I have a set of 21 short stories and I need somebody to read them fairly quickly; in return, I give you three finished books, including a finished version of the one you read for me.
I have some loyal readers, but not enough. And most of my loyal readers know me so well, they don't tell me the whole truth. They're kind of like family. I need people who see the cold hard truth. But I especially need them for logical inconsistencies.
I have come to see being a Reader as slightly more serious than I used to. For one thing, I need to print and produce this book fairly quickly; once I'm done writing, I'm impatient and want it out there. But there are a lot of things I don't see. I was aggrieved to find, in the finished version of a set of stories, one that had a logical inconsistency. I am better with grammatical issues than logical ones, since I do proofreading steadily, but I take pride in my stories and really don't want either kind of problem in them. And I'm not a publishing house, nor do I have access to one. I do it all on my own, and this is the price I pay.
Interested?
Sunday, September 13, 2015
projects in the works
The purpose of this blog is to keep fans of my writing up on what's coming. Up to now, I've published several volumes of poetry (e pluribus haiku, going back every year until 2011), and four volumes of short stories. The short stories are getting better; my fifth volume, Do Unto, is due soon, and is probably the best of the five. It will have twenty-one stories and will come out perhaps around the first of October. I am looking for readers for it; what that entails, is reading the manuscript, making comments, and receiving a free copy of the book when it's published. I don't get many customers for being readers; that may be because I underprice the books themselves. But I have a lot of readers in general, and if they will kindly just pass along their comments, that will be just about as good.
But I have a lot of other irons in the fire, and those are what I'm writing about today. It's hard for me to switch genres, but some of these I've been working on for years, and I find it impossible to let them go, just to focus on the stories, for example, or just let them go out of time pressure in general (I still keep my day job; in fact, I have a lively ESL writing history to perpetuate, and plenty of things left to say in the ESL-Linguistics world). I find myself a little tired of the professional pressure, but still attached to some of my professional ideas, so I've put these at the bottom; I may get to them, or I might not. You can tell, I'm ambivalent, but so be it. There is plenty on my plate:
Just Passing Through: True stories from out there. This is a combination of my autobiography, a true story with each of so-far forty chapters representing one of the places I've lived; interspersed, every other chapter, are short episodes from my travels. The travel stories take you zip-zip-zip around the continent, making you wonder where I'd be next; actually, my head is like this, so you're getting a bird's eye view of what it's like to be unable to hold still or truly be in the moment, the moment of history. Nevertheless, it should be entertaining, and it's almost done. By almost, I mean, maybe another few months of work.
My novel, Interference, is about St. Louis, and sports, and illusions. I don't know how I got started on this novel; it was a natural idea, and I got further than I got on maybe four or five other novels that I've started in my lifetime. By "further" I mean, it too is almost done. It's written. It's just not finished. It is missing some crucial ingredients.
Recently the events in Ferguson, Missouri, have left me wondering whether to weave the theme of race into it. As it is, the events are centered on a bi-racial guy, or a guy of indiscriminate race, the idea being that that didn't matter much. The fact is, it always matters, whether they study the guy's DNA, or put his mug on television, or whatever. There is some confusion in my mind about whether there will even continue to be true crime novels in the future, but this is my only attempt at it so far, so I might as well put everything into it that I possibly can.
Plays for First Days is a collection of plays, mostly Quaker, for first-day education of children. There are about a dozen. They need careful proofreading and revision; also, I could conceivably add a few more. What is holding this one up is a simple fact: I was waylaid while writing the last one, and never quite finished it. It's the best one, in my view; it's about conscientious objectors in World War Two, and the fact that they were isolated, blamed, and pressured to give in and just go fight in the war. One interesting thing about the play is that accurate portrayal of the situation includes the fact that, during that war, the country was relatively united about the general need to fight it.
There is a number of professional things I might publish; one is about language as a self-organized system. In short, I am convinced that 1) Chomsky is wrong; 2) language is like a bee-hive, or an ant colony, or evolution, or the nervous system; it has no boss; 3) this can be analyzed coldly and rationally, and explained to the general public; and 4) this would be my job. Another one is about technology and its influences on language itself. I get myself into fascinating research, but unfortunately, have no time to pursue it.
More later. Stay in touch!
But I have a lot of other irons in the fire, and those are what I'm writing about today. It's hard for me to switch genres, but some of these I've been working on for years, and I find it impossible to let them go, just to focus on the stories, for example, or just let them go out of time pressure in general (I still keep my day job; in fact, I have a lively ESL writing history to perpetuate, and plenty of things left to say in the ESL-Linguistics world). I find myself a little tired of the professional pressure, but still attached to some of my professional ideas, so I've put these at the bottom; I may get to them, or I might not. You can tell, I'm ambivalent, but so be it. There is plenty on my plate:
Just Passing Through: True stories from out there. This is a combination of my autobiography, a true story with each of so-far forty chapters representing one of the places I've lived; interspersed, every other chapter, are short episodes from my travels. The travel stories take you zip-zip-zip around the continent, making you wonder where I'd be next; actually, my head is like this, so you're getting a bird's eye view of what it's like to be unable to hold still or truly be in the moment, the moment of history. Nevertheless, it should be entertaining, and it's almost done. By almost, I mean, maybe another few months of work.
