I like to write in the mornings at our local coffee house.  I wait until after the rush of the work-a-day folk have rushed in to fill their travel mugs with java and dash out the door.  Between 8:30-9:00 calm has returned and tables near electrical outlets are readily available.  I find there is something unique about the coffee house environment that fuels my creativity and the noise and constant background chatter are a wonderful distraction that enhances my focus.  It’s also fun to hear the little comments:  “he’s the write;”  “somebody said he’s writing another book;”  “I think he’s writing a sequel.”  I’ve also had two reading events at the coffee house and the owner is kind enough to keep a small supply of my book on a shelf in the front of the store.

One day recently I was finishing my writing session and glanced up to see my friend, Peter.  He was looking around the room, I thought for a place to sit or find someone to visit with.  I motioned him over to my table and asked him to join me.

“Oh, I can’t stay but I wanted to share a story with you.  My wife read in the newspaper that your book was listed as one of the good reads for the month.  She didn’t say anything to me but went to Madison and inquired at several bookstores.  She came home and told me that she didn’t understand but none of the book stores she visited carried my book.  I told her to look on our shelf.  There she found your book.  She opened it and asked me, ‘how did you get a signed copy?’  My friend just laughed.  We know the author, remember?”

I thanked Peter for sharing his story and promised myself to return to the coffee shop the next day for another writing session and who knows what else.  

In a previous post I explained how I’ve used setting a weekly word goal to motivate myself and provide structure to THE BIG GOAL of completing the first draft of my second novel this year.  I’ve been humming right along and have found that most weeks I exceed my goal which gives me a wonderful warm, fuzzy feeling.  Most important it’s proven to be a fantastic tool to subdue Editor Man, that pesky super hero that insists on editing as I write.  I’ve found his kryptonite.

When I set my weekly goal I forget one very important fact.  Some weeks I have other activities that render writing next to impossible.  For example, later this month we’re driving to Omaha to spend a week with our son, his wife and our 18 month old granddaughter.  I intend to devote myself that week exclusively to family and will give writing a rest.  The result will be that week I miss my writing goal by a country mile.

This past week having that realization sent me into a panic.  I didn’t sleep for two nights trying to figure out how to squeeze in more writing time before the Omaha trip.  Then I realized I’ve made other commitments and I’ll lose another three days in writing.  For the month, I won’t be able to write for eight days (that’s a quarter of the month!).

So much for my astute planning; this week I bore down for serious writing.  As my Dad used to say, I was in a tizzy.  This week I cranked out over 6700 words, three times my goal and 65% of my goal for the entire month.  At the close of Saturday’s writing session I realized I would attain my word goal for the month – I could relax.

I found myself a slave to the goal I had created.  That isn’t healthy.  The loss of sleep and emotional trauma was too heavy of a price.  I did learn that with enough effort I can be very productive.  In fact, I may have given myself to small of a weekly word goal.

Goals are great but you can’t let them own you.  I’ve learned my lesson.    

Benediction is the title of Kent Haruf’s most recent novel (published 2013).  The novel takes place in now familiar Holt, Colorado some 100 miles north of Denver in the plains.  To finish my recuperation from the norovirus last week I read this novel in just three days.

Haruf successfully throws out the formulae approach to novel writing with a primary protagonist, conflict and story arc.  Instead, this novel gives us a “slice of life” view of about an eight month period.  There are multiple stories of Dad Lewis dying, the Johnson’s, a grandmother raising her granddaughter after her mother dies of cancer and minister who has the audacity to take Jesus seriously.

Haruf has his own unique style, doesn’t put conversations in quotations and rarely uses “he/she said” clauses.  The affect is to draw the reader closer in to the conversation almost as if you were sitting in the scene with the characters.   

