May 2006 Blogs

The May Photo of the Month came from my roadtrip with the Penske Rental Truck from Arizona to North Carolina. This double rainbow appeared after three days of unending rain, and it seemed an appropriate image at this point of the trip.

Tuesday May 30, 2006
I am back in Arizona.

For whatever reason, on my early afternoon walk today, I found myself thinking very clearly about the path that led me to where I am as a writer. For those of you who’ve read this blog or followed my career the past few years, you’ve heard me talk a lot about how much I’ve written.

While it’s probably true that I have written a lot, the timeline that has gotten me here is reasonable. For my own sanity’s sake (and for the sake of writing today’s blog), I’m going to try to give as accurate a rundown as I can of that timeline.

I really mark my “career” as beginning over the Christmas holidays of 1994. I was in my third year of college, and I had to declare my major. I decided to major in English, and over the break, I wrote a short story. It was a suspense story, and it was really bad, but it had a beginning, middle, and end, and the reason I remember this story so vividly is that I gave it to someone on our dorm hall to read. I remember her reaction.

Not good.

There were other stories prior to that, and I should say that I did actually send out my first submission back in 1990. I sent a poem to Bantam Books by reading the copyright page of a book and getting the publisher’s address there. That I actually received a rejection at all for this submission is amazing because I didn’t know anything about SASEs, the poem was written with a typewriter, and it had to have obviously looked like something submitted by a high school sophomore. Bantam’s a big damn publisher, and either it was standard practice to respond to all submissions in those days or somebody was just being kind.

At any rate, I didn’t really start writing until 1994-1995. It didn’t take me long to try and write a novel. It was titled “Third Son” and I got about thirty pages of it finished on my Brother WhisperPrint Word Processor before the plot became too convoluted for me to make sense of. What I can say of this early “novel” (which still exists because I’ve lugged that Word Processor around with me all these years) is that it was a crime novel. It was driven by a grisly murder, and the protagonist was a happily married man with a couple kids. The first page or two is actually pretty good, but it quickly goes downhill because I didn’t know what I was doing.

Between January 1995 and the summer of 1997, I wrote a lot. Most of it was really bad. Most of it was short fiction. There is maybe one story from that period that I would consider re-printing. One.

But I was writing a lot, and I was learning the basics of grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure. I was learning about genres, tone, and style.

Things like voice and character were still a few years down the road. It was enough that I could put coherent sentences together in those days that weren’t filled with misspellings and grammatical missteps.

By the fall of 1997, I had the basics down. That summer I had tried my hand at another novel. I was now writing on a computer in Word, using Times New Roman, double-spaced, font size 12, etc. The novel that I tried to write is in my collection The Kiribati Test. It is titled “The Drunk.”

It’s probably the worst story in the collection, but one chapter of it was selected as a finalist for the 1998 Isaac Asimov Award (since renamed the Dell Magazines Award), and I managed to put down over a hundred pages in one story.

Though the story is almost incomprehensible, it was a major achievement to me personally, and the stamp of approval from the Asimov contest sealed my fate. I was to be a writer. As a result of the contest, I went to a conference where I met Peter Straub, Ben Bova, Joe Haldeman, Sheila Williams, David Hartwell, and a number of other science-fiction writers and editors.

Still, I had not really written a novel. I mean a real novel, man, one with hundreds and hundreds of pages. A stack. That’s what I wanted, a friggin’ stack.

Between January 1998 and July 2001, I wrote a lot of short stories. Several were published in the university literary magazine. One or two won first prize in the student contest.

I wrote for a year as an Opinion Columnist for the university newspaper, and I worked for three years as an editor on a scholarly journal called The Concord Saunterer. This was an important job (I would realize later) because it taught me how to put a book together from a technical point of view in terms of layout, headings, font, print, bindings, covers, ISBNs, copyrights, etc.

Several years later, when I absolutely could not find a publisher and had to begin publishing my novels on my own, the experience that I’d learned in college served me well. I didn’t feel totally like a fish out of water putting a book together.

