Joe Clifford Faust's Blog, page 12

Introducing JCF TV

Okay, maybe it's not actually TV. But our culture tends to call anything with videos "TV", just like we generically call paper tissues Kleenex and going out for a soft drink "getting a Coke." That's right, it's my YouTube Channel (another linguistic pilferage from broadcast).

Either way, it's still not an actual Television Broadcast station, but it is – or will be – a series of videos mostly featuring yours truly prattling on about all things writing. Well, most things writing.

So here is the first episode, a reading from A Death of Honor – self-promotional to be sure. But discussion of writing-related issues will follow. And if any of you out there have something in particular you'd like to see/hear discussed, drop me a line in the comments here or over in the comments section of the new, um, TV station.

Enjoy!

Unwritten Sequels

I don't know where you come down on the idea of sequels. Cinematically, I'm really tired of them… it's like proof once again that Hollywood is officially out of ideas.

Not that I haven't been tempted. With every novel I've published (or, as in the case of The Mushroom Shift, am about to publish), I have had a notion to do a sequel at some point in the future. I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps it's because I liked living in that world while I wrote the book and need an excuse to return. Or maybe it's for another reason. I don't know.

Just to give an idea of how the process works, here's a look at the unwritten sequels that have crossed my mind that you won't see for reasons of time, apathy, or considerations more practical…

Caution… Spoilers abound!

A Death of Honor. Payne and Trinina's story was pretty much told at the end of the book. But for a while I entertained the notion of an untitled sequel that would show what the rest of the U.S. looked like in that universe. The story would follow Bailey as he escaped from the raid on Payne's apartment building, hooked up with Karol, and then set off on a cross-country odyssey in a search for a new place to call home.

The Company Man. Two different ideas. First, I wanted to play more with dogbrain technology and PATER. I had done that some with a story called Pins that was picked up by Amazing Stories, but I thought there was still more potential there. And I thought Andy Birch was just the guy to do the exploring. The novel The Inside Man would have been the playground for that. And no, Jade would not have returned. But Lucy would be around.

Also, writing The Company Man was the period when I was learning that not everything in my head about the universe had to go in the book. For example, Howard Kessler and Jack Lime were once partners until the former did the latter dirty, as happened to Birch in his novel. The Company Men would have told that backstory.

The Angel's Luck Trilogy. The trilogy? The one I famously had to step away from during the writing of the third book and take a month off because I was getting sick and tired of the characters and wanted to kill them off a la Stephen King in The Stand? Yup. I had an idea for a fourth book that reunited the characters twenty years later, when May was about to retire and Duke had become a hotshot pilot in is own right, thanks to Reckless Eric Dickson. Never got any farther than that.

Trust. An unpublished political thriller that I intend to release before the Pembroke Hall reissue. This might have been spun into a whole series of novels about tabloid reporter Annie Graham. The second would have been called Truth, in which Ms. Graham had to match wits with a rather unusual serial kidnapper. Hmm, but when the first book doesn't find a publisher? Perhaps just as well. The world is only so full of five-letter words that start with "T", which is what all the titles would have been.

The Pembroke Hall Novels. Was almost a trilogy. Toward the end of writing the second book, it occurred to me that there was one more thing to cover – the aftermath of the reign of the Devals. Hollywood, Arizona would find Boddekker happily working for a non-profit when he was approached by Pembroke Hall to oversee the movie being made about the life of Ferman's Devils. Life, meet the distorting effects of art. Each chapter would have been preceded by pages from the screenplay that was being produced. Shelved when it became apparent that the published books were a bust.

The Mushroom Shift. You'll get to read this quite soon. Mushroom was to be the first book in the Badlands County Trilogy, with each title following Monmouth during a different shift. Mushroom was the midnight shift; The Horizontal Tango followed him onto swings; and the final volume, The Sierra Hotel found him on the day shift. Those plans went into the bin when the book didn't find a publisher. And I don't think I could write them now.

However, I never throw anything away. The theme of Tango was to write about sexual attraction between two characters in an adult manner while conspiring to keep them apart at every opportunity. That's now part of Drawing Down the Moon. And Monmouth ages in real time – 25 years – to become older, wiser and the central character of the UFO Novel I'm now working on. Incidentally, Annie Graham is a central character also. As is Robert Grinwald, a refugee from Rachel's Children, a cycle of novels about an alien invasion that I proposed to Del Rey right before I was dropped.

Part of the allure of my writing the UFO Novel was that it was going to be a place where characters from all of my unpublished novels would get to see the light of day. But now, with these books being published by yours truly, it is going to make for a very interesting collision of universes. Are all these books tied together? I'm not saying. Or maybe I just haven't figured it out myself.

(Incidentally, I have in my files an unpublished short story called Miss February that features a prominent technology from the Pembroke Hall novels, along with a police lieutenant named Monmouth. Got a migraine yet?)

