Other stuff
I finished the draft of an 80,000 word work of fiction about two months ago and distributed the MS to a few friends, some of them professional writers. It’s in edit and hope to get it going somehow though the publishing market for books is thin right now. About all I can rightfully say is that it is structurally in the form of a thriller and the tagline is probably going to be “Freedom is the most dangerous addiction of all.”
Here are some comments from readers who have seen the MS.
My overall reaction is that it’s an unusually intelligent book for a page-turner. No surprises there. But I was a little suprised by the extent to which I also found it genuinely moving. This is war story and a love story and both those sides are well done. We turn the pages not only to find out what happens next but because we care about the characters.
“As far as plausibility, much of the action and the sequences, along with the gear and weapons you describe seemed very reasonably realistic to me.”
It’s undergoing cleanup and a revision or two; some characters will be amplified upon. But essentially it is finished and I’m glad of it. Whatever fate it meets, the story — or at least a story — will lie waiting to be heard, if not as it happened, then at least in the spirit of things.
Tip Jar
I’ll buy it when it’s published.
Where do you find the time for all of this activity?
ADE
If / when it is ready for broader distribution I’ll buy a copy! I usually just lurk here on the Belmont club and if your fiction is as engrossing as your commentary here I can’t wait to read it!!
My hat’s off. Having written a non-fiction book myself I remember how it felt when it was finally finished. Whew!!
and the working title is… ?
Good luck W – your blog reminds me of how woefully short I come up in the writing dept & serves as my reality check whenever I think I’m going to fulfill the promise to myself to write.
Your response #63 in ‘Road Trip’ is one example & think it bears repeating (apologies if link doesn’t format properly).
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2009/02/22/road-trip/#comment-63
Looking foward to the book & I’ll also continue to lurk.
Cheers.
Wretchard, we are also waiting for your autobiography. From the tidbits we have gotten, you have led a fascinating life. Think of it as telling the stories of the people you have met, from the halls of Harvard to the trash dumps of Manila. I have always enjoyed the stories you have given us of the things you have done and the people you have met. More please!
That is indeed an achievement! I have had limited success with my own non-fiction writing and none whatsoever with my fiction. I am working on a non-fiction book and that has turned out to be a bigger job than I ever thought. I may well write a simpler one first before getting the big one out.
One of the consequences of developing my own skill is that I can’t stop correcting and improving mine or anyone else’s. One book I had to put down a few years ago; it was on an interesting subject but so poorly written in terms of flow that I found myself mentally rewriting it. But I think this process may have gone too far. I read Gringrich and Foreschen’s alternate history of the Pearl Harbor attack and still kept developing “better” ways to say things or finding errors. Those gentlemen can write better than I ever could and if they are not quite good enough for me the situation must be becoming hopeless.
Anyway, I look forward to seeing it.
be glad to help publicizing it when it comes out…..will let you know how as you get closer…best wishes with it…
Hooray!!! That’s one of my wishes fulfilled! Thanks! Add one more to the “sold” list.
My second wish might be a little tougher: I would like to meet Richard Fernandez in person. Best case scenario would be to find I was sitting next to him on an overseas flight. (I’m not sure he would be as pleased.)
Any chance of a BC convention or get-together of some kind? I think that we have a lot of fascinating commenters that I would also like to meet.
Splendid. I’m definitely good for a copy.
I like your tagline. I’d affix it, among other places, to the behavior of the western powers confronted by Nazi Germany in the 1930′s and early 40′s (thinking mostly of France). I’m genuinely curious about the subject matter.
As an aside: I’m a longtime reader here: in general the quality of debate and discussion on here is so intelligent I have little to add, so I generally lurk only.
noprisoners, what makes you think the fascinating commenters want to meet YOU?
“Freedom is the most dangerous addiction of all” yesterday Feb. 23, 1836 Santa Anna’s Mexican army began the siege of the Alamo. On March 6th they succeeded in putting the garrison to the sword. April 26, 1836 the Mexican army was defeated at San Jacinto. Remember the Alamo -
Speaking from personal experience, your work has only begun. Agents and editors (and reviewers) will all put in their two cents, but in the end (as I repeatedly tell my editor), it’s your name on the book, so hold firm to your vision.
W, your talent as a writer is impressive. I hope your book finds a good home with a major publisher. Good luck!
W,
When you’re published, as I am certain you will be, I’ll try to be first in line to pre-order at Amazon!
Jamie Irons
Richard-
I’ll purchase 20 copies (signed of course). I’ll remit half the estimated price now and the rest later on.
Send invoice to my email address.
