Here’s the promise: You’re going to love the escape you feel when you read The Night Man.
Earnest “Easy” Jack Jr. is a wounded warrior with harsh history and a very uncertain future. He returns home from war to his father’s house on the edge of Lake Orion, Michigan. His father raises guard dogs and works as a long haul trucker. When Easy’s mother got sick, Easy Sr. began smuggling to make ends meet. That’s how the trouble really started.
This novel is packed with witty dialogue and plenty of action and plot twists. However, the narrative has some things to say about the decay in Middle America, too. The root of Easy’s problems rest in fertile soil: the failures of late-stage capitalism, the gig economy and the trap we’re all in. Just about every character in The Night Man feels trapped. The only one who doesn’t feel trapped is a monster.
Don’t get me wrong: This crime thriller is fueled by tons of surprises, fascinating characters and fun dialogue. But I feel trapped sometimes. A lot of us do. Even fun escapist fiction can have a subtext that addresses what’s real. That’s important in fiction. A real context helps readers suspend disbelief.
As I write this, it’s Saturday, January 12, 2019, and The Night Man ebook is available to download for free. If you’re reading this too late, it’s still a very inexpensive and compelling read that will keep you entertained and smiling for hours. Enjoying a good book is one of the few ways we have to escape the trap.
Enjoy The Night Man and all my books by clicking the links to your right. Thank you for being a reader.
I’m getting a lot more out of Seth Godin’s This is Marketing than I expected. This author has a knack for taking complex ideas and boiling them down to their essence. Less a to do list than other books in his genre, this book breaks down quite a bit of how the world works.
I’m fascinated by the motivations behind people’s actions. Godin explores very interesting insights about why we are moved by hidden forces. (Well, maybe not “hidden” but largely ignored. )
Status, affiliation, dominance, inertia.
Our motivations are a complex mixture but Godin breaks it down so people’s actions are more understandable. How we see ourselves determines how we act. Yes, there is free will and we can each take control of our destinies. What would be the point of any business book if we couldn’t change course, do the unexpected and be contrarian? However, after reading Godin’s book I understand how unlikely that most people will change course. We are constantly asking ourselves, “Am I the sort of person who does this or that?” and “Who is my tribe?” We conform to our self-image.
Godin’s observations of human behavior explain a lot about the divisions in society and the arguments people get into. How could anyone be a liberal? How could anyone be a Trump supporter? The why of human behavior is all there. I’d like to see this book become required high school reading alongside To Kill a Mockingbird.
We often operate on unreasonable expectations. In general, we expect others to act as we would react. That’s because of a critical flaw in our programming: We expect others to know what we know and to act rationally. People aren’t rational. If rational arguments worked, we’d all arrive at the same conclusions given the facts.
To paraphrase Godin: Sonder is the empathy that arises when we understand that others have the same noise in their heads going on all the time, each with their own interior lives.
Though, we know this on some level, we obviously don’t organize our thinking, our society or our politics that way.
This is elucidating but it’s also a bitter pill to swallow.
This is Marketing provides familiar revelations. For instance, the market is so fragmented, we’re all joining smaller and smaller clubs. I knew that but I had not considered all the implications and what it meant to my little publishing company. Godin’s many points are so well articulated that I often found myself saying, I get that but I never really thought it through that far.
Conspiracy theorists identify with the underdog. If you tell a conspiracy theorist that most people agree with him, he is very likely to reject the theory he previously espoused. If 80% of people believe Elvis is still alive, that’s a disappointment. If only 19% refuse to accept the king is dead, you’ve made your conspiracy theorist friend very happy. Truth was never the point. Identifying with a subgroup was the cause. Navy Seals are an exclusive club that’s hard to get into. However, affiliation is easy. Whether we carry official membership cards or not, we’re all in a club and eager to conform.
There’s much more to this quick read. Godin talks about marketing failures, the fear of missing out and the folly of trying to please everyone. For an author, his take on book reviews is particularly compelling. There are interesting distinctions between the kind of book reviewer who says, “I like this,” or “I don’t like that,” versus the book reviewer who declares, “Everyone should like this,” or “No one should like this.”
The challenge of the book is to see the world the way it is and adjust our behavior accordingly. As I said, it isn’t a checklist. Godin is clear that he’s asking his readers to take a fresh look at their marketing strategy. Specific tactics will emerge from that new understanding. (I especially enjoyed how Godin pointed out the uselessness of traditional business plans.)
