Skies of Grey

I’ve never written anything quite like Skies of Grey. I did a stint with some embarrassing ghost writing when I first graduated from UTD, and I’ve written gross and scary stories before, but nothing nearly this dark. It’s interesting the things that influence you.

My grandmother passed away a few years ago and during that time I couldn’t write worth a damn. I had several much lighter toned works in progress, even if they didn’t all have traditional good guys. But for about two months nothing worth reading came out. And then I wrote the first chapter of Skies.

I was experimenting with different voices, different characters, and I had all of these horrible scenarios running through my head. Nothing I tried made them stop and they kept getting in the way whenever I tried to write my normal stuff. Or at least “normal” for me. T-bird and Mortimer came first.

Mortimer was supposed to be a main character, but the more I tried to write him as anything other than a sniveling weasel the more it didn’t work. Somehow, and I’m still not sure how, T-bird beat down the doors of my imagination and stormed in with chapter one and stayed consistent ever since. I liked writing T-bird. She was violent and in control and dang did I ever want to be those things. Winter and Reem came later, followed by Fleshchild and Primo.

I know they say that characters are some sort of reflection of the author’s mind and if so, then mine were born of my grief and anger and everything vile that twisted around in my gut. I’m pretty sure Mimi, who loved legal thrillers and Nora Roberts, would have been appalled. But also very proud. She was an incredible woman, and our family gatherings and holidays still have a hole she used to fill. We’re moving on—because that’s what life makes you do—and writing this was instrumental for me doing that.

I hope that your reading experience is as enjoyable for you as the writing was cathartic for me.

First Semester Down!

So that's the first semester of grad school done! My "barndominium" now has fully functioning electricity (had to dig a trench over spring break for the wires), air conditioning, and internet. I even have a working television with more channels than anyone really knows what to do with, let alone me. We have some long horn cows who had a couple of calves while I was up here, added a couple of horses to the mix, and my dog Oberon is finally learning to mind and not go tearing off after the much larger animals. To quote Ferrol Sams, "He's a good boy, he minds well. I just can't think of enough things to tell him not to do." Two of the horses are paints, already mentioned the cows were longhorns, and Oberon...we know he's half Rhodesian ridgeback and now strongly suspect the other half is Newfoundland. 

And it turns out what I thought was easing myself into the program was actually taking double the average workload of my peers, so OOPS! That was a wake up call. A few big things happened this semester....

We had the National Book Awards on campus and I was privileged to meet Tea Obreht and Gene Yang, authors of the novel "The Tiger's Wife" and graphic novels "Boxers" and "Saints," respectively. 

Tea gave a speech about her writing process and was absolutely hilarious in person, I half suspect she was as nervous about us as we were of meeting her. Gene was incredibly cool, we talked everything from Avatar to Star Wars, and I purchased a boxed set of his graphic novels. He was kind enough to autograph both of them. 

I tell you that story to tell you this one. While attending the National Book Awards, I met the terrific individuals hosting the event, all members of Sigma Tau Delta, AKA the International English Honors Society. Guess who's now technically a frat boy? I've even talked to our professorial sponsor and she's asked me to come on as an officer in autumn. 

 

My other piece of big news has very little to do with school. I attended this year's Houston Writers Guild's annual conference. I met so many wonderful people, both new friends and old. Pamela Fagan Hutchins is doing an absolutely AMAZING job with the organization. I attended several great workshops and met with three agents. One of whom has said the work I presented him with failed to resonate with him, the other I have yet to hear back from, but the third...The third I sent the first 25 pages of two separate manuscripts to, then after speaking on the phone for around three hours one afternoon was asked to send in both complete manuscripts and three synopsis for other books. At the risk of being a cliche, I cannot put into words how thrilled I am! I'm only hoping I got them to her soon enough--finals hit me almost as soon as we got off the phone and I now know exactly why my fellow grad students take half as many hours as I did. 

So say a prayer, wish me luck, do whatever superstitious thing you do! As my sports buddies say, it's only weird if it doesn't work. 

