Glenn A. Bruce's Blog: RITR (sic), page 5

New novel

So, as you've probably read on here, I have five novels in the editing phase and have started another - with 4-5 more in partially- or mostly-written stages. I can't help myself! I feel the need stronger than ever to share these stories with those who are interested - and I am happy so many are interested! Trying to grow that is a challenge, but it's working. I am encouraged by the positive reviews and personal emails. Keep 'em coming!

As for the newest effort, it is more of a family story (history meets mystery), so it is more Temptation Key than Riverbend. I have written only a few in first person and this is one of them. The voice is a 28-year-old woman coming back to visit her dysfunctional family at a time of upheaval and unexplained change. The payoff is fun. (At least I think so!)

Otherwise, I am concentrating on getting the next thriller out. It's fun because it's non-linear and more "literary" than some. (Some might say more "writery" but I hope not!) The next one after that will be more descriptive, like Versions of the Truth. Then this family comedy-drama-mystery, then my insane post-apocalyptic comedy. At least, that's the order I'm considering now.

So, writing every day is not only a pleasure but a demand. With ten more potentially in the (fairly immediate) shoot, I am excited and challenged. I just wish I had a professional proofreader to catch my silly mistakes!

RSS feed

I have learned a few things about this blog thing. 1) Typos remain forever. 2) I can now share those typos with something called an RSS feed (!!!). 3) Marketing is harder work than writing.

Post book signing

That was fun. T=When I asked the book store owner Scott how we were doing around 3 p.m., he said we had set a new record for sales at an author event. In fact, he said, he said we "blew away" the old record. That felt pretty good.

So I finished my last class on Monday and on Tuesday, started a new novel to add to the five in editing. That felt good, too.

Book signing!

How silly of me. I forgot to post here that I am having a book signing tomorrow, Saturday Dec. 8th, at Black Bear Books in the Boone Mall from 1-4 pm. This WOULD seem a logical place to mention it! So, come one, come all - books and bookmarks and who knows what all. Should be fun!

Another edit

With the book signing tomorrow, I wanted to finish the current edit on my next novel today - and I did. So I will have something else to talk about! It's not done-done, as I'm still finding typos and minor issues - things I want to change; so one or two passes will be in order before the speed read. But it's close, and I'm happy with it.

Being happy with your work - being ABLE to be happy with your work - is important; something that is often downplayed for the Puritan work ethic. Hard work is essential, endless editing is inevitable; but at some point, we have to let them go...if we are happy with the work.

I have five others in the edit cue, written but needing work; one of them continues to give me fits. No matter how much I work on it, I am not happy with it. I make changes, then don't like the changes. I go back to the original, then don't like either, so I make more changes. That one may take a while. In the meantime, I will work on it, and the others, until I am happy with each one. Then and only then will I relax and let it go.

First sentences

I posted a shorter version of this on FB, but I'd like to expand on this theme here.

Here is the original post:

So have you heard all the hoopla about first sentences in novels capturing what then entire novel is about. (Sorry to end on a preposition, but really!) First I hear a guy on NPR going on and on about he might spend an entire YEAR getting the first sentence of a novel "right," so that it captures what the whole novel is about. (Again.) Then, Barbara Kingsolver is on NPR talking about the same thing; about how the first sentence is so important, and how it must capture the essence of the entire novel. (There!) So I offer: "Call me Ishmael." Oh and 99 others, a few of which succeed in this area, but most are, well, I guess, shitty first sentences in today's world.

And I gave the following link to the 100 greatest opening sentences of all time.

http://americanbookreview.org/100Best...

Suffice to say: I disagree.

Okay, that's not much of an expansion, but really: this is just writer gobbledegook. I would say that the first sentence is just to get you started. What you do in the OTHER 100,000 words might be more important, ultimately. Sure, we try to get every sentence right, but we fail. And we can fail on the first one, but the rest of the novel might be great - flawed, but still a good read! Kingsolver's novel might have been fine, but they gave away the entire reveal on NPR (as she mentioned!), so what's the point?

