Kyle Michel Sullivan's Blog: https://www.myirishnovel.com/, page 63

Anarchy

I read an interesting article in the April 2023 edition of The Atlantic called  The New Anarchy.  It's about the growth of extremist violence in America and how it's not the first time we've been through this. It's got me thinking about things Brendan says in volume 3 of A Place of Safety and how they might be a bit too on-point...and yet not specific enough. Worth a look. It's scary.

What's happening in the US is somewhat similar to what happened in Northern Ireland, where a majority population kept a minority population down through violence and manipulations of the law. Then when Civil Rights came along to demand equality, which the majority rejected, the minority was not willing to back down. Violence grew and expanded and finally exploded...and it took 30 years for the two sides to finally come together and calm things down.

Thirty years and thousands of deaths, not to mention destruction. All because those in power stupidly thought if you keep punching someone they will never hit back. And if they do start returning the punches, then punching harder will show them who's boss. When the exact opposite is true. No one in power learns. No one.

I've just about had enough of this laptop. I've decided I'm going to buy a Mac mini, keyboard, monitor and mouse, since I do my writing at my desk, now. I'll have to license Word and Photoshop, but my current Photoshop setup isn't really workable, anymore. It's officially 20 years old. but the wayI'm having to set up the laptop and the desktop I currently have is causing pains in my neck and right shoulder, and I'm done. It'll be around $2000 but I have the credit available and I'm going to use it.

Make more room on my desk.

Mark Twain's rules...

Completely off center, today, thanks to an MRI and not eating till noon and a headache thanks to those things, so let's focus on Mark Twain's 18 rules for writing. He's reputed to have said James Fenimore Cooper violated all of them in Deerslayer. And yes, that is a very buff-looking Samuel Clemens, shirtless. Damn...

So, his rules are:

1. A tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. 

2. The episodes of a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help develop it. 

3. The personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. 

4. The personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. 

 5. When the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject in hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say. 

 6. When the author describes the character of a personage in his tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description. 

 7. When a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven-dollar Friendship’s Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a Negro minstrel at the end of it. 

 8. Crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader by either the author or the people in the tale. 

 9. The personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausably set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable. 

 10. The author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. 

11. The characters in the tale shall be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency. 

An author should:

12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it. 

13. Use the right word, not its second cousin. 

14. Eschew surplusage. 

15. Not omit necessary details. 

16. Avoid slovenliness of form. 

17. Use good grammar. 

18. Employ a simple, straightforward style.

King of the typos...

Got more corrections from the last editor, and she's finding things no one else noticed. Lots of things, that once they're pointed out become brutally obvious. Missing words. Wrong words. Jesus. I should use only her, from now on. It's depressing. Even worse, I got so busy inputting them I lost track of time.

The two others who looked the piece over hated the ending, and I'm sure she will, as well. I don't like it, either, but the whole of the story is leading up to it. Also, it feeds into the third volume, when Brendan returns. So it is what it is.

Tomorrow, I'm getting an MRI done to see what this spot is on one of my kidneys. Be nice if they could also find out why I have a bump in my gut. My original PCP said it's just how my intestines aligned. Not sure it can be fixed unless I lose 50 lbs. Yeah, that's gonna happen.

Got two official refusals from agents, today. Not our kind of thing, sort of responses. At least they let me know. Most of them say, If you don't hear from us, that means we're not interested. And I haven't heard from a lot of them.

At least Martin Melaugh agreed to let me use the photo I wanted for volume one, in exchange for credit. But the negative is badly scratched up, like it was dragged over sandpaper, so I'm not sure about it, now. Part of me says it adds to the feel of it; the other part says you can fix it in photoshop. It'll take hours, but doable.

Spent a lot of the day reworking the plan for a potential packing job in NYC, mid-November. Got a list and have photos of the books in their cases. Not a massive job. I'd thought I might stay an extra day and hit the Metropolitan Museum or the Public Library, but hotel rooms are $4-500 a night, including taxes.