In December 2000, I learned that my first professionally published short story would come out that next spring in CutBank, a literary magazine published by the University of Montana. I had sent out the story in a manila envelope, paper-clipped, along with eighteen other submissions of the same story to other magazines. The story was published in the spring of 2001, and I graduated with an MA in Creative Writing in May.

From the summer of 2000 to the summer of 2001, I had tinkered around with another novel. It was a literary novel that was trying to be a horror novel, and by the summer of 2001, I had about 200 pages.

After graduating, I moved to Arizona to write full time. Mainly, I wanted to force myself to finally finish my first novel. I had two other aborted attempts, and I didn’t want to make it three.

So I rewrote the horror/literary novel from July 2001 through March/April 2002. What I had when I was done was a 130,000-word literary novel, which I titled The Band. In manuscript format it was about 600 pages long. A stack.

It was my first completed novel.

I tried to find a publisher for it, but it didn’t take me more than a year before I realized that no publisher in their right mind was going to publish it.

During that time, I kept writing.

From June 2002 through October 2002, I wrote my second novel. It was a PI novel which lapses into science-fiction and fantasy in its last 100 pages. I really thought I could publish this novel titled Culpepper because it was fun, fit a pretty clear genre, and had all the basic ingredients that a novel has to have. I submitted it to a lot of places, tinkered with different titles, but I just couldn’t find a home for it.

Two years later, in October 2004, I learned that it was selected as a finalist for the St. Martin’s Press/PWA Best Private Eye Novel Contest. This was a big deal for a young writer, looking to get his first break.

St. Martin’s Press has a history of publishing writers’ first novels, writers who go on to huge bestsellerdom sometimes (Dan Brown’s first novel came from SMP). At any rate, they didn’t publish it; it was only a finalist, not the winner. But it was still a huge breath of fresh air to a writer who felt like he’d been underwater a long time.

From October 2002 through May 2003, I wrote my third novel. It was originally titled The Miracle, and it felt like a miracle that I wrote the damn thing. It was a fast-paced, crime fiction, comic-book-style, YA, action-thriller (you can say that again!) that utterly failed to find a publisher, but that actually isn’t that bad of a read.

I self-published it as Amber Page and the Legend of the Coral Stone and have managed to sell nearly fifty copies via bookstore signings, friends, family, and a handful of fans (I think there are two) who bought it online.

Here’s where the story gets interesting, though. Finally all that hard work was beginning to pay off.

I knew I could write a novel. I knew what it took, and so I started a book titled The Colorado Sequence in May 2003. I had more fun writing that novel than any other novel to that point. I knew it was an action-thriller in the Michael Crichton, James Rollins tradition, and I just had fun with it. I never let it get me down.

I finished The Colorado Sequence in January 2004, and I was sure I had something big. It was 143,000 words, and it ran on high adrenaline from start to finish. For sheer entertainment value, it may be one of the best novels I’ll ever write because I never stopped and questioned what I was doing while I was writing it. And it’s all energy and clear thinking.

All the stars were aligned to break through with it.

Once done, I started querying literary agents. I sent out twenty-two letters in one sending in May 2004. I got one positive response, from the Donald Maass Agency. Donald asked to see the first thirty pages, and he actually responded and said he liked some aspects of it. He declined to represent it, but I took the personal response as a sign that I was on the right path.

From January 2004 through May 2004, I wrote my first suspense-thriller novel Claws. In March of 2004, I’d gone to HorrorCon and served on my first panel. With Claws, I think I finally found the genre that worked best for me.

When done, it was a lean, mean 70,000-word suspense novel that my wife was certain would be the novel to break through with. I revised, workshopped, edited, and waited a half year to query agents. In January 2005, I sent out 22 letters.

No takers.

In March, I sent out 52 more and finally got an agent who a) wanted to work with me, b) had sold books to major publishers before, and c) was convinced this novel would find a home at one of the 4-5 largest publishers in the world. After working on it for a couple of months with the agent, we submitted it to the biggest publishers in New York and the biggest editors in the business.

