Ch-Ch-Changes!

We’ve all heard phrases that begin with, “Life has a funny way of...”

Well, not only does my life have a funny way of taking unexpected detours that I could never have seen.  My writing often does this and with concerning regularity.  While writing a fantasy trilogy (which will probably never see the light of day; sorry) I had a secondary villain predict, at his public execution, declare that whoever killed him would never live if they crossed a certain geographical boundary of that world.  Well, the villain quickly overpowered his guard, grabbed a sword and was going to kill the king he’d betrayed.  A major character, who I had plans for long down the road, decided to jump in the way of the charging villain, deflect the strike, and he killed the bad guy. 

There I was, writing the scene out, thinking the whole time, “What are you doing?  WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?”  And when the damage was done, I had to figure out a new way around things.  It worked in the end, probably better than had I gone through my with initial idea, but man it was unnerving to have a character act on his own.  (Lends itself well to jokes about writers being crazy.)

So, I’ve been editing two completed novels.  During the course of cleaning up the second one, I began to wonder if the ending should be changed and instead of leaving so much hanging that could lead to major story arcs, long term plotlines, and such that would tie down any future novels, I found myself wondering if I should just wrap up all those storyline in the second novel and allow myself some breathing space. 

After pondering it for a few days, I talked with the missus and came to the conclusion that that would be the best thing to do.  Almost immediately, I had a new stand-alone idea for the third novel develop over the past 48 hours that has more potential than the previous idea for novel number three (and idea I haven’t abandoned, but one that I think with a little more work could be fun to do).  

As of now, I’m keeping with my plan of releasing Guidry Number One and Guidry Number Two sometime late this fall or early winter.  This while working on Guidry Number Three, the Ancient Corinth Novel, and continue slugging away at turning my thesis in to a Scholarly Journal Article for submission.

The Glamorous Life of a Writer

It’s not only summer along the Texas Gulf Coast – which means near-smothering humidity combined with the heat – it’s also a dry spell for things to do (it seems).  My Master’s thesis is not only completed, but I have my degree in hand and applications for work as an adjunct instructor are out to a few of the local community colleges.  We’ll see what happens.  I do have a Plan B if nothing pans out.

After all that research and writing for my thesis, the idea of writing and revising anything was the last thing I wanted to do for a quite a while after it was over.  Now, though, I’m pulling myself back into the swing of things and the creative mind never, ever rests (no matter how badly you want it to shut up!).  So, while my hands were busy gaming on computer, my mind was developing a new idea to write up during the course of the next year or so.

So, here’s what’s on my plate for the next year and what I hope will be in your hands within the next 12 months:

The first book in the Mike Guidry series – Paint it Black – has come back from my editor – my father – and I’ve gone through it so I have lots of changes to consider and possibly incorporate.  So, now it’s strictly about editing, cover design, and eventual publication.  I hope to have that one ready to go by the end of Summer.

The second book in the Mike Guidry – title forthcoming – has lain finished in the first draft phase and now I’m going through the first round of editing with it.  It picks right up where the first book left off and speeds ahead into the story arc that will dominate the series for the next several books.  I would like to have that book out within a month of the first book.

The third book in the Mike Guidry series is in its infancy and the plot will take it off the track of the first two, but no good story arc ever sleeps. 

I’m developing a historical fiction (probably a one-off) that takes place in late-1^st Century A.D. Corinth.  The story line will follow a series of people – Christians and non-Christians (both neutral and hostile to Christians) as a new governor for the Senatorial Province of Achaia takes the reins of government.  I will be using historical figures as characters in the story alongside my fictional characters.  It’s going to require a lot of research (on top of what I’ve already done) and may prove to be a slower, more deliberate work than some of the things I’ve written within the past year or two.

Lastly, but by no means least, I’m acting on the advice of my thesis advisor and I’m working to turn my thesis into an article for publication in a scholarly journal.  I have found that rather than editing, it requires significant recreation of the wheel since the language of a thesis is vastly different that than required for an article.  I’ll definitely let y’all know if gets accepted.