Not happening.

Diminishing returns

Seems I'm running into more and more agents who are closed to submissions. I managed to get a few queries out, today, including one to a man who says he's interested in literary fiction, politics and history. I've continued to hone the letter to make it less and less talky, but can only go so far. Pretty soon, I'll be doing the publisher tango.

I heard from Martin Melaugh about using that photo, and they're reticent about it. Don't want it on the cover of a book that glorifies the Provisional IRA in any way. Had to be honest and let them know the first volume is about Brendan keeping away from that as much as possible. But he does have friends who join the group, and his older brother is deeply involved. And of course he interacts with them.

But he, himself, finds the IRA to be worthless and brutal. Just another version of the Constables and British. He even says at one point, to a friend when talking about how the Provos have taken over policing the Bogside area of Derry, "We've traded one devil for another." So we'll see what happens.

This is only if I can't set the book up with an agent and/or publisher. Of course, that's a long shot. I'm not so much unknown as a bit infamous and that might make people back away. Google my name and check out what the third listing is. Somewhat further down it gets into my fight with Amazon over being banned, once, but that was 12 years ago. Can't get much going on that, anymore.

Anyway, thank God it was Taco Tuesday. I needed that to get me through the day. I actually went out, found a Taco Bell and ordered 3 crispy Supremes then brought them home to have with one of my Shiner Bocks. Helped settle me...and fucking made me sleepy.

Old man me.

Art and artists...

I found a new artist to follow -- Astra Zero. He does some beautiful horror work and seriously gay imagery, and he's also reimagined some famous paintings with a more overtly gay bent. He did one similar to Dore's The Ascension that was all nude males, full frontal.

The above image is AZ's version of The Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel, who painted his in 1847. Both show Lucifer in a state of rage but also with a single tear under his eye. The main difference between the two is AZ's figure appears to be older and darker than Cabanel's, a bit more beefy and well-formed instead of a youth. And seems almost hurt and not just angry. To me, this makes his more meaningful.

I ordered an 8x10 print of AZ's because it so suits my mood, as of late. I'm actually watching cozy little British murder mysteries on Britbox and Acorn to draw me back to humanity. I think this will help more than anything.

I sometimes wonder what kind of artist I might have wound up as, had I not shifted to film and writing. That seemed to be my destiny, when I graduated high school. Art classes all the way through school, and working in visual merchandising at a fine department store. Painting in my spare time. Even when I started back to university, I took art classes and felt more at ease in them.

Film was fun, but never really that fulfilling. I didn't connect with it like other people in the classes I took, and I think my work was more on the bland side. Even when doing photography, I felt a slight remove from it. I didn't have the patience to do it right. Didn't have the focus.

When I was in LA, I got involved with the Tom of Finland Foundation and exhibited at their Erotic Art Fair, the first few years, when it was in a cheesy little upstairs warehouse on the wrong end of Santa Monica Blvd. Sold everything I brought. Met some erotic artists who were serious about who they were. Tagame came the last year I participated, and a dealer who was building up a collection of gay erotica for some guy in Tennessee or one of the Carolinas commissioned a few things.

But that didn't interest me as much as portraits. Like John Singer Sergeant. Rembrandt. Da Vinci. Michelangelo. When I went to Europe for the first time, I spent most of my time at the Van Rijks Museum and the Louvre. I want to go back.

I wonder if I really would have turned out to be an artist, or just been another pretender working a day job and messing around with acrylics and inks and watercolors and painting portraits from photos of models I liked, at night. Art was always my way to decompress. I even did a self-portrait, once.

Guess I'll never know, now.

Done did it...

