I think a lot of the folks who read this blog are writers. I don't know where I get that idea; it just popped into my head. I keep trying to focus the conversation on pro sports but you guys keep talking about books and stories instead. Well, if that's the way you're going to be, then fine. I can go with that. I'm not a difficult person. Okay, that's a lie. I am a difficult person, but I can talk about writing if you want. Really, I can. Here goes:
So you're a writer, are you? If you're a writer, what are you writing? This is the last chance you'll get to pimp your work here, because I won't be asking again. See above about how I think we should talk sports.
Me, I'm working seriously on two projects:
1. The Astrologer, a sort of postmodernist historical fiction that mashes Shakespeare's "Hamlet" up with the possible murder of famed astronomer Tycho Brahe in 1601. It's a page-turner and philosophical treatise in one! It can't miss, I tell you. The MS goes to the publisher in July for editorial, so I have a couple of months to tweak with it. And tweak with it I am. I'm making changes on nearly every page, almost all having to do with sharpening the language, making the sentences say exactly what I mean. I see that I was more vague than I should've been back in 2010. This sort of painstaking, line-by-line work is slow going and I don't enjoy it much, but the book will be much better for it. Mighty Reader, naturally, looks over at all the red ink and opines that I've once more gone mad with revisions.
2. Go Home, Miss America, a sort of modernist Great American Novel in which I'm a bit past the halfway point in the first draft. The narrative is made up of two alternating stories that intersect about 2/3 of the way through with interesting results. The leading male is a 50 year-old mid-level manager at a university who's troubled because his real life fails to match his self image. I know: white guy fiction, right? But it's deep and funny, I swear. The leading female is a 30-something with a master's in Public Health who flees to Africa to do charity work when her fiance dumps her, and she fails to find herself in the Congo. I know: Heart of Darkness in reverse, right? Sounds like an MFA program project. I think it's got Pulitzer written all over it.
So that's what I'm working on. Davin Malasarn is finishing up revisions to his Cyberlama novel. Michelle Davidson-Argyle is working on a new one that sounds very cool. She just sent a MS to her publisher for something that'll come out next year, and she's got a novel that comes out any day now that you can pre-order already. She can tell you more about that if she wants. That's not the point, though it could be.
The point is, I'm asking you: So you're a writer, so what are you writing?
