Red Planet Blues

I was in a lot of theater productions in high school, particularly in my junior and senior years, when I was in virtually everything my school staged. Oddly enough, though, the thought of going on stage terrified me. You wouldn't know it but I'd be a nervous wreck beforehand, although I truly loved actually being on stage. I loved the audience and I loved the applause. Probably my best times in high school were being in theater.

Something that calmed me down in the time before going on stage was that for a long time I only let one person apply my theater makeup. She was this skinny little white girl named Kerry Lou Kirch.

Kerry and I developed a certain bond through the ritual of preparing to go on stage, and later when we worked on a column together for our school's daily newspaper, The Echo. That bond has lasted over the decades and will probably continue to the end of my natural life -- and probably beyond that.

My friend Kerry Lou died last Sunday in Georgia doing something she always loved and which I never understood -- skydiving.

Ker had a joy of life and of living that I have witnessed in few people. She experienced her share of sadness and sorrow, as do we all, but I can never think of a time when she wasn't happy. I can't think of a picture I have seen of her when she wasn't smiling.

She was smart and talented, spoke fluent German (a language I could never master despite years of lessons in high school and college), and loved animals (particularly dogs), the outdoors, sex and skydiving.

And she was a writer.

Perhaps the best expression of who Ker was is on display in RED PLANET BLUES (Mothership Press, 1998), which she wrote under the name Kerry Lou. Dedicated to her mother Fran (another extraordinary woman), Red Planet, as the cover says, is about "interstellar love and the end of the world as we know it." It is the story a present-day Earth woman named Amber who falls in love with and marries a blue-skinned Martian, who comes to Earth to warn it of its destruction if humans don't change their ways.

Like Kerry, it is about fantasy and romance, and about peace, the environment and saving the planet. It is part science fiction and part erotic fiction.

(In the inscription of my signed copy, Kerry says "Martians make better lovers" and thanked me as a "fellow writer and inspiration." I'm not sure what the inspiration was about but there is a thin black journalist in the novel named Dab Mitchell. Dab is a minor character until late in the book but he does manage to get some nookie. All I could say was, as a member of the human species, I was glad to make a contribution to intergalactic peace and understanding.)

Kerry visited us both in Philadelphia and in Indianapolis. And though their encounters with Kerry were only for a day or two at a time, even my daughters remember her with joy and fondness. It is because Kerry had an incredible mind and imagination. And she reached out to my kids in an uninhibited way that made her visits memorable to them.

(Though she was invited, of course, Kerry missed my wedding. But I forgave her. She attended her sister's wedding, which was the same day.)

Kerry loved to explore the idea parallel universes and extraterrestrial or interdimensional life. And at Christmas and birthdays she would send me peace angels to help guide my way. I will truly miss those cards and greetings.

Kerry's mother and two sisters are planning a celebration of her life this Saturday in Sarasota. And it kills me that I won't be able to make it. But a 4 o'clock, I will celebrate the passing of one of my oldest friends, knowing she is soaring around somewhere with all the other peace angels.

Starting back in high school, Kerry Lou Kirch provided me with an example of how a joyous life should be lived. I will miss her but feel privileged to have known her.

May she soar in peace.

Thanks for reading.

NaNoWriMo Part I

A strange thing happened on my way to writing a novel during National Novel Writing Month last November. I changed my mind.

Actually, the change was forced on me.

Early in the year, I outlined a novel, mostly in my mind, about a man who overcomes profound professional and personal adversities. In this case, the man was a race car driver, Indy car, specifically. (Given his job, you can imagine the type of adversity he could face.)

Now as many of you know, I love auto racing, primarily open-wheel racing. (I love Indy car and Formula One, not so much NASCAR, which I watch sometimes but it isn't my favorite. Being from Indiana, you can probably understand why I love open-wheel.) I know a lot about racing but not so much from a technical angle. And while the novel wasn't going to be loaded with technical material only a gearhead could understand and love, I needed to know more about the technical side in order to give the book greater credibility. I wasn't planning to mention the ratio between aerodynamic downforce and drag, or what spring rates are, or how air temperature affects the horsepower of a normally aspirated engine. But I did have to have some understanding of those issues and more.

A guy I knew from Philadelphia was, last year, at least, working as an engineer for a top Indy car team. I connected him and planned to pick his brain on the technical side of racing, including race strategy. But then, my health became an issue and dealing with that in the late summer and fall consumed more and more of my time and intellectual energy. The upshot is that by mid-October (when I started to focus on writing fiction again), I wasn't far along in my research and didn't have time to do a proper job of it. I could still write the story but it would lack heft. And I didn't want that.