The book begins with Dad Lewis learning of his terminal diagnosis and ends with his death from lung cancer.  Haruf gives the most accurate yet unsentimental description of death I have ever read.  A decade ago following my mother’s death I volunteered at a hospice.  I learned to care for the dying in the most human way.  Being a male, I was asked to bathe and shave the men because they were uncomfortable with female nurses or volunteers helping them with these tasks.  A great deal of comfort can be found in simple, everyday aspects of life.

From a writer’s perspective it’s refreshing that novels don’t need to be plot driven, conflict laden stories.  Novels can be about what happens to ordinary people, in a small town on the desert.      

Last Friday evening I came home after some pre-Memorial Day home project shopping in the early evening.  I felt nauseous and decided to lie down before dinner, which I never do.  In a few minutes my stomach growled, my gut twisted and I was running to the bathroom to bury my head in the toilet and vomit up what I thought was my entire food consumption for the day.  That was only the beginning.  For the next five hours I was wrenched with both vomiting and diarrhea, I was exhausted.

The second day I had only clear liquids, a few wakeful hours but mostly sleep.  By day three I was too tired to much more than read, but I had a special reading project for a friend to complete.  My friend and mentor Marshall Cook recently completed his latest novel manuscript – EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN.  It’s a completely developed long story coming in at 400,000 words.  The story is well paced, draws you in without noticing and left me eager to reach the final chapter.  He’s trying to interest an agent or publisher in the manuscript now and I wish him success, this is a story the world needs to have.  If the traditional publishing world turns its shoulder I hope he takes the time to independently publish.

So, my convalescence had a silver lining, I read a great novel.  

Last week I attempted to negotiate with two independent bookstores to host an author reading/signing event for me.  One of the bookstores currently carries Murphy’s Troubles on consignment; the other is out of state, in Omaha where our son lives.  I had made the assumption, maybe leap of faith, that there is a natural bond, relationship between independent authors and independent bookstores.  I frankly was under the naïve notion that all I needed to do was ask for a date and like magic, I would be scheduled.

Both bookstores routinely host author reading events.  My local indie bookstore often hosts at least one event a week.  To be honest, the local indie bookstore specializes in a specific genre and Murphy’s Troubles doesn’t fit their specific niche.  The local bookstore does support Wisconsin authors and in fact has an entire bookcase devoted to Wisconsin authors where Murphy’s Troubles shares self space.

I found it interesting that in discussing the potential for an event both owners asked if I could guarantee an audience of 20-25 readers at the event.    That doesn’t sound like a roaring crowd but I was startled at the question.  I have participated in four events to date and the largest crowd I had was 16 people, which I considered a fantastic turn out.  One of the bookstore owners explained that their experience was that advertising and promoting an event didn’t bring in readers – the author brings in readers.  

From the book store owners’ perspective the purpose of an author event is to bring in traffic to the store.  The hope is that attendees will buy the author/presenter’s book at a minimum and hopefully browse and purchase other books.  I’ve witnessed this phenomenon myself so it’s not some pie in the sky idea, it is reality.

I was honest with both bookstore owners and admitted that I couldn’t guarantee attendance of 20-25 readers with credit cards burning to be used to make $50 in purchases.  My honesty means I won’t be scheduled for a reader’s event at either bookstore.  I don’t really consider their request unreasonable.  However, it is sad.  Even independent bookstore owners must be risk averse and not support independent publisher/authors just because it’s the right thing to do. 

Book Review for

 

MURPHY’S TROUBLES

By

Rex Owens

 

Propelled by insatiable grief, patriotism, and youthful naivety into a decades-long double life, a popular Irish author’s secret ties to the Irish Republican Army finally implode in Murphy’s Troubles, Rex Owen’s soulful political thriller.

A Catholic from far southern Ireland, Ian Murphy joins the IRA after the violent death of his childhood friend, an IRA volunteer fighting to liberate Northern Ireland from British rule.

But after thirty years of living as both a best-selling novelist and the secret author of an infamous IRA training manual and other published IRA propaganda, Ian’s dual existence is upended by family tragedy and a lover’s betrayal.