Sent off another query and then this email to Martin Melaugh, hoping to hear a positive response regarding the photo:

Dear Martin,

 

I hope you and your father are doing well. I'm the crazy American from some years ago who was trying to write A Place of Safety, a novel set in Derry during the Troubles, even though I'm not from the area. It's been some years since I was last in contact. I actually put the book aside and tried to convince myself it was stupid for me to write this, but my main character, Brendan, refused to let me off the hook. So...I'm now close to completion.

 

I've done all I can to make it as honest a story about a Derry boy as possible. The correspondence we had was very helpful in determining much of what happens. I've been careful to use the information you shared with me for reference only, and so far the feedback from other Americans who've read part of it has been good.

 

The full story is going to be in three volumes.

The first, set in Derry between 1966 and 1972, is done and undergoing final proofing.

The second, set in Houston, Texas between 1973 and 1981, needs one more draft and then will undergo a request for feedback, editing and proofing. (This part I’m far more comfortable with because I lived in Houston for 8 years.)

The third, set in Derry during the hunger strikes, is in third draft but needs further work.

 

I've been sending queries to literary agents in hopes of finding one who will represent the book. My hope is to set it up with a publishing house but no success, thus far. So I've decided if I am unable to get positive movement on this by the beginning of the year, I will self-publish it. I've done that with other books I've written, using Ingram Spark, so know the process.

 

If I do self-publish A Place of Safety, I wonder if I'd be able to licence one of your father's photos for the book's cover? Below is a copy of the one I'd like to use. If it is acceptable to you, both, could I please know the cost and if you'd be able to supply it in a high-def format? If the answer is no, that’s fine; I’ll work something else up.

Thank you for your time, and my best to your father and family.

Regards, 

Kyle Michel Sullivan

Preparations...

Spent the day obsessing over how best to write this letter to send to agents and potential publishers and this is what I've got:

----------

I am nearing completion of my three volume novel, A Place of Safety. It is the story of Brendan Kinsella, a simple lad who just wants to live his life, but history refuses to let him.

Volume one, Derry, is set in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Told in first person, it begins in 1966 when Brendan has just turned ten. After his father's murder, he tries to forge his own path through a society that is deeply in thrall to both history and the Catholic church while keeping apart from the growing violence. He also falls in love with a Protestant girl, a relationship which must be kept secret from family and friends, for fear of reprisals...from both sides of the conflict.

The story uses true events to anchor it, much in the same way as James Clavell's Shogun, James Michener's Texas, and Leon Uris' Trinity. It sweeps through:

 the 1968 Civil Rights demonstrations in Derry the attack on peaceful marchers at Burntollet Bridge in early 1969 the lead-up to The Battle of Bogside in August of that year the arrival of British troops to separate the two warring sides the re-introduction of internment without trial in 1971 Bloody Sunday in 1972 

This volume is undergoing a final proofing by a professional editor and will be available for your perusal by the beginning of October. 

Volume 2, New World for Old, is set between 1973 and 1981. Due to injuries sustained in a bombing, Brendan is hidden at his aunt's home in Houston, Texas. Once healed, he decides to build a life there but finds the city's politics, hates and prejudices are little different from Derry's. I just finished a fourth draft and will do a polish before having it also proofed and edited.

In volume 3, Home not Home, Brendan must return to Derry after his mother contracts cancer. This part takes place during the turmoil of the hunger strikes of 1981. He finds himself unwelcome and winds up arrested by the British army. Their interrogation about the bombing that injured him is brutal and convinces him to accept his destiny -- to join with the IRA. I am currently working on a third draft of this part, with another draft to follow.

While I have self-published 14 books in both print and e-book, both gay and straight, I would like to situate A Place of Safety with a mainstream publisher to avoid the limitations that come with self-publishing. I am hoping you can assist me with this.

Thank you for considering A Place of Safety. I believe it will align perfectly with your interests.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Shit, shit, shit...

