novel

Of Bootstraps, Climbing and The Eye…

“Every piece of writing is a bootstrap affair whereby you use the crisis of the next sentence to get to the one beyond.”

–Kris Saknussemm ( Write what you know–and be sorry) The Writer Magazine May 2010, author of the novels, Private Midnight and Zanesville

The word bootstrap usually conjures ideas of a man-child walking in the snow for miles on his way to school, alone and persevering against the elements.

How many times have we heard a parent or grandparent extol how the challenges he endured as a child made him the adult he presently is?

Many jokes center on the extrapolation of one’s difficulties that either did not exist to the degree described or simply sprang from tales spun to inspire awe and respect.

And yet writer, Kris Saknussemm aphorism touches on an all too apparent truth that many of us writers miss or choose to avoid.

Of Bootstraps, Climbing and The Eye… Read More »

Of Blogging, Blogging, and More Blogging….

For anyone interested in learning about blogging read the interview extreme blogger, and author, Laurel-Rain Snow gave to U.L. Harper.

Laurel discusses how she maintains 17, yes that’s right 17 blogs, while also writing novels and being a grandmother among many other things.

Please leave comments as Laurel is in a contest. The more comments, the better her chances of winning.

Laurel is the author of An Accidental Life, Web of Tyranny, Embrace the Whirlwind, Chasing Stardust, Miles to Go and the Amazon short, Family Values.

Of Blogging, Blogging, and More Blogging…. Read More »

Of Narrative, Journeys, and What Compels Us to Write…

“Make up a story. Narrative is radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created.”

–Toni Morrison, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author

The protagonist, in reaching home, during this last chapter of the journey, must evidence that she or he has traveled, not simply waited steps beyond home, seconds beyond the gates of the home native city and after sufficient time to have journeyed far, they reappear with their tale.

Just as the central character must evidence the crisis has transformed her or his way of thinking regarding making decisions, so too, when reaching home again, she or he must demonstrated they have traveled, that they have truly been away.

Often when we travel we bring back gifts for those we love.

The gifts come from the places we have been, where our itinerary of travel has taken us.

Of Narrative, Journeys, and What Compels Us to Write… Read More »

Of Spirals, Parking Garages, and Points of Entry and Identification…

The road that led your protagonist away at the opening of your novel or story brings her or him home again during the final stage, but at a new level of awareness.

And since time has moved forward, while the central character has been gone, we could entitle the journey, Back to the Future and Home Again.

The central character of the story has traveled in a spiral, moving both vertically and horizontally.

They have broadened their perspective. This encompasses the circular motion of the spiral. Read the rest of this entry…

Of Spirals, Parking Garages, and Points of Entry and Identification… Read More »

Of Spirals, Parking Garages, and Points of Entry and Identification…

The road that took the protagonist away, during the final stage of the novel, brings her or him home again, but at a new level of awareness.

And since time has moved forward, while the central character has been gone, we could entitle the journey, Back to the Future and Home Again.

The central character of the story has traveled in a spiral, moving both vertically and horizontally.

They have broadened their perspective. This encompasses the circular motion of the spiral.

Of Spirals, Parking Garages, and Points of Entry and Identification… Read More »