Happy accidents play a certain role in writing. While working on Locksmith’s War, I tried to type the words “hiding in the attic” (a phrase which the character in question was texting) and it came out “hiding in the attack.” I realized this was exactly the sort of mistake a phone’s autocorrect would make, so I threw it in and made it part of the story. (That’s why Chapter 6 is called “Hiding in the Attack.”) Something similar happened while I was trying to write a scene in Altered Seasons. This was how I intended it to go: “Anything that can be destroyed by the truth should be.” “So you’d tell the Nazis where to find Anne Frank?” Gus actually stepped back a pace at this point. His eyes wen
So with all this writing I’m doing, what am I reading? Here are some of the things: A Bell for Adano by John Hersey I looked for this book after meeting the author’s son at a social function. It takes place in World War II, in 1943 when the Italian campaign is just beginning, and it’s about an Italian-American major who’s put in charge of a small coastal town in Sicily. It won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. A Bell for Adano doesn’t go into the political events of the time — the fall of Mussolini’s government, the German invasion and so on. I think this is because Adano is meant to be such a sleepy and out-of-the-way place. In spite of this, the novel is more of a glimpse of a part
This is the fourth year I've done National Novel Writing Month, but the first year I actually succeeded. (Unfortunately, I can't personalize the certificate with my computer stuck in safe mode.) What I can do is the things you can't do when you're writing at a blinding pace, like edit chapters in a way that might shorten them, or plan out the parts of the book you're still a little vague on. Not that I'm going to be completely inactive — I also plan to finish Year Four of Altered Seasons by the end of this year, and there's a large Dead Skunk post I have to finish as well. I have two more things to share with you. First, a short story, Brenner's Christmas Tree Farm, the first of the Reenie
