Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Terrorism, Climate Change, Mass Hysteria – This is Why I Write Spec-Fic



In his personal essay, “Almost California,” Chuck Palahniuk says, “That's why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. And writing makes you look back. Because since you can't control life, at least you can control your version.” As a teacher, I make all my creative non-fiction students read this essay because I think it poignantly defines what autobiographical writing is all about. As a writer, I take this idea a step further and ask myself: why do I write spec-fiction? Hell, why do I write at all?

In the summer of 2010 I worked on a clean-up barge in response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. As I wrote here on this blog afterward, it was a highly frustrating experience—my hunch that the clean-up vessels were being chased off so BP could sink the oil into the ocean, thereby avoiding damaging photo ops, turned out to be right on—and I was newly inspired as a writer. In my own words, “I (re)adopted the strategy of trying to write stories with relevance to the real world...”

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Midlister City, Here I Come!

Sadly, the Dreamwielder Ketchup
promo did not catch on...
So it turns out promoting a new novel, teaching six classes, playing in a rock and roll band, and trying to write a new novel keeps you pretty damn busy. I’m not complaining, though.  If I keep it up at this rate, I should be able to pay off my student loans in 22 years.  Huzzah! But seriously, all joking aside—well, I’m not kidding about the 22 years to go, just joking about it, because otherwise I’d have to curl up into a little ball and cry myself to sleep—but yeah, all joking aside, I’m happy to be busily working and things do seem to be looking up.

After riding a Barnes & Noble Nook First Look selection up into the top 200 bestsellers, Dreamwielder has settled comfortably