South Seas, The Holocaust, Neanderthals, and Me
Writing, at this particular point, is like riding a roller coaster. I’m working on several projects, and each of them requires a different mindset, a different set of skills, and in at least two cases - interaction with very different people that are peripherally related to the work. I’m starting to feel slightly schizophrenic, to be honest.
In one story I’m relying heavily on my US Navy experience, my time in the South Pacific, and a love of history and Tikis. More on that later - it’s the oddball of all the current projects, and believe me when I tell you, that gives it unique oddball status, even for me.
The two biggest stressors currently are both ghost-writing projects. There is a unique perspective granted by the idea that you have created (or are creating) a long work of fiction, or non-fiction, that is not really yours. Neanderthals, for instance. I have been writing a thriller involving big oil, Siberia, and Neanderthals for a client. We are now at the editing phase, and it reminds me very much of doing edits for a very picky editor. He has several friends and relatives reading and commenting, and he’s sifting edits to me slowly. I’m hoping to get through the revisions fairly quickly.
Why? Because I’m also ghosting the memoir of a Holocaust Survivor who lived an amazing life, and I’m trying to wrap my head around the utter seriousness and importance of this work, which is a bit harder to do on the tail end of a scene involving Neanderthals, big clubs, and splattered body parts. Not impossible, mind you, but not easy.
For myself - the things that keep me sane - I’m working steadily but slowly on two things. One is a collaborative novel with Steve Savile - Hallowed Ground. I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s a rich, complex book involving angels, gunslingers, faith healers, snake-oil salesmen, crows - owls. There are mixtures of imagery and icons from myths and different faiths…in other words, it’s the kind of work I love, and it’s renewing and refreshing when I get my shot at it.
I’m also doing a novella-length piece involving a very, very dark character named Lucian - that is coming better than I’d ever hoped, but again - very slow - mostly due to the incredible numbers of porjects that are on paying schedules and deadlines. I will perservere.
I leave you with a cool site courtesy of Google Trends…
Have you heard the old adage that celebrities always die in threes? This guy created a celebrity death generator that spits them out by months to try and settle the issue…check it out over a Cockeyed.Com.
-DNW