We all love good writing whether it comes on page 1 or page 1,000. (Although that takes some commitment!) All writing is flawed. No novel is "perfect." (Except maybe Catch-22.) "Call me Ishmael" is considered the best opening sentence EVER. But it could be about a Jewish cleric, or a scholar, or a nerd. We have no clue that he is whaler/narrator.

We all make every sentence the best we can, and sometimes we fail. It's a given. But this notion that we can (or SHOULD) sum up our entire work in one sentence in the opening is, IMHO, silly.

Goodness

Just finished the rough on a novel about race and racing. This means I have five in the edit chute. I need to get busy on editing, after harping about it. As I approach my first book signing and increase my "shelf," I am more driven than ever. More satisfied. I feel worse about typos, but as a book store owner said, "They happen." He had a major release from a major publishing house so full of typos he contacted them to complain. They shrunk. So I feel a LITTLE better. I have read fourth printing paperbacks after 3-4 hardback editions with typos. So I feel better.

But I really don't. I feel that it is my obligation to my readers to find them all! (Though I knew it is impossible.) Still, thanks to everyone (and especially Lou) for finding them in Rubric and letting me know. A cleaner versions is imminent.

And so I was thinking about the two best novels ever (at least as I read them) and it kept expanding! But 1 & 2 would have to be The Stranger and Catch 22. Those two novels embody existentialism in completely different but prefect ways. We are born, we exist, we do things and we are gone.

It's something to consider when worrying about the weather when there are things to be written!

Next two

As some of you know, I always like to work on two projects at the same time, each with a different voice. It keeps me honest and prevents falling into a rut. When I was first starting Riverbend, a long time ago, it was so dark that I found I needed a light, fun story to offset it in my head. So, I wrote a kids' movie about a dog and a cat on an adventure - the only kids' story I have ever written! I found it a nice antidote to the formative first chapters of RB's serial killer storyline.

I wouldn't finish RB for several years later when I revisited those first chapters and realized I had something. Two years after that, sometime in 2000, I had a 1,000-page first draft. Another two years and it was down two-thirds. Skip forward almost a decade, and the book was finally finished: 130,000 words (about 400 pages in paper). The kid's movie lies dormant, but I think I will revive it someday as a kids' novel. Again, it will probably be my only one ever!

Back to right now and two novels - one a heist action-thriller and the other a Mob action-thriller - with very different voices. So, even though the genres are similar, the way I want to tell each story is not. Again, I find this keeps me out of a rut of sounding the same or telling the same story over and over.

I would love to have both out for Christmas, but I seriously doubt I will make it. I'm trying, though! Back and forth, forth and back. Onward and upward!

New book done!

Rubric, my newest ultra-dark thriller will be available Oct 12 on Amazon. This is the one I've been editing - and enjoying more with each pass. Of course, it feels good to get another one done and out there! Now...

Onto the next!

Another pass

Today I got through another pass on my next novel. I guess that makes six or more. Hard to say. I will do another 2-3, and one speed read as I find the quick pass most revealing. On finishing this pass, and reading about writing (other author's take on what it is we/they do), I realized a few things. As I have aged, written more, read more, thought about what we do as writers more, I have come to think that dead-on attacks on subjects are less interesting to me than indirect ones; i.e., I prefer Dashiell Hammett to Jane Austin or the Brontes or Franzen or Eggers or Wallace. Not that I don't think they are brilliant and talented, just that I enjoy a more oblique approach to "getting your point across." I find joy in the details, not the sledgehammer approach. For me (and I realize this is a sacrilege), I love an involving story about anything other than the subject in which the human condition is hinted at rather than driven home. Sappy, over-sentimental or precious stories that go right at the characters and their situations do much less for me than a tense thriller with no pretension that reveals subtle truths about who we are as people. But hey, that's just me. It's what I do, so I like it! Sue me.