So I had to change course and pick another story, one that wouldn't require a lot of research, which I didn't have time to do. Thus started the journey that became AN UNTIDY AFFAIR.

I thought back to my time in Philadelphia and recalled a particular person I wasn't overly fond of, and I used them as the starting point. In my head -- and later with the help of my wife -- I developed that person as a character and added other characters to interact with the first. It was going to be a story about overcoming challenges (and not a crime story) but quickly it changed.

Since I knew the first person in the mid-1980s, I decided the confrontation between the radical group MOVE and Philadelphia police would be a perfect backdrop to conceal a murder.

In the week before Nov. 1, I wrote a 10-page outline of the novel and prepared to tackle the challenge of writing at least 50,000 words in less than 30 days. In addition to writing an outline (which I normally don't do), I faced a couple of other major challenges with this project. But I will get to those later.

For now, I wanted to lay out some of what got me to Nov. 1. Mustering the creative strength to move ahead was difficult at first because of the medical issues I had been staring down for a couple of months. But once I was back to serious writing, the story came quickly and easily.

And in the end, that is what I want to impress upon you now. If you want to be a writer, then write. Circumstances may change what you write but write you must. So get back to it.

But first, thanks for reading.

Birthday

I have had a really good birthday today. I received many, many wonderful birthday wishes from friends and family. And many reminded me that the coming year should be my best.

I think that is true but it won't be unless I do my part to make it so.

In the last two-and-a-half years, I have finished three-and-a-half novels -- FIGHTING CHAOS, DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL, and AN UNTIDY AFFAIR, with THE DEATH OF ART sitting at the 40,000-word mark. But I still an unpublished and unagented. Why? I'm not all together sure. Writing is a hard and lonely task. I have worked hard at it.

And while I have queried agents, networked with writers and others in the profession, entered contests, attended conventions and conferences, and reached out into the biosphere, I am not further along than I was at the end of 2007, when I started blogging. I have read and researched and tried many of the things writers do to get noticed. Nothing has really worked.

But I must also admit, at least to myself, that I have tried harder at the creative part of my job as a writer than I have at the business end. It is understandable. Many writers are more comfortable at writing than with promoting themselves or their work. But I know -- and I have blogged about this in the past -- publishers aren't going to come looking for me. I have to go to them.

So this year, as my birthday gift to myself, I pledge to re-double my efforts to improve me writing and to make myself more visible and viable in the industry. Then this will be the best year of my life, which I believe it can and should be.

Thanks for reading and don't give up. I won't.

BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD

As you are aware, I am a member of the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime and our next anthology, BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, is being published soon. In addition to being the secretary of the chapter, I am head of the committee planning and executing the marketing of the book.

Well, today I finally learned the exact publication date. May 1.

Apparently, it will still be a couple of weeks before the book hits stores but it will be in time for race activities in May. And now we can plan a launch party, which I am hoping to have in mid-May.

It is too bad I will miss our regularly scheduled SinC meeting tomorrow due to my continuing health issues but I am excited about the next several weeks. I want to start lining up interviews with authors in the anthology for different publications if i can interest them in doing a story, and hope to get something in the Star, NUVO, the Recorder, possibly one or two television and radio stations locally, the Hendricks County Flyer and possibly the papers that serve Mooresville, New Castle and Muncie.

I am really looking forward to this. It should be fun.

I also helped edit part of the book. There are 15 stories, each involving some aspect of NASCAR or the annual Brickyard 400 race in Indianapolis. But between each story there are these factual inserts. I read and edited the inserts.

Then, of course, there is my story in the anthology. If I'm not mistaken, it is the 12th story in the book. It's called, THE MISSING CD, and is about a local TV anchorwoman named Hannah "Hank" Watkins who is drawn into the probe of a murdered newspaper sports columnist who was investigating some problems in a NASCAR race team.

I like the story. At 6,000 words, it's a little longer than some but I think it is interesting.

When the book comes out, I will let everyone know. Then you can see for yourself.

Until then, thanks for reading and keep writing.

