After a good, old fashioned session of work, and a blogger back and forth with Suzanne Strong, I was prompted to remember a quick story of a literary function from 2000 (maybe 2001, it was the year Peter Carey won Book of the year for True History of the Kelly Gang). At the time I [...]

Tonight there are no distractions. TV is off, household members are either working or sleeping. Even the whippet is curled up in a ball on the couch. Perfect conditions for writing. So here I  am, distractible, irritable, tired, and headachy.
This is one of the most annoying parts of being a writer. Inspiration and enthusiasm hits you [...]

Here it is, in black and white. Building on the musings from the last post, I’ve now committed to a week dedicated to nothing but the task of completing the first draft of the novel.
Work? Cancelled. Family? Restricted to outside business hours. TV? Later. Any other crap? Put on hold.
And the task? Probably around two-hundred [...]

So, here we are. August. And the novel drags on and on. I’ve always had an appreciation of how precious time is, how much I took for granted in those four lazy undergrad years (what the hell was I doing all that time?).
See, all that planning and posting of bits of narrative and photos was all [...]

Finally! It feels like I may in fact be getting somewhere. I’ve hit the end of the first third of the story, around a hundred pages. A hundred pages seems to be some kind of watershed for me a writer. At a hundred pages I can tell whether things are working or not. For instance when I [...]