If it never goes to print no problem.
rab
My wife and I work for a Catholic publishing company, she as the book editor. We have loved reading your blog for the last few years, so we doubt the book will need too much in the way of hard editing, but if you need another set of eyes on the thing, let us know.
One thing we’ve seen from this side of the biz, USE YOUR EDITOR! A good editor sees the genius of a good writer (which you obviously are!) and seeks only to smooth out the rough parts, not take away your voice, so be humble and listen with an open mind to their critique. The most embarrassing thing is when the writer fights off his editor and then the reviews come out and say the book needed more editing. Ugh!
Can’t wait to buy a copy. You’re fulfilling a wish that I’m sure is shared by most BCers.
I’m sure I’m speaking for a LOT of your silent fans out there when I say I can’t wait to get a hold of your book.
You, Victor Hanson and Steven Den Beste are my three all time favorite political writers.
Wretchard that is great. There’s been so much speculation about why you weren’t writing in the big leagues.
I’d like to pre-order a signed copy. I am sure that the first addition of your work will be a great investment.
Cheers
I understand that you can self publish on Amazon with the content going to the Kindle. I promise one purchase if you go that route.
I presume that self publishing in this way would not preclude other simultaneous publishing methods.
Wishing you copious, well-deserved earnings.
PS: are you still distributing copies? I would enjoy the read and I will contribute reviews on public websites….
Way to go Wretchard! Good luck with it!
Hmmm, 80,000 words of Prof Wretchard, that sounds like fun.
I always KNEW this place was a Writing (and Poetry and Philosophy) Class!
Nahncee:
What makes you think that I consider you one of the interesting commenters?
Snark is rarely interesting.
After reading the blog will definitely buy the book.
Hope there is also humor, like DeMille
I’m another lurker. The commentary here is so smart it’s intimidating. Love reading it; quail at contributing.
W, I’m thrilled that you’ve written a novel and I can’t wait to buy it. The older I get, the pickier I am re the fiction I read: my taste is contracting and my tolerance for BS is gone. And if I know an author is liberal, I can’t bring myself to borrow the book from the library, let alone buy it. I am really looking forward to whipping out the (now underutilized) credit card and buying your book. Congratulations!
Congratulations.
I will certainly buy a copy when it’s available. I have been faithful reader of your site now for a few years. I look forward to your voice in fiction.
Joyce Carol Oates does quote DH Lawrence when she wrote about a writer’s forward vision. She quotes his letter of 1919; ” the characters fall into the form of some other rhythmic form, as when one draws a fiddle-bow across a fine tray delicately sanded,the sand takes lines unknown.”
Creation of art is one of the gifts that we have been given. It can’t exist without freedom. We need that addiction to freedom. Bravo for your book.
noprisoners – *I* didn’t say I was.
Interesting that you projected it, however. Thank you.
I miss den Beste, although he did have a tendency to go on and on and on. He was the very first one immediately after 9/11 to see with blazing clarity that what we were facing was genocide, and not in the sense of Arabs killing Americans.
Hanson is sometimes stolidly professorial but he does drill down to bedrock and issue clarion cries.
Some of the best “political” writing that I’ve ever read is Bill Whittle at EjectEjectEject! If you have moments, look up his archives. You’ll end up in tears but in a good way, I promise.
– Why Kindle Should Be An Open Book –
Tim O’Reilly
History has already begun to repeat itself.
We’ve thrown our support behind epub and other open e-book standards, providing our books as “e-book bundles” that give the reader the choice of pdf (still the only viable choice for many highly formatted books like our Head First series of “brain friendly” tutorials that even HTML can’t handle), epub, and mobi, an HTML-based predecessor to the Kindle format that lacks digital rights management but that can be imported into the Kindle. To help jump-start the market, we’re hosting and supporting the free bookworm e-book reader.
But we can already see the momentum on the open e-book platform. Stanza, the epub-based e-book reader for the iPhone and other Web-capable phones, may well be playing Mosaic to bookworm’s Viola. Lexcycle, the creator of Stanza, announced recently that its software has been downloaded more than 1.3 million times, and that more than 5 million e-books have been downloaded.
Congrats, Wretchard,
Even if for some reason you have difficulty getting published, its an achievement.
I’ve had some thoughts about trying to write ‘for real’ after having some unexpected success (non-$$) writing some long form fanfiction of all things.
Taking the next step, a leap even, is a big deal. Good for you.
The remarkable man from Manila
Wrote a novel – a page-turnin’ thrillah
It mixed love and war
With erudition galore
That cat is one urbane guerilla
——
Congrats, W.
