Guest post:
I know
that many author's are a bit narcissistic and love talking about
themselves...fortunately, I am no different. Writing is an extension of myself.
It is my way of releasing the voices that flood my every thought, struggling to
find their way out, preferably without hurting anyone. That was a joke by the
way.
The
ideas for my work can literally come from something as simple as a day dreaming
session, a nightmare which I am subject to frequently due to my PTSD. Other
times, I have literally come up with ideas for stories by just doing something
as mundane as doing the dishes or staring at a glass of sparkling water,
watching the cascade of bubbles make their way to the top of the glass.
When
the idea for a new novel or short story comes to me, at first it's like a
flood. The ideas flow at an incredible rate and have to be held back to prevent
me from trying to overdo the story. I usually sit back, think of a title and
then start formulating names for the chapters as I find it easier to write when
I name each and every chapter.
The
next step is after thinking on the story and what I hope to accomplish with it,
do I have a connection with the characters? Am I going to find the story one
that I can relate to on a personal level or is it just my way of telling a
story that I find interesting? Then comes the fun part: Do I relate on a
spiritual level with the lead or am I spinning the proverbial yarn.
I have
made it a point with all of my writing to stay true to who I am and that person
is not always the easiest person in the world to get along with. I am a very
opinionated person and I have very little tolerance for stupidity, especially
as my late Father used to say, "The deliberately stupid".
I have
taken all forms of political correctness and thrown them out the window.
Sometimes consciously other times, sub-consciously. I have absolutely no use
for political correctness and really don't care of people are offended when
reading what I write. The simple fact of the matter is that at the core of
EVERY good joke; one that has lasted the test of time has been that there is
always an element of truth behind it. That's what makes them so funny.
I am
forty-one years old and even as a child as young as eleven, we used to tell
Priest and Alter Boy jokes. Why were these funny? We all know the reason for
that. Because they were true. This relatively new phenomenon of worrying about
offending someone sickens me and in the case of my first book, "Are You
Kosher? Memoirs of a Jewish Vampire" I went out of my way to make a
full-frontal assault on political correctness. My problem was how was I going
to do this? Who the hell am I?
But if
you could somehow come up with a voice to speak through; someone who has lived
through it all and seen everything, you might have something so I went with the
exploits of a neurotic 6,000 year old Jewish Vampire with a domineering
grandmother, or Bubbe, and alcoholic mother, and two very loyal yet incompetent
friends to share his experiences with. I am very excited to say that I have
reformatted and slightly rewritten the first book and combined it with the two
sequels into one spectacular volume that I am sure will forever change the
genre of the Vampire novel and give people the opportunity to forget themselves
for a while and say, "That exactly what I was thinking" or "What
the hell was HE thinking?" Either way, it will be a fantastic read.
But
back to my writings.
The
fun always comes, however, when the book starts talking to me. That is
the key. You have to learn to listen to the story because often I find
that the book will tell me what IT wants to do. When that happens, I know that
I am on to something great. The book will dictate where it wants to go.
For
example. When I was writing "The Queen and I", I envisioned a
laugh riot comedy with a touch of dark humor. It soon took an entirely
different direction and I had to get out of the books way. It wanted to follow
a different path and I had to allow the book to be the tour
guide.
To me,
that is the key to any good book. The book is a living, breathing thing that
needs to be nurtured and given room to grow. Each and every one of my works are
like my children and like any child, they need to make mistakes, learn from
them, and ultimately grow from the experience.
It is
a method and a process that I go through with every book I write and so far it
hasn't failed me.
Here's
to bigger and better things. I just hope that I can keep up.
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