This is exactly true for me too, and I am 82, so somewhat closer to.....whatever. (But then, Mom went to 99, and her mother went to 97, so who knows?) This essay is right on, and I think it is the way life should go. It has been said that retirement (from the regular corporate job) is the third stage of life and it has been that for me. …
This is exactly true for me too, and I am 82, so somewhat closer to.....whatever. (But then, Mom went to 99, and her mother went to 97, so who knows?) This essay is right on, and I think it is the way life should go. It has been said that retirement (from the regular corporate job) is the third stage of life and it has been that for me. I never did write any of the novels I planned (got mostly done with one and nearly so with a second), but with the cancel culture nowadays, how could I write a story about a female police detective who is intersex, when I am neither - but I blocked out two of them.....and that was the most fun of all, creating the back stories and family histories of the characters. Still, life nowadays is very good. The Bride provides the adult supervision I need and we are financially secure, so whatever mischief I get into, I can afford a getaway car. Maybe I'll write that novel about Ploesti, because almost no one knows the real story - would make a helluva movie..... Press on, it's all good.
The Bride thanks you - she has been trying to get me to finish some of them, at least for stories for the kids to read after I am candle wax somewhere..... Of course, for the Ploesti tale, I have to investigate libel laws because there are a couple pf characters who come off very poorly and their descendants might get litigiously frisky.....
The sad thing is we have had a family joke for many years..... I write the Ploesti novel and a few months after it comes out, the phone rings and the Bride answers. A voice on the other end says, Please hold for Mr. Spielberg....."
Believe it or not, I am pulling out information this week. I have one set of magazine articles to do on the M3/M5 Stuart light tanks for a British magazine and then I am on this - a good year of research and blocking. I am leaning toward using the names if I can get some info from the archives - your "good buddy" Dave Klaus has been working on a book on Ploesti for many years but so far hasn't written it. I've talked with him and he has no problem with my writing a novel about the raid, so what the heck..... I am trying the archives again - they have been closed in person due to Covid, but the Covid emergency is now officially over, so.....
You can google and get material from the archives now. PDFs of Masters' Theses at the Air War University at Maxwell AFB, etc., etc. No need to go paw though mislabeled boxes to write notes from documents you can't copy.
I have never aspired to write about horror, or even read it--Stephen King's book that I loved is 11/22/1963, which uses horror in spots, but it's not a horror book. It's scifi (with a heavy dose of philosophy), and it's romance. But I did read King's On Writing, and I loved that, and if I ever decide to write a novel I'll read it again before I start.
I don't think he was writing about horror in 11/22/1963. It was nostalgia for those of us who grew up in a certain era, and there was romance... ***Maybe*** part of his near final arrival back in the present WAS about horror, but that was a small part of the book. The one other book of his that I read, I put down about 2/3 of the way through. I wouldn't have gotten through 11/22/1963 if it had been about horror.
In fact, I read that book three times. And then, I read it a fourth time following the 2016 election, in order to distract myself. And a couple of years ago, I read Priscilla Johnson McMillan's Marina and Lee.
I do Have that book - I used to be in a romance writers group in Dallas. I wasn't interested in romance novels but fiction writing is writing nonetheless. I have the whole "beginning writer's" library - Hero's Journey and a bunch of SME books for reference. I also took some writing courses in fiction at SMU. It may keep me put of the pool halls.....
This is exactly true for me too, and I am 82, so somewhat closer to.....whatever. (But then, Mom went to 99, and her mother went to 97, so who knows?) This essay is right on, and I think it is the way life should go. It has been said that retirement (from the regular corporate job) is the third stage of life and it has been that for me. I never did write any of the novels I planned (got mostly done with one and nearly so with a second), but with the cancel culture nowadays, how could I write a story about a female police detective who is intersex, when I am neither - but I blocked out two of them.....and that was the most fun of all, creating the back stories and family histories of the characters. Still, life nowadays is very good. The Bride provides the adult supervision I need and we are financially secure, so whatever mischief I get into, I can afford a getaway car. Maybe I'll write that novel about Ploesti, because almost no one knows the real story - would make a helluva movie..... Press on, it's all good.
Write the Ploesti novel. I can help you show it where it might be welcome.
The Bride thanks you - she has been trying to get me to finish some of them, at least for stories for the kids to read after I am candle wax somewhere..... Of course, for the Ploesti tale, I have to investigate libel laws because there are a couple pf characters who come off very poorly and their descendants might get litigiously frisky.....
It's a novel - change the names.
The sad thing is we have had a family joke for many years..... I write the Ploesti novel and a few months after it comes out, the phone rings and the Bride answers. A voice on the other end says, Please hold for Mr. Spielberg....."
Well? What are you waiting for???
Believe it or not, I am pulling out information this week. I have one set of magazine articles to do on the M3/M5 Stuart light tanks for a British magazine and then I am on this - a good year of research and blocking. I am leaning toward using the names if I can get some info from the archives - your "good buddy" Dave Klaus has been working on a book on Ploesti for many years but so far hasn't written it. I've talked with him and he has no problem with my writing a novel about the raid, so what the heck..... I am trying the archives again - they have been closed in person due to Covid, but the Covid emergency is now officially over, so.....
You can google and get material from the archives now. PDFs of Masters' Theses at the Air War University at Maxwell AFB, etc., etc. No need to go paw though mislabeled boxes to write notes from documents you can't copy.
"The Bride". Sounds like you are well married.
It will be 24 years in October - she still thinks I'm trainable (the triumph of hope over experience.....).
I laughed out loud.
I could have used a laugh emoji!
Yes!
You sound like you might have read Stephen King's book On Writing.
Regardless of whether or not you want to write horror, King's book is the best advise to an aspiring writer.
The best advice of all: "The best monsters have their fur on the inside."
I have never aspired to write about horror, or even read it--Stephen King's book that I loved is 11/22/1963, which uses horror in spots, but it's not a horror book. It's scifi (with a heavy dose of philosophy), and it's romance. But I did read King's On Writing, and I loved that, and if I ever decide to write a novel I'll read it again before I start.
He writes specifically about horror, but everything he says is applicable in every other genre.
I don't think he was writing about horror in 11/22/1963. It was nostalgia for those of us who grew up in a certain era, and there was romance... ***Maybe*** part of his near final arrival back in the present WAS about horror, but that was a small part of the book. The one other book of his that I read, I put down about 2/3 of the way through. I wouldn't have gotten through 11/22/1963 if it had been about horror.
In fact, I read that book three times. And then, I read it a fourth time following the 2016 election, in order to distract myself. And a couple of years ago, I read Priscilla Johnson McMillan's Marina and Lee.
I do Have that book - I used to be in a romance writers group in Dallas. I wasn't interested in romance novels but fiction writing is writing nonetheless. I have the whole "beginning writer's" library - Hero's Journey and a bunch of SME books for reference. I also took some writing courses in fiction at SMU. It may keep me put of the pool halls.....
Joseph Campbell's "The Hero's Journey" is the most useful book a writer can have in their "how to" library.
"Steal from the best, and then make it your own." - William Goldman - the best advice to a new writer ever given.
You betcha! (Yes, I love "Fargo".....)