I've been writing non-stop on the new novel. I pull my smoking keyboard to the side of the road in late afternoon to take my hour walk...in time, also, to do my cooking chores unless it's a morning crock pot preparation. I'm continually asking my working wife to have pity on the poor writer and his creative burden. When I awake, I don't even want to take time to eat or shave. I've completed 27 pages, but I see far ahead into the many possible ways this book can go. I continually adjust the characters and plot roots. One flesh and blood character has turned into a robot. I continually go over the same pages to adjust for my changing visions. The place and circumstances of the novel are so real to me I find myself putting too much detail in, and I want to keep the reader hoping along. It's best to salt the action with details rather than pour them over it. I've also written two possible openings or one may follow the other.
It's all pretty exciting. Angie's Choice felt exciting years ago when I wrote it. Speaking of Angie's Choice, another agent rejection came in:
Hi, George,
Thank you for your query. While your project certainly has merit, I'm going to pass. As I'm sure you know, it's important that your agent be totally excited by/committed to/passionate about your project, and I'm afraid that just didn't happen here. But opinions vary considerably in this business, and mine is just one. I'm sure you'll find others who feel differently. I hope so! I wish you the very best in your search for representation.
Warm regards, Laney Katz Becker, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin
Agents are always kind. It could be worse, you know? They could send a photo of an agent gagging on the novel. On the more positive side, I've been asked to read a poem at the Peace and Justice Action Fair in Vancouver on the 7th of September, and another poem of mine will be hung with a piece of someone else's art at the Gallery360 Art Meets Literature Show. Theme was inspiration. Another poem or two may soon find a home, and it sounds as if someone will write a feature article about this poet for the Vancouver Vector. If that happens as expected, I'll include more details later...names and etcetera. You can always find my work at Amazon or Author House if you've a mind to. Thanks for reading.
Have
been hard at work rewriting the novel which was my thesis for the
Masters Degree in English with an emphasis on Creative Writing at
Eastern Washington University. I have a goal of publishing it as an
ebook with Amazon. I've got so much to learn about that process, but I
was much helped by that inexpensive and informative 9 hour course with
Russel Mickler called Blogging and Self-publishing.
Rewriting is stimulating and fills in when original creative
inspiration is flagging so it's good to have lots of old work lying
around.
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| MY HERMITAGE |
I'm looking forward to the next Ghost Town Poetry reading on the second Thursday in April, organized by Chris Luna at Cover To Cover
books. He's a local powerhouse when it comes to generating and
publicizing things of value to local poets. My interest in that next
opportunity to read generated two new poems. Then I dug up some poetry
that I wrote in the late 1980s while I was living like a hermit in a
farmhouse outside of Cheney. I think I published one or two poems from
that series, but I lost interest in them as being too narrative and not
as metaphorical as I had come to think was the best kind of poetry I
could produce. In looking them over again, my interest in them was
rekindled and I spent all day today, working away at them and dusting
them off. I can see a chapbook length production in them. I was
genuinely happy working away at them. They inspirited me, and I believe
it is one or two of them that I'll read next at Ghost Town Poetry.