They nearly all responded positively to the initial query. They nearly all read the book. At one major publisher, it earned a champion who took the novel to an editorial review board meeting where it got struck down by senior editors.

And then reality set in. Though they all read it and responded positively to it, no one was convinced enough to publish it.

It’s a tough business, boy.

From summer 2004 through March 2005, I muddled through a monster of a novel titled Dr. Plant. Worn out, I took a break from it in March 2005 and hammered out a short novel titled Maggie Redcrest, Alias Inferno.

Boosted by the agent’s confidence, I started Claws 2 in summer 2005.

Things were beginning to turn to mess, though. Novels were overlapping. One week, I’d think I was going to find a publisher, the next week not. Starting a novel and stopping it midway was a lesson I had to learn.

By December, it was clear that Claws had failed to find a publisher, and the sequel became something of a living nightmare to write to completion. I took a break this past January and February and tried to finish Dr. Plant (a massive 800+ page tome), and finally said the hell with it, and forced myself to write the ending of Claws 2, which I just finished less than a month ago.

Since then, I’ve started a new suspense novel (currently titled “Death Cabin”) and I think I’m pretty much convinced that suspense is the genre for me.

There are deviations of the suspense genre (mystery, crime, and some science-fiction go hand in hand with suspense), but I think, at least for the time being, I know what I feel a suspense novel should do, and I’m just going to try to deliver some of the best ones that I can.

So, that’s where I am. I’m working on novel nine. There’ve been ups and downs and highs and lows, and I’ve learned a hell of a lot about this business since submitting that poem to Bantam Books in 1990.

What’s around the corner from here?

Hopefully, more writing... and who knows, maybe a book contract.

Stacey


Sunday May 28, 2006
Outstanding day today.

I wrote another 2,213 words on the new suspense novel, bringing the total to 26,110 at 131 pages for exactly two weeks of writing.

Tomorrow, I fly out of Raleigh/Durham for Arizona, and I'll be on the road the next couple of weeks.

I got done writing around 5:00 pm. Afterwards, I rode my bike along the Reedy Creek Greenway from my house to NC State. It's about five miles away, and once over at State, I rode all around the campus. School is out and there was hardly anyone on campus, and so I checked out all the buildings and just rode around everywhere.

Made it back home around 9:00 PM, and then drove to Char-Grill for dinner. I feel very lucky to live the life that I live.

Stacey



Saturday May 27, 2006
Life is good.

I wrote another 1,844 words today on the new suspense novel, bringing the total to 23,980 at 121 pages for thirteen days. That's almost half of a novel, a third of a novel easy.

This is my ninth novel.

Always write.

I took a drive down to 222 West Hargett Street today, downtown Raleigh where the City Council meets the first and third Tuesday of each month. I just wanted to scout it out because I'd like to start going to the Council meetings. I've got in mind the idea for a crime novel set in Raleigh involving local politics.

Now, I know where the meetings are. That's a start.

Stacey


Friday May 26, 2006
Well, today I finally hit the wall with my new suspense novel. I think it was the result of having left a scene in midstride last night and also that I just had a ton of stuff to do today.

At any rate, I managed to write another 389 words, bringing the total for twelve days to 22,139 at 112 pages.

A romantic element has begun to develop in the story that I did not originally anticipate.

Looking back over the past five years or so, though, I've written a couple of stories that have led up to the novel that I seem to be writing.

Those were Hannah and The Cuda, stories that rely heavily on suspense and ghosts, but that are ultimately love stories.

I did not see this novel (currently titled "Death Cabin") taking this direction early on, so it'll be interesting to see how it evolves.

Stacey


Thursday May 25, 2006
It's 12:40 A.M. (so, I guess it's actually Friday May 26, 2006), and I haven't really stopped going all day.

Somewhere in there, I managed to put down another 2,595 words bringing the total to 21,751 and getting me to page 110.

