Faulkner on inspiration

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Richard Bowker

Two of my favorite writing quotations come from William Faulkner:

I only write when I’m inspired. Fortunately, I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.

And in a similar vein:

I don’t know anything about inspiration because I don’t know what inspiration is; I’ve heard about it, but I never saw it.

I was thinking about these quotations recently as I came to the conclusion that my next novel should be a sequel to The Portal. Fine, but what should the sequel be about? The thing to do, I have found, is to open up a blank document, start asking myself questions (starting with What is this book about?), and start trying to answer them.

In less than two hours, over the course of a couple of mornings, I had the title and the basic idea. They will probably change completely before I’m done, but at least now I’ve got a direction to head in.

The point I wanted to make here is not that I’m especially creative, but that when I say “morning”, I mean 6:30 in the damn morning. Years ago, I couldn’t have imagined being creative at that ungodly hour. But nowadays that’s the way may life happens to be organized, so that’s when I have to get my “inspiration.”

Faulkner knew what he was talking about. And it seems like someone thought that first quote was worthy of an inspirational poster:

“Shared Notes & Highlights” for Dover Beach

Posted on August 16, 2014 by Richard Bowker

How come I never noticed Amazon’s “Shared Notes & Highlights” section before? According to Amazon, these are “the thoughts and passages that Kindle readers have shared while reading this book.”

Anyway, here are the shared notes and highlights for my novel Dover Beach. Feel free to use them on Christmas cards, print them on t-shirts, etc.

“Solipsistic,” I suggested. “As if he were the only person who really existed.”

And:

“I know I’m dying,” he said, “but you’re dying, too, everyone is dying. All that matters is what you do before you take that last breath.”

And:

“Rituals are what bind us together. They shelter us from the terror of loneliness and death. They give life meaning and shape.”

I know I know, these don’t seem like quotes from a private-eye novel. But I’m pretty sure they work in context. And Dover Beach is not really a standard-issue private-eye novel.

“Replica” is now free in England and Canada!

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Richard Bowker

I seem to have some readers there.

In England, it’s #7 among technothrillers on Amazon.

In Canada, it’s #8.

You still have to pay for it in Australia, alas.

Here’s a nice short review that just appeared on Barnes & Noble:

What a terrific book! Richard Bowker is one of my new favorite authors!

Draft 3 of my novel is complete — am I done yet?

Posted on August 9, 2014 by Richard Bowker

Probably not. But at least now I have a draft I can give to folks without having to apologize and explain about all the stuff I’m going to fix, really, no foolin’, I know I didn’t explain what happened to the second car–I’ll get to that.

This draft took just about a month. It involved changing a basic plot line, which involved changing the characterization of a major character. Plus the usual tinkering. Everything seems to make sense now, at least to me. At least today. So I’m declaring a partial victory.

Publishers as gatekeepers

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Richard Bowker

One of the arguments made on behalf of mainstream publishers in the Amazon-Hachette war is that publishers act as gatekeepers — keeping the junk out of the market and using their editorial skills to improve the books they do let into the market. Here’s a writer offering up a paean to these gatekeepers in the the pages of Publishers Weekly:

In a market of unlimited book options, how does an audience make choices? At the moment, most of that burden is carried by the book business. The publicity and marketing campaigns and cover designs and flap copy—the things that publishers do—are not just methods of selling books; they’re also readers’ main tools for discovering books. The same is true of the curating and merchandising in stores, and book coverage in the media. Without reviews, staff recommendations, and endcap displays, unlimited choices aren’t narrowed down—they’re overwhelming.

Second, if all books become cheap or free to readers, then writers are unlikely to earn much (if anything). Who will want to write if writing doesn’t pay?

Third, without the gatekeepers, those who do write will create books that are worse—and not just authors whose dormant genius must be drawn out by patient editors, but all authors. Every book that doesn’t first have to get past a gatekeeper or two, or 10, before being put in front of the public will be worse.

He then goes on to describe how much his manuscript was improved in the process of being submitted to agents and publishers. Well, your mileage may vary; mine certainly did. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this blog, the editorial support and advice I got while I was part of the mainstream publishing world ranged from trivial to nonexistent. Editors didn’t have the time or the interest or the talent to make my novels better.