Some of the story’s most wrenching scenes come as Ian’s lover, a married, aggressively professional, award-winning newspaper journalist, stumbles upon his secret and must weigh whether to share it with the world. The couple’s subsequent confrontation, in a dank pub cellar, is rawly emotive. 

Emotions run deep, in fact, throughout the story, as Ian deals with other deaths, the accidental maiming of his young niece in an IRA bombing, the demise of his affair and bitter recognition of the role he has played in the IRA-related deaths of thousands of people. His tortured existence is further complicated by an increasing propensity to drown his sorrows in alcohol.

Ian’s struggles, however, lead him to chart a new course, working for peace rather than violent confrontation. Love – and love lost – can cloud our minds but can also clarify, is the message.

The story charts the characters’ motivations for setting their lives on a particular course, the hard choices they must make to stay on that path or divert from it, the courage required to do either, and the repercussions of it all.

Owens does his homework, offering a credibly researched, albeit fictionalized, primer on the IRA and its place in Irish history. Historical context is woven into the novel in a clear, concise way that will appeal to readers in and outside of Ireland, including those only marginally familiar with the country’s politics and past.

The novel could have been improved by clarifying one key point in the plot’s chronology, a scene early on in which Ian, in despair after his niece is injured, crashes his car into a British barricade. Owens places enough importance on this explosive crash to lead the novel with it. But did it occur before or after his lover’s betrayal? That’s never clearly stated, even in careful retracing of the text. Recapping this scene by coming fully back to it, rather than leaving its place in the overall course of events to the reader’s imagination, would have brought the story full circle and might have lent important context to Ian’s mindset.

This omission isn’t fatal, however, to this otherwise excellently researched and well-penned, deeply human story about life-changing decisions, reverberations and the potential for renewal.

-Inkspots Reviews

I’ve always been a person that need a carrot out in front me, like a reluctant horse, to get me to move along.  My wife likes to say I’m goal oriented.  That’s kind but the truth is that without something to grasp for I fall into lethargy.

Earlier this year I gave myself the goal of finishing the first draft of my second novel.  I knew, in general, what I wanted to write but I was plagued by the lack of a writing routine and a concrete idea of what meant in daily work.

I decided that “second novel” was too vague.  I felt comfortable with writing about 80,000 words in MURPHY’S TROUBLES, so I made that my goal for the second novel.  Next, I needed a specific target to aid it, 2014 for completion was too vague too.

For no particular reason, I decided I wanted to finish the very ROUGH draft by November 30th.  My previously shapeless goal was not taking on a real form.  For years I have used a seven day week as my work unit.  I learned a method based on a Stephen Covey book to set a goal that needed to be completed in a week, and then figure out what needed to be done to meet that goal.  The last step was to create blocks of time to work on the tasks that would result in a completed goal.

To write 80,000 words by November 30th would mean slugging out about 1700 words a week. Unfortunately, I had false starts the in January and February and part of March, meaning I now had only 38 weeks to write my 80,000 word novel.  I need to write about 2100 words a week to make my goal.  Now that’s something you can bite your teeth into.

I purchased a big white board calendar and put my week goal in large numbers at the top.   Each day I write on the board how many words I’ve written.  To date, I’ve cranked out over 18,000 words a week, about double my goal!

Shizam!  It’s working.  I’m now confident that I’ll make my goal, I can relax. My creativity and imagination are in high gear and I’m enjoying the writing without stress.  That’s the POWER of a goal.

           

Growing up my Mom worked at home.  She had a set weekly routine that varied very little.  Mondays were washing.  Tuesdays were ironing.  Wednesdays were for vacuuming.  Thursdays were for special projects like cleaning windows, polishing silver, dusting etc.  Fridays were for sewing.  Saturdays were for grocery shopping and all other forms of commerce.  Sundays, except preparing dinner after church, were for resting.