This is Marketing is a book to ponder, reread and digest. I have been averse to marketing my novels. All I wanted to do was swill coffee, be loved, live forever, write books and be found organically. That doesn’t cut it. Godin’s insights make me realize I have to come out of my shell. I have to find my ideal readers instead of hoping they’ll find me.
Understanding the forces that act on others left me less angry at people with whom I disagree. If you’re up to the introspection and taking action on new insights, This is Marketing might improve your position in the market and help your business. Best of all, reading this book might improve your life.
Last night I was writing late. It was New Year’s Eve. At midnight, I got up from the keyboard very briefly to hug my wife. Then back at it. It is tempting to make resolutions but habits are better. Mornings are for coffee and writing. Afternoons are for revisions and marketing. I try to eat clean, cut back on the carbs and get to the gym.
Those are the basics and they don’t vary for holidays. Rain or shine, I’m at bat, swinging for the fences. I love to read fiction and write fiction. This is my happy heaven. I have several manuscripts to revise and new thrillers to publish so 2019 will be a very busy year.
I hope you have a heaven on Earth, too. It’s a tenuous state. Going through some scary medical tests, I ate my feelings and soothed myself with too many carbs. That didn’t help, of course. (Actually, it did help but the soothing endorphin effect was temporary.)
I’m back to the routine. “Routine” sounds boring, but the writing life is never boring. I’m creating worlds, reflecting this world and listening to the many voices in my head have fascinating and funny conversations.
Wherever you are, I hope you have a reading life and I wish you a fantastic 2019. There’s much work to do, but it’s not all grim grind. We can work toward saving the planet and escape into books when we need a break from being superheroes.
Cheers!
Chazz
PS Speaking of heroes, my new crime thriller, The Night Man, launches later this week. This roller coaster is packed with action and jokes as we delve into intrigue and betrayal is rural Michigan. Watch this space (and subscribe!) Thanks.
It’s the last day of 2018. It’s been quite a year. I retired from my day job of 26 years and went full-time as a writer. My little girl is in her second year of university and works at a bank. My son is growing up and I can’t quite understand where the time went.As I sit here, I’m thinking about the future. I’m worried the future will be too short.
Meanwhile, the world is in chaos.
The US government is shut down and a lot of folks don’t seem to care how all those federal employees will pay their mortgages. FBI agents and prosecutors are out of work but that’s not a threat to safety and security? Are we in the Upside Down?
Real talk: Donald Trump is a lying racist given to tantrums and still evangelicals support him. His charities diverted funds away from children with cancer and veterans in need. His kids aren’t even allowed to be on the board of a charity in New York State anymore. Trump has a long history of cheating contractors yet his base still say he’s for “the working man.” Well, he’s for them more than he is for women, I guess. He can’t stop insulting women, particularly if they’re women of color. Don’t normalize it. Keep being surprised. Keep being outraged.
I follow US politics somewhat obsessively and, let’s not put any sparkles on the facts: it’s a shit show. Any administration where you know the names of so many department heads is clearly messed up. I know who Betsy DeVos is. I’m Canadian. I shouldn’t know that. And the more I know, the more I worry for my many American friends (and the world.)
Children were put in cages with no care and no plan as to how to reunite them with their families. Radioactive waste? No big deal, put it anywhere. Dismantle the EPA. Oh, and we’re cool with killing journalists, just don’t interfere with arms deals, please. That would be rude.
The MeToo movement is still in its infancy. Sure, a few bad dudes had their careers ruined but most of them were rich, are still rich and, mostly, they’ll be back soon. This isn’t a triumph for women everywhere. So far, it’s a blip. Get a woman in the White House who is held to the same standards as a man and maybe I’ll believe progress is being made.
The war on minorities continues to ramp up and expand its goals. Since 2001 we’re supposed to hate all Muslims. Blacks are scary and what about those hordes of Latinos? All that manufactured fear is great for the incarceration industry. Prisons have more slave labor.
Cops almost always get away with shooting unarmed black men. For people who take on a tough job, there are far too many police officers who spook too easily. Between abuse of authority, lack of accountability, and civil asset forfeiture we should all fear out-of-control law enforcement. Black lives don’t matter yet and no, imbeciles, asking not to be shot doesn’t make BLM a terrorist organization. Kneeling is an outrage but state-sanctioned murder is fine? We need a U-turn on this madness.