So there you have it, and that just what I’m writing.  It doesn’t even count what I’m reading.  Glamorous life a writer, huh?

Learning More Than Cooking From Cooking Shows

The last two months of writing my thesis were the roughest simply because I was not only presenting data in the three most crucial chapters, but extrapolating assertions from them.  Needless to say, I was stressed day-in and day-out; sleep was crap; and I was constantly in need of diversions.

So I started watching cooking shows.

Not just any cooking shows.

First I ran through a season of “Cutthroat Kitchen” on Netflix.  Alton Brown’s enjoyment at offering up culinary twists and monkey wrenches for contestants to buy and use against each other made that show well worth it.  I always got a kick out of the low laugh he’d let loose when saw a trouble-making item and knew that of the people in the room, he was the only one who knew what it meant. 

Then, when my episodes CK ran out, I turned to Gordon Ramsay and the U.S. version of “Kitchen Nightmares.”  Watching one of the most intense and intimidating chefs in the world work with floundering food establishments to bring them up to spec was very interesting.  I not only learned a little about the inner workings of a restaurant kitchen, but I learned that Gordon had a softer, human side that doesn’t get the attention that his rants and swearing do.  After watching some of his YouTube channel videos, seeing how he worked in the kitchen and describing what he was creating, tasting, and smelling, I discovered that there was a intense passion to go with his intense temper and that the temper served one purpose: shock people into reality.  Gordon Ramsay is the Gunnery Sergeant Hartman of culinary world.  He’s tearing down poor habits in chefs and owners to build up chefs and owners who have passion for their work, their food, and how they serve their customers. 

So, interestingly enough, while working on my thesis, I was also learning some fascinating life lessons from Alton Brown and Gordon Ramsay.

First, never let a setback or the metaphorical curveball get you down.  As a writer, working in both fiction and non-fiction, that’s critical.  Chefs have a wealth of experience and knowledge and the employ that work their way around roadblocks.  Writers who have been working at the craft for a long time develop similar traits and using a depth of knowledge as well as looking back on experience gives us perspective for dealing with the current issues.

Second, give a damn about your audience and the product you’re putting out.  Respect the craft.  If it’s crap, and you know that and don’t care about it, do you really expect people to keep coming back for more?  I mean, there are masochists out there, but NOT that many.  Also, it makes you look pathetic and can you really expect your audience to respect a pathetic person?  What do you think?

Thirdly, treating people like human beings in all you do goes a very, very long way to success.  If you treat those you work with and work for like crap, they’ll lose all respect for you, even if what you do is great work, making it very unlikely that they’ll want to invest any more time with you or your product.  In a world where not all that glitters is gold, the Golden Rule goes a long, long way.

Finally, everybody – and I mean everybody – struggles and falls on bad times.  I’ve been there, done that, and buried the t-shirt.  But, I was reminded that not all struggles are equal, but all suffering is the same. 

It’s important to be a decent human being.  Life is too short to ignore the people around you.  If you can, give back to those you’re journeying through life with.  Gordon Ramsay has 21 restaurants across the world, three Michelin stars, millions of dollars, but he helps small, family restaurants because he wants to.  Yes, it gets good publicity for him, but the simple fact of the matters, if he didn't want to do it, he doesn't have to do it.  In the end, he’s imparting knowledge and guidance to people who need it in the hopes of making their lives, their work, and their relationships with other people better. 

It’s amazing what watching cooking shows can teach you besides how to make a decent hamburger or lasagna. 

                                                        

Veterans' Day 2014

My consistency at blogging has been terrible.  I admit it.  Things that need my attention get in the way and by the time it’s over I don’t really feel like blogging. 

It might be the introvert in me.  Oh, I can play the extrovert, but I’m one of those who has learned certain skills in the last 20 years that have helped me be more sociable and less the guy standing with his back to the corner of the room praying for the shindig to end.

