Why Write? Part One
There are clear motivations to writing. As I approach the milestone blog - this is #996 of 1000 - I am nostalgic for the old days and the wonderful feeling of being inspired. I'm going to take you through the reasons for writing all my books. Hopefully it'll be entertaining.
Book #1 - MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING - 22 years old - young and dumb and full...you know the rest of the story. This book absolutely blows. If you see a copy don't open it. Call me. I will come and buy it off of you. Shouldn't have done it, but wanted to do it because I thought I was funny and the best writer in the world. My college buddy Kevin Gema did the cover. That sucked too. I own two copies. Won't let anyone touch them.
Book #2 - EYE IN THE SKY - Wrote it in 1987 - published in 1992 (I believe)after losing a friend in a car accident. I was absolutely dumbfounded by the loss of a person who was so alive one moment and gone the next. What I remember about it is that it was a raw nerve to write, a raw nerve to read. Wrote a little better, but still a ton of mistakes. I'd let you read it though, if only to immortalize my friend, Davine.
Book#3 - WALDORF & JULI - 1993 -Despite my claims to the contrary, chicks didn't dig me. My brother and my sister were married. My friends were getting married, and I was stuck in my own head without a real promise of establishing a sustained relationship. I started writing about Waldorf in an old journal. He was an absolute loser when it came to women, but he was a funny bastard. I dug into a lot in regard to men-women relationships and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was writing Desperation at the time (see below) but actually published Waldorf & Juli first even though it was done in my spare time. It was also the first book that I was real proud of, but sadly, the publisher went under after trying to produce a book about the death of Princess Di.
Book #4 - DESPERATION - 1998-I started this book with the simple thought of what would have happened to me if I were born in a different place and time in the most trying of all circumstances. I was reading a lot of Steinbeck back then and I was really feeling somewhat desperate myself. I worked on the book for over a year, sent it to my publisher (believing that I was destined for super stardom) and was told that I was too busy in the telling of the tale, that the main character had to be changed and that I needed to write it from a different point of view. So, I did what any other human might do - I threw it in a drawer and worked on Waldorf & Juli . Springsteen ruined me by putting out The Ghost of Tom Joad and I spent another year re-writing this one.
The best thing to come of Desperation was a couple of television appearances, and a bunch of work for the Buffalo City Mission. I wrote articles about the plight of desperate men struggling to find their way, and I enjoyed being a part of something that was bigger than me.
It set me on the way to part two of the telling of the stories. Tomorrow's blog.
A strong thank you to SterlingHouse Publisher and especially Cindy Sterling who made me rewrite all of the above fifty freaking times, and forced me to do them right.
They didn't have anything to do with Money Changes Everything or it wouldn't have seen the light of day.
Book #1 - MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING - 22 years old - young and dumb and full...you know the rest of the story. This book absolutely blows. If you see a copy don't open it. Call me. I will come and buy it off of you. Shouldn't have done it, but wanted to do it because I thought I was funny and the best writer in the world. My college buddy Kevin Gema did the cover. That sucked too. I own two copies. Won't let anyone touch them.
Book #2 - EYE IN THE SKY - Wrote it in 1987 - published in 1992 (I believe)after losing a friend in a car accident. I was absolutely dumbfounded by the loss of a person who was so alive one moment and gone the next. What I remember about it is that it was a raw nerve to write, a raw nerve to read. Wrote a little better, but still a ton of mistakes. I'd let you read it though, if only to immortalize my friend, Davine.
Book#3 - WALDORF & JULI - 1993 -Despite my claims to the contrary, chicks didn't dig me. My brother and my sister were married. My friends were getting married, and I was stuck in my own head without a real promise of establishing a sustained relationship. I started writing about Waldorf in an old journal. He was an absolute loser when it came to women, but he was a funny bastard. I dug into a lot in regard to men-women relationships and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was writing Desperation at the time (see below) but actually published Waldorf & Juli first even though it was done in my spare time. It was also the first book that I was real proud of, but sadly, the publisher went under after trying to produce a book about the death of Princess Di.
Book #4 - DESPERATION - 1998-I started this book with the simple thought of what would have happened to me if I were born in a different place and time in the most trying of all circumstances. I was reading a lot of Steinbeck back then and I was really feeling somewhat desperate myself. I worked on the book for over a year, sent it to my publisher (believing that I was destined for super stardom) and was told that I was too busy in the telling of the tale, that the main character had to be changed and that I needed to write it from a different point of view. So, I did what any other human might do - I threw it in a drawer and worked on Waldorf & Juli . Springsteen ruined me by putting out The Ghost of Tom Joad and I spent another year re-writing this one.
The best thing to come of Desperation was a couple of television appearances, and a bunch of work for the Buffalo City Mission. I wrote articles about the plight of desperate men struggling to find their way, and I enjoyed being a part of something that was bigger than me.
It set me on the way to part two of the telling of the stories. Tomorrow's blog.
A strong thank you to SterlingHouse Publisher and especially Cindy Sterling who made me rewrite all of the above fifty freaking times, and forced me to do them right.
They didn't have anything to do with Money Changes Everything or it wouldn't have seen the light of day.
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