Sometimes I find it hard to pay attention to daily life while I'm writing. Phone calls go answered, emails ignored, friends and family thought of in passing but sure to be there when the story is finished. The world stops for us while we write. Everything is on hold except the story.
The last year has been like that for me. On top of starting White Cat Magazine, I finished writing two novels- "Tainted Blood" and "The Ghost Box." which are now in the edit process. They're both a bit dark and wild. In "Tainted Blood," mercernaries track an ancient werewolf through the cities of Detroit. A great deal of this sort of thing occurs unnoticed in the streets of Detroit, especially during hockey season.
"The Ghost Box" is the novel I wrote after seeing artist James Baxter's painting "Incident at Track 13." I was writing a ghost story at the time, saw the painting of what looked to be a Civil War alien abduction, and suddenly saw how to blend my story with that imagery to make a suspense novel revolving around aliens, ghosts and a paranormal investigation gone bad. It's based on a true story. Okay, maybe not, but after living in that world as I wrote the novel, it seemed more real than daily life.
You see, it's tough staying in touch with the real world when you write this kind of stuff. Then again, writers live most of their lives in the worlds they create; we just visit reality every now and then to drop off our laundry.
8 comments:
I was just going to send you an email today to see how things were going. Good to hear you're in the writing. :)
Have you had any cool adventures lately? I love how you balance so many things in your life.
I haven't been balancing. I've been running a lot lately, working or meeting up with people. Not spending much time writing.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Hello Christina! Yep- totally immersed. Already working on "The White Death." Adventures, actually, funny you should ask. Headed north in 3 weeks to hunt for the "Witchy Wolves" since I'll be doing a presentation on them at Conclave this year.
Oh no, you've got to keep writing. For one thing, you've got talent. Second, you have talent, and third- you have to use that talent!
The real world comes and goes in cycles, but stories live forever. Think about this: when you're finally dead and gone, do you want people to analyze your credit card statements to determine who you seemed to be, or would you rather have them read your stories to see who you really are?
Those novels sound cool. Can't wait to get them into my hands. Hope that is soon. AS for loosing touch with reality while writing? Well, reality is far overrated anyway.
"we just visit reality every now and then to drop off our laundry." :-) :-) :-)
You're totally right. And even then it's a hindrance...
You've had a great year so far, Rick. Two novels! Wow!
I wish I had even half a novel... Reality seems to be taking over in my case.
Hi Charles- Just got the final edits back from the editor for "Tainted Blood," and "The Ghost Box" should be done with the edit process by Halloween. Then, off to the publishers!
I'm voting for you to outsource your worries, cares and laundry to tiny little robots who are programmed to do nothing but make your life easier, Vesper!
Those books sound fascinating! I happen to have a soft spot for werewolves. :-D
Lawd, I haven't been visiting much at all in the past 6 months or probably longer. And my posting went from four or five times a week (in the early days, 6-7 days!) to twice a week and one of those is just photos/videos.
Deadlines have a way of sneaking up on a writer :-D
I know what you mean, Kathryn. What amazes me is how much time and head space fiction writing takes.
And reading magazine submissions for my new magazine, even after two other people have read them is way more time consuming that I thought it would be.
But these writers work hard to produce their stories so they deserve a careful read. Even with two other editors helping me, it's a tall task. I don't know how you balance so many things so easily!
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