I listened to an interview with Ta Nehisi Coates recently. He made a point that shook me awake. When reporters interview Trump supporters and ask if their faith is shaken yet, the answer is usually, “No, this is fine. He’s a great president!” The reporters always express shock but the premise is messed up. Those journalists (and the rest of us) are actually underestimating the intelligence of Trump loyalists. They knew what he was. They don’t care. He’s doing what they want.
They lack empathy so they don’t give a shit about his lack of moral character, his cowardice, poor impulse control or his lack of mental capacity. They want that wall between themselves and reality. When you’re drowning, I guess it feels good to push someone else under. We’ve seen this before. When the myth of austerity spreads, economies sour and income gaps deepen. Fertile soil for the seeds of fascism and othering. And the oppressors will claim they are oppressed.
Tonight, the ball will drop in NYC. The event will also be in honor of press freedom. You know, those “enemy of the people” folks who are generally trying to keep the public informed about how messed up things have become. Fascism and the politics of fear is back in fashion and doing quite well despite our previous attempts to stomp it out.
It’s not all bad news.
The NRA’s leadership, cozy with a Russian spy, funneled money from the Russians. The NRA is going bankrupt so maybe there will be a little less scaremongering in the future. Everybody still has their guns so don’t panic. By the way, how is that bankruptcy even possible? What massive mismanagement of dough occurred? They don’t have a huge surplus cushion of cash from the Obama years when they scared gun owners into thinking their guns would be taken away? Inconceivable.
The Democratic party is roaring back. I’m reserving judgment on that. They have a history of being spineless and their leaders talk way too much about compromise. I have no interest in compromise with people who profess hatred and racism. What’s the plan? Compromise and meet fascists halfway in the spirit of bipartisanship? Let’s not.
There is hope for a better planet. Elizbeth Warren just announced she’s running for POTUS. AOC is stirring things up even before taking her oath of office. Progressivism is on the upswing if the neo-liberals don’t strangle it in the crib. To succeed, they need to offer something voters are concerned about: consumer protection, less status quo, less incrementalism, boldness, truth.
The greatest challenge ahead.
We’ve lost time with Trump. Neither he nor his party care about the dangers of climate change. It’s still a debate for them despite findings from most of the relevant scientists on Earth (including research sponsored by the Koch brothers and policy from the Pentagon). I used to be a friend with a climate change denier. I don’t have time for that shit anymore. None of us have that kind of time. We have to turn this around fast and hard or my kids and your kids are screwed.
Climate change is already here. It’s not theoretical. Unfortunately, Liberals lose arguments because they believe in nuance. They say, “Well, we can’t actually say this particular storm/firestorm/tornado/flood is because of climate change but…” That’s all the opening deniers need to say, “I guess it needs more study. Do nothing. We can’t worry about the climate until Wall Street is literally underwater.”
Climate change has and/or will cause famine, floods, fires, droughts, food shortages, mass migration, destruction, increase terrorism and war. I wonder how the deniers think that’s going to be good for business.
What about solutions?
Solar and wind, not coal. More people work at J.C. Penney than work in the coal industry.
Eliminate your debt as much as possible because when the recession hits, interest rates will rocket upward.
Activate activism: call your politicians, vote, write letters, get your friends and families to write letters, protest, show up at politicians’ offices. Bring others to the polls. Given the opportunity, Republicans will rig and steal an election. That’s not a conspiracy theory. We’ve already seen the evidence. When it comes to gerrymandering and voter suppression, Republicans are the champs.
Immigration is not an invasion. It is a humanitarian crisis. Anyone screaming about the dangers of “open borders” is trying to con you.
“Thoughts and prayers” do not equal solutions.
Voter suppression and social media manipulation is a concern. Voter fraud is a statistical nothing.
Misinformation mixed with fake outrage is not a patriotic act that helps anyone. Fair reporting doesn’t mean reporting both sides. Fair reporting requires telling the truth. Check facts, spread facts. Not all reporters commit these offenses equally.
Networks: fact check politicans and their mouthpieces in real time. yes, even during debates. Especially during debates. You’ve got 24-hour schedules. You have the time and resources. (Also, there is no reason to allow Anne Coulter, Bill Crystal or Tomi Lahren as guests to balance out the facts. Those are not people who talk truth.)