My novel, Interference, is about St. Louis, and sports, and illusions. I don't know how I got started on this novel; it was a natural idea, and I got further than I got on maybe four or five other novels that I've started in my lifetime. By "further" I mean, it too is almost done. It's written. It's just not finished. It is missing some crucial ingredients.
Recently the events in Ferguson, Missouri, have left me wondering whether to weave the theme of race into it. As it is, the events are centered on a bi-racial guy, or a guy of indiscriminate race, the idea being that that didn't matter much. The fact is, it always matters, whether they study the guy's DNA, or put his mug on television, or whatever. There is some confusion in my mind about whether there will even continue to be true crime novels in the future, but this is my only attempt at it so far, so I might as well put everything into it that I possibly can.
Plays for First Days is a collection of plays, mostly Quaker, for first-day education of children. There are about a dozen. They need careful proofreading and revision; also, I could conceivably add a few more. What is holding this one up is a simple fact: I was waylaid while writing the last one, and never quite finished it. It's the best one, in my view; it's about conscientious objectors in World War Two, and the fact that they were isolated, blamed, and pressured to give in and just go fight in the war. One interesting thing about the play is that accurate portrayal of the situation includes the fact that, during that war, the country was relatively united about the general need to fight it.
There is a number of professional things I might publish; one is about language as a self-organized system. In short, I am convinced that 1) Chomsky is wrong; 2) language is like a bee-hive, or an ant colony, or evolution, or the nervous system; it has no boss; 3) this can be analyzed coldly and rationally, and explained to the general public; and 4) this would be my job. Another one is about technology and its influences on language itself. I get myself into fascinating research, but unfortunately, have no time to pursue it.
More later. Stay in touch!
Welcome!
I have a number of blogs; I have loved them from the beginning, and I've been unable to leave Blogger as my host. For a while I tried WordPress, Xanga, a few others, but I was able to manage Blogger better, and everything else is here, so I'm sticking with Blogger.
A couple of years ago, I started trying to become an author. Five sets of stories and a couple of volumes of poetry later, I'm still trying. I set up my press site and made the Splitrock Lighthouse its symbol. At the time I had plans for doing PR right out of this site. I figured I didn't need to chat or be informal, since I had my usual informal blog which had been running for eight years.
But I was basically unwilling to change that one, or make it more commercial. I use all small letters on that one, and make it intensely personal, and I like it that way; I've never had any desire to cultivate any professional traffic or do anything to compromise my feelings. My relatives sometimes get on me, saying it's interesting and informative, but has no titles, no headings for the pictures, etc. But I don't change it. It is as I want it, and I think it'll stay that way.
I occasionally need to say things like, another set of stories is coming; or, I'm working on a novel. I think my readers would want to know this. But it has been lost in the ongoing madhouse that that blog entails. Only some readers really want to be over there, and that's not the majority of its readers. So I'll make this site basically to focus on my identity as an author, and my pr efforts, and the things I do as part of tlevs press, my press. It's that simple. I'll try to make this site nice, but uncluttered, and stick to the things the press makes. I plan on making it enjoyable and interesting, and using it to connect to other authors.
From the template, you should be able to visit some of the other blogs, as well as some other interesting sites. I would like it to be an interesting place to visit, even if it becomes sleepy, or there is nothing coming forth from tlevs press. Comments are welcome!
A couple of years ago, I started trying to become an author. Five sets of stories and a couple of volumes of poetry later, I'm still trying. I set up my press site and made the Splitrock Lighthouse its symbol. At the time I had plans for doing PR right out of this site. I figured I didn't need to chat or be informal, since I had my usual informal blog which had been running for eight years.
But I was basically unwilling to change that one, or make it more commercial. I use all small letters on that one, and make it intensely personal, and I like it that way; I've never had any desire to cultivate any professional traffic or do anything to compromise my feelings. My relatives sometimes get on me, saying it's interesting and informative, but has no titles, no headings for the pictures, etc. But I don't change it. It is as I want it, and I think it'll stay that way.
I occasionally need to say things like, another set of stories is coming; or, I'm working on a novel. I think my readers would want to know this. But it has been lost in the ongoing madhouse that that blog entails. Only some readers really want to be over there, and that's not the majority of its readers. So I'll make this site basically to focus on my identity as an author, and my pr efforts, and the things I do as part of tlevs press, my press. It's that simple. I'll try to make this site nice, but uncluttered, and stick to the things the press makes. I plan on making it enjoyable and interesting, and using it to connect to other authors.
From the template, you should be able to visit some of the other blogs, as well as some other interesting sites. I would like it to be an interesting place to visit, even if it becomes sleepy, or there is nothing coming forth from tlevs press. Comments are welcome!
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