Maybe it's not a fluke. Maybe I actually can write. Maybe, just maybe, I might even make it in the writing business! Ever ambitious, I decided I was going to take a break from writing my 'Big Novel' and pump out a novella. I thought maybe if I submitted it now, it might be a good follow-up for "The New Flesh." Well, my novella, "Fevered Hills" has been accepted, the contract has been signed, and, just like when Greg Gifune called me up one day and told me he'd like to publish my novel, I am once again stunned. I am used to sending stories out to various publications and then waiting for months for them to be rejected. This one was accepted in record time! It really is amazing. Then, as I did with Greg, I gave my new novella editor, Dave Thomas, a bit of a personal rant during our email correspondence and he let slip that my three-year plan to become a full-time writer might even be possible! Well fine then. I don't believe in setting realistic goals for myself. How about two years? One?
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Which would you rather use? You'd think the MacBook air, right? But isn't there an allure to the musty clacking of typewriter keys? Wouldn't writing on such a device inspire you to great heights of literary achievement? I mean, to be able to write like Cormac McCarthy... Blood Meridian... The Road... No Country for Old Men... Bleak beyond belief, all of them, but demented genius is still genius. But then again, J. K. Rowling loves her MacBook Air. She says it "changed my life.” She says she's written "everywhere, including some very strange places." That sounds cool. Oooo, strange places. Like Hogwarts? Maybe. I know I would be a very happy camper sitting in Dumbledore's quarters writing my ass off on my new MacBook Air. Of course, if you're a starving writer whose day job requires you to subsist on a frozen pizza and ramen noodle diet, maybe the old typewriter, which Mr. McCarthy recently replaced for $11 dollars, might be more your speed, plus the genius thing, don't forget the genius thing. Don't disturb me: I'm Writing! Well, for any real writer that should be all year round... NaNoWriMo is a joke. The year I tried to write 50,000 words in month, I ended up with a gluttonous stack of words, like vomit over paper, like a free-writing exercise in some sort of creative writing class in hell, the whip-wielding demon behind me roaring, "More! More!" If you want to write a novel--a rational, fleshed-out, character-driven and reader-worthy piece of fiction--I'd say set a reasonable daily goal and stick with it. There's no way around it. Write a little every day and eventually you might actually have a novel. Then, of course, you'll probably have to write another one, but if you enjoyed writing the first one, that shouldn't be so bad. Just write, but don't worry about speed; worry about quality, about character, about story, about atmosphere, however you come by it, in your own way, in your own time. Have fun with it. Start your novel this month, and write until it's finished, but be careful, and don't rush it; there's no need for that nonsense. Of course, if you're lucky enough to be a full-time writer and don't have some stupid day job looming over you, consuming your time like the aforementioned demon's mentally challenged cousin Angus eats brimstone, there's a good chance you write a solid 50k each month anyway! I've felt strangely compelled--it came suddenly to me whilst wading through the surreal murk that is my current writing project--to discuss a Stephen King novel, one that I feel is, unfortunately, neglected in the King canon: "The Tommyknockers." I will admit, I'm a fantasist, and my threshold for suspended disbelief may be a little higher than most, but I've heard and read a lot of negative things about "The Tommyknockers," complaints concerning its slow beginning and its lackluster ending and it being too detailed. Too detailed? To me, it is the rich details and all those different stories of all those interesting King characters (tons of them in a small town, just like "'Salem's Lot"), that make "The Tommyknockers" such a wonderful read. The beginning is slow, I think, to those that are too used to the fast-paced King novels (like "Firestarter"), or the cheap, in-your-face thrills of other horror writers (like Dean Koontz). I've read a lot of King. I grew up with King. In many ways, he helped to shape the sort of writer I have become. In middle and high school, I devoured King like hot, bubbling pizza after a long day of digging trenches. I've grown out of him a little, feeling he lost his edge a bit after his accident, but I've read pretty much everything he's written from "Carrie" through the "Dark Tower" books. That's a lot of King. Which is why, when I hear someone complain about "The Tommyknockers" not being one of King's best, I scoff (usually to myself, talking aloud in the shower later the clever things I wish I'd thought of at the time), and would argue that the darkness and depth of imagination in this piece makes it an exemplified work of fantasy. The scene early on where Gardner drunkenly rants at a stuffy cocktail party about the dangers of nuclear power, is masterfully done. The story involving Hilly and his magic show and Altair-4, is heart-wrenching and beautiful. The allusions to other King works are great fun for the King fanatic (Pennywise the clown makes a brief appearance; Jack, from "The Talisman," talks with a hungover Gardner on the beach by the Alhambra Inn; a minor character from "The Dead Zone" appears, as do brief references to "Firestarter" and "'Salem's Lot"). A very solid novel to come out of the "golden" age of King. "The Tommyknockers" is an excellent allegorical tale of substance abuse, but also a wonderful work of dark fantasy. In Between Altered States Flash Fiction that crosses dimensions I have a short piece featured on the site In Between Altered States, a zine "dedicated to showcasing excellent flash fiction that tries to bend the mind and think about life in a slightly twisted manner." My piece is a part of Episode 30, a string of flash fiction in the theme of "mistaken identity." 'Midnight,' this one is called... At midnight I heard bacon sizzling in the abandoned restaurant along the boardwalk. Each evening the heavy smells woke me in my apartment above the beach. Following my nose, I stepped carefully down the stairs... |
"Unrelenting Horror"- FREE!An award-winning author known for blending elements of fantasy with horror in his surreal, literary style. Author of WITHIN, A GAME FOR GODS and VIOLENT HEARTS.
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