And what about Drawing Down the Moon? It seems to be the noteworthy exception. I have had it done for a while now, but I have no desire to go and play in Ricky and Kada's world again. Personally, I think that has to do with the quality of this particular project – along with my actually managing to say everything I wanted to say on the subject during the course of the novel. Well, maybe someday soon you'll get to read it and see what your opinion is. Meantime, perhaps these unwritten sequels will find a little new life in your imaginations – as they once had in mine.

11-11-11

Sgt. Charles T. Faust, Jr., United States Army Air Force, circa 1942. Sgt. Faust taught ordinance and demolitions to soldiers bound to fight overseas. Following VE day, he was trained to be a tail gunner in a B-24 bomber to take part in Operation Downfall. He never left the United States – while he was on the train to his deployment point, Japan surrendered after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One other important thing happened to Sgt. Faust on a train. While traveling, he spotted a beautiful young woman travelling with her mother. He went over and asked for her help with a crossword puzzle, over which he had written his name in large block letters. They exchanged addresses and corresponded for a year, meeting only three times in person before being married in May of 1943. He passed away in August of 1988, two months before his second granddaughter – my daughter – was born.

Sgt. C.T. Faust, Jr., 1921 - 1988

Now Selling At A Target Near You

For years, nay, decades, I've wanted what I've called a pair of writer's gloves. Basically a pair of gloves without the fingertips to roughly the first joint of the finger, I also referred to them as "chimney sweep gloves" because that's what Dick Van Dyke wore in Mary Poppins.

Years ago – we're talking the late 70′s here – I saw someone selling them as writer's gloves in the pages of Writer's Digest. I wanted a pair and never ordered them, and forgot about them.

Then about twenty years ago, we moved into a house that won't repair itself, with it's windows cracking and a roof held together with holes (thank you, Andy Partridge). Because the house used heating oil to generate warmth (think the price of diesel fuel minus ten or twenty cents a gallon), we keep the temperature down and wear sweaters or hoodies a lot in the winter. And it was always cold on the hands when writing.

I tried to make myself writer's gloves a couple of times… I had an old pair of Isotoner gloves that were too battered to wear in public, and I cut the fingertips off. It worked until the tips became an unraveled mess. Ditto those brown gloves you get for like $0.99 a dozen at hardware stores.

Made for winter wear, they're perfect for you-know-what!

So a few days ago I was in Target shopping for a new winter jacket, when what do my wondering eyes does appear… but gloves without fingertips! Lots of them! A rack full of them! And of course, I snatched up a pair.

I wondered for a moment about my good fortune and why there were so many of these in different colors – including models with sewn-on mitten tips so you could cover your fingertips – and then I realized they why of the renaissance: touch screen devices. They work off of the electrical resistance found in your skin, but when you wear a pair of gloves… no dice, Charlie. The giveaway was a pair of gloves (with fingertips) that had a special conductive tip in the index finger of each hand. You know, for app-tapping.

So the needs of smart phone users everywhere has turned into my good fortune. And yours, if you work in a cold writer's garret, you literary romantic you. Lots of colors and styles to choose from. And if there's not a Target store nearby, I'd bet a ream of printer paper that you could find them at one of the Marts, Wal or K. Happy shopping!

And yes, I'm wearing mine right now. Not that it's particularly cold at the moment. I've got them on for, you know, practice.

Social BOOM!: How to… (etc., etc., etc.)

Social BOOM!: How to Master Business Social Media to Brand Yourself, Sell Yourself, Sell Your Product, Dominate Your Industry Market, Save Your Butt, … and Grind Your Competition into the Dirt by Jeffrey Gitomer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Good News: Some excellent points about and ideas for using Social Media: Bad News: He only wrote about half the book (lots of guest writers), and it turns into an ad for his products and services at the end.

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This is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the White House

This is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the White House by Herman Cain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't care for the autobiography as a form because they are always so self-serving. But this book serves Cain well, answering lots of questions about the candidate. I'm voting for him.

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Who's That Writer…

…who hadn't released a new novel in seven years… and then as of December 13th of this year, will have released his third novel in twelve months? Each with a different ghostwriter?

The answer, with some possible excuses for his behavior, can be found in this old post of mine from June of last year.

Tonight We Die As Men: The untold story of Third Battalion 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment from Toccoa to D-Day

Tonight We Die As Men: The untold story of Third Battalion 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment from Toccoa to D-Day by Ian Gardner

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Serviceable history of a wing of the 101st Airborne that would have been better as an oral history.

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Ladies and Gentlemen… The Redeemers

Ladies and Gentlemen…The Redeemers by Michael Scott Miller

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This readable indie novel about a down-and-out manager who assembles a band of others in need if a second chance suffers from the typical indie novel malady: too much show and not enough tell. The author knows how to push emotional buttons, though, and should produce interesting work as his writing improves.

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The Ex-Boyfriend's Handbook

The Ex-Boyfriend's Handbook by Matt Dunn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wasn't bowled over by this piece of British Lad Lit, but it was an amusing enough diversion.

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