Progress Update

After a long Google search last night, I've come to the realization that I am about 10% done writing my new project. Apparently publishers are more likely to accept manuscripts that fall between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Im at 10k. Boom. This leads me to some questions:

1. What's the longest book you've ever read?

2. What's the shortest book you've ever read?

3. Have you ever read a novel in one sitting?

4. What is one charity you support that doesn't receive the recognition you think it deserves?

I'm getting ready to head home for Winter break which means lots of reading, writing, and eating. Any good recommendations for holiday reading?

This Is Only a Test...

I'm not sure if email notices are going out when I post, so this is a test to see if it is working. But since its a blog post I feel I should say something, so here's a memory.

As a child I used to watch Gilligan's Island and I love Lucy on daytime re-runs. Every so often there would be an interruption from the Emergency Broadcasting System. I never really understood what it meant and when I thought to ask, I don't think I understood the explanation. I think that maybe adults were hesitant to say that it was a disaster warning system or something. Now I get texts on my cell phone from the EBS. Oh, Bob Dylan you said it right....

Let's Get This Party Started

So, I've just completed the first chapter of my new book and I figured I should take a break and write my first real blog post.

First I'll pose a question for anyone who wants to answer it: What are your five favorite books, and why? I know this can be a daunting question, so feel free to add any qualifiers to your response. For example, because I'm spending so much time with my head stuck in the world I'm attempting to create, here are the top five books that have inspired my creative process:

1. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King-I read the first three books of this seven part series at the age of eighteen and can say that they are the sole reason I wanted to become a writer. These books made me go to college, which made me meet John Brantingham, who made me a batter student...etc, etc... These books are awesome.

2. A Song of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones on HBO) series by Geroge R.R. Martin- I read the first of the currently five books in this series beginning the day after I finished my bachelor's degree. They were a recommendation of my cousin Matthew who said, "You'll like them. They are bold." He was right.

3. The Brothers Karamazov by Fydor Dostoyevsky- I read the majority of this while vacationing in New Zealand, and I was particularly impressed by how Dostoyevsky was able to make philosophical arguments through dialogue. It was as if every single character represented a different ideology making each conversation a battle ground. I also loved the ambiguity of it all.  In the end I still didn't know which ideology he was attempting to present as the most virtuous, and to me that is a perfect example of the power of words. Most of the dialogue that I thoroughly enjoy is on the witty and snappy side (David Mamet in Glengarry Glenross, Thom Wolfe in Bonfire of the Vanities) but Brothers K is the opposite. It is heavy and often burdensome and so pact with split meaning and conflicting philosophies that I....I just have to end this paragraph and move on. Someone feel free to spark up a conversation about this on here or in real life. I'll buy you a drink...

4. It by Stephen King- I feel really guilty putting the same author on here twice, especially on a 'Five Favs' list. But this is the book I am currently reading and I can't deny the effect it is having on my writing on a daily basis. First and foremost, It is teaching me how to not sleep at night (I made the conscious choice to read it for an hour in bed every night before I go to sleep) and in my hour or two of lying awake with nightmarish visions in my head, I do a fair amount of plotting and dialogue preparation. Second, compared with his most recent efforts, Stephen King use to be scary and I've got the following hypothesis: villains are scary when we don't know much about them. We don't want to spend too much time in their POV and when we are there, we want to be confused/asking as many questions as we can. Perfect example: The Shining. The villain is a house. Why? We don't know = scarrrrrrrrrrry(side note: I put a lot of 'r's here because every other spelling of 'scary' in this paragraph was initially spelled scarry, which is wrong. I'm also horrible with recommendation and definitely). The sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep ***SPOILER NOTICE!!!!!!!***(published a few moths ago): The villain is a group of hippies in winnebagos in whose POV we spend WAYYYYY too much time. We see their fears and insecurities and they become impotent in terms of the scare factor. Back to It...we don't know anything about the clown for the majority of the story, and every detail we get about its (Its) origin tells us a part of a story, but that story is still shrouded in mystery and folklore. Sorry the paragraphs are getting longer. The next one will be a quickie.

5. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut- J. Brantingham gave me this in one of my first college English classes. Still a favorite. Lost the copy he gave me to a friend, so it goes...

Thanks for reading!

Another New Start

          For the few of you who followed my blog in its initial form (the post grad thesis marketing), and remained with me during the second phase (the serious attempt at literature) I ask you once again to follow me here. First, a huge thank you to anyone who takes the time to visit my blog(s). Second, I have not abandoned the two previous blogs (though one physically-or metaphysically-took the place of the other), I've just shelved the stories. The first rests in completion but with a fear of seeing the light of day, the other is still pushing its way in and out of my life like...prepare yourself for a horrible analogy...like a bus going up University avenue every 3 minutes, except when I've been drinking and need a ride home. So I've admitted to myself that I don't (presently) need that stinkin' bus and this new blog is an attempt to return to my roots.
          Back in 2005 I was blessed with the opportunity to work with John Brantingham in one of his amazing Creative Writing Workshops at the illustrious Mt. SAC Community College (For those of you in the Southern California region who have not gone to college yet, consider going to Mt. SAC, and consider taking Professor Brantingham's classes...even if you've graduated from college, consider...well you see where I'm going with this...he's the man). The reason I say it was a blessing to be in this workshop is because I was not qualified for the course and Professor Nemeth (my remedial English instructor who singlehandedly awakened my passion for lit analysis) wrote me a letter of recommendation.
          In this class I wrote my first short story, a cheesy horror yarn about a vampire-ish biker who stalked people who 'sinned' and killed them in ways that looked incriminating...or made it look like suicide. What can I say, it was fun and I'd been reading a lot of Stephen King at the time. If I remember correctly (and i have the digital back-up to fact check) the story ended with the words "I know about her" scrawled in blood on the bedroom wall of the protagonist's father. PLOT TWIST-it wasn't his blood. Wow. Ladies, the author of that story is still single. Moving on.
          After a couple years of diving into and almost understanding the classics-I won't lie, Proust and Derrida still elude me-I've returned to the world of fantastic summer reading. I am currently 647 pages into Stephen King's It, and I couldn't be happier. I have trouble falling asleep when I read in bed. I see a clown with razor sharp teeth, and a spider and...well, this brings me to my blog.  This new project has been in my head for years. I've done plot development, written character sketches and planned out tons of dialogue. But something always kept me from beginning. To me this is a reconciliation of the writer I started out as and the person I've become.