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 . . .

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…

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

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.