UPCOMING READINGS: No scheduled readings at the moment. DONATIONS So far (March 2019) I have donated $120 to the Humane Society of Chittenden County. This represents 2018. Thank you everyone who gave a little extra! The Hounds of Spring is available! Published by Leapfolio , a joint venture partner of Tupelo Press , North Adams, Massachusetts. E-edition pending. Purchasing my book from Tupelo Press ( TupeloPress.org ) will directly benefit both the author and the press, so please consider taking this route! Visit Tupelo/Leapfolio and see what else is on offer! It is available on Amazon and should soon be available for bookstores to purchase to sell on the major book distributors, Ingram and Baker & Taylor. Please contact me here or at Tupelopress if you are having problems. If you live in New England or the mid-Atlantic region and would like to...
Studio and Finbar So writing doesn’t just “happen. As with any prolonged effort, strength and stamina must be nurtured. The strength is of the "have faith in yourself" kind and the stamina is the "yes, you do have to go over this manuscript for the twentieth time and (fill in the blank) to make the story work." Writing a short story is a 5 Kilometer race. Writing a novel is one of those crazy ass cross-country marathons people do wearing tutus and shoes made of tire rubber. Even knowing these things there was a part of me that still thought that, now my life was calming down and my energy coming back, I could pop out to my studio and get to work just like that. So, like the New Year’s Resolution jogger, I set out, puffing resolutely. (You know what happened to that jogger? No, because you never saw them again.) The first few minutes went all right as I busied myself with housekeeping tasks: hanging up my coat, tak...
A question I’m frequently asked is, “Did you plan ahead?” The answer is mostly no, but there are some yeses. Around when the idea of writing this novel in the particular way I wrote it came to mind, I was immersed for the third or fourth time in E.M. Forster’s book Aspects of the Novel. In it Forster outlines seven aspects he considers important in a successful novel: s tory, characters, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm. He didn’t think a writer had to nail every one of these, but for a good novel, two or three should be done at least competently and if, of those three, even one is done really well or in an original way that can be enough for a novel to rise above the rest. With that in mind, and knowing my own preferences and limitations, I decided the wisest course would be to choose a plot that I was confident I would both enjoy pursuing and feel comfortable with: the “Jane Austen” plot, as I thought of it...
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