I actually had to stop a scene smack-dab in the middle, which is something I usually try to avoid because I'll have to pick up the momentum tomorrow right where I left off.

My writing process usually is to get a whole chapter start to finish done in a day, or to at least get it to a scene break where I can use *** and start fresh the next day.

But this one was right in the middle of the scene, as the protagonist was getting freaked out by a telephone caller on a phone that's not even plugged into the wall, while the power's out in this cabin in the woods in the middle of a nasty thunderstorm.

Let's see what I can do tomorrow (or later today, as the case may be).

Stacey





Wednesday May 24, 2006
I managed to hammer out about another 1,600 words today on the new suspense novel, bringing the total word count for ten days of writing to 19,186.

Stacey



Tuesday May 23, 2006
Word count today on the new suspense novel: 17,480. Page count: 88.

I think I've found my voice.

Suspense.

Stacey



Monday May 22, 2006
I hammered out another 2,769 words today on this new suspense novel, which I've started calling "Death Cabin." I haven't written at the rate I've written this past week in a long time.

I actually ran out of time today, and had to pull myself away from the computer to have dinner at like 7:30 PM.

When I go on a tear like this, I'm usually pretty pleased later with what I wrote because it means I had a good time.

Stacey


Sunday May 21, 2006
Man, I'm just slammin' with this new suspense novel. Word count since last Sunday: 13,282.

At this rate, I could realistically punch out a 50,000-60,000 word novel in a month or two.

Maybe I'll just start bangin' out suspense novels like this for a while.

Let's see where I am by next Sunday...

Stacey



Saturday May 20, 2006
You know it never hurts to remind myself how lucky I am. It's easy to give in to the thought of "moving up" and getting a better deal or making more money or whatever, but the trick, I think, is not to dwell too much on that stuff. There are a lot of people in this world, and for just one moment, I was given the chance to be here on this earth, to enjoy life and the experience of living.

It's a pretty cool thing.

Stacey




Friday May 19, 2006
So, I went back and read the email I received from the Raleigh City Council Community Relations Administrator on March 20, 2006 regarding attending Council Meetings.

The public is welcome and the meetings are scheduled the first and third Tuesday of each month at 1:00 PM at Council Chambers in the Municipal Building 222 West Hargett Street (downtown Raleigh). On the first Tuesday of the month, there is an additional meeting at 7:00 PM.

If I've got my calendar correct, that means the next meetings will be June 6 and June 20.

Part of the reason I want to start attending regularly is to better understand how the City Council works. Also, I have in mind the idea of writing a crime/mystery novel involving small town politics (a la John Grisham).

The idea of one day running for City Council is also on my mind, but I don't know enough about it to really consider that viable, now. Maybe a year from now, I'll feel differently. Who knows?

Tomorrow, it's back to my new suspense novel.

Stacey



Thursday May 18, 2006
So, how did I celebrate finishing the first draft of Claws 2? Baby, I immediately started another novel. Like Sunday afternoon.

You know you're an addict for writing novels when, as soon as you get done with one, you wait about thirty minutes and start another. I'm up to about 8,000 words with it already, the first 35 pages. It's a straight suspense novel about a writer renting a cabin in the mountains of North Carolina from a man who may not even be alive.

Today, I'm backing up all my writing files on a thumb drive and transferring the backed-up versions to Susan's computer. This is something all of us should do from time to time...

In fact, I implore you, man. Go do it, now. Go back up your files. It's just a good thing to do from time to time.

Stacey



Monday May 15, 2006
I'm in much better spirits today, and I think I've learned a simple truth about writing full time. If I just wake determined to haul my ass out of bed first thing in the morning, take the dogs on a walk, and then come back home and immediately get to work, I feel a lot better.

I think working on Claws 2 was a rough time, not knowing whether the first Claws book would find a publisher, then realizing that it wasn't, then not knowing how I would go through surgery, then recovering, then not knowing whether Susan would get interviews for a new job, then learning that she would, then not knowing whether she'd be offered a job, then finding that she would, then not knowing if we'd move, when we'd move, if our house in Arizona would sell, should we buy a new home in North Carolina and how....

