You know I do spend a heck of a lot of time griping about Hollywood, but there's more to me than just cranking.
I'm also a writer. I've written about a half dozen or more screenplays (unproduced) and I'm currently fishing for an agent for the two novels I've written.
The novels that I've written so far were science fiction/fantasy with dashes of political satire, and lots of action. (I love to pile on the action)
I've also written short fiction. I've had some of my fantasy-adventure fiction published in webzines, now sadly defunct.
But lately I've been dabbling in crime.... fiction that is.
I recently had a short crime story published by Out of the Gutter, a purposely low-brow publication run by an editor who has good taste in writers (he picked me) even if he's a Ron Paul supporter.
The main character of that short story "The Death of Suzie Sunshine" was a particularly hard fellow, an ex-IRA man turned freelance mercenary named Fitz. Well, Fitz just kept popping up, demanding that I write about him again. I wrote another short story, which I'm shopping around, and now he's popped up as a co-lead in a thriller I'm developing about mercenaries, blood diamonds, and sinister conspiracies.
But I'm taking a break from that for a while.
I recently stumbled upon a contest offering a $1000 prize for a whodunnit mystery novella done in the classical style of Rex Stout or Agatha Christie.
I had never tried that genre before, and the challenge intrigued me. So I decided to give it a shot. I had a pretty good concept for my detective, one that I hadn't seen before, and a tricky old-fashioned "locked room" mystery for him to solve. So I dove right in.
It was a hell of a lot of work. My admiration for Agatha Christie and Rex Stout shot up 10 fold. But it was also fun trying to be a clever bastard, and I think it's shaping up pretty well.
I finished a first draft at the beginning of December and let it rest for a while before I started a second draft. I picked it up this week and started doing the rewrites, and it started to shape up even better.
No glaring plot holes, or anachronisms, (except for the deliberate one I inserted about the invention of alkaline batteries for the purpose of the plot) and the characters were consistent in their behaviour and sharply defined.
I'm going to give a few more passes, sharpen up the humour, and make sure that I'm not completely screwing up, and then ship it in to the contest.
Wish me luck.
I'm also a writer. I've written about a half dozen or more screenplays (unproduced) and I'm currently fishing for an agent for the two novels I've written.
The novels that I've written so far were science fiction/fantasy with dashes of political satire, and lots of action. (I love to pile on the action)
I've also written short fiction. I've had some of my fantasy-adventure fiction published in webzines, now sadly defunct.
But lately I've been dabbling in crime.... fiction that is.
I recently had a short crime story published by Out of the Gutter, a purposely low-brow publication run by an editor who has good taste in writers (he picked me) even if he's a Ron Paul supporter.
The main character of that short story "The Death of Suzie Sunshine" was a particularly hard fellow, an ex-IRA man turned freelance mercenary named Fitz. Well, Fitz just kept popping up, demanding that I write about him again. I wrote another short story, which I'm shopping around, and now he's popped up as a co-lead in a thriller I'm developing about mercenaries, blood diamonds, and sinister conspiracies.
But I'm taking a break from that for a while.
I recently stumbled upon a contest offering a $1000 prize for a whodunnit mystery novella done in the classical style of Rex Stout or Agatha Christie.
I had never tried that genre before, and the challenge intrigued me. So I decided to give it a shot. I had a pretty good concept for my detective, one that I hadn't seen before, and a tricky old-fashioned "locked room" mystery for him to solve. So I dove right in.
It was a hell of a lot of work. My admiration for Agatha Christie and Rex Stout shot up 10 fold. But it was also fun trying to be a clever bastard, and I think it's shaping up pretty well.
I finished a first draft at the beginning of December and let it rest for a while before I started a second draft. I picked it up this week and started doing the rewrites, and it started to shape up even better.
No glaring plot holes, or anachronisms, (except for the deliberate one I inserted about the invention of alkaline batteries for the purpose of the plot) and the characters were consistent in their behaviour and sharply defined.
I'm going to give a few more passes, sharpen up the humour, and make sure that I'm not completely screwing up, and then ship it in to the contest.
Wish me luck.
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Your blog has the required amount of humour and the right touch of the well informed. Though I do believe many of your petitions for positions in the land of the deluded are somewhat akin to screaming into a hurricane. Finally, I admire your tenacity and wish victory -and a butt load of money- on this mystery tour!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the good wishes.
ReplyDeleteI think my petitions are most logical, the Hollywood insiders are wrecking their own industry, so I think they should go for a total and complete outsider.
Wow. Even if this doesn't win I still want to read it when it's done.
ReplyDelete