What a writer works on when he's not writing
Lots of things. Keeping the balance. Keeping the faith. Trying to.
Keep trying to get published. There's always that. That's always a driver. But it's becoming less so the more work I have published. Funny how that works.
But I persist. I like putting my material together and sending it out and waiting to hear back from editors and agents. Right now I have query letters out for my nonfiction book, Never Stop Dancing. This is the memoir-by-interview I did with my friend who lost his wife to an automobile accident in 2010. I approached him with the idea for this book 3 months after she was killed. And that's when I started interviewing him. And then we met periodically over the next year, up until the 1-year anniversary of her death.
What trauma.
Every time I returned home from one of our interview sessions I would need to detox. Nobody knows how they would react in that most horrible of situations: losing your husband/wife, so young, so suddenly. And having two young children left to raise.
Many times over the year I worked with him I questioned myself on the project. Why did I want to do this? Who will want to read this? I persisted. I thought then and still think now that the book we've completed will be of interest to many people, to hear about John's journey through grief. (He's been blogging since Amy's death; visit him at Hole in the Sun blog)
I'm still working on poetry, too. Over the last few weeks I've worked on chapbook material (collection of 10-16+ poems) and a book (48+ pages). I think there are maybe 18 or so poems already published. I'm pleased with them all, really. I (mostly) don't let the "dogs" out, y'know? (FYI, all my poems are available on my website poetry page.)
Besides tidying up the book Never Stop Dancing and sending out query letters to agents, and working on the poetry and those books, I was working on my second novel, Dusk and Ember. I was chugging along nicely for several weeks. Then I lost steam. The all-important "Why?" and "What for?" It felt like I was writing for myself, in a vacuum.
---
I set it aside to focus on my poetry. And some Wikipedia writing and image contributions. Toying with some new article ideas for Wikipedia and for professional publication. I'm a website content manager, and my Wikipedia user page has my articles, but also check out website-governance.com, the website I built last year as part of finishing up my MIM degree at U Maryland.
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I started back into music, too, downloading many new songs. I'm a big music buff. Some of my latest favorites include:
* Rise Rise Rise by Praything
* This Mess by Collapsing Cities
* Your Ghost by Playfellow
* If I'd Known by The Frank and Walters
* Tales of Kamanakera by American Wolf
* Freemason Waltz by Clinic
* Up on the Ride by Guillemots
* It's True by Longwave
If you like alternative rock music, try any of these. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
---
I stopped writing in my journal and notebook for awhile, too. I think my mind needed a rest from everything. Yesterday and this morning I wrote, and for exercise it felt good, just to write. Some words and phrases and thoughts and ideas were coming. It felt good. The words coming felt good.
Keep trying to get published. There's always that. That's always a driver. But it's becoming less so the more work I have published. Funny how that works.
But I persist. I like putting my material together and sending it out and waiting to hear back from editors and agents. Right now I have query letters out for my nonfiction book, Never Stop Dancing. This is the memoir-by-interview I did with my friend who lost his wife to an automobile accident in 2010. I approached him with the idea for this book 3 months after she was killed. And that's when I started interviewing him. And then we met periodically over the next year, up until the 1-year anniversary of her death.
What trauma.
Every time I returned home from one of our interview sessions I would need to detox. Nobody knows how they would react in that most horrible of situations: losing your husband/wife, so young, so suddenly. And having two young children left to raise.
Many times over the year I worked with him I questioned myself on the project. Why did I want to do this? Who will want to read this? I persisted. I thought then and still think now that the book we've completed will be of interest to many people, to hear about John's journey through grief. (He's been blogging since Amy's death; visit him at Hole in the Sun blog)
I'm still working on poetry, too. Over the last few weeks I've worked on chapbook material (collection of 10-16+ poems) and a book (48+ pages). I think there are maybe 18 or so poems already published. I'm pleased with them all, really. I (mostly) don't let the "dogs" out, y'know? (FYI, all my poems are available on my website poetry page.)
Besides tidying up the book Never Stop Dancing and sending out query letters to agents, and working on the poetry and those books, I was working on my second novel, Dusk and Ember. I was chugging along nicely for several weeks. Then I lost steam. The all-important "Why?" and "What for?" It felt like I was writing for myself, in a vacuum.
---
I set it aside to focus on my poetry. And some Wikipedia writing and image contributions. Toying with some new article ideas for Wikipedia and for professional publication. I'm a website content manager, and my Wikipedia user page has my articles, but also check out website-governance.com, the website I built last year as part of finishing up my MIM degree at U Maryland.
---
I started back into music, too, downloading many new songs. I'm a big music buff. Some of my latest favorites include:
* Rise Rise Rise by Praything
* This Mess by Collapsing Cities
* Your Ghost by Playfellow
* If I'd Known by The Frank and Walters
* Tales of Kamanakera by American Wolf
* Freemason Waltz by Clinic
* Up on the Ride by Guillemots
* It's True by Longwave
If you like alternative rock music, try any of these. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
---
I stopped writing in my journal and notebook for awhile, too. I think my mind needed a rest from everything. Yesterday and this morning I wrote, and for exercise it felt good, just to write. Some words and phrases and thoughts and ideas were coming. It felt good. The words coming felt good.
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