All of this made for a rough time writing wise. I finally feel like I've got a clean slate.

To write a book well, you've really got to have a fairly stable environment for 3-6 months. And the more stable the next 6-12 months look to you in terms of where you're living, how you'll afford to live, and whether you think you can do something with the book you're working on, really affects how and what you write.

Writing fiction is mostly a subconscious process, and if your subconscious doesn't know what is going on, the writing is going to reflect that.

I'm seriously thinking I may just give myself over to writing suspense novels for the next 2-3 years.

Stacey



Sunday May 14, 2006
I finished the first draft of Claws 2 this morning at 10:26 AM EST. I am happy with the ending.

The Epilogue took yesterday and this morning to write, and the total word count of the novel stands at 69,077. Page count is 348, double-spaced. It'll make about 250-300 pages, once formatted and booked for print.

I woke this morning around 7:00 AM, crawled out of bed, and took the dogs for a thirty-minute walk into the state park. It rained overnight, and so everything was cool and damp.

I didn't dilly-dally once I got back home. I'd set a pot of coffee to brew before I left, and it was ready by the time I got back. I did my stretching exercises and sat down to write the ending.

As I got a couple paragraphs in, it started pouring rain outside, and I realized that I'd been lucky to not have gotten caught in it while out walking the dogs.

Claws 2 is my eigth completed novel, and it took about fifteen months to write. It was one of the most difficult to write because of so much of what went on while writing it.

The first 100 pages came effortlessly, and I was extremely motivated to write it because last March I landed a literary agent. So like for the first two months that I worked on it, I was getting phone calls and emails from the agent who was working with me on the first Claws manuscript. It was the first professional working relationship I've had regarding any of my novels, and she was convinced she'd be able to sell it to a major publisher.

That made me want to write the second Claws novel.

However, by June, every editor she'd submitted Claws to had passed on it, and my agent went cold on me. By December, it had gotten to the point where it took 3-4 days to get ten-word (or less) responses from her via email. It was just awkward.

Meanwhile, I had Claws 2 like midway done.

Also during this time, I found a mass in my chest and had to have surgery to have it removed. I can't describe the fear I went through hearing one of the best surgeons in Phoenix, Arizona say that I needed to have surgery to have the mass removed.

So, while I was preparing for my surgery, my agent quit on me and my novel. She didn't ask to see anymore of my work, though I suggested as politely and professionally as I could that we should try to submit another of my novels to editors.

It was a tough time.

Still, I managed to write a little bit each day. And there's a simple truth in writing fiction: if you write a little bit each day and never quit, you'll eventually finish a novel.

Which brings me full circle to today. The first draft of Claws 2 is done. It'll go into cooler mode for a couple of weeks, and then I'll print up the whole manuscript and do a fullscale readthrough and edit. After that, I'll see if I can get Susan to read the draft and we'll begin thinking about how to send it out to publishers.

I don't know what to do with a sequel to a first novel that has failed to find a publisher. Susan suggests that I try querying agents again. All total, I've queried 74 for the first Claws manuscript.

I guess I should query more.

I've also queried about fifty editors on my own for the first book (since my agent backed away). I'm hesitant to query for a second book that is so dependant on a first book for its storyline.

It's just a tough situation, and there are very few people who seem willing to help. Most published authors I know say things like, "I know what it's like, and I feel for you. But you've got to find your own editor and publisher. Sorry I can't help you."

Once Susan and I get a permanent address (it's looking like July 1), I'll send out another round of queries for the first Claws book. Probably the thing to do is mention that there's a second book done and completed, although I've received a fair bit of advice from several published authors who say that's a sure way to get rejected.

Why is there a second book already done? Did the first book fail to find a publisher? It must suck. I'm sorry, but it's just not right for me. Good luck, though, in finding the enthusiastic home I know that it deserves.

I have never felt as adrift in my career as I feel right now.