L3
Wretchard,
I hope that this work of fiction has a certain autobiographical element to it. If not, I think that you have another book to write.
Nice Leo, I saved that one.
Congratulations on the novel Mr. Fernandez. Just let me know when you need to fill that “Alfred” spot. I would be honored.
Put me down for a signed copy. Make sure they give you the best cover artist.
Big fan, Big fan.
Jim
Great news, W! Thank you…looking forward to reading it.
On a practical note – how can we help? Tip jar, advance orders ala “rab”, will you self-publish and distribute… looking to help…
I think the chief difference between fiction and nonfiction is the need to let the fictional universe develop according to its own logic. By contrast, in nonfiction, the trick is never to let the words on paper get away from the reality from which it springs. Nonfiction is the art of describing, as intelligibly and faithfully as possible, what happened. Fiction on the other hand, consists of allowing people to understand reality through events that never occurred.
The process of putting a long fictional narrative involved three steps, for me. There is possibly a fourth, but I’m not there yet.
The first step was simply to dump the main bones of the intended story onto a loose narrative. Experienced writers can do clever things, but since I had no confidence in being able to do anything fancy, I stayed away from innovative techniques and chose a tried and tested plot device around which to structure the plot. That gave a sequence of events which can be examined for plausibility and dramatic structure. The landscape was there.
The next step was to create the characters who were initially modeled or composited on real people. One way to create them is by dialogue and action. Instead of narrating an event, you show it in words and actions; in the way the characters behave. It was a little trickier to allow the characters to self-describe themselves — to reveal their weaknesses, strengths, beliefs and doubts — in dialogue and action. But you had to do it.
The third step was let the entire universe declare its independence from the author; that is, yourself. Once you know what the universe looks like and who the characters are, you must permit them to interact, as in a literary simulation program, just as if they really existed. This creates a kind of dynamism which doesn’t flow deterministically from the author himself. Suddenly you find your creations in rebellion. They do things you don’t want them to do.
Now I’m beginning to think there’s a fourth step. This miniature creation yearns for a kind of salvation. It looks to a God and you find, as an author, that it can’t be you. So any novel that reaches this fourth step becomes incomplete in a special way: it becomes like the world we live in. And the characters in your book, if you are successful, step out of the pages and introduce themselves to you as equals.
These are all reflections on a process which I carried out imperfectly. Because authorship is governed by economics you must always compromise. If you are a “slave to art” you will wind up just that, a slave. You don’t have unlimited time or talent at your disposal. I think anyone who sets out to write a “great novel” is bound to be in difficulties, unless he happens to be a Conrad, as Dostoevsky, a Fitzgerald or a Tolstoy. In which case he or she was meant to do it. But if you’re just middling writer the worst thing you can have is literary pretensions.
What you realistically want to achieve is “good enough”: a ‘cracking good tale’ about plausible people facing the same challenges as we might. You must accept your limits which isn’t a hindrance in practical terms because there are a lot of the books out on the bookshelves that aren’t worth a damn; so as long as you don’t do too badly, eventually you will write something worth an afternoon’s reading, and perhaps a thought or two at evening time.
Be sure to post your book tour dates. And be sure they include a stop in Las Vegas.
That Leo Linseed is no Haybeck himself!
Worthy limericks in prosefusion,
from the master of conFucian.
Dude, can i get an autographed copy?? Also, did u pull anything from ur personal life and put it into the book?
Am not at all amazed that so many BC commenters have had publishing experience. Had a few short pieces published, magazine, newspapers, and thought, when I finished my first novel, that the hard part was done. Was I ever wrong. The hard part will be getting an agent to read it. You are correct that the genre market is at its lowest ebb in many years, and darn few unpublished authors get taken on, but I have no doubt you will be one of the few. Good luck and best wishes.
Walt
I’ll always remember my professor’s comment when, back in college, I was lamenting that I didn’t write like Thomas Hardy.
“Why?” said Dr. Beranek. “It’s been done.”
Congrats on finishing the MS, Wretchard. ‘Tis a tremendous achievement in and of itself to stay at a novel till it’s done. A marathon, not a sprint. We all wish you nuttin’ but the best with getting this puppy a publisher.
Is there a character named Feodor in it, perchance? Please say yes! You quote “Brothers Karamazov” so many times on this blog I can’t imagine an allusion or two not making it into your fiction.
The Lyrics For The Southern Cross are very good. –unlike a lot of CSN lyrics. In fact the words are strangely lucid.
why?
Think about how many times
I have fallen
Spirits are using me
larger voices callin’.
