Category: amwriting

Novel Progress Report 1/15/25

Just, you know, how it’s going..

So, here it is, January ’25. The world is about to enter a long, dark corridor. Really, we’re pretty much in that corridor already, but we’re about to turn a corner and whatever dim light there was behind us is going to be cut off.

We’re entering an age where human life will be much less valuable. The people are on the ropes. What are we going to do? What can we do? Time will tell. I hope what’s coming is at least a good story.

Into this dark January I continue to work on my novel-in-progress provisionally entitled A Curse of Romans. I’m giving it about 3 hours a week right now, but it is a consistent 3 hours a week, and has been since 2022. I’m a little over 3/4ths of the way through a 4th draft. I keep thinking I should devote more time to it, but whether I do or not, I intend to get it to a final draft, probably 3 or 4 passes away.

This current draft is about getting my facts straight. I’m consistentizing my worldbuilding (which was improvised in the first draft), I’m trying to make the characters a little bit more interior-logical, line-editing some because some things I did on the fly were obviously bad and it’s embarrassing, plus I’m rewriting two big sections, one of which I did earlier and one of which is upcoming – i. e., the ending. The current ending must be scrapped and replaced.

Next draft will be a scene-by-scene out-loud retelling in the narrator’s voice. Draft five is shaping up to be crucial. That will be the one where not only will I be reading each scene aloud, I’ll be applying the Stanislavsky stuff that my MFA seminar was about. If I don’t get intentions right, the whole thing will fall apart. Also wondering if I should acquire a kilij, which my narrator character uses.

So yeah, it’s difficult, I’m going slow, but the work is going well. I like what it’s about, I like my characters, and I think this is a good story. Of course, anyone who ever eventually reads the thing will decide.

Current listening: The Mob Rules by Black Sabbath.

Here are Some New Seven-Word Stories

Imagine Israel and Palestine, a single state.

I am listening to the first Genesis.

I am enjoying a glass of Meletti.

I need to write about this album.

*å#@#å*

We’re painting our house red next week.

The US has a corrupt neoliberal government.

Zeitgeist 11/2023

A Time Capsule

I’ve called these thingies writing updates in the past, but I do have other stuff going on, so I’ll include some of that here as well. I’ll try not to wander too much!

State of the World. Not good, really. I think there is a LOT of cultish and ideological thinking going on about things that are essentially distractions. The war in Ukraine was a distraction as much as it was a cash cow, but this Palestine thing is So Much Better. We are draining our coffers on genocide, and in a totally contradictory way to what we were doing in Ukraine. Which doesn’t matter, because they’re distractions. Things to keep our minds occupied while they rob us blind. But the Israel one is extra cool, because it’s one of the ones where dissent from it is a big offense. People are losing their jobs over it.

Also, There were two consecutive November days that were the hottest November days on record, and the month as a whole was 2°C above pre-industrial levels! That’s supposed to be the Line That Must Not Be Crossed.

Well, we done crossed it. Go Progress, Go.

State of Massachusetts. I live in the Western part of the state now, and my connection to what’s going on in Boston is really different from what it was when I was in Watertown. Of course.

Where I live now is so bucolic, quiet, beautiful, old school, elevated, and both the same and very different from where I lived before. There are definitely Trumpers in the area, for instance. I’m friends with some Trumpers. This does not in any way freak me out, even thought I am about as far from being a Trumper as it is possible to be… But we’ve veered into the previous heading’s territory, haven’t we, so maybe we should stick to the subjet. At least those of us who are me should.

But I still have 3 major connections to the city, and I need to honor those. Lesley, Fenway, and Wicked Queer. Once a week, I drive down Route 2 into Cambridge, up Fresh Pond Parkway, to Mass Ave, and then over to Porter Square. If’n I was rich, I’d have a pied-à-terre in Belmont.

State of Mind. Weirdly OK, considering. I have a lot of rage about how things are in this world, and I think I always will, but it is really sad and distressing watching things look so much like they’re falling apart. I look at the world and wonder how anybody thinks the state of things is sustainable. But you know what? It’s OK. I’m in the place where The Coming Doom will come to last. If I can see it coming, I can make peace with it.

People on an individual are OK. On a mass level, we’re a mess. I’m kind of a mess, but I’m a mess in an exceptionally beautiful place, far from the madding crowd, and that makes a difference.

Also, I think critical thinking can help with a lot of things that people aren’t applying it to. The facts are the same for all of us. I know Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kelly Anne Conway think there is such a thing as “alternate facts,” but you know what? There kind of are. The center-left corporate media spins as much of a fake narrative as the right does, it’s just not quite as nefarious. But there are things that lib friends of mine believe that are definitely untrue.

Writing Life. Currently caught in the middle of two tasks. I’m working on a revision of the Ghost Story, and I need to be working on The Faerie Pirate Thingie. Also need to be watching movies for Wicked Queer. Eep.

Read a couple of brief sections of The Faerie Pirate Thingie at Paul Richmond‘s Word open mike over at the LAVA Center. That went OK, but for this work, I need to read for longer than a five-minute open mike slot. I’m still looking for that opportunity.

I’m working with a book coach on The Faerie Pirate Thingie, and our back and forth has been very helpful. I’m seeing the shape and size of the work before me, and.. it’s a lot, but it’s doable. I need to devote more time to it, so I may be stopping in the middle of this current draft of the Ghost Story for a bit while I address the Faerie Pirate Thingie.

I am not working with the book coach on the Ghost Story, but I am attempting to apply what I’m learning.

Current Listening. Pocupine Tree’s Signify is on the box at the moment.

Update About My Incessant Scribbling

I guess this is a thing now.

I recently got published in Meat For Tea: The Valley Review with a piece called The Casserole Tree. I read at their issue release party at Gateway Arts Center in Holyoke. I didn’t read the published piece, I had already read that one out, and there was something else I preferred to share. I liked that event. It’s in a bar, there was music and visual art and poetry and rock music. I’m looking forward to the next one.

As far as the piece I read at Gateway Arts, I plan to read that one again at Paul Richmond’s Third Tuesday Word this week.

Work on the summary of The Story is proceeding. It’s taken me months to even summarize this thing, and all I can think as I go through it is how much work it needs. I am sure it’s going to grow from the current 120K draft, but who knows by how much? All will be revealed in time, I suppose, but this thing is not going to get shorter, and there is so much work to do. It really is going to take years.

I want to read an exerpt from the thing in front of people, but open mike slots are 5 minutes as a rule and I want to read for at least 10. I haven’t found a 5 minute chunk that’s worth excerpting!

In other news, I still have the Socialist Ghost Story sitting out, waiting to be returned to. I was struggling with that one a bit, but I theorize that the reason I was struggling is Too Many Irons In the Fire. Once I can devote my whole brain to it, it will come into sharper focus. I am afraid it might be a while before I do get back to it. Maybe I should drawer it, but I definitely want to go back and finish it.

Another Quick Writing Update II: The Sequel.

F & SF did not want the thing I read at open mikes back in June. Trying to decide what to do with that one next.

Submitted a piece to Meat For Tea called “The Casserole Tree.” Found a typo in that one, and I absolutely HATE my second sentence, all found after I had submitted. That one needed more time in the hopper. I expect it to be rejected.

I’ve temporarily abandoned the ghost story to concentrate on the byzantine pirates. It’s fun reading it and taking notes as I go. I’m building a “bible” for the characters and doing a scene-by-scene summary, too. I just got to add a page for one of my favorite characters today, which makes me happy. Progress!

Going to the Tuesday Word this week. Will probably read a version of “The Casserole Tree.”