Chapter Fourteen continues February 28, 2009

I’m making slow but satisfactory progress on the writing of Chapter 14 of The Sleep of Reason. It’s one of those hinge chapters: everything before feeds into it, and everything after grows from it. Because of this, I have been jumping back in the narrative to see just what I said before to ensure that [...]

Seeing us as the past February 26, 2009

I’ve been wondering a bit lately just how our age is going to be depicted by historical novelists a hundred years into the future. I know a number of historical novelists working today who go to great pains to learn all that they can about their subject eras so that the story they tell is [...]

Will it never end? February 25, 2009

As I noted in a recent post, I have more than 80,000 words written for The Sleep of Reason, and I expect to write at least another 20,000 to finish it. A reasonable fellow would look at that math and see the light at the end of the tunnel. I guess I’m not reasonable.
Another 20,000 [...]

Sleep creeps – revisited February 24, 2009

Early last fall I wrote a post to this blog about the slow progress I was making on Chapter 7 of The Sleep of Reason. I titled the post “Sleep Creeps.” In the ensuing months, this has become the most visited post on this humble blog.
For a long time — most of the life of [...]

Reflect or create February 23, 2009

Another tale from my dim ages. I once knew a young man who was going to be a rock star. He had some talent with a guitar and he had a group of friends who formed a thrashing sort of band that performed regularly in one of their basements. The band had a name, though [...]

Death of a Cozy Writer February 21, 2009

I’d read in a number of places high praise and recommendation for G.M. Malliet’s novel Death of a Cozy Writer. Last year I had read the similarly titled and plotted Death of a Mystery Writer, so I was eager to give Malliet’s story a go.
This novel is rich with characters and humor; in fact many [...]

As the count stands now February 17, 2009

During the days of creative frenzy, it seems unwise to think about things like word count. The goal is to get the words down, as quickly and as sublimely as possible. Still, there are conventions to publishing, and most aspiring novelists must find their way into a certain range of word count to be considered [...]

Chapter 14 begins February 14, 2009

I’ve made adequate progress on Chapter 14 of The Sleep of Reason. I have about 1,500 first-draft words set down and they set up what is going to come next while quietly echoing the state of the protagonist (though he isn’t aware of the parallel yet).
This chapter departs a bit in tone from the rest [...]

The Sea February 13, 2009

“The past beats inside me like a second heart.”
Max Morden, protagonist and narrator of The Sea
I recently finished reading the novel The Sea by Booker Prize-winner John Banville. I’d seen it praised on several blogs, and since I’m always looking for a new writer to delight me, I gave it a try. I’m glad I [...]

Hippie words February 10, 2009

In the dim ages, back when I had debts to pay and mouths to feed, I worked for a time at a large bank. I worked in what would probably today be called the customer service department. My job was to take calls all day long from people who had opened checking accounts with the [...]