But today isn’t about me.  It makes it easier.

I want to tell you about David Collinsworth.

When he was drafted in June of 1944 the Second World War was at its height.  The Western Allies were landing in Normandy and liberated Rome.  Soviet forces had ended the 900-day siege of Leningrad just months earlier and had nearly pushed Nazi forces out of Soviet territories. The Imperial Japanese forces had been dislodged from numerous island strongholds in the Pacific and the fight for Saipan was just getting underway.

The tide of the war had turned but the end had not yet arrived.

He left behind his family on their large cotton farm in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana.  After receiving the most-basic of instruction at Camp Robinson, Arkansas, and completing training maneuvers somewhere in the U.S., David sailed from Norfolk, Virginia to Marseilles, France on January 1, 1945 arriving January 7^th.  As a replacement, he was shuffled through replacement depots, moving steadily forward until he was assigned to Easy Company, 2^nd Battalion, 15^th Infantry Regiment of the 3^rd U.S. Infantry Division on January 17, 1945. 

At that time, the 3^rd ID had been pulled off the line to rest and refit in advance of Operation: Grandslam, the American attack on the northern shoulder of the Colmar Pocket.

Now, you’ve heard of the Battle of the Bulge and how cold it was with all that heavy snow and the misery of the guys who fought through it.  The Colmar Pocket was a mini-Bulge in Alsace-Loarraine (southeastern France) that stuck out from the Rhine River.  The American Seventh Army (of which the 3^rd ID was a part) was tasked with driving east around and behind the large historic city of Colmar to the Rhine River and meet up with the advancing Free French forces from the south and capture as much of the German XIX Army as possible. 

Beginning January 22, that’s what started.  At first Easy Company was in reserve during some of the more intense actions to pierce German lines.  But when they did advance, David’s first sight was a gruesome one.  American GI’s taken prisoner by a Waffen-SS unit operating with the XIX Army were shot execution style while tied to trees in the woods north of Reidwihr. 

The weather was miserable as well.  Audie Murphy, who was in command of Baker Company, 15^th at this time, described in his autobiography To Hell and Back how his hair froze to the side of a shellhole overnight after his helmet slipped.  When he sat up, it ripped a chunk of his hair out by the roots.  Temperatures were consistently dropping into the single digits or below during the day as the American forces pushed east and turned south behind Colmar.

On January 25, Easy Company, in rubber boats, crossed the Colmar Canal and seized a bridgehead on the other side to allow 1^st Battalion to pass through and “push the ball” forward. 

But for David, the war ended on the night of January 30 – February 1, 1945.  Second Battalion, 15^th Infantry (now suffering attrition losses due to frostbite, trench foot, and combat casualties) number barely over 200 effectives.  This skeleton battalion – Easy, Fox, George and How Companies – was tasked with seizing the bridge over the Rhine-Rhone Canal due east of  Durrenentzen.   To get there, the Dogfaces of 2^nd Battalion – David still among them – pushed through the local forest until they came right up on the canal. 

It was heavily defended by emplaced German machineguns and panzers. 

The best way to capture a bridge is at both ends and that’s what the battalion commander decided to do. 

Easy Company was tasked with crossing the Rhine-Rhone Canal under fire and seize the far end.  David, and the handful of men he was with, descended into the icy waters of the canal.  He would later say that all he remembered was getting and getting out.  He couldn’t recall anything in between. 

It must’ve been terrifying.  Twenty-two  years old, weighed down by nearly 60 pounds of gear and a 10 pound rifle, David Collinsworth swam the fifty or so feet of the Rhine-Rhone Canal to the other side.  He climbed out alive, not caring that he was soaking west from water that was near freezing in temperature. 

With his platoon and squad mates, David seized the far end of the bridge...

Machinegun rounds from a German MG ripped through him.  A grenade went off near him.  Somehow, in the confusion, he found himself in the path of a German Tiger Tank.  I don’t know who got him to safety, but I figure someone did. 

