Cheers from Peaks Island, Maine!

 

A few quick notes/updates, and then I thought I'd share some literary advice that I posted in my social media recently.

 

One month to go, friends. An Echo in Time is by far my most ambitious work to date and officially cements me as a sometimes writer of historical fiction. I have no idea how that happened. It's actually a dual timeline, which means it was twice the work. Apparently, I have these seeds of stories that appear in my head, and they have no regard for my sanity. Echo weaves together a present-day Boston tale with one set in 19th century Winchester, England, and you can bet the worlds will collide in grand fashion. During the writing process, I often found myself asking, “Should I go there?” The answer was always, “Hell yes, I'm going there." 

 

I'll be hosting a live Facebook event on the release date, August 20th, at 4:30 EST. Here's the link. Bring you questions; I won't hold back.

 

The writing community is gathering around one of our own. Romance author Elicia Hyder was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. She has five kids and is working hard to set them up after she's gone. From what I understand, she's an amazing writer and even better person. We're trying to lift her book, The Soul Summoner, into the stratosphere. It's currently being considered by a serious production company in Hollywood, so a higher ranking on Amazon right now is paramount. If you'd like to help, especially if you're a romance reader, please buy her book or download it via Kindle Unlimited.

 

When a budding writer asks for advice, I always tell them to turn and run the other way. But if I can't scare them off, I tell them they have to find their way to flow, that there are few greater joys in the world than finding and experiencing it, ESPECIALLY because it is so elusive (not unlike my wife when I first met her). Then I talk about the challenge of first drafts.

 

First drafts are the hard part for me. I adore editing, the shifting around of scenes, the polishing of sentences, the painting of additional details, the deleting of thousands of unnecessary words, but stabbing out a first draft... that shit is for the birds. If you want to meet face-to-face with your fears, there is no better battleground than the empty page.

 

And I'm in it now. Today, I'll tell you I'm the worst writer in history, tomorrow I'll threaten to find a new career, and then maybe the next day after that I'll hit my stride and squeeze my wife and tell her I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. Drafting can and will elicit a rabid and bi-polar seesaw of emotions.

 

As I pound away at this first draft with Otis (my fifteenth first draft of my career), I constantly remind myself of the two sharpest blades in my toolbox to combat against the inevitable 1st-draft obstacles.

 

1) Shannon Hale once said: "When writing a first draft, I have to remind myself constantly that I'm only shoveling sand into a box so later I can build castles." That quote has saved me a thousand times from hurling myself onto my pen.

 

2) In her 1994 craft book, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott blew down the doors for writers everywhere with a chapter entitled “Shitty First Drafts.” She gave us permission to write shitty first drafts. Because there is no other kind. THERE IS NO OTHER KIND. No one spits out literary beauty on the first go. A first draft is a literary vomit fest and nothing more. The magic happens in the rewrites. Read her words here.

 

Hope that helps someone out there today.

 

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