The Silence: Has it Been a Month Already?

Part of the motivation in making this post is to avoid going a full month without making a post. Another part is to spread out the message a little bit.

As I've indicated, things have been going well in Autism World. Not perfect. But well. Last weekend we went down to Houston for a night. Kelly and Joy stayed at the Johnson Space Center as part of a Girl Scout outing. Robbie and I planned to stay at a friend's house. It didn't dawn on me until we were an hour away from home that I might have been making a bad mistake.

"Are we staying at a hotel in Houston?" Robbie asked.

He loves hotels. When we're on trips, he sometimes enjoys the hotel rooms more than the ultimate destinations. He was very upset to learn we weren't going to be staying at a hotel. His meltdown was muted. He managed his outburst pretty well and then he forgot about it - until we dropped Kelly and Joy off.

He protested a few more times on the drive over to my friend's house but recovered quickly. The stay was capped by my friend setting up his Wii the next morning and letting Robbie borrow his Mario Kart game. In some ways, it was a pretty uneventful night. In the most important way, it was a great night. Robbie and I had a blast. Thanks, Jon.

We're to the point where we need to set some new goals for Robbie. That's a good place to be.

Another reason for the silence (above and beyond a busy job, recovering from a trip to Asia, taking a trip to Europe and Thanksgiving since the last post), is that I'm focusing more on my fiction writing.

I posted about the Backspace Writer's Conference in May and how it energized me to refocus on writing fiction. While I haven't written as much since then as I would have liked, I have made strides on my work-in-progress (WIP), called Natural Born Citizen. I've also moved forward with querying my completed thriller, Slip Away, to prospective agents.

It's not enough just write more, you have to read more. After meeting Jason Pinter at the conference, I began to read his work and have really enjoyed it. I just finished The Fury. But if you're going to read some of Jason's stuff, I suggest you start with The Mark, then The Guilty, then The Stolen, and then The Fury. I also read David Morrell's first book, First Blood, and his latest, The Shimmer. Other thrillers that I've read since the conference include David Baldacci's The Collectors and Brad Meltzer's The Book of Fate. I just bought William Bernhardt's The Capitol Conspiracy. That's going to be my Christmas reading.

If you're thinking I should maybe do a little bit more writing than reading, you might be right. Nonetheless, reading good thrillers also helps me understand my market a little better and see where mine fit on the bookstore's bookshelves.

I've set up another blog for Slip Away. I haven't done much with it, yet. I'm curious if anyone reading this far is also interested in reading thrillers. If so, what would you like to see there? The first and only post there now is the short synopsis for the book - the kind you'd read on a book jacket. Check it out and let me know what you think.

The Backspace Writer's Conference: Day 2

Like fiction, memoirs are stories. The difference is that the author is under the delusion that he or she already knows the characters very well (not true), already knows what happens (also not true) and already knows how it ends (also not true). Having written both a novel and a memoir, I'd say the process for each is very similar; much similar than I ever anticipated.

Why am I writing this? Because it's relevant to the story. Although I went to the conference with the intention to understand how to best pursue publication for Kicking and Screaming, it also stirred my desire to return to writing fiction. Thrillers in particular.

As a few of you might know, I've written a novel called Slip Away, a thriller about a reluctant assassin who's hunted down by a terrorist he unknowingly created (that's called a "tag line"). Slip Away has been "in the drawer" while I focused on Kicking and Screaming. I enjoy reading many other thriller writers, such as Brad Thor, Vince Flynn, Nelson DeMille and Michael Crichton. However, the "go to" thriller writer for me has always been David Morrell.

David is best known as the creator of the character Rambo in his novel First Blood (ironically, not one of the twenty or so books of his I've read, yet). My favorites include The Brotherhood of the Rose, The League of Night and Fog and Assumed Identity. Though, I've enjoyed them all and I look forward to the release of his upcoming book, The Shimmer.

Last night, he was awarded "The Bob Kellogg Good Citizen Award" from Backspace for his "outstanding contribution to the Internet writing community." After listening to his keynote address, it's easy to see why. I know I was changed (and motivated) by the experience.

The conference was a wonderful opportunity to meet many gifted writers, especially those who write in different genres, and learn about their work. Hopefully, we'll all get the opportunity to read a fantasy by Brian Staveley, a historical fiction by Marc Graham, and a series by J.E. Taylor soon. Having read the first two pages of their novels, I know I hope I do. Given the topic of this blog, one day I hope to walk into a bookstore and see Jael McHenry's book, Simmer (you'll have to read it to understand why it's related - I didn't want to create a spoiler).

Still, I'm drawn to thrillers. Having the opportunity to meet David Morrell and briefly discuss Slip Away with him was invigorating. Meeting Backspace co-Founder and author of Freezing Point, Karen Dionne was great (if you haven't read Freezing Point yet, go to amazon.com and buy it now...really...I'll wait). I think all of us at the conference were grateful to Karen and her co-Founder, Chris Graham, for creating such a powerful community. I also enjoyed meeting Jason Pinter, the bestselling author of the Henry Parker thriller series. Add all of that up and you've got a guy ready to get his thriller published.

That doesn't mean I'm going to stop with Kicking and Screaming. In fact, on the flight home from the conference I finished editing the most recent draft and I hope to get it out for another read this week. I'm also going to continue working on my platform, as I discussed last night.

On that same flight, however, I also cut two scenes from Slip Away and reworked the final scene. I also began rethinking a new novel that's been on my mind for a while. I'll be restarting that this week. It'll be fun to start writing something new again.