I think I might try to hammer our a short suspense-thriller novel between now and July 1, by which time we'll be in a new, more permanent home.

I have this idea for a suspense novel about a writer renting a cabin in the woods from a landlord who proves to be creepy, then homicidal.

Ghosts may be involved.




Saturday May 13, 2006
I may have written the last word of Claws 2 yesterday, not including an epilogue which remains to be written (like today). As it stands, Claws 2 is 50 chapters and 67,817 words long. I do need to write an epilogue and that'll probably be another 1500-3000 words.

I actually physically chuckled after writing the last word yesterday. But today, I'm intensely self-conscious that it's no good, that I ended it too fast, that there are too many loose ends, etc.

Usually, your first instinct is good, though. Trust it.

Here's a photo of me copyediting Chapter 50 of Claws 2 this morning.






Friday May 12, 2006
I wrote 1,481 words yesterday on Claws 2, a good day considering I'd had about a ten-day break. I just opened the file for the first time today. It's 3:00 PM, and if I could just get a thousand words written today, I think I'd be alright with it.

The novel's really at one of those stages where I'm just like "Okay, how is this thing going to end?" I thought I could wrap it up yesterday, but I had to stop to actually eat some food around 8:00 PM and begin winding down for the day.

Let's see if I can do some writing today.

Stacey


Thursday May 11, 2006
I've been writing most of today on the ending of Claws 2. The day started with a 3-mile walk through the Umstead State Park with the dogs, then I opened up the Claws 2 file got to work. It's been threatening to rain all afternoon but has not started yet.

People sometimes say to me when I tell them I'm a writer, "Well, that's really great. You can do that anywhere." While it's theoretically true that you can write anywhere, you actually do need somewhere to write. Up until Sunday, I had been homeless for about ten days.

Now, I'm finally in a house (albeit, a house with about fifty unpacked boxes), and it feels great to actually be getting some work done towards bringing Claws 2 to a close.

Stacey




Wednesday May 10, 2006
I am writing my first blog from our new rental house in Raleigh. I am connected with a dial-up, and am sitting at the kitchen table.

There's still a ton of stuff to unpack, but the house is functional. I took a couple of photos yesterday and a video of downtown Little Switzerland, North Carolina.





It was just too rainy to stay up in the mountains, so Susan and I drove back over to Raleigh, with a brief stop by my parents' house last night for dinner and conversation. We looked through a photo album my aunt Sandra put together of my dad from his Bradley, Arkansas/early 1940s days.

Susan flies out of RDU to Phoenix at 3:45 PM this afternoon.


Monday May 8, 2006
So much has happened in the past few days, I don't know where to begin. Susan and I have rented a house out near the Umstead State Park in Raleigh. It's as peaceful and quiet as any home I've ever lived in, but it's going to take some work to get it cleaned up and ready to live in for the summer. Our plan is to rent, until we find a good place to buy.

After a couple days spent unpacking and moving in, she and I have taken off for the mountains. We are currently in the lobby at the Little Switzerland Inn in the mountains of North Carolina. There's a fire in the fireplace, and the hotel is about 100 years old. There's a group of older folks playing dominoes at the table just a few feet away from us, and the fog is so thick outside, you can't see more than about twenty feet.



I'll be up here in the mountains until Friday, and then I'll be back over in Raleigh.

Here's a picture of the new house in Raleigh...





Thursday May 4, 2006
I am going up to Raleigh this afternoon to look at a few more rental houses. I really need to find a place by the weekend, or I'm going to have to move all of the stuff from the rental truck into storage (which would mean I would have to move it twice). Of course, I would prefer to move all the stuff into a home this weekend. We'll see what I can do today.

I opened up the Claws 2 file last night. It is roughly 330 pages along, 65,000 words, and I got a better sense of where I left off with it about ten days ago.

I may actually do some writing on it tonight, depending on the atmosphere around the Pinehurst home.

Always write.

Stacey



Wednesday May 3, 2006
I am writing this blog entry in Pinehurst, North Carolina. I am spending the night at my parents' house, and it is peaceful and quiet here.

