The #MyWritingProcess blog tour combines the best elements of writing a chain letter and having a conversation with yourself. It works like this: You get an invitation from an author-blogger to answer four questions about your writing process. When you do, you also invite three more writers to answer the same questions to pass the torch onward. I was given the chance to participate by the inimitable author and activist Diane Lefer, whose work includes The Fiery Alphabet, California Transit, and Nobody Wakes Up Pretty. If you're not familiar with her work, I'd suggest you treat yourself to some good reading and settle in with a handful of her titles. You can check out her Writing Process blog post here. At any rate, on to the questions: 1. What are you working on? Right now, I'm working on a sequel to my debut novel, The Last Good Halloween. Typing that sentence gives me pause because I never thought I would be the kind of writer who does sequels. It just so happened that, as I was going through the (lengthy and tedious) process of finding a publisher for my novel, I realized that there was another part of Kirby Russo's story to tell. This new novel, which does not yet have a title, picks up two years after the conclusion of the first one. Kirby is seventeen now, and it's been quite a challenge to adjust his voice accordingly. The same words sound very different coming from a fifteen-year-old versus a seventeen-year-old. After a few starts and stops, I think I've finally gotten his new voice down, and I'm ready to tell the rest of his story. 2. How does your work differ from others of its genre? Genre is a tricky concept for me because a lot of folks have been wondering if The Last Good Halloween was young adult or just a regular novel. The back-cover description sounds YA, but the writing and story involve some pretty sophisticated and adult-type situations. My responses to those questions usually take longer than a page to explain – even then, they mostly conclude with, "I'm not really sure. What do you think?" As such, I guess that tells you all you need to know about how my work differs from others of its genre. It's a story about a teenage boy, but it dares to treat him, his problems, and his worldview as very much parts of the adult world. 3. Why do you write what you do? The only reason I ever write anything is because I'm interested to see what a particular set of characters will do in a particular situation. If it doesn't make me nervous, I'll probably stop writing it. That doesn't mean I'm writing about international espionage or serial killer stuff. Those are fine, but not the kinds of thing that interest me beyond a superficial level. What really makes me nervous is finding out what a child says to his stepfather who has decided to move out, or what a husband says to his wife when it seems like all hope for their love is lost. Those are the kinds of things that make my palms sweat, the kinds of things I want to explore in my writing. 4. How does your writing process work? My writing process is highly ritualized. I like to light a candle and maybe a stick of incense. Then I sit down at a special writing desk that's small enough to NOT be able to accommodate any sort of computer or laptop – electronics are a huge distraction to me during this first step and, as such, must be limited as much as possible, by force if necessary. I write everything out longhand using a fountain pen. Writing by hand slows me down just enough to allow me to consider the words I'm writing and helps make sure what comes out is reasonably decent. If I were to type my first drafts, I think I'd have to sift through a lot more garbage on the subsequent edits. For any given project, I like to have one pen that I use to write the bulk of it. Thus, I can point to the Waterman I used to write my first manuscript. Or the Pelikan I used to write my most recent novel. Right now, I'm using a delicious Mont Blanc, which my father gave to me as a Christmas present. Writing with it feels like driving a 1978 Cadillac with spongy shock absorbers. It's a treat for my hand. This is what a typical first draft looks like: After I've written a first draft, it's time to enter it into the computer. Lately, I've been using the program Scrivener as my go-to word processor. It's been a little scary switching away from the old reliable Microsoft Word, but I'm sticking with it and I think it's finally starting to pay dividends. With Scrivener, I spend a lot more time thinking about the words than the formatting, which seems like a good trade-off.
Well, that's it for my blog post. Next week, I hope you'll tune in to the efforts of these fine individuals. 1. Gerald Brennan is a self-described corporate brat who’s lived all over the eastern half of the continent but currently resides in Chicago. He earned a B.S. in European History from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University. He founded Tortoise Books in 2012 to provide a new outlet for quality authors who haven’t found a niche in the traditional marketplace. He’s the author of Resistance, Ninety-Seven to Three and Zero Phase: Apollo 13 on the Moon. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Good Men Project and Innerview Magazine; he has also been a frequent contributor and co-editor at Back to Print and The Deadline. His post will appear on the Tortoise Books blog space: www.tortoisebooks.com/whatshappening/ 2. Natalia Sarkissian holds a BA and MA in art history, an MBA in international finance and an MFA in creative writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has worked as a curatorial assistant, a management consultant, an English teacher, a translator, and a writer. Her writing and photographs have been published in the US and Italy by, amongst others, the University of Texas Press, IPSOA publishers, Corriere della Sera, The Huffington Post and Numéro Cinq where she is on the masthead. Natalia divides her time between Italy and the United States and she blogs at Postcards from Italy. Her post will appear at: http://www.nataliasarkissian.com 3. Alex A.G. Shapiro is DEEP in the research phase of a torrid exposé related, but not limited to, modern fatherhood. He is a graduate of the University of Montana MFA program. His fiction has been published in the Crab Orchard Review, MAKE Magazine, and Identity Theory. His post will appear on his blog: http://shapishap.tumblr.com/
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I was recently asked to contribute a post to the blog "My Book, the Movie." The premise is that authors get to pick which actors they think should play the characters in their novels.
