History

I have been re-reading my favorite novelists over the past six to eight months: Cather, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Vidal, as well as taking on a couple of histories for variety's sake. Right now, I'm enjoying Burr by Gore Vidal (I love all six novels in his Narratives of The American Empire) and Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of The Landmark Battle by Richard B. Frank.

Talk about differences in style! Both of them deal with American history, which I love. However, as Vidal says in the Afterword to Burr, "...the attraction of the historical novel is that one can be as meticulous (or as careless) as the historian and yet reserve the right not only to rearrange events, but most important, to attribute motive -- something the conscientious historian or biographer ought never do." I have always wanted to write fiction, and I have wanted to incorporate history into my stories about Halo Hathaway. Although Gore Vidal is not writing mysteries in his Empire Narratives, he presents the best example, I believe, of how to incorporate historical fact into the popular novel. This was important to me several years ago because, although I love history, I love fiction even more and made the choice to follow that road.

Perhaps the biggest reason for choosing fiction writing was the freedom to add dialogue. I had a dear friend who passed away in May who read my first draft of my novel and said, "I really like the way you write dialogue." (He thought the first draft too wordy in the narrative and he was correct. Hopefully, that has been corrected in the ensuing six rewrites. [And that will most likely be seven as soon as my editor gets done with her job in the next week or so.]) Dialogue is fun. It is what breathes life into the characters. It is what allows the reader to create a complete image of the characters in his or her mind. I can fly through dialogue. I tend to bog down writing narrative. But that is also why I admire people like Frank so much. The time, the effort and the skill required to write good history is mind-boggling to me. David McCullough has probably perfected the art better than anyone as witnessed by the popularity of books such as John Adams and 1776.

Anyway, I am a long way from either Vidal or McCullough. But, damn, they do set great examples to aspire to.

Hallelujah! Two blogs in two days. This calls for celebration. Maybe I will sit down and write. More likely, since it is late (after midnight and, therefore, technically not blogging two days in a row, but it is only a few minutes into the new day so "what the hey") I will have a glass of wine, stare at the screen and hope for a few words, a phrase, a sentence, perhaps even a paragraph. If I accomplish the last it will be a good evening. However, a sentence is a victory also.

A writer cannot pooh-pooh only getting a sentence constructed, especially if it is a good sentence. That's what Hemingway believed. As you may have read in my short paragraph about Willa Cather on my favorite authors page, Hem said he was only trying to write a perfect sentence. That line is in the Cather section because I believe she wrote more of them than anyone else I have come across.

If you get the chance read through my list of writers. I would love to receive some comments about and challenges to my list, and I would like to hear about other people's favorites. As we know, no one is loved by everybody, nor hated by everyone. As Abraham Lincoln said, "...you can't please all of the people all of the time." I know I certainly can't.

I do hope, however, that everyone is having a great weekend.

Procrastination Multiplied

It only appears that I have been lazy. I really haven't been as idle as it might seem. Yes, it has been almost a year-and-a-half between my second blog and this one. As I mentioned in that earlier effort, I had just finished a fifth rewrite of Hathaway. Now, I have finished a sixth that includes breaking the original down from one long novel into three shorter ones. The "new" book is drawn from the first 200 pages of the initial effort, and focuses on the first mystery in that novel. With a bit of expansion it reads at 249 pages and 104,000 words. One of the nice things is that I now 50% of a second novel finished and about 80% of a third completed. Also, I have a fourth idea for Hathaway rolling around in my clouded brain.

I was told by several people, including my mysterious agent (more on that in a later blog) and a reader she hired, that the original Hathaway was too long for a first novel. I had been having the same thoughts for some time. Ergo, I set to work to turn one novel into three. It was more of an effort than I anticipated. As most of you realize, you don't just cut a book into three equal or easy parts. Events take place in the first story that are referred to or not even resolved until later in the original longer version. Those all had to be cleaned up. Other circumstances needed to be expanded and, in a couple of cases, shortened. Anyway, that endeavor is now complete.

That does not mean that I am finished. I have hired an editor out of Asheville, North Carolina to go through the manuscript and work with me on making it even more appealing to publishers and readers. She has a strong reputation and an excellent track record, so we shall see if Hathaway makes the elusive journey from personal manuscript to published novel.

Stay tuned for the results...and thanks for reading.