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a writer's journal
Monday, December 31, 2007
The female character in the novel has come alive to some extent, alive enough to get the writing of her sections started. I have faith that she'll flesh-out and round-out now in the writing. She needs a name, too. And I'd like to work out the parallels and contrasts between her and my (also-un-named) Civil War soldier. I really like how the possibilities are opening up.
I'm tempted to do a writing-year-in-review thing at this point--it is the last day of the year, after all--and 2007 has been a banner year. But the journal and archive are right here for anyone interested. So maybe a recap is superfluous.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Last Thursday I read at the Carnegie Center in Lexington, KY. Afterwards I led a workshop on point-of-view in fiction. There were a dozen very talented and enthusiastic writers in the workshop. The evening was meaningful, too, because the reading was in the Carnegie Center room where I'd first studied with Silas House six years ago. Leatha Kendrick, Rachel Noble, and Jennifer Mattox made it a most enjoyable evening all around.
I've been reading everything I can find about the Shaker communities of South Union and Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, particularly in the 1840-1860's, this as background for the novel-in-progress. A writer-friend, who worked at South Union and has done extensive research on that community, has offered to share what she's learned over the years with me. I count myself extremely fortunate.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
A press release issued today by the National Endowment for the Arts breaks the news, so now I can be a bit more forthcoming about the very good news mention in November 15th journal entry. That day an NEA representative phoned to tell me that I'd been awarded a 2008 Literature Fellowship in Prose. Now I can be more openly thrilled and humbled...both of which I truly am.
Friday, November 30, 2007
The reading in St. Louis (River Styx at Duff's Reading Series) went well, with many interesting and fun people there, including the editors from literary magazines Crab Orchard Review and Sou'wester. Reading with me was talented young poet Adrian Matejka. I read a complete story for a change, "Stainless," from TKTLB. I'm thinking I'll read that again at Carnegie Center in Lexington next month, along with two very short pieces.
I read this quote from Matthew Sharpe the other day, and I've been thinking about in relative to the novel-in-progress, H&H. Here's what Sharpe said:
"One of the ways that narratologists think about stories is that has to be some violation of the social norm to get the story going. I was walking down the street when such and such happened. I think one of the ways to understand something about whatever phenomenon you're investigating is to imagine an extreme case of it, something that pushes the limits."
I may have been trying to ease into the novel, not going into it boldly enough.
Thursday, November 15, 2007 Both new stories have been added to the collection. Now we wait while the contest mechanism grinds. This afternoon there was very good news from another direction. For now, that’s all I can say. Wednesday, October 17, 2007 Once again, I’m surprised by a friend’s email: my story, “The Accomplished Son,” which was published by The Potomac Review last year, was cited as a distinguished runner-up in the new Best American Mystery Stories 2007 edited by Carl Hiassen. I hadn’t thought of that story as a mystery. Maybe… I’m working on another story for the collection. “Overburden,” combines a couple themes. Like most of my stories, it’s centered on a relationship, a husband and wife. On the surface, there is less conflict than usual, so I’ll be interested to see and hear reactions. The risk is that the lack of overt tension means the story will go slack and readers will lose interest. We shall see. Friday, September 7, 2007 I have a new story, “Angel, His Rabbit and Kyle McKell,” rounding into shape. I’ve sent the draft along to the small press and University Press of Kentucky. It seems like a good story to add to the end of my too-short short story collection. I’ve waggled between Tether and Nothing Like an Ocean as a title for the collection. NLAO is the title of the lead story, which appeared last spring in Shenandoah. Once I’ve given Angel, His Rabbit, etc. edits and polishing, I’ll send it to a few literary magazines. It seems like forever since I’ve shopped a story. Video from my TV segment in Maryland last spring is up on the internet now. The interview runs eight or nine minutes. Here’s a LINK. Tuesday, August 28, 2007 I’ve been recommending the University of North Texas Katherine Anne Porter Competition (short story collection) to friends, and two or three have entered. About two weeks ago I realized that the manuscript size required to enter is slight—100-200 manuscript pages—and I might be able to put together an entry myself. I did, in fact, 119 pages. It’ll probably need two or three more stories to fill it out to standard, publishable size. Pleasant surprise this week. An online friend e-mailed to say that the new Best American Short Stories 2007 (edited by Stephen King) cites my story, First Husband, First Wife as being among the distinguished also-rans in the back of the book. That story has been good to me. Thursday, July 19, 2007 H&H is bogging down again. I’m wondering if maybe I’m trying to be too fancy with the three timeframes in a single novel. On one level, it seems as though it might work. But then some mornings all I can think is: “Who are you kidding?” The connections between sections seem too tenuous. Here’s a Charles Baxter quote that I read recently. It comes from an interview by Lila Wallace: “It can be worrisome if all the people you talk to who say they want to be writers also say, ‘I don’t read.’ That’s like saying, ‘I want to be an electrician, but I don’t know much about wires.’ “There’s a certain stage of writing that comes out of self-involvement and narcissism. And if you’re going to become serious as a writer at all, you have to get beyond that, so that you are concentrating less on yourself and on the story and more on the writing itself. You simply have to move yourself out of the way. Even if you’re writing a memoir. You have to think at least as much about the language as you’re thinking about your own history. You have to think about the way in which the story is being told.” When I critiqued manuscripts in workshops last year, I’d go straight to the writing, skipping the content of a writer’s story entirely. And often it was the content that the person wanted to discuss…the terrible things that happened to a character, or the dilemmas faced and the directions taken. How it was written seemed to be regarded as secondary, and nothing could be further from the truth than that.
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