Crosby Stills & Nash Utube of the The Southern Cross is good music but I can hardly tell what they are saying.
Good on ya, W! We all wait hungrily for publication. F
The third step was let the entire universe declare its independence from the author; that is, yourself. Once you know what the universe looks like and who the characters are, you must permit them to interact, as in a literary simulation program, just as if they really existed. This creates a kind of dynamism which doesn’t flow deterministically from the author himself. Suddenly you find your creations in rebellion. They do things you don’t want them to do.
………
I have heard many writers describe writing in similiar terms. I always sounds like Genesis from the Creation to the Garden of Eden.
Now I’m beginning to think there’s a fourth step. This miniature creation yearns for a kind of salvation. It looks to a God and you find, as an author, that it can’t be you. So any novel that reaches this fourth step becomes incomplete in a special way: it becomes like the world we live in. And the characters in your book, if you are successful, step out of the pages and introduce themselves to you as equals.
………………
I have heard people describe Jesus as a man who stepped out of the bible. The Word made flesh. God writing himself into human history.
Wretchard
A while back,probably two sites back, you wrote a great post that I found riveting.
It had to do with being alone in a dark Asian alley in a squalid night covered sewer. You were alone by yourself with several stone cold men who knew what a knife was. You didn’t have one and you knew that no one was going to share theirs with you. At least not on that night and probably never because you weren’t likely to see the empty morning.
That is the post that got me hooked on the Belmont Club. Again I look forward to the book.
NahnCee,
what makes you think you can speak on behalf of the fascinating commenters?
Wretchard, congratulations. I must say that I am only mildly surprised to find out that your literary skill has found this other outlet. I look forward to reading the novel in whatever form it is eventually manifest?
Remember Lou Grant, on the Mary Tyler Moore show, couldn’t get his book published, “Too many foxholes, not enough love.” The editor said it had too many foxholes, not enough love.
Only 60 hours ago on the next to last thread I did say, “Hope this evolves into a 300 page book.” Getting results this quick should go on my resume.
Freedom is the most dangerous addiction of all.
I like that tagline. It sounds interesting. And strange. In what sense might freedom be an addiction? Guess I’ll have to read the book. And characters that you care about? Good! No matter how flawed, got to have some redeeming value – that’s the chink in the armor where salvation can enter in.
Looking forward to it.
On the Road, for Reasons Practical and Spiritual
Leonard Cohen
“The older I get, the surer I am that I’m not running the show.”
Not much time, just a drive by shooting.. OT:
5 sisters between the ages of 5-9.
If you want to hear the National Anthem done to perfection (as in “pitch perfect”) by a group of young Ladies that will give you goose bumps, just turn up the sound and sit back.
This is at a Texas Tech University Basketball game, Feb 9th.
Starling – silly person. Of course, I was not. You are projecting, also.
Wretchard – good good good analysis. I’ve never seen it set out like that. *Is* your sole goal a “cracking good story”? From what you’ve written at B.C. I would anticipate some scales of justice and/or issues of morality, too.
Full Video – 1984
What a quote. Cohen is copping his plea.
“Freedom is Slavery“
doug/53; freedom IS slavery –it’s just that you are your master –like it or not, for better or worse.
twoby/49; cool –chills –thanks!
elhefe/10; if it’s war fiction, it’ll be Manila, i betcha. w would have to be hardnose to pass on Europe, because that swastika on the cover grabs eyes in the bookstore. But the Battle of Manila was titanic, a gotterdamerung endgame of despair and death. It didn’t even get much attention when it was actually fought –near the end, and with so much headline competition. But do a search and just look at it –like other things that fall out of the netherworld, it’s hard to comprehend.
wretchard/33; “good enough” is such a wonderful principle. Oddly often misinterpreted as “NOT good enough” by that little nasty whispering perfectionist demon on a shoulder, procrastinating away a life.
Oh, excellent, Wretchard – but writing it was just the easy part. Even publishing it isn’t hard, either, if you decline to play the tired old ‘get-an-agent-who-might-get-a-look-in-from-a-major-publisher’. My advice is to get it well edited, by someone who likes your writing but is strong-minded enough to not indulge you, and go for a small boutique publisher, or even POD. There are dozens of good and reputable ones out there, who will arrange for printing, sales and distribution… but then, once done, you have to arrange yourself for reviews, publicity, author events, a website dedicated to the book itself, and marketing. There is an upside to all this work, though – you get to keep a larger per-copy royalty income! And you already have a built-in fan base.
