An Untitled Rant

As I read on a Facebook post that one of my favorite writers has gone off to Egypt, it is hard to obey the 10th commandment, thou shall not covet. Sometimes, I catch myself living vicariously through my favorite novelists.

I dream about getting a good book deal, hefty advances in working with publishers such as Thomas and Mercer. But with all this in mind I need ask myself, why do I write?

I could go on all night with reasons about why I'm a writer .  But the underlying reason is that writing is an addiction- there are a lot worse addictions I could have .

I live and breathe writing. I think about it before I go to sleep and I dream about it. 

All of that aside, I find I do my best writing when I quiet my thought and silence my senses.  It is then I can just sit down and do it.

Editing And Updating My Posts

Good morning, or should I say good afternoon to some. I hope everyone is having a great day. I've been looking at past posts and reading them and making a few minor edits here and there-some of those mistakes were bad typos.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I'm aware that a lot of these dispatches need to be edited.  What I normally do is edit them as I go along.

More Progress On the Lou Blatz Story

Today I broke out of my writing funk and wrote at least three pages of the second draft of my current story. What it all boils down to is this: sitting down and writing and saying to yourself "Damn the torpedoes". Also, the longer you go without writing, the less you think you have to say. This was true regarding this current story.

Good Morning To All

Hello everyone. I just wanted to say good morning and hope everyone is having a great day. When I get excited about writing, I always refer to it as the writing bug. As of right now, I don't have it. I'm waiting for a book that really wows  me. So far, I haven't found that book. This is not to say that I haven't read some good novels. Because I have. But every once in a while, I read a story that really inspires me to write something of my own.

More About The Lou Blatz Story

I'm feeling better about the story. As I said yesterday, I did a character sketch on Lou Blatz and got to know him a little better. Today I used my John Truby's Blockbuster program and put the story through the paces. The end result was that I came up with a story that had more depth.

I think this piece is going to be a lot darker than my previous Huey stories. It is due in part to the nature of Lou Blatz; he is naturally a dark and dreary character. Huey, on the other hand, has an optimistic streak running through him. He doesn't know how it's going to happen, but somehow he's always going to land on his feet - his big clown feet that is.

After I'm done with this one, I think it's going to be the tightest mystery I've written so far.  

On Doing Character Sketches

I've been spoiled in that for some time I've been writing about the same character, my beloved clown Huey Dusk. In writing about him, I have gotten to know him as I've go along. So now he is second nature to me-almost an aspect of myself.

But with this story, I am writing about a side character in the same universe as Huey. This character is Lou Blatz , the homicide clown detective that is always harassing him.

I thought I knew him well enough to cast him as a main character. However,  I am running into a few snags dealing with his voice.  The main problem is that he sounds a lot like Huey.

 To remedy this I am doing a character sketch.  So far, it is been very helpful.   Through doing this exercise, I've already learned a lot about Lou:  where he is from, his philosophy about life, his hopes and dreams, and how he feels about his fellow clowns.

 I might also add that normally,  I don't like characters to talk to me; but since I've taken the time to think this one through, I think I will listen to what Lou has to say.

Little Tokyo, by Mike Petttit

Little Tokyo by Mike Pettit was an interesting book. It's a mix of Mickey Spillane and a men's adventure novel à la Mack Bolan.

The main character is John Locke. John is a retired private investigator who just wants to be left alone and gamble his remaining good years away. But the book opens with him doing a job for a client who turns out not to be on the level. The job entailed Locke finding this gangster and roughing him up. But, as it turns out John ends up killing the gangster and blowing up his place of employment. This is just the opening.

The main story deals with Locke being hired to find this Midwestern family's  daughter, who has sunk into the deep cesspool of LA porn. Bloody mayhem ensues.  

I enjoyed this book, but I must warn you it is not for the faint of heart.   It is very gory and it has some graphic sex scenes.   My only nit pick is that in some parts Pettit spends a lot of time telling instead of showing.   In the biz we call that an information dump.

But on the whole, if you are looking for a cheap pulp action novel, then I would highly recommend this book.   It can be purchased at  www.amazon.com for $2.99.

Reflections About Writing

An English professor once told me sometimes it is not good to read your favorite authors when you're writing. He felt that because they were so good, it would discourage you.

Today I feel that way. The pages I am turning out feel uninspired. But like I said yesterday, I will keep working. Because sometimes a writing challenge is good for the literary soul.

Thoughts About The Lou Blatz Story

Hello to all,

I hope everyone's having a great week. Mine is plugging  right along. Right now I'm working on a story about Lou Blatz. He is the homicide clown cop that is always harassing Huey Dusk. This story is going to be from his point of view and it's going to be a cop caper . What I'm having difficulty with is giving the character his own narrative. My first draft sounded a lot like a Huey story with a different character in his place.

So, this story is going to require a lot of fine tuning to make it an original piece.  But fear not.  Because I enjoy writing this and I'm up to the challenge .