Month: September 2016

Well, the call to action in my previous post flopped like a fish on a sidewalk. I don’t understand it, but I’m going to soldier on. History doesn’t write itself.

My main character’s mentor is his Uncle Eustace. From time to time he is simply called Uncle U. Eustace served in World War I. During one of the battles he was captured by the German’s and remained a prisoner of war for some time. He was the subject of many unspoken chemical experiments. In 1919, the year Bill is born, Eustace is liberated from his POW camp. He prefers not to talk about what the German’s did to him, even to me. He’s now an angry individual and believes the world owes him something for all the misery the war put him through. He is harsh and aggressive to just about everyone he comes across. His main goal in life is to make money. He turns to the oldest profession in the world and sets up a bordello in his shotgun house.

Eustace lets his underachieving nephew work at the house of ill repute by washing the sheets and running the ledger one day a week. Bill started this work at the age of 15. Eustace is not at all happy when Bill spends his time with Anne Marie instead of working. He does teach Bill one lesson the young lad carries with him throughout the rest of the book.

Eustace could be the spitting image of Ebenezer Scrooge before Jacob Marley haunted him that fateful night. With a man that harsh as a role model, what does it leave in store for Bill? You’ll have to read the book when it gets published.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what I’m reading. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I finished Karol Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility this past week. The book lays the groundwork for his Theology of the Body. I haven’t picked my new book, but it’ll probably be a Carl Hiaasen book as I need a light read after the heavy and dense Love and Responsibility. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

As I mentioned nearly three weeks ago, I set a goal to finish revising my story by the end of August. Unfortunately, I did not reach that goal. However, I did make excellent progress, and I’m down to the last forty pages. According to my critique group, I have to rewrite the ending and add at least one chapter. So there is is a little more work to do than just adjusting a word here and there. It will be done by the time I attend OCW (Ozark Creative Writer’s) Conference in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in early October.

I’ve been blogging now for a little over three months. I still have a manuscript and no book. I will continue to strive to find a publisher. I’ve talked about research opportunities and how I’m not a marketing genius. I believe it is time I hear from you. Please send me questions and I’ll do my best to answer them in next week’s blog. I won’t reveal all the juicy details of my story, but hopefully, I will spike your interest so that you continue to read the words that I put your screen. Please use the email link at the top right of the page to send in your questions.

History doesn’t write itself. You should know that by now if you’ve read my previous blog posts. But even the history that is written much more is out there waiting to be uncovered and explored. Not all stories need to have a historical reference in them, A Song of Ice and Fire or The Lord of the Rings for example, but the history you create for your story needs to be believable and accurate. George R.R. Martin published a 300-plus-page tome called “The World of Ice and Fire” that lays out the history of Westeros. I would say less than one percent of this history is mentioned in his books. However, he has the whole history of the entire continent. He knows the story of each town and family and how they interact with each other. When you have that much information that you don’t even include in your manuscript/book, you have done a tremendous job of making your story believable.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what I’m reading. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I’m continuing to read Karol Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility. The book lays the groundwork for his Theology of the Body. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.