"If you make people laugh or cry about little black marks on sheets of white paper, what is that but a practical joke? All the great story lines are great practical jokes that people fall for over and over again." -- Kurt Vonnegut
"Anything you can omit that you know you still have in the writing and its quality will show. When a writer omits things he does not know, they show like holes in his writing." -- Ernest Hemingway
"Anything you can omit that you know you still have in the writing and its quality will show. When a writer omits things he does not know, they show like holes in his writing." -- Ernest Hemingway
I've always loved stories, whether I was hearing them, seeing them or writing them. I remember an elementary school teacher reading "Charlotte's Web" to our class. A chapter a day. I couldn't wait to see how the tale progressed and was unusually somber when it was over. Later I remember poring over Hardy Boys books. In high school, the classics. "Lord of The Flies" and Camus's "The Stranger" were particularly good. At some point, my father gave me a copy of "Along Came A Spider" by James Patterson. Said to me: "You might like this." I did. Gobbled it up in a day. I went searching for others like it but began to tire of the whole genre when I realized the high was too brief. Like a sugary sweet with no nutrients. So I moved on. Or graduated, if snobbery is your poison. To a fellow Russian. Dosteovsky became my bible for a while. A meaty meal. From there the trend continued. Delillo's "Underworld" was a revelation. Nabokov's "Lolita" was embarrassingly good. Sad, authentic, funny. Those were the things I looked for. Books that could teach me something about myself. The reading and writing always went hand in hand. Songs, poems, stories. Minored in English in college. Creative writing courses. More reading.
In 2006, I began my first novel titled "A Break In The Weathers" about a spoiled young man who desperately wants to know his famous father. It took me three years to finish. After I was done, I let a few people read it, then shoved it into a drawer.
I'm currently working on a new one, which I began writing in May of 2009. It will be ready when it's ready.
In the meantime, you can find other odds and ends below.
SHORT STORY > A YOUNG MAN'S DEER [May 5, 2010]
SCRIBBLES > MAKE A WISH [Jan 26, 2011]