Today I looked at a number of homes for rent around Raleigh. I saw one or two that I liked very much, and I talked with Susan tonight about them.

The idea of giving up my writing fulltime in order to go back to work is a difficult one. I think I'll just muscle my way through our having the baby this December, while teaching this summer and if I can get the job with Oxford, I'll just work them both and somehow find time to write in the evenings.

I want to push forward with Claws 2. I'm only a few days away from having the first draft done, and next week I plan to spend four days up in the mountains to do just that.

Tomorrow, I am going back up to Raleigh (it's about 90 minutes north of Pinehurst) to look at a few more rental houses, about which I called today.

It's about 10:30 PM. I think I'll open up the Claws 2 manuscript to refresh myself with where the most recent few chapters are.

Always write.

Stacey




Monday May 1, 2006
Well, I made it to Raleigh on time for my interview with Oxford University Press today at 1:00 PM. Basically, I drove all day yesterday and all night last night. I got in at 4:00 A.M. to Raleigh.

It makes sense that in all the rainy driving that I'd catch a rainbow or two...



This picture came somewhere near Knoxville, Tennessee. It's hard to believe, but it actually rained pretty much nonstop for four days from New Mexico to North Carolina.

This week I need to find a place to rent and/or find a place to store all of our belongings from the moving truck. I have to return the truck by Friday.

I've been reading Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell the past few days.

Stacey


Sunday April 30, 2006
Somehow, I did it. I lived through yesterday.



I drove from El Reno, Oklahoma to Forrest City, Arkansas through the worst rain storm I have ever driven through in my life. Second to a couple of hurricanes I've lived through, it was one of the top four or five worst rain storms I've ever seen.

For most of the fifteen hours that I drove, I was looking at this...



The one break in the storm occurred for about thirty minutes near Checotah, Oklahoma. But there, my dog jumped badly out of the back of the truck at a rest area and hurt himself...



I found a good veternarian near Muskogee who gave him a shot and couple of prescriptions, and we were quickly back on our way.

I don't know how my wife put up with my frantic calls on the cell phone. I don't know what I did to deserve such love.

The storm put me about a half day off schedule, and it doesn't look like, right now, that I'll make it to my job interview tomorrow in Raleigh at 1:00 PM.

We'll see what I can do. The weather is clear. Repeat, the weather is clear. :)

Stacey



Saturday April 29, 2006
I am at a Motel 6 in El Reno, Oklahoma, and it hasn't stopped raining for sixteen hours. At five o'clock A.M., the Mexicans in the room next to me started making noise that woke my dogs up and got them barking. So, I lay there in bed for the next hour thinking about how I've been writing fiction since the days before personal computers, and as yet I have not managed to publish a single novel.

No one's ever asked me for advice.

Writers, those who manage to get published any ways, are often asked for advice from novice writers. I am nearly thirty-three years old, and have written over a million words of unpublished fiction, so I can't really call myself a "novice" and yet I'm sure people would argue that I've been any kind of success.

My wife is expecting. We are homeless, and most days the thought of suicide strikes my mind like an axeman's blade on a fine piece of wood. Just over and over and over.

In a few months, we'll have a baby. Somehow, I'm supposed to find us a place to live in the fresh hell that is Raleigh, North Carolina, and I'm sure I'll continue to get a string of form-letter rejections this summer, fall, and winter from slicked-up New York literary agents who would just as soon watch you die bleeding in the gutter, as help you become any kind of success in this business.

I need to take a shower. I've got to drive through Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee today - through what weather.com is calling the worst rain of the year in this part of the country. Tornado warnings are in effect, and some parts of Oklahoma have received more than three inches of rain in the past twenty-four hours. Every county is under a flood warning, and it's all moving eastward at roughly the same speed that I'll be traveling.

The part of my mind that is still functioning with a semblance of what could be called ego likes to think rather portentously that I'm bringing the weather with me.

Let it rain.