Spoke with the IRS for nearly an hour and figured out the issue. After I paid all my taxes off, last year, someone redid my return for 2020 and decided I owed $280 more. Notices were sent to my old address after my forwarding order expired, so were returned. No idea why they weren't posted on my online account. So with penalties, fees and interest, I owed over $380 and had two choices -- get a lawyer and fight over the extra $100 or pay it. I took money out of my savings and paid it.

I thought the IRS was supposed to go after millionaires for not paying their taxes, not people on Social Security. My mistake.

So I'm in a mood.

Here are some photos of the trip I took to Fort Niagara and a link to the video I shot of the lad demonstrating that awful gun.

Walking to the entrance An actual drawbridge at The Gate of Five, in honor of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. The inner mechanics The cannon platform, built by the British when they took over the fort. Them cannons was like this... ...and this....the Dauphine Battery. That's Canada across the river. Called the French Castle, it was build in 1726 and is the oldest building in the fort. An original map View of the French Castle and Canada, from the North Redoubt.

To the right is Toronto's city skyline, just visible, and to the left you can barely make out the skyscrapers of Mississauga, where Pearson Airport is. It was a lovely day with a nice cool breeze. I almost talked myself into crossing over at Niagara Falls, for dinner. But I was tired and needed gas in the car so didn't.

Now I'm going to watch some British murder mysteries on Britbox and Acorn and let myself process how, every time I think I'm doing all right, something comes along to kick me in the gut.

Fort Niagara demonstration

There was a presentation of how a long barrel musket was used and why, during the wars leading up through the Revolutionary War. But apparently the video I shot was too big to post. Here's a photo of the guy doing it. He's dressed as a French Marine. Even though rifles were officially available in the mid-18th Century, they cost 3 times more than a musket.

More, tomorrow. Maybe I can edit the video into segments that will upload.

Right now I'm trying to figure out why this company called CBE is claiming it's working for the IRS and insisting I haven't paid my taxes for 2020 when I've already sent them proof that I did. I've gone onto my online IRS account, and it says I owe some, also, but I have a receipt from them showing I paid everything over a year ago.

I have lots of paperwork regarding this. So tomorrow will be calling them to find out WTF???

Keep Pushing...

I worked up a preliminary idea of what A Place of Safety-Derry would be like should I publish it. In hardcover, 6x9, it would be 334 pages, total, and the least I could sell it for is $29.95 to make any money off it. That seems excessive, especially since I don't have the reach or range to publicize it enough to garner interest. My main audience, right now, is not the type who'd be interested in a fictional book about a small part of the world that few people know of.

I'm going to keep pushing to find an agent and, hopefully, get the book into a larger publishing house instead of setting it up to rely on online sales. That's Brendan's best chance to be heard. Seriously heard.

In doing this formatting, I found a couple more things that needed correcting. Of course. And if it goes into a publishing house, they will have someone proof it, in even more detail. Maybe even another edit. but it will also be done with off-line printing in bulk and be offered to bookstores all over the country, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the like. Publicity. Maybe a book tour or into conventions. They will also handle the cover art.

That last bit I'm not so crazy about. When The Lyons' Den was published through Star Books Press, they came up with this cover and I never really liked it. The cabin was okay but I had to ask them to add the gun and the cash to make it seem like more than just a sex romp...which it wasn't. That said, they had a good client base and I did get royalties off them. They were the ones who decided it had run its course and wanted to withdraw it from sale. That's when I got my rights back and set it up with Ingram.

I guess my next step, once I've gone through all the NYC agents is to hit those outside the city. And maybe ask the publishing houses, myself. Those that will accept unsolicited manuscripts. Sometimes that works, and a selling point will be that it's in three volumes, each published separately.

I'm going off with Brendan, tomorrow, to think about it. Clear my head. Maybe work up a letter to Martin Melaugh to still ask about the photo I want to license. I might head up to Fort Niagara. Haven't been there, yet. Stop by Niagara Falls on the way back. Pop over to Canada for a bite to eat.

We'll see how it goes.