Journal of a Novel

My favorite example of these types of journals are two volumes of Steinbeck letters that are available.; Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, and Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath. What he did and what I am thinking about doing is you write a long series of letters in the notebook he also wrote the novel in. The right side of the page is where you write your novel, and the left side of the page is where you keep the letters. Steinback said he used to do it to get his mind in the zone. Any writer knows...

Anderson, Faulkner, and Me!

I was shopping in a local bookstore the other day and found a book by Faulkner I had not know existed. It is called New Orleans Sketches, and it is amazing, One of my favorite books is Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. I have always considered working on a similiar work of inter-connecterd short stories. New Orleans Sketches is Faulkner's verions of Winesburg. I think I am going to adapt this style for my crime novel....

Guest Post: A SHED OF ONE’S OWN

This is the first in a series of Guest Posts by fellow writers about writing conditions and techniques. I want to give other writers a outlet to voice their opinion on writing; how, where, and what they write. So the first in the series is by my close friend and fellow writer; Don Lee. You can check out his blog; Whiskey Bottle Over Jesus.  "The conditions under which the working writer writes seem to be of universal interest. I think on some level it’s part of that desire in all those who write or aspire to write, at...

The Sacred Text of Writing

The weather here is going insane. Been snowing almost non-stop since yesterday afternoon. Everything is covered in snow and ice. When I went to the office yesterday it was crazy slick and the computer says it has been snowing all night, but I have not looked outside yet. I got a few more things at the office last night and now I am rethinking both my sacred text. I really need to have two sacred text I can fall back on when I am writing and I do not change one of the very often, and this time it looks like I may change both...

Blogging in the New Year!

Okay, I have been thinking about the subject of New Years resolutions since writing my last post. I have been feeling unmotivated the past few days and have spent all day in my head searching for the reason and trying to figure out how to get motivated. I hope taking on a fiction project for the new year will give me some of the motivation I am seeking. The reading I have been doing lately is also in hopes of lighting a fire under my ass in the fiction department. I have been reading the type of fiction I want to start writing...

Happy New Years!

Happy New Year everyone! It will be a good year for all of us! 2009 was an interesting year for me. I learned a lot about myself, a lot about writing, a lot about this virtual world we all live in. I hope to learn as much or more in 2010! I usually do not make new year's resolutions, but this year I decided to make a writing oath to myself. I have been studying The Art of Dramatic Writing by: Lajos Egri for a few months and it is going to be my guidebook on the quest I am embarking upon. My quest is none other than the search...

BRK and Simple Living

I want to say first off, sorry for not posting yesterday. I was busy preparing this huge rant you. Hope this makes up for the lack of reading material yesterday...This just goes to show you, Wisdom never appears were you think it will. It always turns up in the most unexpected places, that is part of it's charm. For me wisdom appeared on a cold night in Michigan City which is one of the many far reaching suburbs of Chicago. I was in Chicago staying with a friend who lived in a wonderful farmhouse and was married to a International...