Writing the Balancing Act

When I decided to dedicate a good piece of my time to writing, it was both a hope and a commitment. It was the hope that I could do justice to the art, to write the way I want and to tell the stories I like, both fiction and non-fiction. It was a commitment to both learn the craft and carve out the necessary hours and days to complete a given task, whether the next 1000 words, the next chapter, or a whole book. Writing novels and books are not sprints but marathons. And at the end of the day did I do justice to the time or did I find distractions or did they find me?

My writing is intermingled with the daily need to run a professional planning office. I’m in early and try to get two good hours of writing done before the phone starts its dance. For the last three years it was somewhat easier, due to this delightful economy we are enjoying, many whole days were devoted to writing, cover art, interior artwork (for my latest novel out this fall), and the hope of building a publishing company around the pages wrought. I once talked to successful author and we both agreed the 3000 word days are the best.

But now the pressure of work, new projects, concept plans and studies is testing my time management skills. The two hours, some days, don’t exist. The book notes posted in the project's  journal have to be reviewed to keep the thread fresh; it takes longer to jump back into the story, but it does come back, and then it’s harder to step away. I am more greedy about my time.

My work is graphics and artwork, planning studies and Photoshop, sketches and InDesign. It’s also staff issues, schedules, city council meetings, budgets, salaries, and due dates. It’s editors, publishing, printing, book orders, and ebooks. It’s two blogs. It’s thinking of professional meetings and writers workshops and conferences all at the same time.

It’s about my wife and family, and it’s about my new family: Howie Smith, Sharon O’Mara, Kevin Bryan, and of course, Basil.

I love it!

Escape from Paris

Just as I retrieved our duo from Paris I sent them back. Paris, you can't get enough of this wonderful tangle that straddles the bank's of the Seine. But Sharon has to come face to face, or as in our heroine's case, fist to face, with the arch-enemy of our story somewhere; so, why not here?

They have found the prize but before it comes back to the States, the enemy must be evaded, if only for the moment, before they can be vanquished,. The Chunnel to London awaits, then a confusing series of plane connections, then home. But for the minute our two are racing toward the Gard du Nord, on bikes, chased by evil in the form of a Teutonic-Argentine blond with piercing blue eyes (Don't they always pierce? Got to remember to find a new way for eyes to pierce, any suggestions?), pedaling like Brunhilde of the Valkyries, breastplate and all. Her goal, to cut them off at the Opera House.

Story is moving along well, 33,000 words and counting. On schedule.

More later . . . .

Update #15 – They Have Returned

I have finally retrieved my traveling duo from Paris where they have languished (languishing in Paris, now that is an impossibility) since they left the Bay Area to find a very important document in my new book Toulouse 4 Death. It’s been almost a month since I sent them there, but to them it was a nerve racking, car chasing, treasure finding, and espresso drinking thrill ride of three days. Kevin Bryan was jet lagged the whole time, kept falling asleep on the train to London. Sharon, smart cookie that she is, did a classic fake and the bad guys went the wrong direction. Then our pair took the long way home: Paris to Ashford, England to Gatwick, then to LaGuardia, then to San Jose, California. Even I got lost trying to follow them.

It’s great to get back in the saddle. Two weeks of R&R in the Northwest only wetted my appetite for the coming grind. I was able to sort out, and, aided by a few scotches and martinis (my publisher also accompanied me on the trip and helped a lot), we teased out a strong start to Act Two. At the end of Act One a trusted aid is murdered, mansions are broken into, valuable things are hijacked at gun point, and a beautiful Aryan blond walks into the play. Heads turn – people die. (And No, I am not writing a play!)

This is the third Sharon O’Mara Chronicle, the other two, Land Swap 4 Death and Containers 4 Death, are gaining traction, and ebook sales are up. Every day is an adventure in the marketing world; there are many books on the street on how to market your product, writing the how-to book is the easy part (they’re the ones selling thousands of books), for us in the trenches, the fog of war obscures all, we lived for the weekly report form Amazon. As the parable says, “Traction, my kingdom for Traction!” Below is a shot of what I hope will be the cover silhouette for the book.

Sharon O'Mara, P.I. and Trouble Maker

I’m back on schedule, I intend to start Act Three (Chapters 10-15) by mid-July to meet my schedule – book out by November 1, 2011.

