Edward’s Comments (group member since Jun 08, 2015)

Edward’s comments from the Write, Wrote, Written group.

I love to develop passion in my readers and one way, obviously, is to draw them into the hearts and lives of characters who have some seemingly unresolvable issues they desperately need but can't seem to reach. The readers will ache and reach along with them. If you then kill a couple of them off, it hurts and shocks the readers until they have to put the book away for a while because they have trouble dealing with that. But even just the unresolvable issues ultimately being healed or resolved will draw them in.

I killed my narrator off part way through one of my novels, but don't tell anyone who hasn't read it yet.
It comes as quite a shock to the readers.

Yup. And there's an international book giveaway link for it if you follow this link back.
- And, as to your other point, another of my characters says in "The Gardens of Ailana":

Joan told her, “Knock it off, Marsh; you don’t always have to be such a putz.”
Marsha, still leaning onto the sink, told them, “You guys and your always-must-make-nice crap.
“Mincing around with your damned fresh coffee, playing Little Miss Nicey-Poo alla time. The charming hostess with all her jokes, never hurting anyone’s feelings. Sitting around trying to sort out the karmic implications of sneezing on the burglar. Fuck it! Some things you just can’t Om away.”

This has nothing to do with what we're chatting about, but I just love this character,Jeremy, in "Entertaining Naked People". Here is probably my favorite thing he said:

“There’s so many folks out there thinkin’ prayer is only so’s they can tell God exactly what they want. Settin’ around waitin’ for Him to drop it in their lap. ‘I put my faith in Him, so He owes me.’
“Been figger’n on that’n a long time. All things don’t necessarily come to folks who don’t do nothin’ but wait. Even if they’re prayin’ while they’re settin’ there. You can put all the faith in God you want to, but you try crammin’ Him behind the wheel while you nap in the back seat; you’re still gonna drive into a tree.”

Often it is not the goal that counts, but the paths and offshoots we follow as we grow. You may think you're getting side-tracked as you explore all these divergent ideas but they are all helping you develop, and to express your creative soul.
As one of my characters said in "Entertaining Naked People", "Ain’t where you think you wanna go counts s’much as where life trips you up tryin’ to git there.” - He also said, “Y’know, sometimes the why of things just don’t much matter. Don’t none of us know the real why behind most things, anyways. But here we are, two strangers parked aside a long stretch of nowhere, and I get the strong feeling we may be both trying to pull ourselves up outa the same cowplop.”

I've been known to work on several books at once. The trick is to get those ideas out of your head so you can move on. I currently have folders containing thoughts for at least 5 books on my pc desktop. They live there, developing steam and essence, quietly breathing, one by one taking a step forward, but then hanging back - until slowly each either gets finished, polished, and published, or just continues to breath quietly for a while. - But my books are very different each from the other. The possibility also exists that some of your seemingly separate ideas could fuse together into a richer, more complex story for you.

Not genre mysteries, no; but thank you. - My books are all different, each from each other. But they seem to focus in different ways on characters who feel trapped by life; it's pains, frustrations, and anxieties; but can find no real relief or guidance in traditional religions, or in what normal folks tell them is reality. So they search beyond life and death to touch deeper realities and feel connected.

My own titles, as with the words in the book itself, always have many layers and shadings of meaning. This is why the "mourning" in "The Mourning After" is spelled with a "u". Another of my titles, "Entertaining Naked People" has so many layers and threads running through it they could not be detailed here. I even debated for months over whether that last word should be "people" or "Folks". - With me everything counts.

This is not one of my own, if that's what you're asking, but I always loved the title (an encouraging self-help book for spiritual seekers): "There are Those too Gentle to Live among Wolves".