Two further points. First, the main idea behind being a gatekeeper is to keep out the bad stuff. But of course fallible human beings are making judgments that could well be wrong. The most poignant case of this was John Kennedy Toole’s amazing A Confederacy of Dunces, shunned by mainstream publishers and only published by an obscure university press years after his suicide at the age of 31.

Less poignant, but of more immediate interest to me, is my novel The Portal, which my agent several years ago declined to market, deeming it unpublishable. So now it’s out there in the self-published universe, and the rave customer reviews are starting to pile up. Here’s one of many:

A Terrific Read! I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading this. Would the promising story idea deflate once it got past the initial set-up, as so many other books do? It definitely did not, and stayed entertaining all the way through – I could not put it down. I have kids around the same age and I really felt for these boys – they’re lost and are doing whatever they can to stay alive, stay together and hopefully get home. Glad the book was complete in itself, but it would be great to see them have more adventures like this. Overall, two very enthusiastic thumbs up!

(The semi-poignant part of this saga is that in the years after my agent rejected it I managed to lose the final draft — no hard copy, no soft copy. Luckily, my friend Jeff managed to hang on to the final Word file. Apparently he had more faith in it than I did!)

The second point is that gatekeepers are going to let stuff through that they shouldn’t. Not all books that come out from major publishers are worth reading, or are as good as they could possibly be. The two most recent Jack Reacher books could certainly have been improved — one by going through another draft, the other by being tossed into the wastebasket. But apparently the publisher doesn’t care — they just want a Jack Reacher book every year.

I don’t know anything about Emma Donoghue, but her latest novel, Frog Music, is a historical mystery and apparently very different from her previous “worldwide bestseller,” Room. The Boston Globe hated it, the New York Times hated it, and lots of Amazon and (especially) Barnes & Noble customers also hate it. My guess is that her publisher, Little Brown (part of Hachette), was hoping for another Room, but this is what the author delivered to them. So they were stuck publishing something they didn’t much like. (Also, the Kindle version costs $12.99, which suggests that the e-book pricing wars haven’t quite started yet — it’s actually a buck cheaper at B&N. So I’d just like to mention that you can buy pretty much all of my e-books for the price of one Frog Music.)

Print on Demand reaches “Lore of the Underlings”

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Richard Bowker

My friend John Klobucher has created an interesting fantasy universe in his episodic series Lore of the Underlings. He has now collected the first set of episodes in old-fashioned book form:

Print books are great! You can read them in the bathtub, and I’m pretty sure they don’t require batteries. So pick up a few.

Note that John did the cover art. He also creates podcasts of the episodes, where he does the narration and all the voices. Plus he composes original music for them.

He’s a bit of a show-off.

Why Barnes & Noble keeps offering to sell me a book I wrote

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Richard Bowker

As I described here, I’ve been baffled by why Barnes & Noble keeps showing me ads that include a book I wrote. I was finally smart enough to track this down and, as people suggested, it has to do with cookies. Turns out there’s a little hard-to-see link in these ads. Click it, and it brings you to an explanatory page that includes an opt-out option. The company behind the ads is called Criteo, and the technology is called personalized retargeting. It’s been around for years. Here’s a New York Times article about it from 2010:

People have grown accustomed to being tracked online and shown ads for categories of products they have shown interest in, be it tennis or bank loans.

Increasingly, however, the ads tailored to them are for specific products that they have perused online. While the technique, which the ad industry calls personalized retargeting or remarketing, is not new, it is becoming more pervasive as companies like Google and Microsoft have entered the field. And retargeting has reached a level of precision that is leaving consumers with the palpable feeling that they are being watched as they roam the virtual aisles of online stores.

So, my cookies tell the software that I’ve visited the pages for Richard Bowker novels on the Barnes & Noble web site. And the software puts up ads that keep reminding me of these very fine novels until I break down and buy one. This is one of those technologies that is equal parts helpful and creepy. I’m not quite ready to get off the grid, like Jack Reacher, but maybe the day will come.

“The Portal” is now $1.99 at Barnes & Noble!

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Richard Bowker

Marked down from $4.99 — such a deal! Amazon will be forced to follow suit when it sees the hordes of ebook buyers deserting it when they hear about the new price.

This gives me an excuse to reprint the very kind review by JF Owen, a loyal reader of this little blog:

It’s been quite a while since I read any young adult science fiction or fantasy. After reading “The Portal”, I think I’ve been missing out on some enjoyable reading. Richard Bowker has crafted an entertaining and captivating story about the adventures of two young boys from New England who travel to an alternate universe where some of the folks and surroundings are familiar but the times and events are totally different…and dangerous. Larry and Kevin, the two main characters, are faced with a complicated array of challenges as they struggle to find their way home.