Speaking of books, Elk River (the novel of growing up during tough times in the summer of 1956 in Michigan) is at my editor, Dennis De Rose (see column left). First edit due by July 1. I hope to have the revised draft completed by the end of July, he will do a reread while I start the book’s production. Covers are being developed (I hope for opinions in the next few weeks from my readers), interior artwork is being formatted (book will contain ten original pieces), and text fonts are under consideration.

Elk River is the book I had to write, been gnawing at me for years, so now it’s something that just has to be finished and out of my head. There might be a follow-up but that’s in the future.

More later . . . .

Progress Report #14 - Fact Finding

I am away for the next few weeks on a serious fact finding trip to the Northwest. Rest assured that when I return keys will be flying and words pouring. My schedule, posted in February, is still on track. I look forward to getting back to Sharon and getting her out of Paris where she's been for over a month. Knowing her, she has eating through all 20 arrondissements.

More later . . .

Update #13 – I Invented the eReader

Let me tell you a true story. In the fall of 1988, the DOM (Director of Maintenance) and I were marlin fishing on the east cape of Cabo San Lucas. As usual we were very successful and celebrated heavily. There is nothing better than warm oceans, big fish, and cold beer (ask Sharon O’Mara). Throw in yellowfin tuna tacos and you could mistake the sharp blue sky and long hot beaches for heaven.

Stacked on our Spartan room’s table were 10 inches of books that we were reading, with today’s cost of baggage, their costs exceeded their value. Anyone who knows me knows I have a high level of creativity and the ability to come up with more ideas than I know what to do with. But it’s often the execution that’s the problem (in some educated circles this is called ADD). Me, I call it, “NEHITDS, Not enough hours in the day syndrome.”

Well, sitting there by the pool, cerveza in hand, I began to noodle in my journal. Could there be a device that would store all the books I wanted to read, to have all the information of the libraries of the world in your hand and not have to carry an extra ten or twenty pounds whenever we travel. Oh I know what you’re thinking, lot’sa people came up with that idea: Sony, Apple, Nook, Kindle, currently over thirty eReaders are available, and lord knows those people are a lot smarter than a drunk by the pool in Mexico.

A close friend, Paul, and I spent a good bit of time trying to build a business model around the thing - we knew it would be successful - but there were two issues that nixed it in the bud. The lack of a readable screen (this was fifteen years before the Sony screen), and the issue of writer/publisher copyrights (only took a few billion dollars to iron that one out). So, as are many good ideas, it was gently set aside, another beer was ordered, and as they say: “The past is history – Stevie ol’ boy, I could have been a contender!”

My Original Reader Design and Notes - 11-1-88, be careful Sony, notice the name.

Page Two of My Notes

But this was years before the internet and ebooks. My point is simple, the eReader was going to be developed, it was only a matter of time. It’s now the proverbial game changer, whole publishing institutions are being shook to their foundations, printing companies are closing (I lost a great shop who was printing GI Town in Charlotte), there are mergers (another long story), and it’s a factor in the closing of Borders and other bookstores (local and national). I wonder how You’ve Got Mail would look under the new paradigm, would Meg Ryan’s character be gloating over the failure of FOX Books, would Tom Hanks wonder where it all went? Would he be trying to develop his own version of the Nook? Would she be excited by the new look at niche bookstores?

Well, to make a short story shorter, I finally bought an iPad. Of course I still call it my invention, and still scream into the wind that: “There, but for the grace of a design patent, go I.” 

And the first books I downloaded were my own, so there!!

I can carry a couple of thousand books, more than enough to rebuild civilization (along with a solar charger). I can now download the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Pravda, and the Traverse City Record Eagle. I can keep count of my calories, order Chinese food, book an airline ticket, the damn thing will even wake me in the morning (my dog somehow resents the intrusion). I can carry every picture I took, every favorite Lang Lang recording of Rachmaninoff, every Beach Boy album (pardon me, CD, or digital or whatever), and record my every thought, if I want. And I can listen to my favorite music over Pandora (highly recommended). There’s an app for that!

I am at a crossroads, we are traveling and for the first time in fifteen years, I will not be taking my laptop (that has, itself, shrunk from 8.5 lbs to 2.7 lbs.). The withdrawal, I hope will be worth it.

More later . . .

PS, Elk River has gone to my editor, see Dennis De Rose left column, top. Looking for a mid-summer publication date, cover art underway.