BLOG: A PEEK AT MY WRITINGS AS OF THE MOMENT-March 2022
Progress that I had hoped to make seems to be elusive. I had planned to release Escape from the Inferno in January. However, the consultant with whom I am presently working has some great ideas and one of them is to design new covers for Morning Wine, Thinking, Just Thinking and Trapped in the Inferno. And according to the expert covers are important to the fiscal success of each book. Maybe I should have been an art major and just designed killer covers and put stories about parakeets inside. Pete the parakeet would make a great superhero.
My short story writing has been on pause while I am in the middle of novel number three. To try to bring Barbie back in a third story is unlikely and Fluff the cat with an attitude just doesn’t have the adventures any longer now that he has been ‘mellowed’. And what little poetry I did write takes inspiration and Novel Number 3 (great title, right?) has sapped all my creative juices.
The first two novels, Trapped in the Inferno and Escape from the Inferno, had basically the same characters, Escape being a sequel. To introduce a completely different cast of characters is problematic and this novel is far different in scope than either of the first two. It’s set in the Aude Valley and is inspired by the life and death of Paul Swank, Lieutenant US Army whose tomb you pass by regularly on D118. I was fortunate last August to again attend the memorial ceremony for him and the Resistance Fighters, both French and Spanish, who died in 1944 in an attack on a German convoy. A few more friends attended with me and shared the emotional experience. For me as an American it’s humbling. I doubt that I could have been able to summon the courage that was demonstrated during that horrendous time. The two remaining Maquis, aged 97 and 95, were as spry and alert as the previous year and to talk with them who knew Lieutenant Swank and were participants in the action is remarkable. Even two British friends were moved by the ceremony. And when the anthems of the US and France are played, it’s hard not to tear up.
At the present time I am over half way done with number 3 and just passed the 50000 word plateau. I struggled at first because I wasn’t attached to any character, but now I am pleased that several have emerged to make my job as author easier. I tend to write ‘by the seat of my pants’ in that I don’t spend a lot of time developing a complex outline of the novel before I begin. With Escape I came up with some wonderful plot twists as I went that I had no vision of as I began.
Speaking of Escape from the Inferno I need to give it some advanced remarks since I am hoping to release it in the spring. I liked my characters, the setting and the literary and historic background in Trapped in the Inferno so much that a sequel was a natural progression. The problem was that Sir Roger Smythe, the murderous antagonist, was rotting in the most notorious prison in Italy. What at first seemed an insurmountable problem soon became a fantastic progression of ideas, missteps and finally an idea to end all ideas flashed. And it worked out great as a few new characters developed and grew in importance, and the old cast became more realistic, even the vengeful Smythe had some endearing moments. I liked the first, Trapped in the Inferno, but I think modestly that Escape is much better. I’m excited to release it and get some feedback.
I enjoy writing. It’s a great release of the creative side that lay dormant for so many years. I have done little on the business side and therefore have limited sales. To try to remedy that weakness I am employing a London author who counsels authors like me. She is an experienced voice to give ideas and direction to someone who has little or no business background like me. I can’t think it will immediately make my name familiar on ‘best seller’ lists but with my economic situation any little bit will help.
Here’s an excerpt from chapter 34 of Escape from the Inferno.
Alphonso whispered as he passed the bread and coffee to the prisoner, “Did you sleep?”
“Never better. I went to sleep thinking of freedom and woke up dreaming of it. The best thing aman has ever invested in, especially when he’s been locked up for months. I can picture the farm house and the garden in which I will walk early each morning to watch the sun rise. That vision is much more defined than the distant beach I imagine in flashes of black and white. You have provided accurate images of the first destination but you do not have personal knowledge of a faraway beach. I never have been much for sand and surf, but that thought now occupies much of my leisure, and leisure is all I’ve had.”
He pulled at the growth of beard which now adorned his face, nearly fully concealing the misshapen cheek. “Have there been any changes? Any new information?”
Alphonso looked warily over his shoulder to certify that they were still alone. “I got a call from Renaldo late yesterday afternoon. He followed the beauty and her friend, who is also a stunning woman according to his report, all around Florence…apparently they were doing some serious shopping. They returned to the B&B about five and did not reappear. Others entered but he stayed until very late and the women never left the place.”
Suddenly the face changed. An uproarious laugh erupted. “Alphonso, I just had another brilliant thought. They will keep the witnesses under guard thinking that I might still be hiding in Florence. Goddamn it! Don’t you see my friend, the note that you slipped out of here. It threatened revenge. Sophia and James Stahler will not sleep well for many months thinking that I will be soon be stalking them. What a fortuitous coincidence.”
He began pacing as he further considered the ramifications of the note. “I will be free and they will be imprisoned. I will be breathing freely the rejuvenating air of Tuscany while they will be choking on the smog of fear. I will be planning my life on a beach somewhere while they will never be free again to lie comfortably anywhere. That in itself will be vengeance…at least until things have quieted down and I can arrange a surprise for Stahler. He will spend each day in the prison of fear…fear to let his guard down. His life will be his prison while I enjoy freedom until I design a meeting where all his fears are reality. Death will free him from the life sentence that he will begin serving today.
With that you get a taste of Escape from the Inferno. As I said, my opinion is that it’s a lot better novel than my first. Ironically, it took me over ten years to get Trapped in the Inferno to print. I finished Escape in a mere four months. Look for it with a dynamite cover.
MY HOW THINGS CHANGE-JUNE 2022
In March I was frustrated. The timetable that I had rather naively set for myself simply was way too ambitious. But little by little I managed to crawl over the obstacles and bring my second novel Escape from the Inferno to Amazon. I won’t belabor you with repetitive thoughts so let’s move on to what I have accomplished in three months.
The third novel is finished and I have done the preliminary revisions. The Monument turned out to be much better that I would have originally predicted. I love the story of Lieutenant Paul Swank, an American paratrooper assigned to aid the French resistance and his wish to be buried where he fell. Check out two previous blogs for his story.
My novel, set in 1944, focuses of Jimmy, a young Arkansas man who was jilted and decided that the best way to end his life was to enlist and let a Nazi soldier do for him what he lacked the courage to do. It is a story of courage, of love, of cultural disparity and conquering stereotypes of those differences, of determination, of governmental disfunction and of remembrances all set in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains. The villages are where I lived for three years and the monuments are familiar as are the ceremonies. Realistically, I plan to have it published sometime this fall.
A fourth novel is now through PART I. It is the extension of a short story in my collection, Morning Wine. A friend liked the short story The Dark Side of the Dune. She suggested that it would be much better as a novel so twelve chapters and 20000 words later I am accepting her challenge. So far so good.
And Barbie? Mattel keeps creating more humiliating situations for her and she has become a symbol of oppression. I intend to include the three new Barbie stories in a new collection sometime in 2023. If Texas and other states continue to tread on the rights of women and are supported by Supreme Court decisions, soon women will no longer be able to vote. Saudi Arabia here we come.