Writing and Book Reviews
You asked me what love is once. I don’t remember what I said then, but I know now. Love is war. It’s two people wanting things, sometimes the same things and sometimes what they want is so drastically different that it makes you wonder how they got there in the first place. Sometimes it feels… Continue reading MAD MOON
I took a break from my Joseph story to finish the novel I've been writing for the past nine years. Yes. Nine. Technically, I finished writing it last year. I realized I needed to add about ten thousand words, though, and went back to work on it about a month ago. I've finished now and… Continue reading Currently Writing: 5
Two deaths, Joseph's father and someone else? Who? What happened? Joseph, what do you remember about your childhood? Working, mostly. Helping Mother with the animals. I loved them, the cows, goats, and pigs. Came across a pig strung up one time. Slit straight down, top to bottom. Blood all over the ground. Tied… Continue reading Currently Writing: 4
Who are you, Joseph? A mountain river is wild. It can wash you clean or grab hold of you and pull you under to the rocks. You got to be careful. Why are you telling me this? Because I've seen it. Did you see someone die? Death is everywhere. What happened? Can you tell me?… Continue reading Currently Writing: 3
As fiction writers, we know that people, names, places, events aren't necessarily permanent until we decide they are. It's through the work that we figure out whether or not we want to keep or discard certain things, whether someone's wants, pains, joys, deeds, feed the story or if they just gum it up. We see… Continue reading About Currently Writing
I've seen Joseph in the woods. He's comfortable there. I've seen him running on a farm, a boy, young and playful, in the dusty dry summer fields. I imagine him growing up in North Carolina at the base of a mountain. In the hollow. The Appalachian Mountains. And I hear his voice as a… Continue reading Currently Writing: 2
I don't have a formula for creating characters. That sounds more like algebra than fiction writing and I never was any good at math. My characters are who they are because of a lyric in a song, or because of a conversation I overheard in the parking lot of the bowling alley, or I ate… Continue reading Currently Writing: 1