I have found that one of the best ways to create character, to craft plot, and to dream theme is to be part of a book discussion group.
I belong to three separate groups. One is devoted to Moby Dick, and we are taking a few chapters each month to sail our way through that perfect [...]
Archive for February, 2008
Book discussion
February 27, 2008
Finnegans Awake
February 24, 2008
I’ve decided to start shopping this novel around. It is the first Finnegans novel I wrote, and it’s a story my wife and I concocted based (only in part) on an incident that happened to us. I finished it more than two years ago, and I set it aside, thinking it might have all been [...]
Nota bene
February 24, 2008
I once read an interview with the author John Irving in which he said that even after his novels are published, and he’s holding the bound book in his hand, he can’t resist the impulse to edit what he has written. He will actually make pencil edits in the book. He’ll note how he should [...]
Chapter 12
February 23, 2008
Time for my weekly progress report, I guess.
I finished Chapter 12 of Finnegans Afoot. It’s where I turn up the tension level a bit as we approach the crisis a couple chapters hence. The chapter is a little lean, but I expect that with a first draft. Some of the ideas in it will [...]
Nothing new under the sun
February 21, 2008
I was poking through a certain agent’s website, looking at some of the big names she represents and I came across a synopsis of the latest novel by one of those big names. It’s a mystery about a woman who is suspected of murdering her wealthy husband the night before he is to file for [...]
It only stings a little
February 20, 2008
Yesterday my email brought me two rejections from agents who had asked for partials on Finnegans Festive. One responded within two days of my query saying that she wasn’t looking for mystery fiction. Oddly, her web page says she is.
The other was the agent who had responded after five months to ask for sample chapters. [...]
The script
February 16, 2008
I’ve long thought that most people really want to have a script for their lives. They want to be told what they should think and feel, what they should be interested in, what their opinions should be, what they should buy, how they should spend their free time, and, most of all, how they can [...]
Variable and subjective
February 13, 2008
I confess that I am utterly confused by just what an agent wants in a query letter. I’ve read quite a few posts on quite a few blogs as well as the submission guidelines at countless agent websites, and while they all seem to agree on the basic contents, they diverge widely from there.
Some ask [...]
Benson Murder Case
February 11, 2008
I recently read the novel The Benson Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine. It is the novel that introduced the immensely popular character of Philo Vance to the mystery fiction universe. I don’t think he has aged well, though I understand he has devotees to this day.
The novel is set in the 1920s and [...]
