15
May
May
What Are You Working On?
Okay, fellow Tribers and friends of the Tribe, this page needs a little love. . . So let’s have some fun. My question today is: What are you working on? Are you like me, finishing up April poems in May? Or maybe you’re working on a mysterious short story? Or could it be that you’re stuck knee-deep in the plot of your novel and don’t know which way to turn? Tell us about it. Inquiring minds want to know. . .
Me first: I am finishing up the poems from the April prompts on Poetic Scribblings. (Read our results. They’re fun.) I’m also editing a few short stories sent to me by a writer from Denmark. How’s that for interesting? No, I don’t speak Danish, but I sure like to eat their pastries. 
As a novice at this I am still learning. Right now I am trying my hand at flash fiction mysteries with science weaved into the plot but not SFi.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:05 amHi Stan! Welcome to the group.
Well, like Amy, I’m trying to finish up the April poems, though I haven’t made much progress on that. I’m also doing some editing–of a friend’s memoir. About 20 pages left to do on that–for this round. I have a feeling there will be another. The main thing is revising the beginning of my contemporary romantic suspense to bring more suspense to the beginning. We (me and my agent) have an editor who will read it again after these revisions. Yay!! It’s going well, but not as quickly as I’d like.
So, very little new writing. In the back of mind my fantasy ms is percolating. Now that it has unsuccessfully made the rounds of most of NY as is (but with many very personal and encouraging rejections
), I am trying to decide what to do with it. Make the protaganists younger, shorten it considerably, delete the romance, go for the YA market? Or, shoot for the other end of the spectrum–make it darker and hotter??? Time will tell!
Or, instead of working on that after finishing the contemporary revisions and resubmitting, begin work on the new ms I started right before the request for revisions???
So much writing, so little time.
May 21st, 2008 at 1:02 amHi, Stan! I, too, like to play with flash fiction. It’s definitely a challenge to work within predetermined guidelines. As for what I’m doing right now, I’m working on two short stories. One I’m trying to polish up for entry in a contest. Edit, edit, edit.
The other is a rather strange semi- memoir. I may have gotten myself into something I’d probably be better off forgetting. Oh, well - guess I’ll try to stick it out.
Have been reading a lot. Finished a fine biography of Daniel Boone just a couple of weeks ago. Then went through Martin Cruz Smith’s latest - “Stalin’s Ghost.” Great read! Now have Steven Pressfield’s “Last of the Amazons” in hand. This guy is a marvelous writer of ancient history. He authored “Gates of Fire”, an account of the battle of Thermopylae and a terrific study of Spartan culture. Also made the mistake of ordering another book through Amazon - “Men at Work” by George Will. Baseball. Aughh! Why do I do this to myself?
I don’t know whether any of this reading will help my writing, but what the hell? I love to do both - write and read. What about you guys? - Jerry
May 21st, 2008 at 5:24 amComment on What Are You Working On?
Today, 12:24 AM
Hi, Stan! I, too, like to play with flash fiction. It’s definitely a challenge to work within predetermined guidelines. As for what I’m doing right now, I’m working on two short stories. One I’m trying to polish up for entry in a contest. Edit, edit, edit.
The other is a rather strange semi- memoir. I may have gotten myself into something I’d probably be better off forgetting. Oh, well - guess I’ll try to stick it out.
Have been reading a lot. Finished a fine biography of Daniel Boone just a couple of weeks ago. Then went through Martin Cruz Smith’s latest - “Stalin’s Ghost.” Great read! Now have Steven Pressfield’s “Last of the Amazons” in hand. This guy is a marvelous writer of ancient history. He authored “Gates of Fire”, an account of the battle of Thermopylae and a terrific study of Spartan culture. Also made the mistake of ordering another book through Amazon - “Men at Work” by George Will. Baseball. Aughh! Why do I do this to myself?
I don’t know whether any of this reading will help my writing, but what the hell? I love to do both - write and read. What about you guys? - Jerry
Read more…
May 21st, 2008 at 5:33 amOH, heavens! My TBR (to be read) shelf is sagging. There’s an entire corner of our house that will soon be in the basement because of the weight of books. Yet, somehow, I manage to find myself in a bookstore quite regularly, buying more. Research, I say. Must read more in my intended genre. Okay, so not all the books in the stack are in my intended genre. But you’re supposed to read outside your genre, too, right? And history? You can never read too much of that.
Most recently finished reading Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. Another retelling of the Grail, this one with women as the heroines . . . and as the villains. The story flowed between a present-day woman and one who lived in the 1200s. Of course, their lives are connected. It kept me up much too late . . .
May 21st, 2008 at 2:24 pm