It's Been Three Months???

Wow, time does get away...

Finished two books (reading, not writing) this week - Train by Pete Dexter and Blood Is the Sky, a mystery by Steve Hamilton. Dexter draws some very interesting characters while showing (not telling) how violence, racism, and just trying to do the right thing can really screw up things. Blood Is the Sky was a nice read; Hamilton knows how to keep the pages turning as well as anybody.

Lately I've been reading more lit. short stories than sf/f, T.C. Boyle in particular.

I guess for the last few months I've read more than I've written. For where I am now, I think that's the smart thing to do. All the reading has helped me identify not just "bad" writing in my work and others, but also how events progress, how character is developed, how initial promises between author and reader are kept or broken.

So here we are one year after Clarion and the writing output is slow; very slow. I finished a story a couple of weeks ago that literally took six months. It was like pulling teeth...or just brushing my greyhound's teeth. This one is coming easier, but I'm still in the learning process. I have to keep telling myself that I'm still working on fundamental matters. And that's okay. For now...

More on the one-year anniversary of Clarion later.

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