Is there a little bit of vanity that goes into an exercise like this? Certainly. And I was a little hesitant at first. But once I got over my initial trepidation, it quickly became one of the most fun writing exercises I've engaged in all year. I actually found myself arguing about the relative merits of choosing a well-known star versus a lesser-know-but-possibly-hungrier actor. Even after I submitted it, I came up with new names and kicked myself for not thinking of them sooner. I won't spoil the post by telling you who my picks were. Instead, go here and check them out for yourself. Feel free to let me know if you agree or if you have any better ideas! For those of you who were unable to make it to my reading this past weekend, we were lucky enough to have Ryan Singleton of WordPlaySound on hand to document the whole night. If you're not familiar with WordPlaySound, they're basically one of the premier literary podcasts in Chicago. So it's an honor to be part of it.
Also, it was an honor to appear with kickass Chicago writers: Joseph Peterson, Mark Brand, and Ben Tanzer. Pretty doggone heady company to find yourself in, I must say. As if that wasn't enough, the event took place at The Book Cellar, which is one of my favorite bookstores in all Chicago. So there's that! If you're curious and want to hear which chapter from The Last Good Halloween I read, you can follow this link and listen to the evening on your browser, or you can go to iTunes and subscribe to WordPlaySound's podcast, which would be well worth your time. I'm pleased to share a new review of The Last Good Halloween that came out from The Billings Outpost's David Crisp. It's a really great review that manages to get to the core of what I was trying to do in the book. I'd encourage everyone to read the whole thing, but here are a few choice excerpts (in my humble opinion):
"Mr. Cromley has a light touch and a keen ear for dialogue. His observations on adolescent life may not be piercing, but they ring true. Kirby steers his way through life with an endearing blend of awkwardness, personal charm, humor, anger and defiance, trying, at least, to every day get a little better." Because the novel is set largely in Billings, I was curious to see how my fellow Billings-ians read it. I found this last bit to be a really insightful and generous observation: "The problems of high school students as they negotiate the boundaries between childhood and adulthood seem to be universal problems, certainly not a Billings phenomenon. But the grace with which Mr. Cromley draws his vision of this corner of the world makes the book a welcome addition to the Montana bookshelf and perhaps a sign of more and better to come." Due to continuing inclement weather, the City Colleges of Chicago remain closed today. Thus, the reading I was scheduled to give today at Kennedy-King College has been postponed. I will post the new date and time when I find it out. Sorry for any inconvenience. As a side note, it really is dang cold out there today, so don't go outside unless you have to and unless you're really bundled up.
I'll be doing two readings next week. If anyone has a notion, I'd love for you to stop by and say howdy.
The first reading will be Tuesday, January 28th at 2:00 PM, on the second floor of the Kennedy-King College Library, which is located at 6300 S. Halsted Street. I'm extremely excited about this event because Kennedy-King is the college where I teach, so there's the added benefit of the home-field advantage. The second reading will be Friday, January 31st at 7:00 PM, at The Book Cellar, which is located at 4736 N. Lincoln Avenue. The advantages of this reading are that I'll be teaming up with some pretty awesome writers (Ben Tanzer, Mark Brand, and Joseph Peterson), plus The Book Cellar is a super kick-ass book store. So, really, no reason not to join in the festivities. It's been a great and fun year, one that started off at a pretty low point, but continually picked up steam as the months passed. Of course, the biggest news was the publication of my first novel, The Last Good Halloween. Through that project, I've had the opportunity to meet and work with a lot of great, new people in the publishing world and for that I'm incredibly grateful.
Before we kiss 2013 good-bye, I wanted to mention a few fun items that came up at the last minute this year. First off, I had the chance to participate in a Sun-Times blog series on hot writers in Chicago. This was an opportunity that definitely fell into the push-your-comfort-zone category -- especially since the point was to provide a "pin-up" style photo. After a bunch of bad ideas that didn't turn out well, I ended up embracing the concept and, well, you can see the results for yourself. Turns out the pic that worked best was a selfie. (And, for the record, this is the first time I'm typing that word.) Second of all, I got asked by the good folks at The Next Best Book Club's Blog to give my top three reads of 2013. I'm proud to have been asked to participate and even more proud of how indie-press-centric the entire list is. If you want to find some reads that might be a little off the beaten path, check it out! As for 2014, well, I've got some readings coming up in January and February, plus some more writing projects lined up, so stay tuned. I'll let you know more when I know. Gentle readers, The Bygone Bureau just came out with a Best of the Arts in 2013 and I had the opportunity to add a few to their estimable list. Check it out here and see what really got me excited, artistically-speaking, this past year.
Just a quick note to all the Chicago Folks:
My publisher, Tortoise Books, is sponsoring a table at the Chicago Book Expo this Sunday, November 24th. I'll be there signing copies of my new novel The Last Good Halloween. If you're interested in getting a signed copy, or just want to keep me company, I'd love to see you there! The Expo is going from 11 AM to 5 PM. The address is 1345 W. Argyle. Seeing all your bright faces will help take the edge off missing the Cowboys game, which, let's be honest, it's probably better if I don't watch it anyway. Just wanted to let folks know about a guest blog post I wrote that went live this morning. Not quite an ouroboros situation here, but certainly meta on some level.
I was recently given the opportunity to contribute to The Next Best Book Club's blog. If you're not familiar with this site, it's a great place that helps spread the word on on new and established indie authors -- so you can imagine my delight at hearing from them. Anyway, they've got a variety of regular features and the one that seemed best suited to my novel was the Books & Booze series. All of TNBBC's stuff is great, so you should definitely plan to spend some time there, but if you're pressed for time, you can just check out my post and take a gander at the rest later. I tried to give a little insight into the alcohol consumed by Kirby Russo in my novel The Last Good Halloween. There are no spoilers, so don't worry if you haven't read the book yet. You can think of this as kind of a DVD extra that might give a little more insight into the life and mindset of Kirby. |