FOX viewers: remember when Sean Hannity assured you Mitt Romney would win? Remember how angry you were that you’d been lied to? Reconnect with that. The bullshit didn’t stop because you forgave FOX. They doubled down because you forgave them.
Reduce, reuse and recycle but don’t fall for that crap that the individual can reverse climate change. 100 companies are responsible for more climate change than all the individuals on Earth. Go ahead, live your life and take that vacation on a jet if you can. See Fiji before it’s underwater. You get to participate in life before it becomes a socialist utopia. Don’t put up with scolds who don’t really give a shit about the future. They’ll say you’re a terrible hypocrite if you fly, drive or own a phone. They don’t really care. That’s a distraction from the real issue: the systemic dismantling of the infrastructure that allows for a safe future for everyone on the planet.
Politicians get their policies from people, not the other way around. Let them hear your suggestions. Make them pay the price at the polls if they don’t listen.
Our duty is to the truth and to the betterment of humankind. That is how we bring honor to ourselves. We do not swear oaths of loyalty to a politician. Country over party. People over countries. World future over failing industrial agendas set by robber barons.
Liberals, stop trying to make your racist uncle see the light. He’s a lost cause. Let it go. To save the planet, focus on bringing in liberals who don’t already vote. Inspire them by insisting on leadership that will inspire and protect them.
Late stage capitalism is a war on the poor. If you can help it, don’t use your credit card. Pool resources, create and work together. Give if and where you can to help others, especially in areas where the government will not step in to protect and help its people.
Don’t accept stigmas. If you are ill, that doesn’t mean you are weak or a failure. If you are poor, it could very well be because the system is designed to serve people who are perpetually at the top. There are opportunities out there when we band together. Rugged individualism is so close to a myth, it’s stupid. Nobody makes it on their own.
The problem is not that you enjoy a cappuccino. The problem is that you aren’t paid enough. 100 million Americans are poor or live in “near-poverty” and can’t deal with a $400 surprise expense without going into debt. When you’re hired at Walmart (one of the most successful corporations on Earth) you fill out forms to receive government assistance. But it’s not you who are on welfare. Walmart is getting the benefit of government assistance.
Don’t fall for typical financial commentary from hacks. It’s out of touch. Stocks are not the measure of the healthy economy. Most people can’t afford that gamble. A healthy society takes care of those who cannot work, houses the homeless, and provides healthcare and hope for the future. Many will tell you that’s an impossible dream. I guess they’ve never been to most First World nations where these measures are taken as a given in a responsible society.
Smart folks know that paying people a living wage allows them to participate in the economy. Conscious people understand that the child you educate today could be your future internist, nurse or the urologist that saves your life.
You’re probably working plenty hard enough already. I don’t know anyone who is slacking. Working three jobs and still worrying about the bills is no one’s dreams of success. Stop beating yourself to death. That’s what someone else wants for you. That someone is not your friend.
Refuse to be afraid of the word socialism. Alarmists point to the tragedy of Venezuela, somehow forgetting all the other socialist success stories. And surprise, you’re probably living in a socialist success story to some degree already. Do you enjoy police protection? Do you like the military, firefighters and roads? Congratulations, you’re already a socialist. Socialism does not equal communism and there is no such thing as a purely capitalist society. Communism fell with the Berlin Wall but capitalists, don’t gloat. Capitalism failed in 2008, remember? The banks were bailed out and Wall Street laughed at the taxpayers who saved them.
Don’t accept toxic people in your life. What’s the point? It will only add to your stress. Markets are fragmented already anyway. Don’t be afraid to alienate people who wouldn’t like you. Haven’t you noticed that the people who carry the banners for the right-wing all sound like assholes you wouldn’t want to hang out with? The cool people aren’t on that side of the fence. Cool people don’t want to put a fence around you.
Tucker Carlson espouses racist propaganda and pretends he doesn’t know it. Companies that advertise on his show need to know that’s not okay. Buy your stuff from someone else. Tell the advertisers why you aren’t buying their product anymore. Denying haters their funding works.
Know that you are not alone. If you take politics out of it, most people want left-of-center programs. They’re for taking care of the poor, the disabled and the elderly. They want medical care and they don’t think anyone should go bankrupt because of huge medical bills. They don’t want war. They want children to be educated and safe. It’s only when you call it Obamacare instead of the ACA that the answers swing right-wing.