Two years ago, I helped found the IAG (Independent Authors Guild), a sort of on-line self-help cooperative group for writers who had gone that route; some of them have been around for decades and have a long string of books to their credit, some have only one … but all of us are serious about our books and there is a great wealth of collective experience. I’ve been helped enormously by the other members: my last book (The Adelsverein Trilogy) was edited by several members, blurbed and reviewed by several more, and the cover pictures also provided by a member of Check out http://www.independentauthorsguild.com. Or email me privately, if you have questions – I’d be glad to be of assistance.
“This creates a kind of dynamism which doesn’t flow deterministically from the author himself.”
Stephen King “On Writing” said an astonishing thing, and I paraphrase; “a good story is a found thing.” It is excavated from the ground like an archaeology dig. The author has faith in its unearthing but is as much a surprised to the author as the reader when it has finally manifest itself in words.
“I think anyone who sets out to write a “great novel” is bound to be in difficulties” Joseph Heller comes to mind. It took him something over a decade to write ‘Catch-22’?
T.S. Elliot lamented that he spent the better part of the morning deciding to add the word “the” to a piece, only to have removed it by sundown. Now that’s anal.
Best news Ive had all year.
I said a couple of months ago that Wretchard should write an autobiography. This is even better. I WANT A COPY.
Whats the working title?
T.S. Elliot lamented that he spent the better part of the morning deciding to add the word “the” to a piece, only to have removed it by sundown. Now that’s anal.
That’s poetry. Good poetry is much more dense than prose.
I’m no big fan of Eliot.
But its not much fun to watch a people uncomprehendingly self destruct.
Awesome, can’t wait to read it.
Loyal lurker since 2002.
Where do you find the time? Your posting pace has been breakneck!
Find a good editor and do what he says. (They call it “cutting the imbecile cord.”) Please, try to get it put on Audible. I’ll buy both versions. (Neal Stephenson’s “Anathem” was marvelous and got my business in both versions.) I’ll take listening to literature over Doug’s high-tech any day.
Add my vote to those looking for an autobiography to follow.
Charles and I agree to disagree once again this time on Eliot. The Quartets show the power of Christian spirituality (Ash Wednesday, anyone?) magnified through the lens of the anglo-catholic and British literary tradition. This is what the British people have turned their backs on as “they uncomprehendingly self destruct.” Thank you Charles.
I’ll take one, and a preorder if that option comes along.
- The Kindle Swindle –
BEING president of too many well-meaning organizations put my father into an early grave. The lesson in this was not lost on me. But now I am president of the Authors Guild, whose mission is to sustain book-writing as a viable occupation. This borders on quixotic, given all the new ways of not getting paid that new technology affords authors.
A case in point: Amazon’s Kindle 2, which was released yesterday.
weSwinger, just for you!
“You may be thinking that no automated read-aloud function can compete with the dulcet resonance of Jim Dale reading “Harry Potter” or of authors, ahem, reading themselves. But the voices of Kindle 2 are quite listenable. There’s even a male version and a female version. (A book by, say, Norman Mailer on Kindle 2 might do a brisk business among people wondering how his prose would sound in measured feminine tones.)
And that sort of technology is improving all the time. I.B.M. has patented a computerized voice that is said to be almost indistinguishable from human ones. This voice is programmed to include “ums,” “ers” and sighs, to cough for attention, even to “shhh” when interrupted.
“
One of your posts a long time ago inspired an idea for a novel or something less ambitious. I wonder if you have the same idea as me? I have a start of it on my HD somewhere.
Wonderful! Keep us posted. I wrote something that I’m trying to get published. It’s set during an African war and is about 80k words. Good luck on yours!
MA/64; “It was a dark and stormy night….” ?
I already have dibs on that.
Intellectual Property, you know.
“Dark and Stormy the night it was….” ?
That’s still an infringement.
as is
“Dark and stormy was the night”
“Murky and unsettled” is still available, however.
Hey, i went to SCHOOL with Murky and Unsettled! They sat behind me in Miss Wilson’s class.
Yeah, and if they went to school now, they’d have them both on XANAX XR®
Orwell Spins.
I had no idea you were writing a novel on the side. Best of luck with that! I’ve toyed with the idea of starting up a speculative-fiction blog myself, at least as a hobby. I even got a good-sized outline down on paper for a story; alas I had to abandon it when I realized how unlikely one of the key plot developments would be. So for now, I’ve stuck to reading these kinds of stories instead of writing them. (I’m currently in the midst of Robert Ferrigno’s Assassin trilogy, which depicts an Islamicized America of the near future including a remarkably plausible backstory of how it came about.) Needless to say, I’ll be on the lookout for your work as well.