The Edge

My amazing and brilliant wife and I were up all night.

That's nothing new.  We've been doing that lately; pulling all-nighters.  With the baby's wonky sleeping schedule and my love's inability to simply lay her head on the pillow and drift off, she frequently doesn't get her sleep until the gray rays of dawn penetrate the shaded windows.

We were laughing -- I was hysterically so -- about things.  Lots of things.  Things I'd written about mostly, but some of her one-liners are astounding in their impact and sophistication.  I'm sure the line "Santa with rum dribbling down his beard" doesn't make you laugh, but had you been there with us, it'd bring tears to your eyes and a stitch to your side.

While we spoke, trying to keep the laughter to a dull roar so as not to wake the children, she told me something about some of my writing.  It was stuff I did a while back.  I was experimenting with a new style, a new voice.  I wanted a particular feel, a particular sensation, to come from the stories.  To give it an air of authenticity, I chose historical fiction as my subject matter.  My own history.  I pulled stories of my childhood out of my memory and tried to spin them as I recalled them, but of course, they were only loosely based on reality.  I augmented and just plain ol' spun yarns when I couldn't remember the outcome or details.  In the end, I had a collection of stories I thought were hysterical, told part of my life that I can remember well and fondly (mostly), and of which I was proud.

The one aspect of failure that crept into them was, I tried to make them humorous and lighthearted.  She told me they had an "edge" to them.

That was her word: "edge."  I asked for clarification.  She told me it was a blackness, a dark overtone which, while the stories were funny, hung over them and made them darkly funny, not lighthearted.

This morning, with those same gray rays of dawn creeping over the ceiling and walls, she said it again, but she elaborated.  She told me despite my best efforts, I'd not created Norman Rockwell-esque stories.  She pondered, and stated:

"It's more like Norman Rockwell with a Stephen King edge."

I thought that was a perfect description of my life.  I couldn't have, in a million attempts, said it any better.  (I hate that.  I'm supposed to be the writer, dammit.)

I pondered that, and have been ever since.  I think, despite the attempts, my family missed Rockwell when I was growing up.  We ended up just west of Addams Family instead, except without the campy humor.

I really haven't given those stories much thought since I wrote the last one some months ago.  I started, and finished, Ghost Hunters instead, and it took me in a new direction.  I'm not sorry, but I don't think I'm going to ignore those stories and yarns gleaned and inspired from my youth.  I may revisit them someday soon, if I can think of any new ones, and try to see if I can recapture that voice.  It was a lot of fun, and I thought it had potential.

The image of Santa, slurring and sloshing around in his red suit, bulbous red nose fairly aglow with alcoholic rush, dribbling rum down his nicotine-stained yellowing beard will always be with me.  If only I could paint images with my words as powerfully as my beautiful, dazzlingly sharp and articulate wife did, I'd probably already be on the NYT best-seller list.

Way to go, babe.  :)

-JDT-

Technorati Tags: life, writing, random thoughts

Has the Muse ... Returned?

Oh, man.  What a night.

My beautiful, amazing, wondrous, brilliant wife stayed up with me until 9:30 this morning.  That's right, 9:30 a.m.  We were working together, exchanging ideas, brainstorming.  We discarded ideas, identified deal-breaking issues, found flaws, backed up, went forward ... changing directions, shifting focus, fluid, in motion.

We bantered.  We tried to defend our arguments, our notions.  We failed.  We backed up again.  Zigging, zagging, weaving, bobbing and turning.  We agreed, then tried to destroy it again.  It held up.  We searched for flaws, found them, went silent.  Then we solved them.  Things started falling into place, one after another, one discarded idea coming back into play to be the shoring factor for another idea.

As the dawn's light grew to the morning sun, we had it.  We had it, and we felt more sure of it than we did the last time this happened, only scant weeks ago.  It was exciting.  It was workable.  It was solid.

And it's something we can write.  We can write it now.

I think we finally solved our plot problem.  The best part of all is, we don't have to change a thing.

I think I can write again.  I think our Muse has returned.

Stupid late-arrival bitch.  'Bout time.

Look for more fiction from me soon.  Maybe next week soon.  Thanks for believing in me, friends.  I love you all.  And babe?  It's not my story.  It's our story.  I couldn't have done it without your help.  Thank you.  I love you.

