Guest Post for The Blue Stocking Society

My guest post for The Blue Stocking Society. I talk about how I juggle family and writing.

Like most aspiring authors, I dream of selling a book to a mainstream publisher, and then writing fulltime. For now, I write whenever I can.

Saturday, 4:30 AM. I’m up and ready to take on the day. Yeah right! After quickly flipping off the alarm so not to wake my wife, I’m at the computer nursing a fishbowl sized mug of coffee. As the PC comes to life, I glance at the stack of books next to me on the floor. Somehow the latest hardcover offering from Michael Connelly has made its way to the top of my TBR (To Be Read) pile, so I spend a half hour with Connelly’s meal ticket, Harry Bosch.

I begin work on my own novel, a police procedural called Dead of Knight. The story is complete; it’s now down to re-writes and polishing. I hear tiny feet on carpet. My five year old son is wandering around the house in the dark half asleep—it’s 5:30. I guide Alex back to bed and snuggle with him until he returns to sleep.

I pause for another cup of coffee and a few minutes of staring at a blank screen. A writer friend has asked me to read his 300-page manuscript. How can I tell him the second and third chapters are just a rehash of the first? I e-mail him a note reminding him to hook the reader early and suggest that perhaps his first 35 pages could be condensed into a strong ten to twelve.

A second after opening my book file, the phone rings—it’s my mom. She launches into a story of how my dad put his back out working in the yard yesterday. I ignore Mom’s subtle invitation to feel guilty about not spending more time with my parents.

The family is awake now and Erin, my wife, is quick to comment about how early I was up to write. She’s worried about how tired I am. Her concern is valid, as constant fatigue is the price I pay for working at such a ridiculous hour. Erin is telling me something about shopping with her mom. She’s irritated that I’m living in my head, as she calls it. She’s right—I’m stuck in my book and can’t get a scene out of my mind.

I pause from the book to open some snail mail. An agent from Toronto regrets to inform me that she is presently unable to take on new clients. Next, I learn a book proposal does not meet the current publishing needs of a small press in Connecticut.

As if on queue, my three year old daughter, Meghan, dances in to relieve the stinging pain of rejection with noisy versions of Do Re Mi and My Boy Lollipop!

I’m re-energized and writing at a nice pace. Erin is increasingly annoyed with my inability to pull myself from my book for even a few seconds. She announces that she is taking the kids to have lunch with her mom.

I decide to write for an hour and then surprise the family by meeting them at the mall. The house is quiet, too quiet. My eyes are closing, and each minute becomes a greater struggle to stay awake. I move to the bed for a short nap and wake three hours later to the sound of loud voices and laughter.

Alex and Meghan find me in bed and I excite them with news about a special day at the park tomorrow. However, the promise does little to diminish the guilt I feel for spending so much time away from my kids for writing.

http://thebluestockings.com

William Potter -Guest Post for Scribe Vibe

This is my guest post and how it appeared on ScribeVibe in November 2008

Why did you chose to write 6 stories that focused on the same concept - the weaknesses of the characters in them?

It was never a conscious decision to have the six stories in Lighting the Dark Side focus on a similar concept. It just turned out that way, and to best explain how and why, I will give a brief history of the book and of my writing.

I was making up stories before I could read. I switched between fiction and poetry from my early teens through to adulthood. Then in 2001, I found myself in a new relationship and happy for the first time in years. From this stability, I decided to get serious about fiction. I started with a few short stories and with my confidence growing, I tried increasingly complex plots. By fall 2004, I had a number of shorts and two novellas.

The birth of my daughter delayed writing for over a year. In spring 2006, I returned to the unpublished short stories. The first thing I noticed was the darker subject matter, and the characters all struggling against their weaknesses. I credited this gloominess to sadness still lingering from my divorce. The stories were getting some favorable feedback and I wondered if grouped together they might be enough for a book. After polishing the stronger selections, I wrote another novella; pared the total down to six; and then began to research publishers.

I believe everyone has a darker side to their personality that troubles those who witness it. This could be anything from bigotry to anger management or perhaps jealousy. The key to triumphing over this darkness is to recognize it, and to turn a light against it. This theme is present in all the stories and became the title of the book.

The characters in the collection all follow unique paths in order to overcome their shortcomings and escape extraordinary situations; from Dwayne Johnson, a man who struggles to find love despite a severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; to Brad Stewart, whose lottery win becomes a nightmare when his son is kidnapped for ransom; to James Goodal, a gentle man with a rescue complex who resorts to murder when he takes in a young street prostitute.

Together, the stories are a good representation of who I was as a writer over the first eight years of this decade. They run the gamut of fiction genres and, I hope, will challenge readers to think in new directions.

http://www.scribevibe.blogspot.com/