The news about Charlie No Face continues to be encouraging. I’ve gotten considerable positive feedback and am planning a number of readings. For those of you in the Rochester area, I will be having a book reception/reading/signing at Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport (45 Main St.) on Monday March 21 at 7pm. Hope to see you there!
I will also be returning to my home town, Ellwood City, Pa., the setting for Charlie No Face, to do a reading at the Ellwood Public Library on Saturday May 14. Other events will be planned.
In my last newsletter I closed with a comment about my struggle with Chimney Bluffs, my new novel. At the time, I felt completely stuck. The well had run dry. This led to a few sleepless nights. Instead I lay awake considering various directions to follow. One night I hit upon an entirely different angle to take with the plot that I thought would energize it and add an intriguing twist. But it would mean re - writing aspects of the story beginning with chapter one (I’m one chapter 30). That would be like reaching into a cake after it has been cooked and trying to rearrange the ingredients. Nevertheless, I thought it was a good idea. The next day I started re - writing chapters one and two. It went well until I went to sleep that night. This time I tossed and turned because I realized there was no reasonable way to bring these new threads together; that they would flap helplessly and inconsequentially in the narrative breeze.
The next day I went back to the last chapter I had written, the one that had given me such trouble. I re - read it aloud, which is always a good thing to do. To my surprise, I liked it. It hung together and I finished the chapter in a very few sentences. Not only did I feel relieved but as I ran errands that day I got a glimpse of how this story would end, how I could bring things together. When that happens, I know I’m within 70 - 80 pages from the end.
And so, the writing is going better.