“Sky Colors” book trailer

*** WINNER OF HONORABLE MENTION AWARD IN WRITERS OF THE FUTURE ***

"Repetition in Art, Tradition"

I just realized something. About tradition. A lot of us like it, tradition. And here’s what I realized: One of the tools of art is repetition. You know, in a song where one part repeats once in a while, or there’s a beautiful photograph of a row of trees going into the foggy distance? Any of you who’ve taken an art class or who are artists would know this. 

Repetition is found in poetry, in music, sometimes painting, photography, sculptures, and even writing. (And for me, being a writer myself, I sometimes view writing as sculpture.) 

I don’t know why repetition is a good tool, but we like it in art. You may not know why the “rule of thirds” is used in photography, but maybe you don’t need to know, but it’s something that works, a tool. Same with repetition. We like it in a play, in a comedian’s skit, maybe in a movie. Maybe because it creates a feeling of familiarity or regularity. 

And what I realized is that tradition IS “repetition”. Every year your Mom puts up the same Christmas stockings in the same place, over the fireplace; or your great aunt cooks those same Polish pierogis which taste so good; or your family always goes to Uncle Joe’s for Thanksgiving. 

Sometimes you maybe feel like your getting tired of it, but maybe you still like it, nonetheless. 

Of course we all like change and variation. But I think we all love tradition as well. Something about the familiarity or regularity. 

It’s repetition. And repetition is part of art. 

Should living and life be art, or have artistic qualities? 

Just published another story, this time in the April 2015 issue #20 of Sirens Call ezine (issue "Screams in the Night"), story titled "The Garage". Thank you to Gloria and the girls.

Get it here: Sirens Call Issue #20 April 2015
or PDF: Sirens Call PDF magazine

22 Feb 2015

I’ve been composing my writer hat. A “hat” is a pack of references and materials which are the “how to”, or the “how you do it”. The word comes from jobs where people wear actual hats that show what their job is, e.g. a police officer, chef, train operator, all these guys have their own actual hats which show who they are or what they do. And everyone has their own hat, or hats. “Writer” is one of mine, aside from “father”, “husband”, “student” and so forth. And the word “hat” has a secondary meaning, meaning the actual pack of references and materials which are the “how to”, or the “how you do it”. This is something that would be read by someone coming new to a job, so that they could find out how to do that job. Or it would be something that someone holding that job would write up and compose on their own, to serve as their own reference material. 

In the case of writing, I believe there is no existing technology of “how to” out there. A lot of the “how to” on writing out there is actual more like “are you serious?” So I have to make one myself. That simple. I have literally had to flush out the bullshit that I’ve collected over many years of classes and books on writing, and then from scratch put together the real “how to”. With the purpose of actually and for real writing. The test of any knowledge is, can you now DO it? Are you actually DOING it? With the previous knowledge I had had, all I was doing was scratching my ass. And that’s not what a writer does. A writer writes.

This new hat of mine IS what is working for me as a writer, the “how to”. Part of it is bits and pieces of the successful actions and advice of successful writers. (Those two words, “successful" and "writers", are used advisedly. I don’t even bother to read articles on writing from people who’ve never written a damn thing. How would they know?) These are from some of the most prolific writers of our time. Not guys who take ten years to write the Great American Novel, but guys who have written book after book after book after book. And then another book and another. And they’re widely read. They’ve been around the block and they’ve got this superabundance of writing done, published and they reach people. If you wanted to learn how to be a lumberjack, you would talk to an actual lumberjack or read a book written by a lumberjack, who had cut down a lot of trees in his life. Not a book by someone who reports on lumberjacks and analyzes the super-theory of why they hold their thumb exactly 2.5 inches from the end of the handle. Or by someone who had tried to be a lumberjack and failed, and now he’s writing books on and teaching classes on lumberjacking. No I would listen to someone who can DO it and who has DONE it.

And even with that, I still judge for myself as to what I find works and what doesn’t.

Actually, for writing, there is no “how”. It’s just “do”. But there are valuable pointers and there are a few things to know.

And so I’ve been composing my writer hat, and I’m keeping it simple (as it should be) and making it a matter of record. And it’s fun putting it together! There’s  bit of a “God, this should have been around or available twenty years ago" feeling, but, whatever. It’s getting done now. 

13 December 2014

Writing short stories is work. Writing a novel is like trying to cut down a redwood tree with a small hand axe.

But you keep chipping away, and somehow, eventually, you get that sucker down.

27 Jan 2015

Got a short story published in Aphelion (Webzine of Science Fiction and Fantasy), February issue. "Destroy the Beast," it's called.

It's one I wrote long ago, and it's just a flash piece (quite short). My intent with the story was to make it like part of a dream -- like when you wake up in the mornin' and you got your dream chopped off, that interesting dream you were having. Or you go back to sleep and there you're in it again...

Check it out here: February Aphelion

29 Nov

Of all the things a writer does, some of which may go unrecognized, there is one thing above all that I think deserves more of the pat on the back than all the rest. And that is believing in the story. It could take a month, three months, half a year, a year or more to write it, and he/she does it all on their own, and their belief is what carries them across that long journey, all on their own. 

Any movie based on a novel, or any novel, or movie with a writer, or two ... someone had to believe in that. And they did enough, so that it got done. And it may not even end up being well-received by the readers or audience. Or it might. But someone had to believe in it for it to be there. 

When all is finally said and done, and it comes time for the writer to pass the story on to their first readers (before releasing it to the broad public), that's when it starts to become a group activity. But until then, the writer works in solitude. (Solitude that is, in this world—after all, he's in the company of his characters the whole way through—there's Joe, or Jillian, or the captain of the pirate ship, or Simon who's working to save the day.) And it's a matter of discovery the whole way. All he has to do is (a) be able to LOOK, so that he can uncover and see the story, and (b) WRITE it down in the best way he sees fit, a way that hopefully will be engaging, enlightening and entertaining to the readers. 

And this is all to say nothing of whatever energy and time he puts into the research he does for the writing of the story. 

If there ever was a one-man show which needed balls, this is it. 

But it's also an enjoyable and entertaining activity. And, hopefully for all the writers out there, also very rewarding.