Artistry With Words

I’ve been quiet online for a couple weeks now.  Just too much to do to devote any time to blogs; I’m afraid this will be a short one as well, but I think it’s important that I take a moment to thank all of you who purchased my latest novel, “The Magician’s Shadow.”

In truth I have no idea how many have sold.  I doubt I will ever know because I don’t follow up on stuff like that.  It’s enough for me to know I have written a novel and that people have enjoyed it.  So thank you!

Someone suggested recently that I write my memoirs (thanks a lot, Zulma!).  Actually my wife Bev has suggested it for quite some time as well.  I fought it for awhile; discounted it as silly for another while; now I’m going to do it. Who knows, I might find some healing in the exercise.

The working title of that memoir:  “And the Blind Shall See.”

Anyway, just a quick howdy and thank you!  Have a brilliant week!

Bill

“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”

Tags: writing tips

One of our local television news reporters does a weekly special called “Eric’s Heroes.”  Each week he highlights a “normal” citizen who quietly does acts of goodwill in the community.  It’s a feel-good segment, one of the few things on the weekly news reports I look forward to.

Last week he did a segment about a young man who daily goes to Green Lake, sits down on a park bench, and holds up a sign which says: “I desire a conversation. Will you talk with me?”  He will sit there for about an hour each day, and invariably one or two complete strangers will stop and talk with the young man about life and all manner of things.

The young man, during the interview, explained that originally he began doing that because he suffers from clinical depression, and he wanted desperately to interact with people and not stay in his bedroom, tucked into the fetal position.  So he forces himself, each day, to walk to that park bench and interact with people.

It was a touching story.  It is a story I can relate to as a writer.

No, I don’t suffer from clinical depression, but I am painfully shy and introverted.  Conversations are difficult for me. Always have been and I suspect they always will be . . . so writing is my way of communicating with other people.  It is my way of reaching out and screaming “I’m alive and I need all of you!”  It is my release from a self-imposed prison.

More naps these days

I suspect I’m not alone.  I suspect many writers are like me.  Heck, I suspect many people who are not writers are like me.  For some of us, face-to-face conversation is like a trip to the dentist.  While most people seem to instinctively know how to carry on a casual conversation, I am lost in tall forest and dense undergrowth.  Social gatherings are like “death by a thousand paper cuts” for me.

So I write!  I reach out, with my words, and attempt to connect on some basic level with other human beings, in hopes of making a vital connection, in hopes of bridging the deep canyon I am always facing.

And so it goes!

If you would like to watch the aforementioned episode, follow this link.

Bill

“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”

Tags: writing tips

More naps these days

A little self-promotion if you don’t mind . . .

The fifth novel in my Shadow series, The Magician’s Shadow, will be published in a week, give or take a day or two.  For those of you not aware of this series, I would categorize it as paranormal/action/thriller in genre.  I did not start out with a series in mind, but I took such a fancy to the main characters that I could not bear to say goodbye to them after the first novel, so here we are now, with #5 in the hopper.

I have no idea when I’ll start in on the sixth in the series. I have a different novel I want to write first, a reflection thriller about life in the 60’s.  I promised myself that novel would be the next I write, and I aim to keep that promise, so Eli, Liz, Striker, and the others from the Shadow series will just have to live their lives without my interference for a year.

I wish I was younger.  I started writing so late in life, and now the sun is setting and I doubt all the books inside of me will see the light of day.  Of course, all writers can say the same thing, right?  I’ve got a few good years left in me, so I’ll kick out as many books as possible and just be satisfied with what I accomplish.

So a short one this week.  I’ve got other things to do, so you’ll have to excuse me as I duck out of this blog and get busy elsewhere.  Have a great week doing what it is you do.  Whatever you do please, do it with love, passion, and compassion.  Life is just too short for hatred or complacency.

Bill

“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”

Tags: writing tips