-JDT-

Technorati Tags: writing, random thoughts

Once Again, the Traffic Whore is Humbled

I just had a personal best day of page views on my WordPress account. I can't believe how the blogosphere has come to view my stuff today, and a fair number of the views are in Ghost Hunters. Looks like someone's reading it. I sure hope you're enjoying it, whoever you are.

The outpouring of support, encouragement, and yeah, love, dammit!, for my writing here and other places in cyberspace means a tremendous amount to me, everyone. Thank you all. Thank you all so much. I mean that. You've moved me to the bottom of my black, hard and unfeeling heart. You have. I'm so grateful.

Thank you.

When I get my Pulitzer Prize, I'll forget all of you and bask in the radiance of my own splendor, but thanks for letting me stand on your shoulders to make myself feel better today. (Just kidding. I won't just bask in my own splendor, I'll boast about it too.)

God bless you all, commenter and lurker alike. I'm really, really glad for you.

-JDT-

Technorati Tags: blogging, random thoughts

Wow! A GLOWING Review!

All right, bloglodytes/blogizens/buds and supporters -- I need to share this with you because ... well, because.  Time for me to strut a li'l bit, y'all.  :)

As some of you may know, and all of you will now know, I have a page on an artists community.  The web space is called deviantART, located at, logically enough, http://deviartart.com/.  So, about three years ago (maybe a shade under), I started falling back in love with drawing.  It was a wondrous thing to behold.  I'd set my art aside for decades at a time, and whenever I reconnect with it, it's magical to me.  It's sort of like intimacy with my wife.  Doesn't happen a lot, but when it does ... fireworks, y'know?  (TMI.  Sorry.)

Anyway, all the same pieces of fiction I post here on my blog, I also post there.  (Among other places, like my Wiki spaces, one of which is here.)  And, I actually have a couple of regulars there.  Doesn't sound like a big deal, when over here on WP I've got  Sherri, and Raga, and Bryce, and my beloved one, and a bunch of people (apparently) that are lurkers, reading but not commenting.  And then there's Ian, and UnderCanopy, too.  So I love my readers here, and a tiny smattering of them over there shouldn't matter so much as the close ones I've met here, I guess, but I care.  Mostly because ... well, because I love my readers.  I do.  Anyone that reads my writing has an automatic in-road to my heart, and I'm schmaltzy like that.

Recently, I'd been cruising around on dA, looking at the pages of the folks who've visited my page.  I have a really, really low page count, though, so whenever someone stops by I try to send them a thank you note for stopping by.  The problem with dA is that it's primarily for visual artists: people who can draw, paint, take and/or manipulate photos ... things like that.  So visitors are able to stop by, see some of your gallery and decide whether they want to see more of you.  If they like your stuff a lot, they can "watch" you -- that's the dA equivalent of "friending" someone on MySpace, just so you know.  You'll be notified whenever the artists posts new art, etc.

I was visiting the visitors of my page, and I came across someone who's a writer, and by reading the comments on their work, it led me to other pages.  Pretty soon, I found one from a lady that's a pretty doggone good writer.  I've not met many on dA, sadly, but she was ... well, she's pretty doggone good.  I started reading one of her stories, which was serialized just as my Ghost Hunters story was, and I was immediately hooked.  I read the entire piece last night.  And I've never done that before with a dA writer ... ever.

So I left her a comment.  Before I knew it, she was commenting back to me, telling me thanks for reading, glad you like it, blah blah.  Well, if you're familiar at all with those situations, you know it's generally considered common courtesy to read someone's work if they've read yours.  She picked Witch Hunt instead of Ghost Hunters, probably because it was only three parts (so far) instead of the whopping 95K word, 47-segment ordeal of the latter.  At any rate, I didn't know she was reading it, and I generally don't want folks to feel compelled to read my work just because I've read theirs.  That's the wrong reason for doing it anyway, and I won't take it personally.  Reading is a major investment of time and thought.  It's not easily undertaken, especially with a big project.  Right, Sherri?  :)

Well, this afternoon, I had a comment from this nice lady.  We'd exchanged a couple of them today, about various things, random thoughts, and when I read it I nearly did a spit-take on my screen with my coffee from shock.  Here it is, verbatim, copied and pasted from my dA page:

Okay, I reread this hoping to provide some helpful criticism. Here goes: This is great. No kidding. I couldn't find a single s[c]rew up, or typo, or grammatical error -- or even something I just plain didn't like. My opinion cou[n]ts too, because I taught creative writing for three years, composition for three more, and have been writing professionally for ad agencies, magazines and a newspaper for over 24 more! If I received this piece as sample pages to consider for publication, I would demand more immediately. Don't you wish I was an agent? Yeah, me too. Anyway, I'm off to part two.