As David lay bleeding from multiple wounds, the battle raged on until American artillery, armor, and air support drove the Germans back. 

He was rushed to an aid station where he nearly died.  In a field hospital the majority of the German shrapnel was removed from his body.  He would be in military hosptial until July, 1945 when he was released from the hospital at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

He was alive, though.  But part of him died on those snowy fields around Colmar.

For the next fifty years he would be plagued by memories and dreams; waking up screaming in the middle of the night as he tried to claw his way up a wall until he was awakened to the safety of his bedroom.  He spoke about the war only three times.  If something came on TV about WWII, he would quietly excuse himself from the room.  You never brought it up around him. 

David died fifty years to the month after release from Ft. Sam Houston.

Hundreds of thousands of other men like David came home with part of their souls left on far away battlefields.  Hundreds of thousands more never left those battlefields.  In spite of the wounds and a lifetime of permanent impairment from them, David was one of the lucky ones. 

David Collinsworth was my grandfather.

Working Toward the Long-Term Dream

We all have dreams.

For me, one of the longest standing dreams I’ve had is to write a novel about American submarine sailors in the Pacific Theatre of WWII.  It stems from the first short story I ever submitted for the Young Authors Contest.  (That story placed First at Parish and Second at State.)  The two main characters of that story have stayed with me since I was 14 and I’ve been trying for over 20 years to craft something that they would be set into.

Last Fall I started heavily reading and researching the lifestyles, patrol routines, and the various duties of submariners during WWII.  My collection of research materials have included books by skippers, officers, and enlisted men as well as patrol reports, schematics, and Admiral Charles “Uncle Charlie” Lockwood’s autobiographical account of his time as Commander Submarines, Southwest Pacific and, later, Commander Submarines, Pacific.  The collection is extensive.

Previous ideas I’d had for writing about this time with those characters started gelling into something bigger and more expansive.  By the time my thought processes were over the result was a plan to write a series of novels, one for each year of America’s involvement in WWII, following characters through the “Silent Service” as they lived and fought. 

What I had desired to be a one novel concept had grown into something epic in nature.  Characters I had carried with me for 20 years were now joined by new characters in a wider world to be explored. 

And not all of them will survive.  It’s war and war means losses. 

And none of them will be unchanged by war’s end. 

So, the project was born and in November I started writing; ripped out 50 pages of the first volume of the work and then had to put it down because, well, “Life is what gets in the way of what you want to do.” 

But nothing is forgotten.  New projects may arise and more stories may be born, but something this close to my heart is never, never forgotten.

And so the wheel has come back around.  I’m looking back at this extensive project, the first volume of which won’t be ready for at least a year, maybe two, because while I’ve written 50 pages, the characters are still early in the war (December 1941 to be precise). 

I don’t want it unwieldy, so I’m trying to figure out how shape it so that it’s “reader friendly.” 

But the dream lives and it will eventually come to fruition.  

Can This Cold Go Away? I Want To Write Now.

“Creation is an act of sheer will.” – John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough) in Jurassic Park

When you’re sick and the illness lethargy sets in, it takes more of that “sheer will” to write or do anything for that matter.  When I’m sick, I either curl up in bed with a book or on the loveseat and watch movies or TV while I guzzle down orange juice and pop decongestants like candy. 

But writing...

My mind won’t stop which means all these thoughts, and all these characters, and all these changing plot-points continue to swirl around in my head like debris around a tornado.  But without the energy, without that “sheer will,” I don’t have the want-to enough to grab them and set them in order. 

Writing this right now is taking a quite a bit of work. 

But the creative process never stops.  That much I can guarantee you. 

I’ve been working on the second Mike Guidry novel lately and I have to confess: if what I’m writing is boring me, I know it’ll bore my readers. 

So I go back and re-evaluate what I’ve written and start asking myself, “Why does it bore me?”  It could be the cold-related lethargy talking, but I don’t think so.  My main character is in a position where he’s not actively running down the main problem.  He’s stuck in a place where things are going to happen to him and that doesn’t make for interesting reading, especially in private detective fiction.  So, I have to re-work it so he’s the active agent and not a passive recipient. 

