me. Feel free to substitute an “f” for an “m” in the previous sentence.
Here is my shiznit. Show it to me in the final draft! I keep getting it with changes tracked and I get confused, I am a simple man. Simple is as simple does.
I feel a need to travel! Anyone want to host a writer/teacher in Latin America or Europe? Let me know, free books are available.
It is never the same as the first!
Spike
I think it is silly to be attached to an editor. I am attached to an editor. Therefore, I am silly. That is a syllogism.
Why is it important for me to know this stupid stuff? Mainly because I encounter smart kids everyday that want to know it too, that will need to know it at some point. So, what now? New editor, wants to make a few changes, whatever. Go with the flow. I think the new editor is probably good, probably different, probably smart. But, it mucks things up for me. Feel free to substitute an “f” for an “m” in the previous sentence.
Here is my shiznit. Show it to me in the final draft! I keep getting it with changes tracked and I get confused, I am a simple man. Simple is as simple does.
I feel a need to travel! Anyone want to host a writer/teacher in Latin America or Europe? Let me know, free books are available.
It is never the same as the first!
Spike
Monday, November 19, 2007
The Inexorable Grind
“Pickup Lines From a Pickup Truck” has now been on the proverbial shelf for almost three weeks and I have begun the inexorable grind towards anonymity. I wonder if the other authors at RedRosePublishing.com experience the same phenomenon; if Raven Star, Shara Azod, Skyler Gray or Jae-Lynn McKnight are struggling with their next projects?
Hell, for that matter, did John Grisham feel this way after “The Firm.” I remember reading that Grisham followed up “The Firm” by writing “The Pelican Brief” in six weeks. Granted, it wasn’t the best novel he wrote, but he did sell the movie rights. I wouldn’t mind that type of follow up.
But, it would appear that my window of opportunity is slowly closing. I doubt I can afford to wait a decade between books like Donna Tartt or David Duncan. I do have another coming soon, “A Slice of Life,” but after that, the Romance pipeline is empty. I have started two other short Romances, but have all but abandoned them at this point. I lack the discipline to write regularly and that is a product of having a full time job and young children. I also have a young adult novel and a memoir in the works, but all of my writing projects are being neglected currently. I doubt that admission is going to fire up my readership, but, that constituency is pretty small at present.
The nice thing about writing short stories, Romance or otherwise, is that the time required to complete a project is relatively short. This allows people with other obligations, like me, and people with short attention spans, like me, the opportunity to complete projects and submit them for publication. Once the demands on my time slacken, I feel confident in my ability to devote more time to writing. In the meantime, I will continue to explore writing opportunities and to read.
My current reading list includes Michael Chabon and Kurt Vonnegut. I have been a fan of Chabon’s for almost ten years, but Vonnegut is a new addition for me. I read “Slaughterhouse Five” about a month ago and am currently reading “Welcome to the Monkey House.” It’s a collection of short stories. Both of these authors intimidate me. If I wasn’t aware of the wide variety of readers, I may actually quit writing when considering their prodigious talent. Of course, I feel the same way about a lot of writers.
In spite of the intimidation factor, I am going to work hard to reverse the inexorable grind towards anonymity; I am going to work hard on the next project; I am going to work hard to continue writing. I hope you continue reading.
Spike
Hell, for that matter, did John Grisham feel this way after “The Firm.” I remember reading that Grisham followed up “The Firm” by writing “The Pelican Brief” in six weeks. Granted, it wasn’t the best novel he wrote, but he did sell the movie rights. I wouldn’t mind that type of follow up.
But, it would appear that my window of opportunity is slowly closing. I doubt I can afford to wait a decade between books like Donna Tartt or David Duncan. I do have another coming soon, “A Slice of Life,” but after that, the Romance pipeline is empty. I have started two other short Romances, but have all but abandoned them at this point. I lack the discipline to write regularly and that is a product of having a full time job and young children. I also have a young adult novel and a memoir in the works, but all of my writing projects are being neglected currently. I doubt that admission is going to fire up my readership, but, that constituency is pretty small at present.
The nice thing about writing short stories, Romance or otherwise, is that the time required to complete a project is relatively short. This allows people with other obligations, like me, and people with short attention spans, like me, the opportunity to complete projects and submit them for publication. Once the demands on my time slacken, I feel confident in my ability to devote more time to writing. In the meantime, I will continue to explore writing opportunities and to read.
My current reading list includes Michael Chabon and Kurt Vonnegut. I have been a fan of Chabon’s for almost ten years, but Vonnegut is a new addition for me. I read “Slaughterhouse Five” about a month ago and am currently reading “Welcome to the Monkey House.” It’s a collection of short stories. Both of these authors intimidate me. If I wasn’t aware of the wide variety of readers, I may actually quit writing when considering their prodigious talent. Of course, I feel the same way about a lot of writers.
In spite of the intimidation factor, I am going to work hard to reverse the inexorable grind towards anonymity; I am going to work hard on the next project; I am going to work hard to continue writing. I hope you continue reading.
Spike
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Oops, I forgot!
It has come to my attention that I have not been actively promoting my book, which was the main reason I started this Blog in the first place.
Oops, my bad.
I started writing about fifteen years ago, not for publication, just for shits and grins. I read Mike Shayne, Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen magazines as a kid. I always read the shortest stories first because my attention span was short. But, by the end of the month, I had read all the stories but the novelette, which was 25-45 pages long. I reluctantly read it because the next magazine wasn’t due for a week or two and inevitably, I had read the mag cover to cover before the new one came.
These experiences motivated me to write “Pickup Lines from a Pickup Truck” and “A Slice of Life,” and the unfinished novel and the unfinished memoir. They have informed my writing style, my choice of subject matter and ultimately, who I am as a writer –whoever that may be, it is still a work in progress.
As part of that work in progress, I would welcome any comments from readers. I write for myself, but part of my motivation is to make readers happy. So, please, buy my books at WWW.RedRosePublishing.com and let me know what you think. I am Spike_Fremont@yahoo.com.
Peace!
Spike
Oops, my bad.
I started writing about fifteen years ago, not for publication, just for shits and grins. I read Mike Shayne, Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen magazines as a kid. I always read the shortest stories first because my attention span was short. But, by the end of the month, I had read all the stories but the novelette, which was 25-45 pages long. I reluctantly read it because the next magazine wasn’t due for a week or two and inevitably, I had read the mag cover to cover before the new one came.
These experiences motivated me to write “Pickup Lines from a Pickup Truck” and “A Slice of Life,” and the unfinished novel and the unfinished memoir. They have informed my writing style, my choice of subject matter and ultimately, who I am as a writer –whoever that may be, it is still a work in progress.
As part of that work in progress, I would welcome any comments from readers. I write for myself, but part of my motivation is to make readers happy. So, please, buy my books at WWW.RedRosePublishing.com and let me know what you think. I am Spike_Fremont@yahoo.com.
Peace!
Spike
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