Come from a place of love. That doesn’t mean you can’t speak out or fight back. Please do spend your energy where it counts, though. Twitter is rarely a useful outlet. Trolls and bots have all the time in the world. The world doesn’t have that kind of time. Neither do we.
To save the planet we need strong voices and strong leaders. Lose your fear. Stop apologizing so much. There is a time, a place and useful energy in righteous anger. Use that power where appropriate.
Those are the suggestions off the top of my head. I’m sure there are many more.
Also, know that it’s not all on you. All the responsibility does not fall on the shoulders of the United States, either. However, as the self-proclaimed leader of the free world led by the most powerful politician, it is not acceptable to wait for everyone else to do the right thing before we do the right thing. They used to criticize Obama for leading from behind (and on several issues he certainly did.) We’re supposed to be getting better with time. Let’s do that.
A warning
Success is not guaranteed. It is frustrating to listen to people say they can’t do anything about climate change. It is especially galling to hear that from people who are sure they can solve Middle East conflicts or make the embargo of Cuba work if they just give it a little more time. Obstructionists and denialists assure us climate change is unsolvable but let’s keep that war on drugs going, shall we? Fuck. All. That.
I wrote a little anthology called All Empires Fall. I wasn’t kidding. So hear it again: success is not guaranteed. I’ve written a bunch of novels about the end of the world. Those dangers are not confined to fiction. If it isn’t climate change, plague could do immense damage. Nuclear weapons could do us in. Right now, I’m hoping we get a chance to deal with the dangers of Artificial Intelligence. Chances are we won’t last long enough to face that scenario.
This ship is sinking and not enough of you fuckers are bailing.
Plenty of species have gone extinct. If we don’t change our ways, our end will be the first extinction by suicide.
And with that, this rant ends. Happy New Year, everybody! Buckle up for 2019. We’ve got a lot of work to do. Proceed with love and fury.
Sophie Jack attended one meeting in the last summer of her life that gave her something set in stone. One of the attendees, a breast cancer survivor who had beaten the odds and far outlived her doctors’ dire prognosis, read a little story. Mom copied it out in big block letters in pencil on a lined sheet of looseleaf. She brought it home and posted it on the fridge door under a yellow butterfly magnet. The story was called Master of the Seven Seas.
There are seven seas we all must cross.
The first is the Sea of Struggle, to be born and raised.
Next comes the Sea of Pleasure. These are the teen years where the responsibilities are few and most worries are either illusions or far off along the journey.
Though the voyage may be stormy, the Sea of Love is long and it is the deepest of all seas. Our sails are full and the greatest adventures happen in this leg of the journey.
Love is followed by the Sea of Loss. As the sun dies, this passage is fraught with dangerous rocks that threaten to sink our ship.
Loss opens to a great sea called Suffering. It will be a journey in darkness. We may be forced to navigate by faith and by the stars. As the wind dies in our sails, we man our posts and stay on deck, watching for light, waiting for the far side of night. We will feel the wind in our hair again.
The calm Sea of Glass awaits with the dawn. Here, the sailing is so smooth, the water’s surface is like a mirror. We can peer over the side and see our reflections. As our ship slices on, our stores of fear are used up. The Sea of Glass yields a glimpse of the world as it really is.
It’s a short sail to the Sea of Tranquility. Here, we leave our losses behind. Our hold is empty of regret. No more tears are needed.
When we finally run aground, we are grateful our work is done. On that far shore, we burn our ship and bask in the heat. In the ashes, we finally find what we came for: peace.
This story touched Mom in a way that lasted. The words inscribed on my mother’s tombstone read:
To arrive here, I crossed all seven seas.
The Night Man is my new novel about crime, justice and redemption. It will be released soon. It’s an action-packed adventure full danger for cool characters, loyal German shepherds and plenty of jokes. However, there are quieter moments like this one. Master of the Seven Seas is an excerpt, yes. It may also be useful to those who feel pain and who are struggling to accept the sorrows of life along with the joys. I struggle with that, too, but this small thing does give me some peace.
We’re all in the same boat on this journey. Feel free to share this little story within the story with someone you think might appreciate it.
We’ve got plenty of movies about superheroes and cops tracking down serial killers. We need more good movies about writing. Here are my top picks (and why) plus a few runners-up.
Wonder Boys
Wonder Boys is one of my favorite movies. Based on the book by Michael Chabon, Michael Douglas stars as a college professor who can’t seem to bring himself to finish writing a massive manuscript. (The manuscript is called Wonder Boys, too, by the way.)
