I know what you’ve been thinking. You’ve been wondering what happened to me over the last few months. It’s pretty understandable. I haven’t called in a while, and for that, I apologize.
I’ve been running silent (which provides me a nice interstitial segue to a review to Craig DiLouie’s Crash Dive that I just posted; come on back afterward) these last few months. I’ve been writing and reading and watching and waiting, biding my time for the moment to strike.
In truth, it would be disingenuous of me to claim I’ve spent all of this time away because I’ve been so hard at work on novel No. 2. Of course, I’ve been working on that, but I’ve also been trying to enjoy my summer. You see, to write meaningful stories, you have to experience a meaningful life, and while I’m barely into my thirties, I’ve seen enough summers come and go without taking the time to enjoy them. I’ve already missed out on so much inspiration.
Please don’t misunderstand. I am not some waffle-y author believes he has to tap into the ethereal to make contact with his muse. There are authors like that. I’m not one of them. I’m also not one of those writers who believes you have to pound the keyboard until it dies and you have to replace it and then rattle off ten more stories like machine gun fire. There are plenty of those authors, but I’m not one of them either.
I’m not exactly sure what kind of author I am, but I know some stories slide out easily, and some have to be wrestled with. There’s far more to telling a story than simply laying out the sequence of events, and often, it requires understanding what your story even means before you tell it. The one I’m working on now is of the wrestling kind. I’m facing a fair bit of backup in my brain with other ideas, but I think this one is worth it.
So that’s in large part the update on me. If you’re here because you’re interested in my stories, I am deeply humbled and appreciative. Please read Carrier if you haven’t, and please leave me your thoughts on Amazon or Goodreads. After all, what good is a story if you can’t talk about what it means?
As part of my summer, I’ll be heading to Richmond, Virginia tomorrow to attend Books, Brews, and Boos at Strangeways Brewing. It should be a lot of fun, and if you’re in the area, I hope to see you there. If not, I’ll post some pictures and thoughts up here later.
‘You see, to write meaningful stories, you have to experience a meaningful life, and while I’m barely into my thirties, I’ve seen enough summers come and go without taking the time to enjoy them.’
I know just what you mean! Good to know you’ve got another book in the pipeline though; I hope when you’re done wrestling with it there might be just a tiny bit of the old workshopping… (see what I did there? I still remember you being the one who taught me what a comma splice is and I’m now a hunter for them!) The book event sounds interesting as well…guess it’s too bad there’s a rather large ocean between me and that bar!