The story itself is exceptionally well done, but for me the best part of the book was how believable Larry’s and Kevin’s characters are. Based on the finely detailed descriptions he weaves into the young boys’ thoughts and actions, I suspect that Mr. Bowker either has a son near that age or he’s one of those rare people who never truly forget what it’s like to be young.

“The Portal” was a marvelous read that’s suitable for readers of all ages. It took me back in time and reminded me why I fell in love with science fiction all those decades ago. In just a few more years, when my grandson is old enough, I’ll make a point to introduce him to Kevin, Larry and their adventures. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go have a bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. After that, I think I’m going out back to see if I can find a secret portal.

Here’s the cover, in case you’ve forgotten:

What do you do if you discover that you’ve made one huge mistake?

Posted on January 18, 2014 by Richard Bowker

I’m closing in on the completion of the first draft of my novel, and I have finally, definitively realized that I made one huge mistake in my plotting. I revealed a secret too soon, and as a result everyone’s motivations for the rest of the story are messed up. So, should I go back and start rewriting? Or should I soldier on to the finish, knowing that I’m going to have to revise a lot of what I’m currently writing?

I believe the answer, alas, is to soldier on and complete the first draft. The problem with stopping to rewrite is that I can’t know what else I’ve messed up until I get to the end and survey the damage.

The mistake stems from not having a clear enough idea of the various subplots when I began the thing. So I’ve ended up with a bunch of characters who weren’t there in the original outline. They just, er, showed up as I made my way through the story, and I never managed to integrate them well enough into the plot.

I always think: next time I’ll get everything right in the outline. But I never do. I figure out the journey I want to take, but there are always lots of unexpected detours before I get where I want to go.

The best books I read in 2013

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Richard Bowker

I don’t read anywhere near as much as I’d like to. Here’s a brief list, more or less in order, of my favorites from 2013, most of which came out in earlier years.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (audiobook) — A wonderful mixture of science, sociology, and human interest, beautifully narrated.
Pride and Prejudice (e-book) — Filling a gap in my education here. I probably would have enjoyed it better in a print version, but it was wonderful nevertheless.
Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls (audiobook) — David Sedaris has turned himself into a national treasure. His essays are funny on their own, but even better when he reads them.
Olive Kitteridge (print book) — How come no one told me about this novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize a few years ago? It suffers a bit from being a series of interconnected short stories (like Winesburg, Ohio) rather than a true novel, but it’s still moving and beautifully written. On the other hand, I tried listening to Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel, The Burgess Boys, and gave up on it for various reasons.
Lawrence in Arabia (audiobook) — A long, engrossing look at the Middle East during World War I. (It helps that I have a kid living over there now, in a country that didn’t exist back then.) I should have read it rather than listened to it, since I wanted to study maps, see photos of the characters, etc.
The Particle at the End of the Universe (print book) — I cannot understand physics, but I like to try. Sean Carroll is a very engaging writer who really understands stuff like the Large Hadron Collider and the Higgs Boson, to the point where I could delude myself into thinking this stuff finally made sense.
The Signal and the Noise (audiobook) — I love Nate Silver’s 538 blog, and this book was pretty good too — a look at how prediction works (and doesn’t work) in various fields. Again, I should have read it rather than listened to it — there were too many graphs I wanted to look at rather than have the narrator describe them to me.
Telegraph Avenue (e-book) — Not Michael Chabon’s best novel, but still very enjoyable.
Why Does the World Exist: An Existential Detective Story (e-book) — For some reason I’m interest in why the world exists. I enjoyed this book a lot, although it also annoyed me a lot. Here is my moderately clever review written with the limited vocabulary of Up Goer Five.
The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix (print book) — Filling another gap in my education. The annotations and illustrations added considerably to my enjoyment of what by now is a familiar story. On its own, Watson’s narrative wasn’t as interesting as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Other books I enjoyed: Lee Child’s One Shot and Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story. I most emphatically did not enjoy Thomas Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy.(including the parts supposedly written by Shakespeare) or Lee Child’s A Wanted Man. Neither Kyd nor Child (hmm, that’s an odd juxtaposition) will care.