There are a lot of fun moments in that movie and Toby Maguire is cast perfectly as the weird and aspiring young writer, James Leer. There’s a great scene where three drunk writers make up fictional histories of fellow bar patrons. I do that, too (the making up part, not the drunk part.) Great characters and intrigue are everywhere.
Reading Wonder Boys, I find the interiority of the main character is interesting in its depth. There’s plenty to admire in Chabon’s imaginative use of language. In one scene, students stand by an open door blowing “bored clouds” of cigarette smoke. I found myself wondering how many editors would cross out that line and sneer in the margin: “bored clouds? Really?” (Typical editors, not all editors. In context, it’s a great line.)
If a book description includes the phrase, “beautiful language” I’m usually suspect that it will be a literary novel in which nothing much will actually happen. When critics of old felt they had to give a pulp writer any credit, they’d grudgingly observe that the prose was “muscular” or “workmanlike.” (They often used to say sort of thing about Stephen King and Dashiell Hammett.) From the mouths of snobs, they damned fun books and good writing with faint praise. Readers ate it up and couldn’t wait for more. In Wonder Boys, Chabon finds the middle ground. The use of language is often innovative but the guy can paint a picture and there’s lots of fun and hijinx going on.
I love the line about James Leer’s second-hand smelly overcoat. I’m going from memory but it goes something like, “Standing nearby you could feel your luck change for the worse.” Beautiful.
I won’t spoil what happens with Professor Grady’s overlong manuscript but it’s memorable if you love books at all.
Finding Forrester
Sean Connery plays the successful recluse whose novel hit huge (like To Kill a Mockingbird huge). He mentors Jamal Wallace, a young writer with promise played by Rob Brown. The student is ready, the master appears. The apprentice writer finds the old man has critiqued his work savagely, exing out page after page in red ink. Jamal has talent and his prose is visceral but needs refinement.
That’s not the moment that really sticks with me, though. What resonates is a moment when the young man walks home at night past a burning car. Cops slide past in a cruiser, giving Jamal the evil eye. It could have been a throwaway scene but it’s not. Jamal is intelligent, observant and vulnerable. That one short scene is a nod from the director that connotes: yes, he’s young but his experience of the world is complicated, painful and worthy of being written.
I never had to walk home past a burning car but that hit me hard. In my twenties, I worked in Toronto’s book publishing industry. I was part of an army of underpaid professionals filling editorial positions and working in the sales force.
We were young, often underestimated, underappreciated and sometimes even belittled. I met smart people in that profession but the smart ones weren’t all in charge. The industry valued us only as cheap labor. In one job interview, my prospective boss told me I wouldn’t get to have an opinion for seven to ten years. I told him I may as well go to med school because they’d let me perform cardiothoracic surgery faster than that.
In Finding Forrester, it was nice to see a movie that didn’t undercut the young simply because they’re young. I had lots to say back then but unfortunately, I believed I had to wait. If you’re a writer, don’t wait. Gather experience. Read more. Write now.
As Sean would say, “Punch the keys!”
Runners-up
There are several runners-up for my top three. Throw Mama from the Train stands out, especially when Mama comes up with the crucial word (“sultry”). That’s the moment Billy Crystal, playing the writer frustrated and blocked, decides he’s willing to murder her.
In Bullets Over Broadway, the struggling playwright played by John Cusack gives up. He announces, “I am not a writer!”
It’s devastating. As Cusack walks off-screen into The Future of Abandoned Dreams, I thought, No! Don’t give up! I was a child when I saw that but I wanted to be a writer. I took his failure personally.
Adaptation is pretty great. Nicholas Cage plays twins with an appropriate level of weirdness. The portrayal of Robert McKee is spot on. Playing the famous writing teacher, Brian Cox gives a blistering speech in which he eschews the notion that a plot point is unbelievable. That’s worth the price of admission. It’s also fun to watch the writer who insisted on no car chases ends up writing about a car chase.
Misery is a good movie but I prefer the book. I read it in fascination because most of the action takes place in one room. King keeps it going and flowing. In several of my books about global apocalyptic conflict, the settings are quite expansive, more like the structure of The Stand. (As in, “Meanwhile in Jakarta…) By comparison, watching Stephen King keep a whole novel to one claustrophobic space is almost a stunt.
