Happy Birthday to me...

So here I am on my 42^nd trip around the sun.

As I (and everyone else, for that matter) travel along at 107,000 kph or 67,000 mph (thanks for the math, NASA) along a lazy elliptical path, I am left to reflect on my previous 41 trips, what I’ll be doing this time around and to wonder just how many more circumnavigations this body has left in it.

Looking back on my previous 41 trips I must say that I’ve run the gamut of what can happen to a person in a lifetime. I’ve had loss and love, happiness and hardship. I’ve feasted and been hungry. I’ve travelled afar and been happy close to home. I’ve been brave and so frightened that looking back on it I’m amazed I’m still around. I’ve been disappointed and wonderfully surprised. I’ve identified a body for the police. I’ve been unintentionally on fire twice (stop, drop and roll really works!!!). And through it all, when I look around at the world, I’ve had a really, really great life.

Trip number 42 promises to be the best yet. At my job, things appear to be coming together, but even if they don’t there are plenty of other ways to make money. More importantly, I have figured out a way to build writing into each and every day. I’m going to need to because I have a lot of projects that need to be finished and other great ideas that need to get onto paper. In six days the first of my writing workshops takes place and I am eager to see what it’ll be like.

I have to be honest here…I have avoided writing workshops like the plague. It all stems from University – probably Trip 20 or so – when I was convinced to attend a fiction and poetry club meeting at McMaster University. It wasn’t an official club or society or anything like that – it was a group of English students who wanted to share their thoughts and ideas, their poetry and prose… Well, I went with all the hopes in the world and I really wanted it to be something I could sink my teeth into but as I walked through the door to the sequestered classroom in Hamilton Hall I feared the worse. The room was devoid of colour. There was a sea of black and, had this been twenty years earlier there would have been, I am sure, a beret or two. In my jeans and probably green t-shirt (always liked green – always will) I joined the circle.

There were quick introductions – this was the inaugural meeting – and then there was a discussion about what each person liked to write. There was a gasp from someone when I admitted that I kinda, sorta liked to write fantasy and science-fiction. Others there liked to write about suffering and the human condition and social justice and the futility of life. “Wow,” I remember thinking, “You could cut the angst in here with a rusty, bitter carving knife, handle meticulously wrapped in a clammy skin of black electrical tape.”

To be fair this was not a writing workshop but a loose association of like minded folks whose outlook appeared far more pessimistic than mine. I heard that they met every week throughout the year and the person I went with enjoyed every meeting, but it just wasn’t for me.

The differences with this workshop is that it is being run by a published author who has navigated the pitfalls of the publishing industry with the result of a paper and ink book. I’m looking forward to learning what I can and moving ahead with my own writing.

Oh yes, Trip 42 is promising, indeed.

3 Day Novel Contest Results

I just received an e-mail from the good folks from the 3 Day Novel Contest and it's sad news for our friend, Mr. Beynon. Although Patriot was a great effort and a very good story, it didn't catch the eye of the judges.

Last year, when The Platinum Ticket failed to be short listed I was admittedly crestfallen. I was very pleased with The Platinum Ticket and could not believe that it had been overlooked. I went through a lot of negative self-talk (as the therapists like to call it) and questioned whether it was just a big waste of time and effort. I thought I couldn't write - that nobody would ever be interested in what I had to say. I was a useless hack. I was frustrated and angry and foul.

Today? Well, I'm disappointed. I had hoped that Patriot would resonate with the judges at least enough to earn a spot on the short list but I have come to realize that you can't second guess these things. Everything hinges on the first reading. If the initial judge likes what you've done, your effort will graduate to another reader, but if you happen to write sci-fi and the initial reader likes- let's say- mysteries and can't stand sci-fi - well, your fate is sealed. This year my main character was a deposed Paraguayan dictator who had ordered the deaths of 62,000 people. If you can't see past that and get in touch with his warm and cuddly side, then you're unlikely to see Patriot for the feel good story it is...

What's next? Easy - now that the judging is done, Patriot can easily be fleshed out to novel length. I also intend to finish fleshing out The Platinum Ticket in the next little while and with the meticulous pick through of Loremaster, there will be three novels looking for a home in 2008 - I just hope Canada Post doesn't plan to hike their postage rates.

It's a whole New Year...

As I said in my last post on New Year’s Eve – last year was a pivotal one for me. All years are pivotal but I was actually paying attention during this one.

After far too many years running on a treadmill for a packaging company, I found myself in January of last year in a position where I could take a long hard look at what I had made of my life and what direction I wanted to steer things for the future.

First let me say that as lives go, I have been fairly lucky. I’m 40 years old and still have all of my fingers and toes – all 21 of ‘em. My general health is good. I’m fairly intelligent and somewhat well educated. And to top it all off I am blessed with a wonderful, healthy family that loves me (let’s face it – if you have that, anything else is gravy).

On the other side of the equation had been a job that offered little in the way of fulfillment. There was frustration and stress and though the money was pretty good, it was not enough to compensate for the incredible bullshit to reward ratio – bullshit winning out every time.

In January 2007 I decided to start things off by finishing a novel that had been shelved for many years. A goodly portion of the novel was written while I was at University with infrequent visits every few years adding to the story. Starting that first week of 2007 I wrote everyday until finally, in mid February, the first draft was finished. It was an amazing feeling of accomplishment. The novel was nearly complete when I settled in for the day. From the first few typed words I could smell blood. I knew that today was the day. I might have stopped briefly for a hot dog lunch but as my wife returned home around 5:30pm I was still tapping away at the keyboard. I was so close, I could taste it when my wife said, “Remember, it’s your turn to take the boy to indoor soccer.”

Normally I am riveted to my son’s soccer games, but this evening I was on such a high that I was writing and revising the final paragraphs in my head and I have to admit that I remember virtually nothing of the game. Home we came – ahhh - bedtime routine for the kids – stories – songs (please, sweet Jesus, go to sleep easily tonight) and finally, with a last flutter of eyelids, I crept to the door and rushed to the basement.

“Dinner?” my wife asked as I swept past her.

“Later…” I said, “Almost done – couple hundred or so words…love you.”

I lowered myself at the keyboard and pounded out the final scene and, as I typed “The End” I was filled with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction I have never experienced before.

“So this is what slaying a dragon must feel like.”

I’m pretty sure I said those words out loud.

With a novel finished and in need of a rewrite I decided I needed some distance before I set to that task. I wrote a number of short stories and started a couple of novels. The novels are both derived from a novella, The Platinum Ticket, that I will flesh out to novel length this year. I also sent out numerous queries to various agents to represent my completed novel, Loremaster. I soon discovered that finding an agent is very difficult even for a published author and next to impossible for an unpublished one. I intend to start a new round of agent queries later this month now that I have gotten over my initial round of rejections.

Good ol’ Loremaster needs one last polish – a complete, word by word walk-through over the next month or so – and then I’ll submit to DAW books to see if it can rise, cream-like, through their slush pile.

Over the Labour Day weekend I took part in the 3 Day Novel contest and create what I consider to be one of my finest stories – a novella called Patriot. Normally the results of the 3 Day Novel contest are announced during the month of January. I am keeping my fingers crossed. If it doesn’t win, Patriot can easily be expanded to novel length without losing any of its flavour.

There are also some new ideas that will be worked on this year. I have some lovely ideas about demons, Herne the Hunter, and children’s story about giants and dragons. There are also a number of short story ideas germinating in my brain that will need to make their way out onto paper. I am also going to drop off a registration form and a cheque to participate in a fiction writing workshop at the end of January.

With all of this on the go, I am looking forward to a productive 2008.