This organized, orderly life made me a person that appreciates routine and cleanliness.  Some have called be fastidious but that’s someone else’s judgment.  I know what makes me comfortable.  As I’ve grown older I must admit that my standards for housecleaning have become lax, or more flexible might be more accurate.  My office isn’t tidy but everything has a place and I depend on that to find things when I want them.  About once or twice a year I do a cleaning and toss out what’s not been used in several months.

Unlike my Mom, I don’t have a routine.  I’ve come to practice ‘just in time cleaning’.  There’s minimum amount of house cleaning that my WASP upbringing demands.  However, dust balls have grown in the living room, the duster doesn’t see the light of day often and the vacuum doesn’t leave the closet very often.

 I have developed the demand model for cleaning, which is my confession.  We invite people over for a meal or some other social event and to prepare for their visit the house gets a thorough cleaning.  I’m lucky that my wife and I divide the chores based on what we can each tolerate.  I clean bathrooms for instance and either vacuum or steam clean floors.  My wife dusts, organizes the kitchen and makes sure the living room is comfortable and presentable.

How many of you wait until company is coming over to clean your house?  It’s ok.   

On April 4-6 the UW Madison held its’ 25th Annual Writers’ Institute.  I have been attending the Institute each year since 1997 so this was my 18th year.  Last year I was honored to participate on the Success Panel to share with attendees my experience publishing articles with The Writer Magazine.

This year I was able to sell my debut novel, MURPHY’S TROUBLES, at the mid-day Book Sale on Saturday.  Imagine having over 300 writers look over your book and considering buying it.  The room was huge for the Book Sale, with 45 authors competing for sales.

Initially I was asked to share a 24”round table with another author.  He hauled out two 8 ½ x 11 plaques and three books and placed them on the table, leaving me no room for my books and book marks.  I tried asking politely to have him display one book and one placard.  He didn’t budge.  Then I demanded that he remove all but one placard and one book.  He grunted and complied.

Before I turf war worsened he was moved to his own table.  I brought only 10 books to sell, expecting to sell none.  I didn’t have a fancy display, just my books and some book marks.  People passed by without saying a word and making direct eye contact didn’t work to gain their attention.

Next, as people passed by I offered them a book mark.  The book mark is a replica of my book cover and people would begin to read the back of the blurb on the book mark.  I then handed them a book suggesting it would be easier to read.  It worked.  When a person read the blub, it leads to questions and soon we were engaged in a lively conversation.

Competing against 45 other authors, some famous like Michael Perry, I sold 5 books.  I also talked with very interesting people who shared their experiences of traveling in Ireland with me.  One woman shared the story of how she was trapped in Northern Ireland with her parents because the border was closed at night.

Meeting other authors, hearing life stories and selling a few books, it doesn’t get any better.

Recently I heard a report on NPR about reading in America.  Since I was driving while listening to the report I wasn't confident I heard what I thought I did.  So, in the week the world wide web turned 25, I searched on Google for "reading statistics."

This is what I found:
    - Percent of U.S. high school grads who will never read a book after high school               33%

    - Percent of college students who will never read a book after they graduate                     42%

    - Total percentage of U.S. families who  did not buy a book in 2013                                 80%

Fortunately, several weeks ago I met with a local book club to discuss my novel, Murphy's Troubles.  I was invited to attend their discussion and was even asked to lead the discussion.  I prepared background material on Ireland, talked about my path to write and publish the book and then prepared a series of questions to spark discussion.

Two members of the group had traveled to Ireland and two others had Irish heritage.  I asked the members to be frank with me because that's how I grow as a writer.  They were frank but not unkind.  I was surprised how some of the club members reacted to various characters in the novel. We talked together for just over two hours.

As an author there is nothing better than sharing the experience of your book with readers.  The data shows we are not a book reading nation, however, there are enclaves of book clubs that maintain a fierce devotion to books whether hard copy, trade paperback or ebooks.

It's generally accepted that during the Dark Ages Irish monks saved the knowledge of Europe by copying and maintainng books.  Book clubs are keeping reading and discourse alive and well and by doing so saving the world.