Sunday, January 31, 2010

In the beginning...

A little background before I get too far along: I started writing fiction in the spring of 2004 when I took a "Writing of Fiction" class while working toward my Bachelor's. I took the class because:

  1. I thought I could learn something about writing in general, and use that information to write picture books, and
  2. I had to take a writing class to satisfy my core credit requirements.

And let's be honest, #1 wouldn't have felt pressing enough to have taken the class if it hadn't been for #2.

So I took it, and I wrote.

My writing professor was Dr. Michael Arnzen, winner of multiple Bram Stokers for horror writing. Turns out Dr. A likes the twisted stuff, so I was greeted with a healthy dose of professional encouragement.

Besides writing, we did an awful lot of reading which, really, only makes sense. I was never much of a reader growing up (I figured out later I was either reading things that really didn't interest me or I was reading from mass market paperbacks where the type was too small, the margins too narrow and my mind too ready to wander off the page). In this class, I finally learned how to read fiction.

As for the writing part, I hated writing before I got there, but was willing to try and learn. Even after I started getting the hang of it, I still hated to write. I told Dr. A once that writing hurt. He said, "Then you must be doing it right."

So here I am, in the midst of writing an entire book filled with words and ideas that I've strung together. And it still hurts, and I avoid it as long as possible. But sometimes the end results outweigh the throbbing it takes to get there, so I'll willingly trudge onward.

And for this, I thank you, Dr. A.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Egon, your mucus

Welcome to the official blog of Hairy Eyeballs, the Web site devoted to a book-in-progress that will actually be going by a different name. I'm still toying with the book title, and when it's official, you'll be the first-ish to know.

This blog is for just what I said: I'll be blogging the progress of my new book, Title As Yet Unknown. You're more than likely coming to this post way, way after I've started to record, but that's fine. You may be late, but at least you're breathing (which is more than some of the characters in this book can say).

Thanks for your interest. You can subscribe to this blog by following the "Posts" and "All Comments" links below.