And in still other news, this summer semester I'll be working as a TA and come autumn I'll be a tutor at the campus Writing Center! I'll have gainful employment! Am I using to many exclamation points!? Yeah, cutting that out now, but still, very exciting. 

I'm also in the process of revising a novella I wrote for Nanowrimo (arguably a short novel at 50K words) and am about half way through its sequel. The intention is to self-publish the first this summer and the second soon thereafter. Maybe come autumn? I guess it's going to depend on how my submissions go over with Jessica Kirkland, the incredibly nice--insert list of positive actives here--literary agent I met through the HWG. 

Very exciting times right now. It's hard to believe how things have changed from this time last year. 

Juggling Priorities; And Then Life Exploded

My apologies to everyone who takes the time to read my blog and who's been following my Writer's Roulette Exercises, but there will be no Writer's Roulette this week and a good chance none next week either. In fact posts on my blog are going to become scarce for a little bit on account of having received some absolutely wonderful news. Those of you who follow my twitter feed know that I was accepted into Sam Houston State University's Creative Writing, Editing and Publishing Masters of Fine Arts Program yesterday.

This is an absolutely amazing opportunity but it hit with the explosive force of a rocket propelled grenade. Everything is up in the air. My family just bought a ranch up in Huntsville about 15-20 minutes away from the campus, but the deal doesn't conclude until the 31st of January and classes start on the 15th, so figuring out temporary housing in addition to finances and rescheduling EVERYTHING. It's a great problem to have but I'm scrambling for everything.

Meaning that certain things have to take priority and while I'm shuffling them up and down the totem pole, the blog unfortunately drifts lower and lower in the pile. Until I can get everything sorted and settled, there's not going to be many, if any blog posts. Fortunately this should only be a period of about 2 weeks, and come February thing's should be on track to the new normal.

My biggest concern is how it will impact my writing schedule. I'm determined to sacrifice as little time as possible but as every writer knows, life loves to get in the way of the pen. Or keyboard. Or typewriter. Or tablet. Or AlphaSmart. Or whatever it is you use.


Wish me luck! Hopefully I'll be posting again soon!

J.K. Rowling, the Role of Failure and the Power of Imagination

When I was in the seventh or eighth grade, I did a report on J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter had captured my attention back in early grade school and at the time I thought that if there was one person who could make this assignment enjoyable, it was her. I didn’t know going in that hers was a rags to riches story. I didn’t know she’d been living in poverty, not too far removed from Harry himself before he discovers his inheritance or the beloved Weasley family.

It never ceases to amaze me where authors come from, what they draw upon and the juxtaposition of experience vs imagination. I’ve had a very wise man say to me “How can you write about something if you haven’t experienced it?” Ignoring the multitude of fantasy and science fiction books out there, historical books alone provide an answer to that. Research and imagination.

When combined with passion, the combination is lethal to any obstacle. Rejection letters, criticism, finances…as Rowling goes on to say in this video, she had to hit rock bottom to build a solid foundation. I cannot help but be reminded of a certain mythological bird, which dies in a fiery explosion only to be reborn from the ashes.

Do not be discouraged by failure, but draw from it, add it to your writers toolbox and blend it with your imagination.

Making Imagination Happen: The Hazardous Road of the Creative

What a journey...



As a writer who enjoys spending time with other writers, I've known a few people who've suffered accidents, either a computer was stolen with the last half of their manuscript or was infiltrated by a virus that corrupted every file on the device. Like Janet Echelman when she lost her art, they got back up and went right back to creating. My own computer once even MELTED on me...still not entirely sure how that happened but it literally cooked itself.

And like Janet Echelman and my other writer friends, I'm still creating. None of us were the first, nor will we be the last to suffer setbacks like this. But every single artist, writer, or *insert profession of choice here* who loses everything they've worked on, picks themselves up and keeps on going is beyond amazing in my book.

Tell me about your stories, what obstacles have you overcome to give your imagination life and how has it shaped your creativity?