Jan 20, 2012
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 | 0 comments
My first book, The Sequence, is done. Well, I’m done with it. The book is at my editor whom I am sure will find one of two mistakes in it…
The protagonist in this book is a woman named Shawna Davidson. She is a recent widow, having lost her husband to a plane crash. The insurance company won’t pay out because they think the death was a suicide. The loss of her husband’s income and a lack of savings force her to quit graduate school (she was going to Duke to become a genetic scientist). Quitting school means she has abandoned her dream of using her knowledge to develop a life saving drug that saves thousands of lives. To make ends meet, she gets a job working for a gene sequencing company that is under contract with the government to sequence the DNA of every US citizen. She is not miserable, per se, but she is not living up to her potential either (as measured by her standards). I think a lot of us can identify with Shawna.
I have started my next book and the hero in that is a woman as well. This got me to thinking about why I have chosen women to play such important roles in my first two novels. Here are my answers…
1- I like women. Soft and sensual on the one hand and tough as nails on the other. I like the extremes.
2- I don’t know women very well. Having made the trip around the sun 45 times and being married to one for over 18 years and you would think I would know something about women. Nope. But writing about them and giving them interesting roles let’s me see the world through their eyes. Perhaps when I am 90 I will understand them.
3- Women are complex and interesting. Men, on the other hand, are dipshits. Feed a man and give him an opportunity to release his seed from time to time and life is pretty damn good. Sit him on a LayZBoy in front of a sports channel displayed on a 60″ LCD and he’ll drool all over himself. If he could lick his testicles like the family dog, he would never leave the house.
4- I like feisty women. They scare the hell out of me but I like them. I remember a girl from high school. Her name was/is Michelle. I teased her one day about dating a younger guy (I was a dork and dating no-one at the time so I had no room to run my mouth but facts like this rarely stop me). She smacked the shit out of me for teasing her. It was at that point I realized that women are amazing. Michelle was/is for sure. (and no, I did not develop a fetish where I like women to beat up on me…at least one that I am willing to admit).
So there you have it. Four simple reasons why I like making the protagonist in my stories women. Not saying it will always be that way, but as you can tell, I have a lot of issues to explore. At least a dozen books worth.
Jan 2, 2012
Posted on Jan 2, 2012 | 0 comments
It’s that time of year again, when we say this year I am gonna <fill in the blank>. Most of the time we make these resolutions based on some kind of social pressure.
As in, I’m gonna lose some weight (because my momma says I am getting fat), gonna stop drinking (because I won the neighborhoods ‘most bottles recycled award’), and I’m gonna stop peeing in the yard (because, well, it seems like the right thing to do), etc.
While these are all good resolutions, most of them will be abandoned on a date that falls somewhere between January 1st and January 31st. Especially the last one…such is life.
Me? I said screw resolutions years ago (as well as most of the goals I dutifully wrote down in deference to the success gurus). As a result, my New Years routine has been much simplified as a result.
Here is what I do now…
1- I stop doing everything and take time to turn around and look at how far I have come over the year. Since I write in my journal just about every day so I will do a quick review of what I wrote over the year. The tears flow, the laughter comes, mostly in realization of just how absurd this thing called life is.
2- I think generally about what I might want to work on next…not in the new year mind you, but next. As in, right now.
I do plan to write another book in 2012 (The Discovery) and perhaps several more. My first book, The Sequence (which will be out this year) was a total bitch to write. Well, to be honest, writing it wasn’t so bad but re-writing it was and is the reason I think authors that call themselves Pantsers are self-loathing masochists. I love myself too much to put myself through that hell again. Goodbye pantsing, hello outlining!
And don’t forget the most important step…
3- After all this reflection and thinking, I sit on my back porch, eat a huge slice of pecan pie, drink a bottle of wine and pee in the yard…and then laugh with God at the absurdity of it all.
Nov 3, 2011
Posted on Nov 3, 2011 | 0 comments
The other day a friend asked me why I spend so much time writing. It’s not for the money, that’s for sure. Unlike many novelists, I don’t need to earn a living doing this. But I am also not doing this as just a pastime or a hobby. To me, it is serious business and I spend time everyday pursuing the passion. But why?
Here’s the thing. I have to do it. I must, on a daily basis, express my creativity in some form or fashion. This is not optional. I am the mythical Sisyphus and creating something on a daily basis is the stone I am damned to roll up the hill. And no, its not a particularly healthy obsession. It is why most creatives are labeled crazy and often end up alcoholics. But enough with the cynicism. Here are the good reasons…
My favorite ‘thing’ in the world is a blank sheet of paper. You can do anything with a blank sheet of paper. From the mundane to the magnificent. For me, I like to put words on it mostly. Sometime pictures, but mostly words. And here is why I keep at it day after day.
1- I love the magic of it all – Here’s an admission, I have no clue where the ideas or words I write come from. They just come. Sometimes in flashes of insight as complete scenes in my head that I have to describe or as words that just find their way through my fingers, onto the keyboard and then on the screen.
2- Everyday, I Show Up Just to See Where the Path Will Lead - Since I have no clue where the ideas or the words come from, everyday is one of awe and wonder. Some of the stuff my muse supplies is absolutely magical and she is always full of surprises. It’s amazing to play in my head sometimes. And by putting the words on paper, I hope you can play in there a little bit too.
Science Fiction is a fun genre because you are not constrained with reality as most people live it day to day. You can stretch it a bit and make stuff up. That’s fun to do. It reminds me of my childhood when I would make up elaborate games to play with my friends. Pure fantasy stuff.
One game we played we pretended we were stranded on an island filled with cannibals. Our entire neighborhood became the ecosystem of this island and we would imagine elaborate obstacles we needed to overcome just to survive. Imagine that! As adults, we tend to avoid obstacles but as kids we would create them just for fun. And this game would go on for weeks at a time.
Another game we played was like Star Trek except all of our missions were underwater and our spaceship was a super fast submarine. We even had imaginary air locks we could go through to “dive” outside our submarine. Even as I write this I can recall some of the specific adventures we would come up with. It was like our own TV show with a new mission that we would embark on every time we played. Yes, the 7 year old mind is a fertile playground indeed.
So, here I am at 45 years of age trying to capture the imagination of that 7 year old blond headed kid. And guess what, I think I am doing it.
So why do I write science fiction? Because there is nothing cooler in the world than to be inside the mind of a 7 year old kid. And I get to play there every single day. Care to join me?