BADDA-BING, PEOPLE!!  Okay, Sherri-berry, say it with me now; ready?

WOOOOO!!!

That ... that left me absolutely speechless.  Oh, and a little teary.  I tried to find some fumbling words of gratitude to express, but I just kept gushing.  So I gave up.  But I was blown away.

That's not the end of it, either.  She commented on all the other parts of "Witch Hunt" too, and she picked up a typo I missed along the way.

Needless to say, I'm on a euphoric, endorphin-driven high from which I sha'n't come down ... until someone says they don't like it, of course.  Then I'll slide into a dark, brooding depression, bubbling like the swamps of Dagoba, grunting like Yoda, and I won't emerge from that for a while.  Back and forth I'll go.

Right now, though, I'm high.

If you're in the mood for a gritty, kinky sorta mature-reader oriented story with a lot of punch, suspense, tension and professional-quality prose, check out this wonderful author's dA page at http://denlm.deviantart.com.  The story is called "Jon.com", but she's got others, too.  You have to sign up for dA to comment, I believe, but you might find an email address for her there somewhere.  Drop her a line and give her your feedback, if you want.  She enjoys quality critiques.

I'm going to bask now.  Thanks.

:)

-JDT-

wordpress Tags: writing, random thoughts, reviews, critiques

Technorati Tags: writing, random thoughts, reviews, critiques

A Busy Day on the Blogosphere

Well ... I can tell by my hit count the holidays are over and you're all back to your routines of reading and being read, sharing thoughts and catching up with fellow blogophiles.  (Blogizens?  Bloglodytes?)  It's nice to see you all again, and I hope your holiday season was happy, healthy, fun and safe, but most of all, richly blessed.

Those of you who never left already know I sure appreciated your company through the time.  It was fun to be so close and intimate with a few of you, and to spend quiet winter evenings, muffled by the snow, with you.  Sipping eggnog and brandy, Irish coffee and hot cocoa by the fireside in our comfy leather wingbacks, talking quietly in the deep stillness of the winter chill ... I can't think of any time more well-spent.

For those of you who are resolution-makers, what are they?  Have you written them down yet?  You should, you know; they become more real and less easily forgotten -- or forsaken -- when you do.  ;)

I just had my second-best day ever, in terms of page views, according my handy li'l stat counter here on WP's dashboard.  Thanks for stopping by, and for those of you indulging in the serial fiction -- I sure hope you like it.  It was a lot of fun to write, and I promise -- by all that is holy, I promise!! -- I'm going to continue working on a new one.  Maybe not the one I've started (because I've not been happy with its plot so far), but on something new, I promise.  Bear with me; the muse will return eventually.  She'd better ... the bitch.

Ahem.  Sorry.

So, anyway ... yes, I'm still sorely lacking in inspiration.  I've been trying to re-examine what I've plotted in my new story, and at the same time ask myself if that's the story I want to write now.  In the meanwhile, I've come to grips with the idea that I have something pressing on me now, something urgent, something I need to resolve really quickly.  It's urgent, it's critical and it's not going away.  It's not going well, either.  I have to take care of that issue first, before I move easily into fiction.  If I can get some things happening there, I can focus more fully on writing.  You know, relax ... create ... let the imaginative bowels move, if you will.  (Okay, that was yucky.  Sorry.)

Whatever turns out in these areas, I'm happy to see you all back.  For those who felt my last post was a little moody ... you're right.  It was.  I'm fighting depression along with a lot of pressure from life in general, but hey -- who's not?  I apologize, I wasn't trying to be a downer.  I hope you liked the prose, though.  It was as close as I may have ever come to capturing my emotional state in words.

Have fun going back to work, and we'll talk again soon.  I promise.

:)

-JDT-

Technorati Tags: life, blogging, random thoughts, writing