This is something I learned reading a wonderful blog about writing screenplays, but the principle has broader application across the whole spectrum of story-telling.  Carson Reeves at “Script Shadow” was using Raiders of the Lost Ark to demonstrate the elements that made it such a fantastic movie and one of those elements was “The Power of the Active Protagonist.” (http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2011/03/10-screenwriting-tips-you-can-learn.html)

Indiana Jones doesn’t wait for things to happen.  Thing may develop around him necessitating changes to his plans, but he’s always actively going after the main goal: The Ark of the Covenant.  Along the way Nepalese thugs, shadowy Gestapo agents, goose-stepping Nazi soldiers, and an opportunistic, self-serving archaeologist all try to prevent him from getting to the prize.  But he never stops actively striving to reach it.  Indiana Jones makes things happen, even if the antagonists force him to change tactics or adjust his plans.  But he’s always on the go; always fighting; always searching for a way to get what he wants.  And that (besides being the likeable hero) is one of the things that makes Raiders so much fun as a story.

And that brings me back to my current work.  Mike has to make things happen and in the first novel of the series he was doing just that.  But now, with the current storyline he’s in, I need him to force a shift from being passive to being active; from waiting to doing. 

So, until I have the energy to make a more concerted effort at writing (once this bloody cold with it’s bloody awful lethargy) is gone, I’m “marking time” and making notes.

Of Writers, Actors and Character Creation

The events that transpired on this day 13 years ago are some that are embedded deeply in my memory.  But, as I write about the past, the present presents a disturbing picture as ISIS continues to out-strip Al Qaeda in recruitment as it promises to re-establishment an Islamic caliphate in the Levantine region, which would necessitate the elimination not only of the murderous Assad regime in Syria,  the overthrow of moderate regimes in Iraq and Jordan, but also the genocidal destruction of the only democratic nation in the Middle East: Israel. 

Thirteen years out from 9/11/01 and the world is still as dangerous as it was on that day.

Tonight is the final dress rehearsal for a production of Into the Woods that I’m taking part in.  It’s been a long two weeks as all the tech, lights, costumes, and props have been brought into the mix.   Needless to say, but I’m ready for “hell week” (as it’s known in theatre) to come to an end and we can get this thing going.

However, one of the things that acting does is it allows me to do two things: develop and play a character and also to meet other people.  In the first instance, I’m playing a character who is nothing short of a lackey and a coward.  It’s fun to be able to play someone so uncomplicated but I have played deeper roles, most recently Sir Francis Chesney in a production of Charley’s Aunt, the 19^th Century romantic farce by Brandon Thomas.  Sir Francis has been one of my favorite roles to date. 

But, in the cast I have met a kindred soul; another writer.  At this moment, as I am writing this, we have the “writing center” (as she calls it), set up: our laptops back-to-back across the table from each other.  I’m blogging and she’s transcribing from handwritten form to typewritten. 

Talking with or listening to other writers discuss how they work is fascinating as well as informative.  My cast-mate spends her free time at work scribbling down her story (young adult fiction) between tasks.  Last week I went with my wife to a book signing by Louise Penny, the author of the Inspector Gamache series.  Mrs. Penny was quite a delight to listen to during the Q&A she held before the signing.  But, for her, two things stood out to me as I find I do them often.  Not only does Mrs. Penny keep her eyes and ears open to literature and worthwhile quotes, but she has also borrowed aspects of people she knows to create characters for her stories.  I am dreadfully guilty of the latter.  Like my mother, I’m a people watcher and an amateur student of psychology both of which come in very helpful for creating interesting and believable characters for the novels I write. 

And that comes back around to acting.  My cast-mate not only enjoys the challenge that acting (especially musicals) brings, but she also enjoys the chance to create a unique character and develop that skill so necessary to the craft of writing.