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What’s Happening?
This will be a shorter than usual newsletter, other than the rambling bit down below, but I wanted to invite you to something new. I’ve created a private section of my website where I am uploading the chapters as I complete the first edit of Coyne House. I’m looking for a few interested readers to follow along, comment, point out if I make a continuity error, etc. I have posted eighteen chapters so far, and that’s only about 1/3 of the book (it’s big). I will probably be trimming it down eventually.
I’ve mentioned this novel before (and Coyne House may or may not be the final title). I set out to include every possible horror trope in one story without ruining the story, and I believe I’ve done that. Time will tell, but you can find out for yourself and way ahead of the rest of the world.
If you would like to be included, please send an e-mail to me at [email protected] – in the Subject Line: Coyne House. I will create an account and send your username, password, and the link to login to the private reading section of the website. Hope to see you there!
Who Wrote That, Anyway, and Hey, It's Pretty Good!
One of the oddest sensations I have experienced as a writer is discovering a passage in one of my novels, or a short story that's been sitting around for a very long time and discovering it for the first time. That seems unlikely, I know, but it's something that happens on occasion, and it can be an eye-opening experience.
What I'm describing, for me, is a sort of dislocation, where I find something I wrote a long time ago, in a lifetime far away, that has lost its direct connection to my brain. That's the only explanation that makes sense to me. I find a file, for instance, on my hard drive, for a story I vaguely remember writing, and open it. I sit, enthralled, reading it from end to end, and I can't for the life of me remember writing it. I can't remember where the words came from, what was connecting inside when I structured sentences; it's eerie, fascinating, and more than once it has steered me back onto a proper track.
I remember a time when this happened while I was working on a particular novel, and the experience set off some alarm bells in my head - like that sharp slap to the cheek you see the hero get now and then in a movie. The one that brings him back to reality and points out obvious facts he should have been aware of all along. That summer I was in a writing funk like I'd never seen. The events of the past few months had altered a great number of things in my life that I previously considered stable, and my writing hadn’t fully settled into the new reality. It's like a dog, circling a soft pillow bed a hundred times to try and find that one little crease that tells it where to finally settle in and get comfortable for the long haul.
Back to the point. I was writing a novel titled The Orffyreus Wheel, which was, at the time, being serialized. At first, I found this to be very liberating. The segments being published were about three chapters apiece, between seven thousand and ten thousand words each, and they ran for a month or more before the next segment came due. I had finished the basic outline long ago for an agent I no longer worked with, and had written the first few chapters as a partial, so I started out with a safety cushion. Over the next few months (most of 2006) I cranked out the sections, keeping one ahead of the deadline at all times to give me a couple of months for a safety net.
The problem was that this method led to some disjointed creative processes. Breaking off on one project, going to others, then coming back for three chapters and moving on proved to be a bigger challenge than I thought it would be. Passions shifted, other projects took over my mind, butt still, I was handling it pretty well.
Then came June. I won't go into the big sob story about losing my job and the summer of stumps – all of that has been chronicled in other journals and times. The problem was that there was a serious disconnect on the novel during that summer. I still wrote a page or two here and there. I managed to finish part VI and get it turned in, and was nearly done with part VII, but here's what happened.
I opened the file to read it the other night – the last chapter I wrote, plenty of action scenes – fast paced stuff writes quickly for me. I read it, and I really, really enjoyed it. This caused physical shock. Part of the depression I'd felt over those few months was associated with that book – with the dislocated way I've been writing it, and the lack of enthusiasm I felt for what I was doing. The writing, as it turned out, was good – it was solid, and after reading it, I found that I’d gotten my enthusiasm back. It was weird, because at that point it felt like I was collaborating with some other guy – the guy who wrote that chapter while my brain was away on vacation. It should frighten me, I suppose, but hey, I've always been good at collaboration.
The day after I read that chapter I was working on something else and had an epiphany. The ending, which had eluded me – the way to tie the past segments and present day segments together – fell into place in my mind and winked at me. It was a magical moment, and I have that guy to thank for it – that guy who writes pretty well even when abandoned by his mind, his gut, and his imagination. It's good to know he's still around.
Now and then I find things he's written in the past – words I don't recognize but get the honor of being proud of anyway. It's nice to have an invisible friend who likes the same things.
The Orffyreus Wheel was the #1 serialized novel on Amazon in 2006. It’s available now in print, unabridged audio (narrated by Joshua Saxon) and, despite a little guilt, I left that other guy out of the credits.
What I’m Reading
Currently reading: On Kindle, On Cats, by Margaret Atwood, being a collection of writers, writing about the cats they knew, feared, loved, and remembered. So far it’s wonder. About 20% in..
Listening to the audiobook of Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker. I am about 77% of the way through this one and should finish tomorrow. Very interesting book, new perspectives, and a lot to think about.
What I’m Watching
The best thing we’ve watched recently is the short series that was turned into a movie (streaming on Tubi and other places) Headless: A Sleepy Hollow Story. Absolutely wonderful stuff.
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