ABNA

Well after the entry period had started, I decided this year to enter the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. I entered last year with DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL, though I changed the title to A MURDEROUS DISPATCH. (I have since changed it back.)
The contest last year was a brutal experience that left me sad, depressed and somewhat angry, and not so much because I failed to advance far in the contest. Some of the comments in the threads were horrible and totally uncalled for. However, I met a number of truly amazing writers in ABNA, many of whom I still communicate with and consider my writing buddies.
I didn't want to have the same experience this year so I decided to submit AN UNTIDY AFFAIR under a pen name and vowed not to read the threads, at least not as often as last year. But I wasn't as enthusiastic about it this year as I was at the beginning of last year. I didn't want to expose my ego to the harsh political realities of the contest again. I didn't think it was worth it.
I went about preparing my entry before the deadline, which ended on (some date, I can't remember) or when they had 5,000 entries. All day of the deadline submission day, the submission period remained open. But at about 11:23 p.m., 37 minutes before the closing, I went to enter and the submission period had already ended.
I was a little down-hearted at the time but quickly got over it. Many friends entered and most made it into the quarter final round. The 250 semi-finalists were announced yesterday and a few good friends didn't make it.
However, what I admire about the friends I have through ABNA is that they are unfailingly supportive. Writing is a hard and lonely task, but knowing good writers who are on the same path -- some further along, some not -- is always a comfort and helps keep you going.
So, if you don't have any writing buddies get some. They will be an encouragement.
That is my advice for the day -- that, and listen to music that you love when you write.
Thanks for reading and don't give up on writing.

I'm back! Again.

I'm back. This is my first posting since October and I plan to get back to it on a regular basis. But first let me update you on what's been happening since October.




First and foremost, my Winter Project -- battling prostate cancer -- is nearly over. Thank the Lord!

I have had 41 daily radiation treatments and only two remain. Thursday's will be the last and after that I should be cured. At least that is the hope and prayer. I won't know anything for about a month, not until doctors draw blood and check my PSA levels. They should be near zero. The side effects are quite tiring but they should also start to diminish and then completely go away after treatment ends. I should be back to normal -- and with me, who really knows what that is -- within a couple of weeks. Thankfully, everything still works (and that's my last word on that!).

I entered National Novel Writing Month back in November and won. I reached the 50,000-word mark on Nov. 15, and finished the novel at 54,000 words four days later. I met a number of writers, both online and in person, and try to stay in contact with new friends.

AN UNTIDY AFFAIR is a murder mystery about a struggling private eye in Philadelphia in May 1985 who is asked by a pretentious socialite to investigate whether her husband is having an affair. He is having the affair but what the detective also finds is murder. And the victim is the socialite's lover, whose badly burned body is found amidst the ruins on the city block police destroyed when they bombed the house of the radical group MOVE.

Now five drafts later, AFFAIR is just under 70,000 words, a little short for the mystery genre -- the target is at least 75,000 -- but it is what it is.

I have started querying agents but no bites yet. I will keep you posted.

Members of my critique group loved it, which was a welcome surprise. It is in first person, and marks my first venture out of a third-person narrative.

At the moment, I am concentrating on AFFAIR and querying agents, but soon I will have to move on. I haven't decided whether to return to THE DEATH OF ART, a murder mystery set in the art world. I love the story and the characters. I was half way through the novel last summer and fall when, first, I had to deal of the knowledge of my cancer and, then, I entered NaNoWriMo. I haven't decided whether to return to DOA or to let it sit for a while and start a new project. More on that later.

I am still an officer in the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime and our anthology, BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, has an early May publication date. I am looking forward to that for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that once it is published I will no longer merely be an aspiring author. I will be a published -- though still struggling -- author. (One step at a time.) My short story, THE MISSING CD, is the 12th of the 15 stories in the anthology. We are still working on the marketing and don't have a date yet for the launch party. Unfortunately, The Mystery Company closed its doors in February so we are looking at a Barnes and Noble in Carmel. (I worked for Jim Huang at The Mystery Company for several months before its closing and truly enjoyed it. I learned a lot about how the industry works from Jim, who is tremendously knowledgeable. He will be missed in Indy.)

I have several friends entered in ABNA this year -- the semi-finalists are being named today -- and I continue to root for them. Plus my friend Gae Polisner's book is slowly moving toward publication next year, the wonderful Milton McGriff had a successful book signing and discussion of his novel, 2236, last month, and the delightfully talented Hank Phillippi Ryan last month published DRIVE TIME, the latest novel in her Charlotte McNally series.

I will try to touch on many of the above topics in the weeks to come. But for now, I am glad it is spring and I look forward to a productive year of writing.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.