Category: writing
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Writerly resolutions: June status
Progress has slowed but not stalled on the novel. Rewriting chapter 26 is a challenge since I’ve also been reading multiple books about the Exodus 1947 which is at the center of the chapter which has often revealed details that required rewriting scenes as well as occasional direct contradictions between one source and the next. Rewriting the…
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Writerly resolutions: May status
I continue to make progress on the novel, with the first draft of chapter 26 done. It’s a big chapter—28 pages—so reading what I have in preparation for the second draft rewrite is taking a while and I keep making changes as I do my research (this is probably the best-documented historical event in the…
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“Saint Anthony in West Hollywood”: The Story Behind the Story
My newest story, “Saint Anthony in West Hollywood” is up now at The Rappahannock Review. I began with a vague notion of a saint in the modern world, or perhaps someone who was delusional and just thought he was the saint, leaving the truth purposefully indeterminate. I had no idea which saint or where. Then…
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Writerly resolutions: April status
I continue to make decent progress on the novel. till perfect on my goal of working on the novel every day. I’ve cracked the 85,000 word mark on the novel and chapter 26 is currently at 6,800 words and counting. I think my guess that it will hit 10,000 words is not too far off. Thanks…
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Writerly resolutions: March status
Another month has come and gone and I continue to make decent progress on the novel. I have yet to miss a day’s work so far this year. I’ve finished the rewrite and revision of chapter 25 and done a lot of writing on chapter 26. I’m pretty sure that this chapter is going to be…
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Writerly resolutions: February status
2021 continues to be a good year for writing. It was even a good year for physical fitness for a while with my hitting my move goal every day until we had an extended cold spell this month which broke my streak. On the novel, I finished a first draft of chapter 25 and am almost…
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Writerly resolutions: January status
2021 has gotten off to a decent enough start. I’ve worked on the novel daily without fail—the first part of the month was spent digesting comments on two excerpts that I workshopped with my writing group, then I returned to the chapter I’d left dangling in November, managed to finish a first draft, a rewrite and…
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It looks like the Nelson Algren Literary Prize is endangered
The first clue was when my submission to the 2020 version of the contest disappeared from ubmittable without notice. The administrators of the prize tend to be not so great about closing out submissions on Submittable, so I didn’t pay much attention to it (in past years I’d had some marked “completed” a few “decline” and…
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Writerly resolutions for 2021
Last year, I wrote: 2019 was a disappointing year on many fronts, so I figure 2020 can’t help but be better. Ah, the naïveté of 2019. My goals for the year: Work on We, The Rescued daily until I’ve got it ready to pass on to other eyes to look at (which means finishing the first…