9 down...11 to go

Yeah, another one down, another one added. No biggie. It just means that I'm getting into the story more, getting into detail more and making each chapter more defined and tight. I might end up doing some consolidating down the road - needless to say, there's a lot more road to go down if the last book, its multiple drafts and two years of writing are any indication.

Meetcha at the corner!

"She wrote to him fairly regularly, from a paradise of triple exclamation points and inaccurate observations." I came across this quote in Salinger's Nine Stories, "For Esme - with Love and Squalor". And smiled to myself. And I thought people only over-exclamated with the advent of e-mail and text messages.

8 chapters written, 11 to go. Yes, I added a chapter. Have been looking over a chapter's outline in the morning and making notes, before writing after work at night. Seems to move the process along faster.

Back to Salinger for a moment. In an earlier post I discussed how he wrote without an edge to a certain degree, that is, he didn't use literary handicaps like murder, sex, violence, drugs or the cops to grab a reader's attention. He also wasn't afraid to abandon the traditional arch of a story. The dependence on an arch to guide a reader along is something I also look forward to abandoning as I gain a reader's trust.

I'd like to think that with President Obama in office and his way of speaking without sound-bites, ie, taking the long way around giving us context as well as content, that full-bodied stories will see a bit of a revival. I know, I'm a sucker.

6 down...12 to go

That's the score, folks. Definitely not on track to make 2/27, but am making progress nonetheless.

Telephone poles, hedgehogs and rigor mortis

As I did for my African characters in Any Color You Want, I've done some research into Chinese proverbs and idioms for The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-). Some that I've come across include:

Using telephone poles as chopsticks - putting much material to petty use.

A dog snapping at a hedgehog - having nowhere to bite.

A hand stretched from a coffin - asking for money even when dead.

A swarm of ants on a hot oven - milling around in a panic.

These come from 100 Chinese Two-Part Allegorical Sayings.

4 down...14 to go

Four chapters down, fourteen to go. What's even better is I'm seeing the story and all its various parts come together not only in the chapters I'm working on, but in chapter as yet written. I just have to do a better job of being more productive on days I work, not just the days I have off. Getting my ass out of bed in a timely fashion would be a good start...

The Importance of Tangible Nouns

I got a little excited the other day about beer truck murals, beer bottle labels and chapstick. Here's why. These tangible nouns give me flexibility. First, they can change over time. Murals change with ad campaigns, personal choice or simply the seasons. Labels start on bottles, but can be peeled off. Their designs also change. Chapstick is new one day and all used up later on. They also allow me to convey an idea without saying it directly.

Edgar Watson Howe once said, "A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice." I'd wager that most of us don't take advice unless we ask for it. In this case, no one has asked for my advice. No one has asked me to write this book (or any book) providing advice or counsel on anything. But I've got a story to tell and some would say it has a moral. How then do I give advice to those who haven't asked for it? Well, I could take Howe's advice and provide a good scare. To a certain extent, I see that happening in The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-). But more traditionally, in fiction circles, writers use symbols. In this case, I've got my tangible nouns.

That being said, what I may wish to be a symbol for failure or l-v- may be understood for something completely different, if it's understood at all.

Of Beer Trucks, Bottle Labels and Chapstick

While I'm still working on the broad strokes of The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-), I have already come up with two to three touches that I look forward to working into the greater picture. In Any Color You Want, it was the Car Alarm Symphony. This time I'm going to play with beer truck murals, beer bottle labels and chapstick.

And for those of you familiar with A Midas Spring, yes, that chapstick.