I don’t think Barton Fink is a great movie. However, John Goodman screaming, “I’ll show you the life of the mind!” Gold.
Those are the runners-up but the bronze medal goes to…
Stranger Than Fiction
Stranger Than Fiction was good for me in part because of the great character work by Will Ferrell. However, it’s Emma Thompson standing on the desk that makes it for me. She’s imagining stepping out on a ledge and looking down, figuring out what it would be like to feel the wind between her fingers before she leaps to her death.
We don’t have to experience everything nasty in order to write about it. I forget who said that by the time we’ve gone through high school we’ve experienced enough trauma to write for the rest of our lives. Writers observe and imagine. We put ideas through the brain blender, bake it up and, if done well, the fiction souffle rises.
Imagination allows me to write crime thrillers packed with murders. I have rage. I am vindictive. Still, I keep it to the page. Somehow I’ve avoided killing anyone in real life just for the sake of experimentation. The truth is, I think about murdering people in imaginative ways quite a lot. I mean, a lot.
Writing novels allows me to make an acceptable living of which my family disapproves. It’s also a healthy and entertaining outlet. I never have to taste prison coffee.
What are your favorite movies about writing? Tell me.
BONUS
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There’s more to the writing and publishing process than swilling coffee and banging your head against a keyboard. Those caffeine injections behind the eyeball do help immensely, though. (Ask your doctor.)
Here’s how I do the deed, from words to action.
My Flowchart of Tears and Triumph is as follows:
Compose in Scrivener > revisions > Grammarly > Scrivener > Google Docs for Editor & Betas > Word Doc > Vellum > publish > exalt briefly > repeat until they nail they casket shut, squelching my screams of protest that I am immortal.
The Ex Parte Press breakdown :
Scrivener is a writing program I’ve used for years. The writing interface is easy and intuitive. I love how I can jump around in a document so I can find what I need quickly. I can’t make such easy changes in a Word document. Microsoft Word was designed for business writing, not quickly finding details in full-length novels. Moving chapters around is also easy, should you feel the need. As easy as writing in Scrivener is, publishing with this program takes patience as you climb the learning curve. Since it can publish anything from manuscripts to movie scripts, the details are more complicated than the software I now use to format and publish. (See Vellum, Step 7.)
How many times do I revise a manuscript? That depends on the project. My first draft is about getting the story out of my head and on the page. Character work and action comes pretty easily to me on the first go. Tweaking the plot details and finding more jokes tends to come with the second draft. I want the dialogue to sparkle so I tinker with that quite a bit. When revising feels like an exercise in procrastination, it’s time to move on to the next stage.
Grammarly is an online spellchecker. I’ve tried ProWritingAid and found that it gave me too many false positives. Grammarly doesn’t give me too much or too little to consider. No matter how many revisions I’ve done, I read the book again in Grammarly. No online spellcheck is perfect. If my typo is “he packed it” instead of “he picked it,” Grammarly won’t catch that mistake. (I also have Autocrit but that’s not part of my regular publishing process yet. I’m still evaluating it so that’s a post for another day.)
Once a draft is corrected in Grammarly, I paste it back to Scrivener a chapter at a time. That’s one way of getting a sense of my progress so I can try to warn my editor how late I’m going to be with the manuscript. I write every day and it’s serious business. However, my editor understands that I need to have the book well developed before I show it to anyone. I’m self-conscious enough as it is and, as she says, “Some books need to simmer.”
I post the whole thing to Google Docs for my editor (Gari at strawnediting.com) and my beta reader. Sometimes I have more than one beta reader, sometimes not. I’ve been very lucky to find editorial support from sharp people who dig what I do. Editorial support from people who understand your genre and were fans first are aces.
Once the editorial suggestions and corrections are made, I weep profoundly at all that I missed. Then I download the novel as a Word doc and take a look at it one more time, basically scanning for red squiggles and spot checking. Something will be missed. My first job in Toronto was in production at Harlequin in the ’80s. There were eight levels of editorial staff then. Very few publishing houses can afford that now and fewer still pay for that much input anymore. Even with eight editorial monkeys massaging the manuscript, there could be as many as six to eight little corrections to be made. In the end, I want as clean a presentation as can be. My people do not disappoint.
Uploading to Vellum is quick and easy and some of the interface is similar to Scrivener. Formatting and book design with Vellum is a joy. I’m fussy and I’ve done some pretty tricky things with certain design elements that would be very challenging without this software. When I’m done constructing the formatting for the book I have files ready to upload to sales platforms.
I publish exclusively to Amazon at the moment but that will change in 2019 as I expand my options. (The why of all that is a ranty blog post for another time.)
When I hit publish on my first book in 2010, I took two weeks off to recover. I poured libations to the publishing gods and rested on my laurels. As I’ve progressed with publishing plots, plans, policies and practices I take less time to rest after all those p-words. There’s too much to do to enjoy the feeling of having published more than an hour or two. Sometimes it’s just a few minutes of elation. That would sound sad, pathetic and Sisyphean except I’m always excited about writing the next book. I jump on the next project until the tale is polished to excellence and I’m sick of it. As long as I’m satisfied readers will love the book, live in the world I create for them and laugh in the right spots, I’m happy.
Being a novelist now is lot like being a pulp writer in the ’40s and ’50s. I have to write the next book so maybe someone will pay attention to this one, that last one or, preferably, all my work. When people ask me how it’s going I say, “It’s like always having homework, but I love it and I get to work in a coffee shop without wearing an apron. This is the writing life.”
Hot Extras:
Writing and publishing is not a race but it is a marathon. When searching for editorial support, find people who notice your clever turns of phrase and aching awesomeness. Editing is more than scolding what you did wrong. When you see what your audience likes, you get clues on how to repeat those awesome feats of prose in the future.
By the time I’m deep into making editorial decisions with other people, I’m becoming sick of the book. A cheery LOL in the margin is energizing and the odd “Attaboy!” gives me the strength to persevere and run to the finish line.
Some authors claim they want their manuscript torn apart savagely. I suspect those folks are either lying, posing, preaching, masochistic or maybe they’re just really bad writers who need a spanking. It’s true that you could learn a lot from a thoughtful savaging from a good editor but eventually, you’ll tire and find an editor who treats you like a human being with feelings. The editorial process is best when it’s a collaborative effort of the likeminded. I do learn from my editor and I know she’s trying to make my books (even!) better. She never makes me feel worse about the process than I do already.
I mention this because I have met editors who think they’re in the mock and scold business. And yes, too many of them worked for traditional publishing houses and held the authors in their stable in contempt.
Expectations:
Gari keeps a style guide written just for me. My idiosyncrasies include:
No Oxford commas unless required for clarity. (Yes, I’m one of those monsters who fails to worship your blessed Oxford comma. Gather your torches and pitchforks and chase me around the village.)
I’m not a fan of commas before but. Commas are speed bumps. As long as it’s consistent and clear, cool. I do not want to slow the reader down too much on their merry way to turning the page toward another visceral word punch.
One editor (not Gari) once insisted that I describe my characters in exhaustive detail. I refuse. Readers will meet us at least halfway on this. I once taught a writing class in which I read one of my short stories. That done, I polled the class as to what the main character looked like. Beyond being male and almost thirty, there was no description in the text. Despite this, everyone had a clear picture in mind as to what the character looked like. The pictures in their minds varied immensely but that did not matter to them. The guy had a live skunk in the back seat of his car and a dead ex-friend in the trunk! No one was shortchanged.
I’m Canadian. I use American spelling conventions because most of my readers live in the United States. UK readers don’t seem to mind but some American readers take offense if the word color has a u in it. (Probably a patriotism thing?)
Our style guide is generally The Chicago Manual of Style until I come across something that feels like it should be an exception to a rule. Things change. Internet used to be capitalized and I thought that was stupid. The CMoS now accepts internet. I assume they noted my objections. You’re welcome.
~ Hi! I’m Robert Chazz Chute. Thanks for reading this far down! You’re a keener, aren’t you? I like that! Maybe you’re willing to go a little farther and meet me in Zihuatanejo, Red?
About me: I escaped the 9 – 5 for the 24/7/365. I construct apocalyptic epics and suspenseful crime fiction. My next killer thriller, The Night Man, will be released soon. Please subscribe to be alerted when Easy’s adventure in darkness is available. Thanks!
More about The Night Man: Wounded in Afghanistan, Earnest “Easy” Jack returns home to rural Michigan to train guard dogs in the family business. His high school sweetheart is on the run from a very bad husband. His father is kidnapped by a dirty cop. Easy thought his war was over. Trapped in the middle of America, the Night Man is still in a war zone.
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